NY Times declares White Stripes release "so unexpected"

Or did they? On June 7, the White Stripes return with a thrilling new album, "Get Behind Me Satan" (Third Man/V2/BMG), that goes a long way toward dismantling the band's goofy mythology. It's an album so strong and so unexpected that it may change the way people hear all its predecessors. And that's just a start. Listen long enough, and this album might change the way you hear lots of other bands, too.

It was clear something strange was afoot when the White Stripes released "Blue Orchid," the album's first single, with a guitar so heavily processed that it almost sounds like a keyboard; it's as if the duo has made peace with its former enemy, the computer. (As is often the case, Meg White's steady drum beat and Jack White's yelped vocals are almost afterthoughts.) This band has always been committed to the sound and feel of vinyl records - the new album, like its predecessor, was made available to reviewers only as a two-LP set - and yet "Blue Orchid" was released straight to iTunes, two weeks after the band recorded it. A band that once wanted to move back in time now seemed eager to hurtle forward.

"Blue Orchid" is the first song on the new album, and it's followed by another surprise: "The Nurse," which begins with a marimba flourish that might once have sounded out of place within the spartan confines of a White Stripes album. His guitar and her drums make occasional, ear-splitting interventions, but the marimba and piano carry the song, while Jack White delivers quietly queasy lyrics about destructive devotion and murderous maids. "No I'm never, no I'm never, no I'm never gonna let you down, now," he sings, turning a murder mystery into a love story. There have been lots of albums about the transformative power of love, but few have been so suspicious of it as this one.

Read the whole thing

This Week's Wishlist

Besides trying out the new California Pizza's Thin Crust Pizza, I'll be checking out the following records this week and next. (If you noticed the obvious product placement, you now realize how I am paying for all these records):

Family Tree - Bellafea
Little Darla Has a Treat for You V. 23 - Various Artists
Everything Ecstatic - Four Tet
Get Behind Me Satan PRE-ORDER - The White Stripes
Husk - Liz Durrett



SMOG: \r\nA River Ain\'t Too Much To Love CD (DC 292CD)
RA, SUN: Nothing Is... CD (ESPDISK 4024)
FANTOMAS: \r\nSuspended Animation CD (IPC 062CD)


\r\n
MELVINS, \r\nTHE: Mangled Demos From 1983 CD (IPC 063CD) \r\n12.00
"Well? it\'s a long time ago now that this here little \r\nrecord was recorded. It never was released. This recording is the \r\nonly document of the original line up of the Melvins. It\'s from 1983 \r\nor so. Mangled Demos From 1983. It was a long time ago and you really \r\ncan\'t expect me to keep all of this bullshit straight. If you want \r\nstraight facts, too bad? All of these fish stories and hogwash pour \r\nout from somewhere in the back of my brain and believe it or not \r\nsometimes it pours out askew." --Buzz Osborne

\r\n\r\n\r\nISLAND (UK)\r\n\r\n",1] ); FANTOMAS: Suspended Animation CD (IPC 062CD) 18.00
"%@#$!!? Brace yourself, super group Fant�mas is back with a vengeance on their fourth album Suspended Animation. Unlike the epic Delirium Cordia, Suspended Animation likens itself with Fant�mas' first record punctuated with cartoon escapades. The first edition (Limited to 25,000) is a spiral bound 30-page eye- popping package illustrated by world famous Japanese painter Yoshitomo Nara. The theme is a calendar, the month of April, the tracks appropriately named the days of the week." Fantomas = Mike Patton, Buzz Osbourne, Dave Lombardo, Trevor Dunn.

Azerrad skewers Gus

I love it - Come as You Are author on the new Gus Van Zant movie (title of post: Ill Will Hunting):

The more I think about it, the more it becomes clear that Van Sant had access to some very inside information. He could have made a nuanced, challenging and revelatory film. Instead, he refused to let the truth get in the way of what he thought was a better story.

But what do you expect from a guy who claims that “Venus in Furs” is the “‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ of punk rock.” Any pinhead knows the “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” of punk rock is “Rockaway Beach.”

Death of A Great One Noted

Green Acres and Switch fans across the world gathered to remember and pay tribute to singer, songwriter and actor Eddie Alberts, who passed away yesterday.

On the 26th of May in the year of our lord 2005, Rock Island- Albert's birthplace - was a city in mourning, with the stars and stripes at half mast over the town hall and a stream of visitors arriving to sign a book of condolence.

Another book was opened at The Green Acres museum, and the Hooterville Hollar produced a special 24-page deluxe color section dedicated to one of the city's most famous sons.

Fans, some of whom half-expected the news of Albert's death, were nonetheless devastated.

Schlocky TV lovers laid cornflowers and lit handrolled cigarettes at Pat Buttram Haney Fields Forever site in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Mourners left tributes at Hollywood Hatch bar and recording studios in Los Angelos, where Mr. Albert recorded almost all of his famous tracks on the monumental Eddie Albert Album album.

Alberts, who was 98, died at at his home, in the company of his son Edward, who also appeared on the Eddie Albert Album album. A former vaudevillian, circus clown and Navy hero who won the Bronze star for his actions saving Marines at Tarawa, he had a lengthy film career before he found his most well known part as lawyer-turned-farmer Mr. Douglas in Green Acres, a 1/2 hour weekly comedy TV show that found its best humor in having annoying country folk intrude on Douglas's dream of a bucolic life in the countryside.

Bright Eyes - Dull Show

I arrive just at the end of The Faint's set. An affable skinhead engages me at the urinals as to my opinion of The Faint. I ignore him and let him get an easy way out by making him think that I thought he was talking to someone else. But he destroys the unspoken social pact I was attempting to proffer by invoking the pity of the scorned stranger, instead trying to make me feel guilty for being oh so cool as to ignore him. So I say, "Oh, were you talking to me? Sorry, I was concentrating on something." The conversation meandered about until I told him that I had never heard of The Faint and that I was only there because a friend gave me the tickets. Conversation over. Maybe I'm being kranky but isn't there a guy thing that you don't talk to another guy when he's doing his business at the latrine? I contemplated that but then realized that in a darkened, loud club (with, I might add - the famous chill out area frustratingly roped off), the only place to really have meaningful social interactions with people is at the urinal (NH).

Then its into the club to stake out some space with a) breathing room, b) few to no smokers (I know this is so anti-rock and roll of me to look down on smoking in a club, after all isn't smoking the most democratic of self-destructive activities?) and c) a sweet spot for the sound system. The last is the holy grail of mine and I suspect few other club goers. Most people on this particular night seemed to get orgasmic when the wispy singer-songwriter, still fronting his lopsided moptop, appeared on the stage and, I fear, the actual music, lame as it was, appeared secondary in considerations of the search for the ultimate godhead. The space I find is adequate and has the added attraction of being near one of the many comely (and near to my age) bartenders. Alas, all my drinking for the night was pretty much accomplished at home watching J. Earl Brown (Dan Dority from Deadwood) do his best Brian Dennehy Badass update as the town bully in that swell B-movie classic Dunsmore.

I never really liked the whole Digital Ash in the Digital Urn or whatever young Conor is calling it. I think it is overreaching and he should have just stuck with Wake Me Up It's Morning (or whatever it's called). His morose almost comical world weariness mixes well with the folk-alt-country groove that Morning puts out but with the extended Bright Eyes orchestra doing his "digital" songs, it's only grating. "This song is about someone who broke my heart. I vowed that it would never get broken again. And it hasn't!" Give it 20 years, honey. As for heart-breakers, they were out in full force. The Conor Army where the motto is "We love you, Conor!" The uniform is low rider jeans and tank tops and the WACs of this Army are the Emo and Techno boyz who walk several paces behind the officers of The Conor Army. Projected behind the band are two large screens with what is I suppose some original video art - a scene from behind the windshield of a moving car that goes faster and faster until it dissolves into white noise, animation of the cover art from Digitual Urn, loops of clouds going over landscapes very fast and so on. The audience is frequently "dazzled" (more like annoyed) by sharp halogen lights. The overall effect is not so much information overload but the overwhelming effect of the speed in which information is pushed at the viewer. Hmmmm, I stroke my chin thoughtfully. Is perhaps Young Prince Conor, Commander in Chief of The Conor Army, telling us all to slow down and enjoy life a bit or is this just more of his morose depression and inability to comprehend the world or make a truly original statement?

I realize that I don't even care that much. I regret missing the previous tour which was the acoustic-alt-country thing because I realize that the whole Digital Ash thing is just an indulgence, an attempt just as franctic as the racing images for Oberst to cover all the bases and not get obsolete by the age of 22. Conor, don't worry, slow down and smell the digits.

