Just a quick post to start the day off, while searching through amazon.com to find the new my morning jacket cd, I see this, “CONTENT/COPYWRITE PROTECTED CD”, and for some reason I filled with rage. The rage has since subsided, but what the fuck, I don’t care if they go making Celine Dion cd’s copy protected, but PLEASE keep your hands off our bands. I don’t really know what they are trying to pull here, the cd is already widely available, and has been for almost two months, so when it’s released this copy protection stuff is only going to hurt the consumer, that actually PURCHASED THE ALBUM.

In other MMJ news (I don’t blame you guys at all for this, it’s big business, it’s all about profits, it’s.. sorry) they are offering to give away a free track on their webpage if you pre-order Z, the track “How Could I Know” or, as I previsouly reported (shameless), known as Oxen. Still yet to find that Elizabethtown Soundtrack, with that “Where To Begin” track on it. I oddly can’t wait to see that movie.

Look there, you see that on the cover of A Bigger Bang, you see Mic, Keef, and the boys, standing around a bright light. That bright light there is Iggy Pop & The Stooges, The Ramones, The Velvet Underground etc… It’s a just a swift sweet reminder that they invented this skinny white world of rock and roll, and it’s sure beats the hell out of the Bridges To Babylon cover art. The Rolling Stones don’t need me to write this (actually no one probably needs me to write anything) but after that absolutely horrid VMA’s, popular rock music is suffering again. Or is it? Wilco’s A Ghost is Born debuted at number 8 on the Billboard charts, and Bright Eyes (regaurdless of your opinion of Conor, they aren’t My Chemical Romance) two latest releases both debuted in the top ten. So it seems the internet community, albeit Pitchfork, Stylus, TinyMixTapes and even *gulp* Stereogum is doing a damn good job of selling “good” musical acts to the masses, but why still no mainstream media attention. Then again Enya sold tons of records, and never scored a cover of Rolling Stone magazine so I guess its better that way anyway. Here is my favorite track from their new album, which is the best thing since Some Girls, which is kind of impressive being that was over 25 years ago, hmm i wasn’t even born yet!

The Rolling Stones - Laugh I Nearly Died

I’m nothing if I’m not selfish (well maybe inconsistant being that it’s tuesday and i promised you the pics for Monday but that is besides the point), after the Sufjan Steven’s show I attended a few weeks back I had an epiphany, well more of just a silly idea, I decided to call it the One Picture Project. During that show I was snapping photos left and right, too and fro, and once more again, I may have in all the photos taken came out with maybe 5 shots, which I shared with you, that were of any “decent” quality. Not only did I not get many salvageable shots, but it also put a hamper on the experience of the show itself for myself and those around me. So I decided from here on out I would begin the One Picture Project, which includes taking one photo, and only one photo of each band that performs, no matter what the quality, no matter if its just the picture of the persons head in front of me. I tried it for the first time at The National/Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Show Friday, and it was trying at best, the urge to click more photos was excruciating, thinking that each picture that I take would exceed the quality of the previous, but i did my best to stick to my new motto, and I am more than happy with the results. Read the rest of this entry »

I see there is an unreleased My Morning Jacket song on the “Elizabethtown” Soundtrack that comes out today. I can’t find the soundtrack anywhere though *frowns*, so if anyone wants to put an end to me going to the Elizabethtown myspace page and fast forwarding the stream to 22 minutes that would be great, if you know what I mean.

Lovely Friday, found some interesting MP3’s over at Moistworks so far the coolest thing I heard was Rogue Wave covering “Everyday”, who really seem to be developing their own sound, I really can’t wait to hear thier new album, which I heard had leaked for all you peeps that can’t keep your grubby hands in your pockets. Also posted a highly bizarre cover of The Flaming Lips covering “If I Only Had a Brain”, if only they gave the same sort of treatment to “Bohemian Rhapsody” which I thought kind of sucked. Apparently these songs are coming off some sort of game soundtrack, welcome to the most popular entertainment medium in the country.

Tonight I’m going to see The National, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! So expect some sort of zany story here on Monday, and i do it all for you!

And finally a b-side from Rogue Wave’s 10:1 single. BUY IT.

Rogue Wave - Wait For It

My main man Brandon, just sent me over to this link(third post down), which is a pretty good sampling of both Kanye West’s political tirade, and superb “Gold Digger”. This song is by someone called The Lengandary K.O. and is titled, of all things, “George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People”. Now some may say that this is just someone trying to get a quick cash in on something that has media’s attention, I say this is what Hip Hop is all about. Fight the Power, err something.

In other Kanye News, Gambling site OddJack is making bets on what Kanye will do tonight during his NFL Kickoff performance. My money is on he tries to marry Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Bush on stage.

Legendary K.O. - George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People

So, I’m sitting around, watching some tv, Seinfeld reruns most likely, and my ears perk up during a commercial. I’m thinking what is this?!? None other than Steven Malkmus pawning washers for Sears. Anyway the song they pulled was “Phantasies” from his self/titled debut solo album, the song in particular doesn’t have much to do with washers though.

I often go back and forth about the songs in commercials thing, I go from the aspect if corporations are going to be giant and souless, they might as well commission good art by way of putting their songs in their commercials, it worked for The Shins, they appear in a McDonald’s commercial, they take the money build a studio in their basement and give us another awesome album, but what about the artists themselves. Are they compromising anything to have thier songs used in commercials? Franz Ferdinand, which we found out was anything but clean (see: payola), had their song “Take Me Out” used as pretty much the anthem for the Sony PSP, even though the editors thought it would be a good idea to cut the guitar lead to make it fit the time slot. That would be the kind of thing that would piss me off as an artist.