So I didn't see if he would at some point kick the band off the stage and maybe sing "The President Talks To God" (hopefully sans 10 Gallon Cowboy Hat) which might have made this whole misguided enterprise worth the trip to U Street. This is the only contemporary protest song I've heard in years that, if given wider exposure (as if The Tonight Show isn't enough) would truly get a lot of self-righteous people's balls and tits in a twist. I mean, it is the most disconcerting thing about our President - does God really speak to him and what does that really say about either his sanity or God's discretion? But I've had enough of the light show, the video and the prematurely depressed frontman.

Instead, I trundle myself back to the circuitious subway ride home.

McKaye, Timony, Colleta Pick Fave DC Record(s)

no one acksed me but I'd haveta go with P. Galore's Groovy, Hate F***

from Washington City Paper (go to there site to read full article - must use search engine, direct linking impossible)

Forty local music scenesters select their top 40—or 50 or 60—pieces of local music.

By Brent Burton, Eddie Dean, Joe Dempsey, David Dunlap Jr., Sarah Godfrey, Mark Jenkins, Anne Marson, Dave Nuttycombe, Leonard Roberge, Chris Shott, and Pamela Murray Winters

Gary Himelfarb, founder of local reggae label RAS Records, e-mails his emphatic vote for Root Boy Slim & the Sex Change Band With the Rootettes’ “Too Sick to Reggae”—“[a] true story about ending up in prison in Jamaica being accused of being a ganja smuggler!!!!!!” He also notes that “Chuck Brown ain’t bad either.”

Tentatively speaking for his entire trio, Navies bassist/guitarist Mike Petillo chooses “Early Humans, pretty much anything they did. They were so loud live, drenching the crowd with feedback squeals while singer/guitarist Matt Vanek spewed Black Flag lyrics and ran around in his white boxer shorts. Definitely one the most underrated heavy noise-rock bands of the last couple of years.”

“I am keen on Mick Barr’s Orthrelm/Crom-Tech discs,” says Pig Destroyer and Agoraphobic Nosebleed guitarist Scott Hull. “Orthrelm’s music is much like the crazy, detailed connect-the-dots artwork that Mick lends his discs’ covers,” he says. “His music is intensely complicated yet retains a very organic and improvised feel.”

Kevin Alvir, who as frontman for the Lil’ Hospital creates “sunny lo-fi pop straight from the bedroom,” chooses “Make Out Club” by Unrest. “I know it’s rather typical on my part,” he says. “But that song for me sums up that adolescent feeling of discovering all this exciting music from the area. It’s very teenage in spirit...but it’s very special as well.”

“I’m sure you’ll get a lot of votes for ‘Da Butt,’ and I do think ‘Da Butt’ is a fucking great song. There’s no way around that,” says Mark Noone, lead singer for the Slickee Boys, who ultimately chooses the Slickees’ own 1983 single, “When I Go to the Beach.” “Not just because I wrote it,” he says. “I just think it turned into kind of a D.C. anthem.”

Dischord Records co-founder and Evens member Ian MacKaye settles on legendary 1978 compilation :30 Over D.C., which fascinated him as a teenager. “Years later,” he says, “I was told that that when word got out that Skip Groff...was going to put out a compilation and was looking for submissions, people started making up bands and throwing together recordings to get on board. [It] ended up being a wonderful mix of artful basement recordings of one-off projects and solid active bands.”

Bruce Falkinburg, who plays bass in the Hidden Hand and owns Phase Recording in College Park, goes with Shudder to Think’s 1991 seven-songer, Funeral at the Movies. “It’s experimental, arty, anything-goes,” he says, “but it still rocks. It’s different from what you’d expect to be coming from D.C.”

Galaxy Hut booker and musician Alice Despard has no trouble selecting Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” “Not only was this song a beautiful, sensual revelation to me as a teenager when I heard it on the radio, it was just at this time that I learned that Roberta Flack resided in D.C. for a time,” she e-mails. “My understanding and appreciation of D.C. musicians’ role in the wider world of music just blew wide open from that moment onward.”

Musician and songwriter Timothy Bracken chooses former Autoclave member Mary Timony’s Mountains album, which he calls “[u]ndoubtedly unusual and important music. When I first heard this record, I felt the way I did when I first heard the White Album or Trout Mask Replica. I was amazed. The kind of record that stays with you and never gets old.”

“I think I’m gonna go with the new Medications album,” says Mary Timony. Though her choice, Your Favorite People All in One Place, doesn’t come out until June 13, Timony assures us that it “kicks ass” even in pre-release form. “[Medications are] a really amazing live band, and it really translates well on the record.”

Reached by phone, T.V. John Langworthy wastes no time in naming his favorite tune. “‘Big City,’” he says. “By T.V. John.” The author and “legendary bard” then starts singing: “It goes, ‘Oh, big city, Washington, D.Ceee-eee-eee..../Ohhh, big city, is there hope for me?’ I’ll give you a copy of it. You’ll hear why that’s my favorite D.C. song.”

After considering “stuff by Dischord bands, Velvet Monkeys, Bad Brains, Unrest, etc.,” ex-Jawbox-er and current DeSoto Records head Kim Colletta settles on 9353’s “Famous Last Words.” “When I first heard this song,” she says, “I was mostly into the D.C. hardcore scene. 9353...made me realize the incredible diversity and depth of the D.C. music scene.”

Onetime Lorelei and current Chessie member Stephen Gardner picks Rites of Spring’s self-titled 1985 LP. “My first obsession, when I was 8 or 9, was the Smiths,” he says, and Rites of Spring was like Minor Threat meets the Smiths....The album set up a template of honesty and freedom that I wanted always to be central to whatever I did with music.”

make your own mp3 mixes

mixmeister - not a commercial announcement - just check it out if you want to do some cool mixes with mp3s and stun your friends and family (or take them out to one of those stupid bars that has ipod nights)

Somebody likes her (besides herself)

Minnie Driver Chart Watch


Multitalented: “I do consider myself
somebody who expresses herself in
lots of different ways,” says Minnie
Driver. Her album is titled
“Everything I’ve Got in My Pocket.”

Minnie, I also consider you as someone who expresses herself in lots of different ways. Let's get together for lunch?

And finally, a positive review! How you like them apples?

Looks like a new issue of TrakMarx is up

old style english punk zine online

A Celtic Music MP3 Blog

click here

Dr. Strangeskunk

Jeff Baxter, Doobie Brother, dazzles the combat jocksniffers in Congress:

"Most of Hollywood is from the liberal, 'let's hug the tree and be warm and fuzzy and sing Kumbaya,' bent," Mr. Weldon says. "You put Jeff Baxter up against them, and he cleans their clocks because he actually knows the facts and details." He has appeared in public debates and given numerous press and TV interviews on CNN and Fox News advocating missile defense. He also served as a national spokesman for Americans for Missile Defense, a coalition of conservative organizations devoted to the issue.

Mr. Baxter, backed by several lawmakers, got a series of classified security clearances. During one background interview, Mr. Baxter says, he was asked whether he could be bribed with money or drugs. He recalls telling the investigators not to worry because he had already "been there, done that, and given away the T-shirt" during his rock career.

His old friend Mr. Weldon chaired the House Military Research and Development Subcommittee, and in 1995 nominated Mr. Baxter to chair the Civilian Advisory Board for Ballistic Missile Defense, a congressional panel.

The missile-defense post led to consulting contracts with the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The Pentagon also began regularly asking Mr. Baxter to lead enemy forces in war games, where he quickly earned a reputation for using creative, terrorist-style tactics. "I'm told I make a very good bad guy," he says.

Pentagon officials say they appreciate Mr. Baxter's creativity. "He's imparted some new ways of thinking about the ballistic-missile threat and the technology that might be necessary to defeat it," says MDA spokesman Rick Lehner. "It's been a good interchange of information."

In the late 1990s, Mr. Baxter led a fictional future alliance of Iran and Iraq that was trying to drive the U.S. Navy from the key oil-shipping routes through the Persian Gulf. Facing a massive military imbalance, Mr. Baxter had covert operatives introduce oil-eating bacteria into the Saudi Arabian oil supply that rendered its petroleum shipments worthless. The Navy was forced to pull out after oil-dependent American allies threatened to pull their financial assets out of the U.S.

These days, Mr. Baxter finds himself with a growing pile of job offers from Pentagon officials and defense contractors hoping he can help them anticipate terrorist tactics and strategies.

Mr. Baxter is working on a solo album and continues to do lucrative studio work, most recently on tribute albums to Pink Floyd and Aerosmith, but he spends more and more time doing defense work. He says he earns a "good, comfortable, six-figure income," and in 2004 made more money from defense consulting than from music.

SF Rawk Critik Discusses Carrie Brownstein's Underwear

Don't worry, Kimberly, we obsess about her underthings as well.

Kimberly Chun from SF Bay Guardian:

Like the death-obsessed rider in Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," I can't help fixating – on the oddest bit of product placement to come down the pike since the yupscaling Marky Mark paraded his Calvins hither and yon while making his transition from bad-boy music to best-actor movies: Sleater-Kinney guitarist-vocalist Carrie Brownstein's exposed Victoria's Secret underwear band, in a widely distributed promo photo for Sleater-Kinney's new album, The Woods (Sub Pop). Front and center, it pokes out from her low-riding jeans like the unruly pubes in that Cat Power image by Richard Avedon.

I feel less of an urge to noodge her about tucking that waistband back into her low-riding jeans than I feel the need to wonder about the gaffe, unintentional or no. Didn't the band look carefully at these photos? Was this an intentional shout-out to Gisele's surfboard abs of commerciality, or a simple come-hither, sexy signifier? Or do they just not care, signaling we're-so-hot-we-don't-give-a-shit sloppiness? They're in good company when Bob Dylan catches crap for hawking women's skivs for the same brand, and American Apparel ads generate more watercooler shock and pshaw than pop-star wardrobe malfunctions.

Link to Picture in Question

Street Scene, San Diego

This festival has gotten a bit hipper since when I attended in 1999 or so. Back then the bands were X and Squirrel Nut Zippers. Although, they have their share of shitty bands (Black Eyed Peas, 311, Dashboard Confessional), they have some pretty cool ones as well...

The Killers, Pixies, the White Stripes, Social Distortion, Snoop Dogg, 311, Black Eyed Peas, Garbage, the Used, the Flaming Lips, Method Man, Unwritten Law, Flogging Molly, Dashboard Confessional, Death Cab for Cutie, Kasabian, Hot Hot Heat, Rise Against, Louis XIV, the Adolescents, the (International) Noise Conspiracy, Autolux, Von Bondies, Swollen Members, Morningwood, the Locust, West Indian Girl, and more to come!

* Street Scene: http://www.street-scene.com

Zombies at Cannes...

Eating Out of Cannes

By ALAN JONES

The presence of a movie called A FISTFUL OF ZOMBIES said it all about this year’s Cannes Film Festival. If you weren’t being bored to death by the main body of competition films (LAST DAYS, BATTLE IN HEAVEN, anyone?), you faced an onslaught of flesheaters in the busy marketplace. Aside from the promo footage for FISTFUL, starring Dominique (CITY OF LOST CHILDREN) Pinon and Troma head Lloyd Kaufman, there was ZOMBIE NIGHT, THE ZOMBIE MOVIE, ZOMBIE KING AND THE LEGION OF DOOM, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD: NECROPOLIS and RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD: RAVE TO THE GRAVE.

fangoria

I Said Max Factor, Not Peter Max

Mr Spector denies murdering B-movie actress Lana Clarkson

Punk Rock Female Roller Derby?

What will the Brits think of next?

Imagine you could invent a sport from scratch. How about something sexy, anti-corporate, amazingly fast and incredibly violent. A sort of anti-golf. Now imagine that the women who play this sport have names like Ivana S. Pankin, Sybil Disobedience and Gori Amos. And how about tiebreakers settled by a pillow fight between a punk mother in a skimpy sailor costume and a heavy metal librarian in a fluorescent orange porn-fantasy prison mini-dress? And how about - instead of red cards or sin bins - bad girls have to spin a "wheel of shame"? With punishments including being spanked with plastic flyswatters by the entire crowd?

Congratulations, you've just imagined the all-new, all-female, all-punk Roller Derby - possibly the greatest sport ever invented.

Pastey White Creatures Reading Books on Beaches

Pitchfork's summer reading list is worth checking out

'Even as a child, I felt like an alien'

Patti Smith's outlandish 1975 debut, 'Horses' was a landmark album whose stature grows with every passing year. Next month, as curator of the Meltdown festival, she will play it in its entirety on stage for the first time. Here she tells Simon Reynolds about the birth of a record that shaped a generation

Guardian

Aversion gives it 5 Stars

The Woods may be the most singular and important album to emerge from the Pacific Northwest since Nevermind.

link

Don't Phunk With Your Corporate Sponsorship Deals

I just saw this "band"'s commercial for Best Buy. What a bunch of Hos!

You're Either Cisco, Or You're a Terraist

10:20 AM -- Usually, I'm not the type of person who gets bent out of shape by blatant, crass commercialism. I live in New Jersey, after all. But there's something about Cisco Systems Inc.'s (Nasdaq: CSCO - message board) product placements on the Fox show 24 that's starting to get annoying. Cisco publicizes these product placements with clips on its Website.

Now, bear in mind, 24 is not exactly a hotbed of realism. The plot has the daughter of the Secretary of Defense involved with a torture-addicted counter-terrorisum unit (CTU) agent who ends up befriending her husband by sticking a live 240-volt wire in his ear (and then later killing him). And then there's the terrorists, who, like evil modern-day radical Islamic McGuyvers, manage to reprogram a long-range nuclear ballistic missle with a hobby kit. Apparently Radio Shack was offered that product placement but declined.

But never mind all that. How about that Cisco firewall? When the terrorist try to hack the CTU network, a Cisco firewall stops them (and tells everybody watching the show). I haven't yet been briefed on the new anti-terrorist-hacker module, but apparently it's all in the Cisco-powered network (for more chat on this, see Digital Spy).

Last night we were shown a glimpse of Cisco IP phones, which are apparently the tool of choice for counter-terrorism agents. I wonder whether off-the-shelf Cisco IP phones are really the best choice for the nation's terrorism fighting outfit. Well, Cisco and 24 say so, so I guess it's real -- if your vision of reality is Fox TV.

— R. Scott Raynovich, US Editor, Light Reading

Note to self: Don't say "woo" at a Nick Cave Concert

Nick Cave is among that sprinkling of Australian artists who can truly be called international stars
Photo: AFP

From Melbourne:

The band performed two encores, including the title track of Lyre of Orpheus, which Cave only successfully started on his third attempt, the second try aborted after a stray "woo!" came from the audience as he recited the opening line - "Orpheus sat gloomy (WOO!) in his garden shed".

"Shut up," barked Cave with a grin. The offender obeyed.

Carville: I Want My Mammy

Ann Gerhart skewers the rich and pompous with her article about a DC Nanny who has recently published a book. Among her clients are Carville (gee, I thought he came from working class roots?) and Matalin, the DC Propaganda Power Twins:

When Republican adviser Mary Matalin called, she said she'd love the same kind of nanny her husband, Democratic strategist James Carville, had when he was growing up in Louisiana.

"She didn't need to say any more," writes Kline. "If they grew up north of the Mason-Dixon line, they expect Mary Poppins or Alice from 'The Brady Bunch.' If they're from the Deep South, they want me to find them Scarlett O'Hara's mammy. . . . Did my client hear me groan? Gee, Mary -- I tried out the words silently -- we're fresh out of mammies this week ."

But Kline manages to find Ella -- "ageless, warm, bossy" -- and the parents and the nanny form such a tight bond that when Matalin calls back six years later, it's to ask for help in persuading Ella to take a vacation and let Mary bring in someone to help her.

After Ella dies, the next nanny for the Matalin-Carville offspring dresses like J.Lo and puts the girls in little vixenette outfits that look like they're from Juicy Couture, and lasts until the day she calls Matalin at the White House, where she is meeting with Ariel Sharon and Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. A secret rule of Important Washington is: The nanny's calls always get put through. This nanny needs to know: Will the dry cleaner pick up her clothes when he comes for James's and Mary's?

This also cracked me up:

Some actual excerpts from the "Other Pertinent Information" section of the parent questionnaire Kline uses to discern employers' preferences:

"Emily has a great deal of energy and needs to run free. She's in a daredevil phase and experiments with risky behavior, so watch carefully when she walks on the table or kitchen counter. Please gently stop her if she bites you or others. . . . We don't believe in punishment or time-outs. We never, ever use the word 'no.' "

Or: "Every moment of the day is a learning opportunity, from the classical music on the radio to singing to our son in your native language or teaching him to play the piano. Please read, read, read him the intellectually challenging literature we supply."

Or: "Never disarm the security system, even when you're home, and check all cabinet and toilet latches as well as safety gates at all times. Clear all personal visitors to the grounds or in the house with us first. Do not sort our mail or touch our trash. Our offices are off-limits to you and the children. And don't forget #62 sunscreen!"

In total contrast, says Kline, the most common preference that nannies mention is "for a laid-back family."

She throws back her head and laughs and laughs.

"Laid-back? That one really cracks us up. This is uptight, button-down," she tells nannies for the progeny of wealthy super-achievers, several times a week. "Laid-back? This is not it. Go to another city."