Stephen Malkmus - Phantasies

My intention when starting this blog was just to have fun, and not mention much of anything that has to do with politics. I didn’t want to get into “fact checking”, I just wanted to state my opinion about what I thought was super hot music. Ocassionally and I certainly do mean OCCASSIONALLY I will hear a band that will make you actually say, “hmm you know what he’s right things are screwed up and he does have a relevant idea for social change” because the whole social change through music argument is pretty much destroyed when the biggest “socially conscience” rock band in the country not only hates Bush, but hawks cell phones. Bob Dylan said that he used to hate the protest song as a medium, before he even started writing protest songs himself, he felt that they always came across as being nagging. That brings us to today, and the only band that probably never compromised any artistic integrity, er any integrity at all, for any amount of money, Fugazi. Now I seriously believe Ian MacKaye has a lot to do with the person I am today, not because he taught me how to be liberal, or conservative, not because he was some bloated windbag of a radio host (Rush Limbaugh), or a quick wit comedic writer(Al Franken), but becuase he wrote songs that basically exposed truths, and left us all to take away from it what want. His songs rarely come across as condemning one side or the other, just simply stating facts, in melodic fashion, he starts the fire, you run the with the flame. In this song from Ian’s side project The Evens, Ian sparks the debate over the constant stream of news that flows past our brains. we are the most informed-uninformed industrial country in the world, and he shines a light on that fact here.

The Evens - You Won’t Feel A Thing

Well today is Tuesday, and sure feels like a Monday, becuase I was off of work yesterday, as with the rest of the country i’m sure, but if you did have to work yesterday I would like to apologize because this is goin to be a rare, and ranting “Monday” post. I often wonder what the hell I am doing, why the hell I do what I do, and why the hell don’t i have the will power to change the situation. Then I remember how fucked we really are, and the overwhelming doom of it all washes over me, and I slide right back into my warm quilt of apathy, I become the nine to five consumer zombie humans have conditioned themselves to become, and just want my mp3 player, fancy cell phone, and not to be bothered.

Anyhow on Friday I was greeted by a new CD in the mail care of Eleven Elephants. First impressions, of The Coral Sea’s Volcano and Heart, was that it was exquisitely packaged with it’s soft blue color and surf theme. The songs themselves are brilliant examples of guitar centered brit pop, a la Coldplay, Bends era Radiohead, or the Stone Roses. Actually the only thing that sets these guys apart from Coldplay is that they aren’t banging celebrities, and write songs that don’t seem to be written directly for the season finally of The OC, not to say that they are perfect, just to say they are good. I’m pulling them to open for Jack Johnson in venues across the country. “In this Moment’s Time” is an excellent example of tension/release type rock n’ roll, while “Look at Her Face” is more of punching “Speed of Sound” in the face. Ick, I feel like Chuck Klosterman.

And if you actually like to read things about music, and not just grab MP3’s from blogs, I’m looking in your direction hype machine, you can check out an excellent article about these guys….here.

The Coral Sea - In This Moments Time

The Coral Sea - Look at Her Face

Buy this album here.

I have never been to CBGB’s, I never really had a reason to, in my mind the place was run as poorly as a popsicle stand in the sahara that has no freezers. I am a self proclaimed muscial nut, I buy lots of cds, I never stop listening, in college I would go to shows that were anywhere from 3 to 5 dollars at the door (they usually were terrible but anything was better than seeing that stupid cover band again). So it’s not that I’m against going to see the acts that they tell me they have (had) down at CBGB’s, you know the fact they “let anyone play”, because I really just enjoy seeing a person create something, looking into themselves and creating something. The problem was that when you get to a place where your nationally renowned you have to obtain some level of quality, CBGB’s didn’t, and is gone. It’s ok though, because the “spirit” involved still lives on, through R5 Productions. I truely believe if Sean Agnew of R5 had the oppurtunity to book shows for CBGB’s there would be no threat of shutting down, for heaven’s sake they turned a Church, an actual operating church in Philadelphia, into the city’s best rock venue, and they did it all by being both fair to it’s audience, and faithful to it’s artists, take that Clear Channel. R5 brings in small to mid level indie bands, occassionally scoring a big get, such as The Polyphonic Spree fresh after their appearance on an MTV Awards show, all the while staying true to the local scene by booking them as opening acts, and exposing them to a larger audience.

While browsing through R5’s upcoming shows I stumbled across Dungen, which is a band I read a lot about, but never really thought about giving them a chance. I read things like pshychrock or pshych pop, ala 60’s bands, I thought they would be just another Shins type band and didn’t really pay attention. Upon downloading “Panda” I became an instant fan, they are much more The Who than The Shins, which is good, I thought I would hear rolling sparse melodies, but what is happening here is DENSE sonic blasts of distorted guitars, basically the best way to explain the sonic landscape is tight. Remarkable for a band, but to find out its mostly the brain child of a single mutli-instrumentalist, Gustav Estjes, most of the other track names I can’t even pronounce, or didn’t really try to, everything is in Swedish, and everthing sounds good.

Dungen - Panda

Dungen - Ta Det Lungt