RIP Frank Gorshin

Associated Press

Frank Gorshin in 1979.

When I was a kid I dug impersonaters like Gorshin and Charlie Callas - they always seemed to be having the most fun of all unlike, say, Rich Little, who came across to me as a self-important blowhard (perhaps because he was seen as the King of Impersonators and made lots more dough than the others).

I saw Gorshin while flipping around the tube a few nights ago doing hammy impressions on CSI Las Vegas (or whatever its called). I guess Quentin Tarantino was directing and maybe he helped get him on the show given his like of the old and forgotten stars of yesterday. The material wasn't too good and its always hard to integrate these old guys into these newish shows but it was great to see him again - turns out it was his last performance (I think). And even though he'll probably be remembered mroe for The Riddler, I still will remember him myself for his work on that short-lived TV show "The Impersonators", a variety show full of, well, impersonators.

This Week's FE Wish List

Here's my Forced Exposure wanna-haves - not a big week - I'll post a follow-up if I see anything in the Aquarius and Amazon list of interest.




GRANDMASTER FLASH: They Said It Couldn't Be Done CD (DBK 514CD) 16.00
"First time on CD for this 1985 release from one of hip-hop's greatest pioneers. Reached #35 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart."


JANE: Berserker CD (PAW 006CD) 13.00
"A few years ago, Scott Mou and Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear of the Animal Collective) worked together at a record store in New York City. They liked all kinds of music but it was the dance that brought them together and got them going as Jane. Jane were into all the mechanical robo-dance jams from Detroit, Chicago and Germany, but wanted to do something with less zeros and ones and more soul. At Scott's apartment in Brooklyn, Panda Bear would usually sing about stuff he was thinking about that day and Scott would move with it playing jams and it would all just kind of pour out. Mostly it was about hanging out together and talking and playing music and thinking and feeling and having fun and dancing most of all."

TapeOpCon 2005

For some browsing - check out this year's TapeOpCon's line-up - to include Doug Gillard, Shellac and Viva Voce (have a feeling Low will be canceling)

And the White Stripes hype only pulls me further into the vortex

Meg White interviews Jack White about ‘Get Behind Me Satan’

Meg: "Jack are these songs about you?"
Jack: "No Meg, they're about you."
M: "I wish"
J: "No you don't. You know I don't write about myself or my friends, let alone my sister."
M: "I thought maybe you made an exception after coming out of the closet."
J: (purrs)

M: "Can you tell me a little bit about the album cover?"
J: "I don't know Meg, can you tell me a little bit about the universe?"
M: "You want to talk quantum physics or quantum mechanics?"
J: "Shut up"

M: "What does 'Blue Orchid' mean to you?"
J: "The same thing pizza means to you."
M: "Jack, why can't you be cool?"
J: "Because you're trying to trick me again!"
M: “Jack the only trick I ever played on you was never tricking you at all."
J: "You're right."

M: "Your voice sounds really high on this record like the old days."
J: "I noticed that too."
M: "Want a cigarette?"
J: "Shut up"

M: "Was this album pleasant for you to make?"
J: "It's always pleasant to work with you Meg"
M: "I know that, but did you enjoy yourself?"
J: "This album was cursed when we started, and then suddenly came around near the end. Then I started to enjoy it, Remember?"
M: "Yeah I remember."

J: "Anything else "you" would like to know?"
M: "Only if you're happy with the record."
J: "Yes I am. I think it's our most dense sounding record yet. Don't you?"
M: "Shut up."

J: "Want to make another one?"
M: "Hmmmmmm ... With you?"
J: (purrs)

From "Jack White: This Album Was Cursed!"

Jerome Baker fans - lissen up

I'm not sure why Jerome threw me a link but thanks guy (maybe its because we both think Sal Gabor is the shit)

I'm not into the same music but he likes BORF so he's alright by us.

Dare I say it?

Calvin Comes Down From the Mountain

K Recs founder and Beat Happening leader Calvin Johnson was interviewed in his local Olympia WA newspaper - he tries his best to be real boring (and succeeds)

Johnson's second solo album, which he expects to release "probably in August or September or something," will feature the K Records founder working with a lot of his labelmates, including Khaela Maricich and Mirah.

"Working with a producer, I was very open to their concepts of arranging and producing," Johnson said. "It's been a lot of fun collaborating with these really creative people."

But what about his creativity? Does the album have a particular style? What's it about?

"There's a bunch more songs that I have," he said. "There's not consciously 'Let's do an album about architecture.' I just have some songs and put them together."

Travis Morrison Updated Tour Dates

All shows with full band, Hellfighters.

www.travismorrison.com

Sat.May.21, Baltimore, MD: Max's On Broadway (Just announced)
Sat.May.28, Motherfucking Waldorf, MD!!!!!: My Brothers Place, 3081 Old
Washington Road, 6PM
Thu.Jun.2, Washington, DC: The Black Cat
Sat.Jun.4, New York, NY: Lit
Sun.Jun.5, Brooklyn, NY: NorthSix
Mon.Jun.6, Pittsburgh, PA: Garfield ArtWorks
Tue.Jun.7, Milwaukee, WI: Mad Planet
Wed.Jun.8, Chicago, IL: Bottom Lounge
Thu.Jun.9, Minneapolis, MN: Triple Rock
Fri.Jun.10, Des Moines, IA: Louisville News
Sat.Jun.11, Kansas City, KS: The Brick
Sun.Jun.12, Louisville, KY: Brick House
Mon.Jun.13, Newport, KY: Southgate House
Tue.Jun.14, Lansing, MI: Mac's Bar
Wed.Jun.15, Columbus, OH: Supraphonic Studios
Fri.Jun.17, Philadelphia, PA: TBA
Sat.Jun.18, Charlottesville, VA: Satellite Ballroom
Sun.Jun.19, Richmond, VA: Nanci Raygun
Mon.Jun.20, Norfolk, VA: Relative Theory Records
Tue.Jun.21, Raleigh, NC: Kings Barcade
Wed.Jun.22, Athens, GA: Caledonia Lounge
Thu.Jun.23, Tampa, FL: Infinity Room @ Masquerade
Fri.Jun.24, Orlando, FL: Will's Pub
Sat.Jun.25, Gainesville, FL: Faces
Sun.Jun.26, New Orleans, LA: Twiropa
Mon.Jun.27, Fayetteville, AR: JR's Lightbulb Club

Do all the crappy 50's records come with that jukebox?

Here's a MASSIVe crappy collection with a reserve of $120k!

Crappy Records in eBay

It's like all the crappiest records in the world had a party and wouldn't leave the next morning.

Current bid for this massive crappy collection is $10.99 (shipping is $185.00).

Bitter much, Gibby?

From hartford advocate review of the Flaming Lips DVD:

When the band first started in 1983 they were a chaotic and amateurish act, but one that knew how to use ear-killing volume and blinding light shows to dramatic effect.

"We thought of ourselves as being some no-talent derivative of some kind of hillbilly punk version of the Who," says Coyne. "I'm proud that we were enthusiastic and even though we had no musical talent, we did it with spirit."

Some of the most cutting and critical comments in the film come from the mouth of Butthole Surfers frontman Gibby Haynes, after whom the Lips admittedly modeled many of their early stage tricks, like singing through a megaphone and splashing alcohol into an upturned cymbal and lighting it on fire. "They stole our sound. They imitate us. Wayne wishes he was me," says Haynes.

Roy Loney Interview

from perfect sound forever - he talks with praise about some of the records the band did after he left:

Choice quote - Saint Phil Graham a homophobe?

PSF: Is it true that the Groovies were banned from the Filmore?

RL: We weren't actually banned. Bill Graham didn't like me. I don't know why. He didn't like my attitude. He thought it was crappy. He didn't like our name either, he hated it. He thought for sure that it indicated that we were gay. "I don't want no faggot bands!" We were like, "No, there's not one gay member in this band!"

He wanted us to change our name before he would book us. But he came around eventually. He put us off for a long time just because of the name and 'cos he thought I was a punk or something. He was very nice to us later on. I don't think he ever really loved our music – it wasn't his cup of tea in particular. But I think because we were out there making records and we had a following, he couldn't ignore us completely. Also, there was his relationship with Alfred – they went back a ways.

Shins New Video has Backstory

That guy was 22-year-old Tel Aviv resident Adam Bizanski, who made the video for "Pink Bullets" over the course of three months, by himself, in his apartment. He built all the miniature sets and carefully moved the video's star — a paper cow — centimeter by centimeter, snapping each frame with his stop-motion camera. And in order for the cow's mouth to match Mercer's voice, he was forced to break "Pink Bullets" down into syllables ... which he eventually translated into his native Hebrew.

But for Bizanski, making the clip was easy. After all, he'd spent three years in the Israeli army, guarding the border and listening to the Shins' first album, Oh, Inverted World. For him, the most difficult thing was just trying to get in contact with Mercer.

"Much like everyone in Israel, I served three years in the army, and during that period I got acquainted with Oh, Inverted World," Bizanski said. "A friend of mine was going to New York to catch a Shins show at a record shop. I gave him a letter to give to the band and a video I've created for an Israeli artist. Eight months later, the same week I was getting discharged from the army, I received an e-mail from James saying that he liked the video I sent and would like me to create a video for the Shins."

view the video at mtv

Sufjan's Illinois Moved Up

Naughty Internet...

Sufjan Stevens' next album will hit stores a few weeks earlier than expected, but that probably won't mean much to his fans, since they can download it just about everywhere right now.

Stevens' latest, Illinois will now hit stores June 5, about a month in advance of its original street date because of widespread distribution on the Internet. The album, as its name implies, is Stevens' second installment in his States series, this time as he turns his attention to the Land of Lincoln.

Source: Aversion

Recommended new blog

Uncommon Folk

Dylan's Chronicles

Last night, I sat down at B&N and skimmed the Dylan book. I didn't have the $24 and if I did I'd probably rather spend it on music.

Top takeaways:
- Dylan got a lot from The Carter family in terms of bluegrass, country influences
- Dylan spend a drunken night with Bono telling him tall tales about Minnesota
- Bono hooked him up with Lanois
- Dylan used to visit Pete Seeger on his sickbed
- Dylan really felt bad about playing with the Grateful Dead at first but then went out and saw a jazz singer and went back to rehearsal with the Dead and really, really liked playing with them
- Dylan got alot from listening to Robert Johnson and especially liked his lyrics and how random and odd they often seemed
- Right after moving to Woodstock, he attended his father's funeral and really thought highly of his father
- He moved away from Woodstock because he wanted to get away from reporters and people bothering him
- He was really jazzed when Archibald MacLeish sent him a letter inviting him to some function or to write music for a play (or something)
- He used to hang out with Tiny Tim
- Dylan is not a bad writer, very irenic prose and suprisingly comprehensible - I'll probably pick this up from the library when its available

Sorry, there's only so much you can pick up when skimming. Whatever concoction they were selling in their Starbuck'ish coffee shop smelled really good (toffee or something).

Grant Hart Interviewed in Canada...

By Rob Wiliams

Link via the Winnipeg Sun:

Despite a two-song set last October that saw the band's main songwriters -- guitarist Bob Mould and drummer Grant Hart -- reunite for the first time since 1987, there will be no cash-in tour, Hart says.

"It was under the auspices of a benefit for (Soul Asylum bassist) Karl Mueller. Let's put it this way: so far the criteria is a having a mutual friend with cancer, and that happened once in 17 years," he explains.

Unfortunately, Hart doesn't believe he and his former friend can ever be a team again.

"I think Bob has not functioned very well in a group situation. He has a strong mind and an ability to intimidate. When it's all done I do not want to end up subjecting myself to a person who had that effect on me."

...

He hasn't been working on any new music lately -- his latest album was 1999's Good News For Modern Man -- and spends most of his energies on his visual art projects and trying to recoup money from indie label SST, which he claims still owes the band more than $100,000 in royalties.

Hart will make his first appearance in Winnipeg in more than a decade when he plays the West End Cultural Centre on Tuesday for a solo-electric set at the West End Cultural Centre. The Fabulous Kildonans will open with an acoustic set beginning at 10 p.m. to allow Green Day concertgoers the chance to catch the show.

Hang It Up Already

If I was 17 and loved "modern rock", I'd just shoot myself, Rashod.

HFStival rocks the stadium again

About 55,000 hear Coldplay, Billy Idol, Good Charlotte

By Rashod D. Ollison

Sun Pop Music Critic

Originally published May 16, 2005

Dude, it's, like, a rite of passage.

You're about 17, a suburban teen in the Maryland-D.C. area who loves modern rock. You must go to HFStival. You get to, like, hang out with friends and stuff, do some crowd surfing in the mosh pit, slam dance, get wasted


Baltimore Sun

Anyone for a "Born in the USA" vs. "Jukebox Babe" mashup

From Joe Heim's "The Boss Establishes Order" (Washington Post):

Before playing another life-affirming song, "Leah," Springsteen talked about choices people need to make in a world where temptation and lures are set in front of them like "giant mousetraps." "You've gotta have faith," he advised, "and come down on the right side of the equation." It was a point reinforced by the concert's beautiful conclusion, "Dream Baby Dream," a reworked song of the same name by the obscure synth band Suicide. "I wanna see you smile / I just wanna see you smile," Springsteen sang, repeating the line over and over until it felt like some sort of spiritual incantation. Faced with the choices, he comes down on the right side, offering himself, and his fans, reasons to believe.

Clean your 12"ers of "Dream" and send in an advert to Backstreets. Payday has come in.

Neistats vs. Sonics...

Check out the Neistat Brothers website and their movies here.

The actual six minute movie in question is here

Lee Ranaldo of the band Sonic Youth mugs for the camera during the Wall Street fund-raiser that featured a Neistat brothers film.

link requires login (or use bugmenot)

This kind of sneaky, by-the-seat-of-their-pants modus operandi mixed with brashness is how they work. When indie rock stars Sonic Youth declined to be in the LMCC movie, the Neistats sent an angry letter to the band along with a DVD, chiding the rock stars for an attitude that, admittedly, the Neistats themselves can exude. After receiving the package and realizing the growing cult status of the brothers, Sonic Youth changed their mind, but it was too late; Thursday's fund-raiser was looming, and the brothers were already over it.

On Thursday afternoon, as the $1,500 dollar-a-plate Downtown Dinner fund-raiser was gearing up, the Neistats were still engaging in subterfuge. The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council wanted the brothers to do a dry run with the audio-video technicians a few hours before the event began. Van and Casey managed to finish two versions of their short movie (finishing around 6 a.m. that morning): one a basic audio-video test bearing only a few video clips, and the other the real directors' cut. They screened the test film.

The party was at the swanky Cipriani Restaurant on Wall Street, and the Neistats worked the crowd like pros. In addition to Hillary Clinton and Schumer, VIPs included developers Dan and John Tishman, and Sonic Youth, who were the target of more Neistat invective, as the brothers took the opportunity to ridicule the band on the red carpet. (The Neistats always travel with a camera, and it is usually on.) Casey scored at least two phone numbers from cute assistants working the event.

Before sitting down to her table, Clinton smiled at the mention of the brothers. “I loved being part of their video effort, which I guess we're going to see unveiled tonight,” she said. “It was a lot of fun. I'm thrilled, thrilled! I can't wait. They're so cute.”

During the salad course, the real film hit two large video screens above the audience.

The opening credits showed Casey and Van covering the city with graffiti, drawing on police cars with permanent marker and spray-painting Schumer's name on the side of a building. The short interviews with the senators and the Tishmans followed.

The twist that the brothers kept out of the test video was an unscripted moment with each interviewee in which they provide paper, ruler, and red and black markers and ask for an impromptu creation of art. Dan Tishman constructed a building-like sculpture in three dimensions, while Clinton drew black squares and scribbles all over the page in red, writing, “Think outside the box.”

The video ended with Casey talking on his cell-phone, saying, “Yeah, Sonic Youth isn't in the video, but I guess we should at least mention their name.”

Everyone laughed (except Sonic Youth).

Spoon: The Record that Arcade Fire Underwrote

Some speculation from Coolfer on how Merge financed the big push on the Spoon release this past week - and if you believe that MP3 bloggers really pushed Arcade Fire over the top, then MP3 bloggers financed the Spoon hype (and joined in, to boot):

My understanding is that Merge has SHIPPED 80,000 copies of this thing -- the biggest ship in Merge's history -- and, I'd guess, close to the sales Spoon have had on any single catalog title.

That's where Best Buy comes in. As Coolfer Glenn has often pointed out, Best Buy and their ilk (Wal*Mart, etc.) are the key to selling any release in real quantity. But that comes with risks for a label. You often need to have massive quantities of a title manufactured (10,000+) just for mass merchants to step to the table, and bring in your title. (Yeah, I know there are regional plans and what not for these big accounts, but that's not always an option. Last year I heard an anecdote about Well Known "Indie" Band who signed to a major in part because their former indie label home got cold feet after Best Buy offered to stock their first record. The record had sold about 20k through indie and boutique shops at that point, and they were scared shitless of massive returns if people didn't buy it from the chain.

In Spoon's case, Merge is in little danger of getting screwed. They have a very strong sales history. (Anyone with Soundscan access care to post some numbers?) Merge probably figures they can turn over profits for the first 7,000 or 8,000 sales in an effort to really play with teh big boys. I'd also guess they're flush with cash from Arcade Fire and some other recent releases. Hell, they didn't even hire an outside publicist for Arcade Fire, something that probably saved them in the neighborhood of $6,000-$12,000 minimum on that project alone!

Azerrad on Beck

Um, I guess that means he doesn't like his new stuff...

"unremittingly opaque, non-committal nonsense delivered in an insouciant sing-song, it is a Sphinx without a riddle, never bold enough to signify anything but its own detached irony. (And if that last phrase sounds so 1993 to you, you’re right — Beck just doesn’t know that yet.)"

read it all heah...

Hillary Meets Sonic Youth

picture at Rest is Noise

Selfish Cunt Scene Report

courtesy of Blind Pilot:

The singer frequently launches himself into the audience, grabbing members of the crowd and dragging and spinning them around with him as he snarls into their faces. For some reason there were a few football lads there last night and they didn’t appreciate his behaviour. At two different points two different blokes had to me restrained from attacking him, which just spurred him on and for a while he focussed his attention on one of these gentlemen in particular while mocking him in between songs. “Why are the football boys here” “its Saturday night, are you looking for some action boys?” “Do you want me to fuck you”. It was as much performance art as rock show and it was extremely exciting. They played a solid hour but they could’ve gone longer they had the crowd eating out of their hand right up until the vocalist emptied the rest of the bottle of brandy he was drinking over his near naked body, threw it on the florr and stormed off the stage pushing the speakers over screaming about Cherie Blair. It’s been a long time since I saw an act really shake up their audience like this. Highly highly recommended.

read the rest here

Wil Eisner's last book debunks "Zion" myth

Will Eisner

The Plot

The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion

A work more disturbing than fiction from "the father of graphic novels" (New York Times).

Will Eisner, the great American master of comics, has undertaken what he regards as his most powerful work yet. The Plot examines the outrageous fabrication of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which purports to be the actual blueprint by Jewish leaders to take over the world. Hatched as an anti-Semitic plot by the tsar's secret police to deflect widespread criticism of the government, the Protocols, first published in 1905, succeeded beyond the propagandistic ambitions of its originators; the lie became an internationally accepted truth. Presenting a pageant of historical figures including Tsar Nicholas II, Henry Ford, and Adolf Hitler, Eisner exposes the twisted history of the Protocols from nineteenth-century Russia to modern-day Klan members to Islamic fundamentalists. The Plot unravels one of the most devastating hoaxes of the twentieth century.

---

Will Eisner (1917-2005) was the author of the legendary comic strip The Spirit. The comic industry's top annual awards, "The Eisners," are named in his honor.

link

This Weeks Wishlist

Short list this week, though I may add to it when I see the more mainstream releases coming out this week.

via Forced Exposure:



ANIMAL COLLECTIVE: Prospect Hummer EP CD (FAT SP009CD) 8.00
"Animal Collective return with their first release of 2005 -- a brand new four-track EP, which features the sweet voice of the near legendary Vashti Bunyan. Having long been huge fans of her sole album, the recently rediscovered 1970 gem, Just Another Diamond Day, Animal Collective happened to meet Vashti when they played in Edinburgh on a 2003 tour supporting Four Tet (Four Tet's Kieran Hebden had recently played as part of Vashti's band during her first live set in over 30 years at the Royal Festival Hall). Following this meeting, ideas were hatched and conversations began, culminating in the group selecting these three beautiful songs for her to make a home in. Acoustic-based and once again recorded by their friend Rusty Santos (who co-produced Sung Tongs along with the band), Prospect Hummer centres around the three harmonised vocal tracks, 'It's You', 'Prospect Hummer', and 'I Remember Learning How To Dive', all of which were recorded over three days in March 2004 at Idle Luxury Studios in London, immediately before the band set off on their European tour to promote Sung Tongs. Weaving their luscious, multi-layered web around Vashti's singing, these three tracks feature Animal members Avey Tare, Panda Bear and Deakin. A fourth track, the instrumental 'Baleen Sample' was completed late last year, and includes samples from band member Geologist, who was absent from the Four Tet tour."

From http://aquariusrecords.org/cat/newest.html

13 & GOD "s/t" (Anticon / Alien Transistor) cd/2lp 14.98/14.98
This is essentially the perfect mix of
Anticon's off kilter avant indie hip hop, and the
Notwist's melancholy electronic bliss rock. Which
makes perfect sense considering that 13 And God
is made up of 3/5 of the Notwist (Markus and
Micha Acher, Martin Gretschmann) and all of
Anticon's Themselves (Doseone, Dax, and Jel). The
rest of the Notwist (drummer Martin Messerschmid
and guitarist Max Punktezahl) help with
production and several tracks feature guest
vocals from Steffi Bohm of Ms. John Soda and
Valerie Trebeljahr of Lali Puna. That should give
some idea of what 13 And God is all about. Dreamy
expanses of melancholy glitchpop, wistful and
wandering, simple shuffling and loping drum
beats, fuzzy synth melodies, warm warbling loops,
soft focused and otherworldly, and then the
strange entangling of Notwist-like breathy
effervescent vocals and Doesone's rapid fire
tongue twisting helium affected flow. Seems like
it would be a mess, but surprisingly, they manage
to make it all fit perfectly. Fans of the
Notwist\'s Neon Golden should find this essential
(assuming they aren\'t averse to a little hip hop
here and there) and fans of Themselves, Doseone
and those sorts of things will most likely just
find this to be yet another perfect piece in
Anticon\'s always evolving musical puzzle.

Young and Starving

Some of the descriptions of recent grants given under the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Young Artist's Program.

Grantee Ryan Carroll Nelson $2,500.00

Once completed, the record will be distributed by Dischord Records, a DC based record label created in 1980 to document the music coming out of the DC underground music company

The original grant was for the band Beauty Pill but Nelson has since left the band (apparently due in part to a newspaper article about this very grant) and plans to rework the grant although he is vague about whether it will still go towards Beauty Pill's studio bill at Inner Ear.

Grantee Jane Jerardi - $2,500.00

The work and its creative process intends to capture an aspect of current life here in DC and connect audience members everyday experience of DC to my own thought dance in unexpected ways

.
Huh? How about just connecting me with 20 bucks instead?

Here's a young lady that's going to do some interior decorating with her booty:

Grantee Amanda Jean Sauer $1,841.00 5

I propose to seek out and photograph the signs and symbols of everyday life in DC. At the end of my project I will choose the best ten images to include in a show that I will host at my house.

Grantee Ginger Wagg $2,500.00 1

The Privates will be series of three performance, interdisciplinary art events in February, March and April of 2005 in separate non-traditional performance venues.

The "non-traditional performance venues" included Warehouse Next Door, which is basically a nightclub.

Next, I'm going to acting school and you're paying for it!

Grantee Anupama Yadav $2,500.00 1

To support ongoing acting development.

Now don't get me wrong - I think grants for artists is a tried and true tradition of enriching city life. It's just that one can come to the conclusion from reading these summary descriptions that the grantee really doesn't much more in mind than personal enrichment - and, while there's nothing wrong with that, is it the City's duty to help them in their careers? And while its apples and oranges, when I was starting out as an engineer, I could have used a Sun Workstation at home to do some work and help in my studies. All of my music and art has been not just DIY but PFIY (Pay For It Yourself). The last thing I thought about was a grant (although I did once work up a proposal for a theater play about the life of Syd Barrett) - instead I took a second job.

Full PDF file is here

Kim's Cannes (experience)

"Last Days" star Michael Pitt, director Gus Van Sant and Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, who also stars in the film, pictured just prior to the press conference in the Palais de Festival today (Friday) in Cannes. Press shy Van Sant said Malcolm McDowell once told him, "thousands of pictures are taken of you, but you never know where they go." Here is one of them (more to come).
[Photo by Brian Brooks/indieWIRE]

Homeowner Requests Former Starlet At Least Call Before B&E....

Every year or two Goldie Hawn drives back to the brick duplex on the dead-end street in Takoma Park where she grew up. Sometimes she comes alone and sometimes with her sister Patti, or her old friend from childhood Jean Lynn, or her partner of 20 years, Kurt Russell. If there's no one home she finds a neighbor to let her in; once there was no neighbor around, so she sneaked in through a front window the owner had left unlocked, and then wandered around, through the kitchen where the family used to hang out, down to the basement, up to her old bedroom.

That someone else lives there and has for 23 years does not hinder this journey of self-discovery. In her new book, Hawn calls the current occupant "the nice lady I know who bought the house from Mom." And in an interview this week, she called her "Judy." Her name is actually Donna Wulkan. (Judy lives next door).

...

Wulkan asked this reporter to pass on this news to Hawn along with her phone number. "I just want her to call me next time she wants to come visit," says Wulkan. "I mean, I'm not ready to call the U.S. attorney's office and say this entitled star is breaking into my house, but it would be nice if she called."

Post

Oh no she...

didn't...

which leads into the new Louis IV - Suicide Girls cross over video (via porn news)

El Blanco Stripe-O's Warm up for 2005 in Mex City

via MTV.com:

"My name is Jack White, and this is my big sister, Meg," a black-clad Jack told the crowd, still upholding White Stripes lore that the pair are siblings (the truth was uncovered long ago that they are actually ex-spouses). "This is the first show we've played in a very long time."

While hits like "Fell in Love With a Girl" and "Seven Nation Army" naturally drew the strongest reactions, the new material easily secured the most riveting moments of the night. Early on came "Blue Orchid" (the first single), which began with Meg, sporting a red flower in her hair, gyrating rather salaciously as she pummeled her kick drum. The moment the song shifted into full gear, with Jack joining her on guitar, was a prime example of the appeal of the White Stripes live — two people making all that noise with just one drum set and one guitar. While proving that less is more — or, as they say in Mexico, "menos es mejor que más" — they showed just how massive less can be.

Other Satan songs managed to capture the crowd with their ability to create suspense and keep the crowd guessing. The odd little ditty "My Doorbell" featured Jack at the keyboards, broodingly singing, "When you gonna ring it? When you gonna ring it?" to the point that his agitated piano chords started sounding like Amadeus after he went nuts. Later, the temperamental lullaby "The Nurse," featuring Jack rocking the marimba, moved almost mazelike as it built and released tension, finally exploding into a wild and ruthless jam. As Meg attacked her kit like a cold-blooded killer, Jack continued to try and reassure, promising, "I'm never gonna let you down."

But the sweetness didn't always turn sour. "Little Ghost," obviously inspired by Jack's recent work with country great Loretta Lynn, featured the frontman on mandolin and Meg joining in on the chorus. The tune led nicely into White Blood Cells' "We're Going to Be Friends," which saw Jack looking amused — and maybe even touched — when the crowd began to gently clap along.

When encore time came, "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)," off Satan, proved charming, with Jack crooning about missing his mama. But even more endearing was the final number of the night, the blues classic "The Boll Weevil Song," which has become a favorite closer for the Stripes.

Sam Prekop music

here with four MP4 / Mp3s - from SF Gate

SAM PREKOP

"Dot Eye"
Listen in MPEG-4 or MP3

"Magic Step"
Listen in MPEG-4 or MP3

Archer Prewitt: "Leaders" | The Sea and Cake: "The Fawn"
Listen in MPEG-4 or MP3

"Density"
Listen in MPEG-4 or MP3

Nick Cave Concert Review

By Matt Connors, Melbourne Herald Sun:

Elegantly dressed in a dark suit, Cave appeared in good spirits but remained typically laconic. A spirited cry of "You rock, Nick!" from the crowd provoked a wry response: "On occasions." Later, Cave surprised with a smile and chuckle when a well-placed Conway Savage piano note in Babe, You Turn Me On undid the lyric "we do not make a sound".

Throughout their set, the Bad Seeds bristled with energy, particularly on their electric renditions of Supernaturally, a flute-backed Breathless and There She Goes, My Beautiful World.

After 21 years together, the band is ageing like a fine wine. The dual drum and percussion assault of Jim Sclavunos and Thomas Wydler was sheer brute force and a sight to behold in the explosive outro to Hiding All Away.

Violinist Warren Ellis brought his trademark mix of melody and mayhem to the table, but it was Martyn P.Casey's bruising bass lines that steered the ship, resonating with a delightful 80s fuzz.

Elsewhere, with the stage a burnt red, Cave and co delivered a menacing Red Right Hand, followed by a visceral City of Refuge. Other oldies, The Mercy Seat and The Weeping Song - even without guitarist Blixa Bargeld - also rang true with the gospel treatment.

B-side Come into My Sleep and God in the House began the encore set, even though Cave forgot the latter's convoluted lyrics. Fittingly, Deanna (with a snippet of Oh Happy Day), Do You Love Me and the bullet-ridden narrative of Stagger Lee provided a cataclysmic finale.

Chuck D. on "the long tail"

By Martin E. Klimek, For USA TODAY.
Chuck D, a rapper and music entrepreneur, says that after the dust settles from this digital era, the best of the artists will still be around.

<>From a USA Today Roundtable:

Chuck D: If you're looking for that fourth Sam Cooke song on an album that's been out-of-print, then everybody sort of relied on file sharing for that.

But then the (record) companies came in and started to say, well, this is thiefdom. So there are brilliant possibilities, but the smoke settling and the dust clearing is a five-year picture.

Q: Just curious: How do you find and buy music now?

Chuck D: For me, I have offline, online and midline. Midline is that you can order through the Web. Online means that you can go to places such as TheOrchard.com, which is an online retail shop which gets into all online retail outlets such as the Wal-Marts and the Rhapsodies and the iTunes.

My Tax Refund

Found this for about $200 off list plus a stand thrown in for free.

My Pithy, Shallow Review of Spoon's New Album. But no Snappy Banter.

Since no one seemed to get my Jack Handeyish "deeep thoughts" (didja think that maybe the title had something to do with the pretentiousness of the posting? Can one put one's tongue in cheek and not have to point out to everyone that one's tongue is in cheek?) review of Blue Orchird, I thought I'd keep it short and to the point this morning (short postings equals BLOG SUCCESS). So instead of Jack Handey as my model, I'll use as my role model, Mr. Alec Baldwin's character in Glenngarry Glennross or whatever that movie was called and get the pithy, shallow point.

Spoon
Gimme Fiction CD
Merge Records, 2005

Finally, a band that makes me reach for my Shins CD. Download "I Summon You" and "They Never Got You" from download service and grab their free MP3 (the orphan dance tune "I Turn My Camera On") off the Merge Records site and you'll have the only songs on this record that really matter.

You can also stream the entire album at Merge Records to see if you agree or disagree with my pithy, shallow assessment.

King Tut = Slimmer Boy George

Ripped from Drudge:


REVEALED: Face of Egypt's King Tutankhamun...

Runaway Bride Letters

My favorite of the irate letters from morons with nothing better to do (besides blog).

Bixler Wants to Take Over

"You want to turn on the unconverted," Bixler Zavala said. "It's really easy to play songs to people who really love your music, but it's a challenge to play ball. So that way you can eliminate things like counterculture, and the counterculture becomes the people who are in charge. And that way you can start setting your own rules.

quote courtesy MTV

The week is young (and Huffington Post is only in its second day) but this has got my vote for dumb rock quote of the week.

What night would be complete without a little Rosie ridicule?

Pronto Pup linked to this. Enjoy.

Wow. Alan Sparhawk explains LOW cancellations...

It's hard to make snappy banter after reading this. Get well, Sparhawk.

Stephenson's Snow Crash Coming To Life? The Next Internet Starts in Fwance?!?

The hot panting of millions of computer geeks could probably power a small city. Get 'cher Avator on....

For a virtual world, it starts out very bare: Just an empty blue space, with a picture of a cat in a "Star Trek" costume at its center.

But that confused-looking cat is an avatar--a digital representation of a real person (in this case a reporter)--and the empty blue space is an early "node" in Solipsis, an experiment with building a peer-to-peer virtual world, released late last month by researchers at France Telecom.

Still in the very early stages of development, the Solipsis project aims to draw together the technological lessons of "massively multiplayer" games like Sony's "EverQuest" and file-swapping networks like Kazaa or eDonkey. Developers are hoping to construct a sprawling virtual world that runs on its inhabitants' own linked computers, rather than relying on powerful central servers like those that run Web sites or EverQuest's fantasy adventures.

What's the advantage in that? It sets Internet dwellers free--both in the "free beer" and "free speech" senses, according to the developers.

"In a closed system, the world is bounded by the imagination of the people working in the company that owns the world," said Joaquin Keller, one of the developers at France Telecom, the French telecommunications giant, working on the project. "If your system is open, a lot of ideas will flourish. It's like the difference between one Web site and the whole Web."

Solipsis and similar peer-to-peer and open-source projects are aiming at nothing less than a radical transformation of the way that games are developed, and even of the way people communicate and manipulate information online.

read the rest at CNET

Austin City Limits Festival - 130 bands, 3 days

September 23-25... Lineup includes F. Furnaces, Bob Mould, Arcade Fire, Black Keys, Walkmen, Decemberists, The Frames, Futureheads, Dios Malos, Ditty Bops, Spoon, Rilo Kiley and oh yeah, Wilco and Coldplay... here's the full story and line-up:

Confirmed artists to date include Coldplay, Widespread Panic, Oasis, The Black Crowes, The Allman Brothers Band, Wilco, Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams, John Prine, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Jimmy Cliff, Buddy Guy, Jet, Dierks Bentley, Arcade Fire, Death Cab for Cutie, Bob Mould, Built to Spill, Bloc Party, Steve Earle and the Dukes, Franz Ferdinand, Gov't Mule, Sleater-Kinney, Kasabian, Zap Mama, Robert Earl Keen, Keane, Tortoise, The Doves, The Black Keys, Mike Gordon and Leo Kottke, The Walkmen, Jason Mraz, Rilo Kiley, Spoon, Secret Machines, The Decemberists, The Bravery, Eisley, Blue October, Grupo Fantasma, Kermit Ruffins, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Bettye La Vette, Rev. Dan Willis & The All Nations Choir, Morgan Heritage, Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca, Ruthie Foster, deSoL, The Frames, Mates of State, Mindy Smith, Martin Sexton, The Fiery Furnaces, Federico Aubele, Mouse on Mars, The Futureheads, Kathleen Edwards, Asleep at the Wheel, M83, Tegan and Sara, Mike Doughty, Split Lip Rayfield, Rachael Yamagata, Bobby Bare Jr., Mofro, The Ditty Bops, The New Amsterdams, Ambulance Ltd., Slightly Stoopid, Dios Malos, Brave Combo, Aqualung, Dave Alvin & The Guilty Men, Marc Broussard, Bruce Robison, Missy Higgins, Nine Black Alps, Kevin Fowler, Grady, Willy Mason, The Weary Boys, Wayne Hancock, Rick Trevino, Zykos, Soundteam, The Asylum Street Spankers, Pong, Oliver Future, The Real Heroes, Bukka Allen, Hairy Apes, The Lost Trailers, The Gospel Stars, Donna the Buffalo, The Shields of Faith, Star Kids Yoga, The Jones Family Singers, South Austin Jug Band, The Lighthouse Singers, Casey McPherson, Kacy Crowley, Tristan Prettyman, The Massacoustics, Joe McDermott, Sara Hickman, Imagination Movers, Free Sol, Inara George, KJAE, Austin Hartley-Leonard, Maneja Beto, Austin Collins Band, The Biscuit Brothers, Naturally 7, Patrick Davis Band, November, Kelly Hunt, Kate York.

Mitch Albom's Inner Voice

"Friggin' Morrie and those GD seven people I met in heaven never said jacksh*t about this:

Albom Addendum

A team of Detroit Free Press reporters is continuing to investigate past stories by sports columnist Mitch Albom, who is back at work after being suspended for writing about a basketball game before it happened.

A Free Press reporter called USA Today correspondent Patrick O'Driscoll to confirm that O'Driscoll had personally interviewed attorney Larry Pozner for a March 3 report on the civil settlement between Kobe Bryant and the woman who accused him of rape.

Two days later, Albom's column said: " 'In Kobe Bryant terms, the check will be small,' a Denver trial lawyer named Larry Pozner said last week. In the accuser's terms, 'the check will be gigantic. Kobe just bought her a home.' " The quote was word for word what had appeared in O'Driscoll's story. "I guess in the current climate, where we're trying to attribute everything," O'Driscoll says, the lack of credit "does surprise me a little bit."

Michael Azerrad Is a Big Fat Booger, I mean Blogger

It's here... via doveman

Oh, damn it.

First I forgot all about No TV week and now I realize I missed No Pants Day. Definitely going to celebrate No Chastity Belt Day tomorrow if she lets me.

Ah, shit. I also missed the damn session on civility at Instacon. And I wanted to kick Dave Winer's fat ass for delinking me.

Note to self

I realize now that I have to get more snappy in my patter or else I'll end up being the object of ridicule of all and that would like really suck. Plus, I have to remember not to promote my appearances around town. Snappy. Snappy patter.

Selfish Cunt Scene Report

Oh, we missed this one from January courtesy of You're So Old Street:

Selfish Cunt’s contempt for the scene is obvious, and tonight they cut through the bank holiday bonhomie like a pop-cultural flamethrower. Behooded singer Martin Tomlinson has barely delivered the opening couplet of “Britain Is Shit” before losing his temper and roaring at the soundman to turn up his vocals. His request is met, and for the rest of the set your reporter’s eardrums will jump every time he sings (or screeches) a word.

The hood is quickly torn off to reveal a face smeared with eyeliner and burning with rage and, as his bandmates tear through a clutch of songs from their imminent second album – including “Born From a Mother”, “I See a Rat” and “Uncle Sam” – Tomlinson basically wages war on us, wading through the crowd and spitting out each line as a direct challenge to whoever gets in his way.

At one point, he repeatedly thrusts his microphone into a woman’s face, asking, “Anything? Anything at all?” As he pushes towards her, forcing her back, she drapes an arm round him and smiles, as if expecting him to kiss her. He looks like he’d sooner kill her. In fact, you wonder how far he’d go if there weren’t a burly guy attempting to restrain him. Would he push her over? Trample her underfoot? Watching a Selfish Cunt gig can sometimes feel like witnessing a crime and doing nothing to prevent it. This, you suspect, is by design.

Weirdly, the same girl spends the rest of the gig trying to work her way back into Tomlinson’s path. Indeed, it’s fascinating to observe the range of responses drawn by his challenges. One man attempts to kiss him. Others threaten a more violent reaction. At one point, Tomlinson’s eyes seem to lock with your reporter’s, but as he storms our way we realise – with relief – that the wine-drinking sophisticate stood in front of us is his real target. Lyrics are screamed into the unfortunate man’s face, but he flinches not, nor does he make an escape when he gets the chance. In fact, most punters seem to take Tomlinson’s attentions as a compliment; we actually end up feeling rather left out.

I wonder if he was wearing his thong.

Classical Music World Inches Into MP3s

It's official. The UK's Philharmonia orchestra known for its exacting world-class standards does its first webcast and MP3 downloads at 320 kbps, with hanky hovering daintily however near their noses:

"The subjective quality of MP3s depends on a number of variables," says Faulkner. "The compression rate, the particular engine which was used for the encoding, then of course we have the variabilities of different PC/soundcard combinations. Most soundcards within PCs are a bit iffy from an audiophile point of view, especially in terms of noise-floor and subtlety. If I were planning to listen critically to such a download, I would probably drag the MP3 into SoundForge or Nero and then burn a conventional CD carefully from the 'exploded' decompressed version."

Though his pristine audio files were compressed and processed, Faulkner feels that the Philharmonia has made a bold move by using such high data rates (320bkps) for the audio as well as for the video streaming. "It is great for people in the New World with fast broadband. We are lucky to get 500k broadband speeds here in the UK, and many people still have 28.8k dial-up. Still, they are right to look to the future, also to stick to their guns about trying to get decent quality. Most classical downloads here are 128k if you are very lucky."

But in the end, Faulkner sums up his experience thus: "The whole business of how data compression impacts on pure sound sources is a topic of its own. MP3 is to music as JPEG is to graphics. Give them a chance with TLC and low compression rates, and they do a decent job. Set the autopilot to maximum compression to make the files as portable and fast as possible, and they are unrecognizable for those of us with high expectations."

Jakob Talks About Dear old Dad

Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

(in Dylan voice): And it's allllll goooooood...

In his studio that afternoon, he had the look of a man who is standing on a diving board, wondering whether to jump. Then he jumped. "Yes," he said, taking a breath, "he was affectionate. When I was a kid, he was a god to me for all the right reasons. Other people have put that tag on him in some otherworldly sense. I say it as any kid who admired his dad and had a great relationship with him. He never missed a single Little League game I had. He's collected every home run ball I ever hit. And he's still affectionate to me." He paused and smiled. "Maybe he doesn't want people to know that," he said. "But I'll tell you, because it's my interview."

Mr. Dylan's refusal to speak about his father has sometimes been interpreted as a sign of tension between them, which is another reason he has broken his silence. However complicated it has been to be Bob Dylan's son, Mr. Dylan loves and admires both the man and his music. Andrew Slater, the president of Capitol Records and formerly the Wallflowers' manager, was initially surprised that Mr. Dylan would listen to his father's songs as the band traveled in its van. "I finally found the right moment to ask him," Mr. Slater said. "I said, 'Jakob, what goes through your mind when you listen to your father's records?' He said, 'When I'm listening to 'Subterranean Homesick Blues,' I'm grooving along just like you. But when I'm listening to 'Blood on the Tracks,' that's about my parents.' I never asked him again."