A Lonely Ghost

Let's Get It On (Marvin Gaye cover)

2011-11-02T13:58:00.002-05:00

This is a mostly shitty one-off I did to check how well my iPhone's camera could do audio, but just for funsies here it is.

Don't Think Twice It's All Right (Bob Dylan cover)

2011-11-01T01:46:00.003-05:00

I've been practicing lately exclusively in D-A-D-F#-D-D tuning; the idea is that by restricting myself to an unfamiliar tuning, I will be forced to change my own perspective and find new ways of voicing chords and moving melodies around the neck. On this particular video, I have a capo on the second fret--making this the key of E--mainly to make that Richie Havens thumb wrap fingering of the F#7 on that second fret a little easier on myself. Anyway, there're admittedly a lot of mistakes in this video, but it is what it is and you get the idea blah blah blah...

I hate myself...

2011-10-19T17:41:00.001-05:00

...and by "I hate myself," I mean I hate people who use their blogs to disseminate vapid pictures of pretty celebrities looking all vain and shit posing for the camera but God DAMN, Meryl Streep is super-mega, make you want to blow your brains out hot in Manhattan. That is all.

2011-10-17T16:20:00.002-05:00

Watching this just opened up the wellspring of every tear I ever cried as a child. If you've got six minutes and a box of tissues at hand, you'll enjoy this.

Thom Yorke's DJ set at the TKOL RMX 1234567 release party:

2011-10-13T17:06:00.001-05:00

I have infinite, forever love for Thom Yorke. Just look at that little wild man beast out.

I think I'm in love...

2011-09-29T09:46:00.001-05:00

This girl is amazingly talented. She should be on SNL or something.

I'm a doucher

2011-09-29T09:39:00.004-05:00

I realize that posting this makes me a huge doucher, but I can't resist. This "achievement" needs to be recorded for posterity: I just hit a mother-fucking thousand facebook "friends".

Katherine Larson :: Love at Thirty-Two Degrees

2011-09-23T13:54:00.000-05:00

Today I dissected a squid,

the late acacia tossing its pollen

across the black of the lab bench.

In a few months the maples

will be bleeding. That was the thing:

there was no blood

only textures of gills creased like satin,

suction cups as planets in rows. Be careful

not to cut your finger, he says. But I’m thinking

of fingertips on my lover’s neck

last June. Amazing, hearts.

This brachial heart. After class,

I stole one from the formaldehyde

& watched it bloom in my bathroom sink

between cubes of ice.

Last night I threw my lab coat in the fire

& drove all night through the Arizona desert

with a thermos full of silver tequila.

It was the last of what we bought

on our way back from Guadalajara—

desert wind in the mouth, your mother’s

beat-up Honda, agaves

twisting up from the soil

like the limbs of cephalopods.

Outside of Tucson, saguaros so lovely

considering the cold, & the fact that you

weren’t there to warm me.

Suddenly drunk I was shouting that I wanted to see the stars

as my ancestors used to see them—

to see the godawful blue as Aurvandil’s frostbitten toe.

III

Then, there is the astronomer’s wife

ascending stairs to her bed.

The astronomer gazes out,

one eye at a time,

to a sky that expands

even as it falls apart

like a paper boat dissolving in bilge.

Furious, fuming stars.

When his migraine builds &

lodges its dark anchor behind

the eyes, he fastens the wooden buttons

of his jacket, & walks

outside with a flashlight

to keep company with the barn owl

who stares back at him with eyes

that are no greater or less than

a spiral galaxy.

The snow outside

is white & quiet

as a woman’s slip

against cracked floorboards.

So he walks to the house

inflamed by moonlight, & slips

into the bed with his wife

her hair & arms all

in disarray

like fish confused by waves.

Science—

beyond pheromones, hormones, aesthetics of bone,

every time I make love for love’s sake alone,

I betray you.

North Korea Party Rock Anthem ft. Kim Jong Il

2011-09-21T17:30:00.000-05:00

2

2011-09-14T03:22:00.005-05:00

I like imagining the beginning most--before time existed, where every atom that ever was was condensed into a point of infinite density, before some spark expelled everything that would ever become anything, including our selves, ever further outward into the vast, empty loneliness of space. I imagine it inevitable the sun will, far off somewhere in our unimaginably distant, postmortem future, collapse into a neutron star, pulling us back to the start of things, together, again.

My 9/11 Anthem...

2011-09-11T05:34:00.002-05:00

Stevie Wonder doing "Blowin' in the Wind" at the age of 16.

I love this, despite this version's omission of the third verse lines, my favorites: "how many deaths will it take 'til God knows / that too many people have died?"

Pray for peace, everyone. One love.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal does it again.

2011-09-10T15:15:00.000-05:00

Mary Ruefle :: A Little White Shadow

2011-09-06T17:51:00.003-05:00

Dorothea Grossman :: I have to tell you

2011-08-24T11:47:00.000-05:00

I have to tell you,
there are times when
the sun strikes me
like a gong,
and I remember everything,
even your ears.

Horrible

2011-08-22T19:07:00.002-05:00

This is the reason the terrorists hate us.

The Aurora Borealis...FROM SPACE!

2011-08-10T17:27:00.003-05:00

This is what the Northern lights look like from the international space station.

Hooray Science!

2011-08-10T17:20:00.001-05:00

Is this what it looks like to be on acid?

God Damn It

2011-08-06T13:39:00.003-05:00

Dear reader, please don't be offended by my impending use of foul language: sometimes you just gotta use strong words to convey equally strong feeling.

But Jesus fucking Christ, some of you assholes are annoying the shit out of me on Facebook, and it has to fucking stop. I'm only talking to the particular subset of IQ-challenged, dumbfuck "friends" of mine who "like" pages with names like "Wonderful Heels on Sale", "Sexy Heels on Sale", "High Heels!", "Your Next Shoes", "Shoe Fetish Boutique", and well...I could go on seeing as there are approximately eleventy billion more such pages--none of whose names in the preceding list did I make up, mind you--but well, since reading isn't likely to be one of your strong suits, I imagine a little forced brevity can only help my cause.

Look, I get that in order to make it through this thing we call reality, people need to have stupid interests/hobbies/pursuits to occupy their time, lest they go crazy. Lord knows I've got my own: sports, fantasy sports, watching cat videos on youtube, and poetry, to name but a few. Christ, I've even touched on the subject of the importance of stupid interests/hobbies/pursuits on this very blog before, as I did towards the end of this essay I wrote following Sean Taylor's (rest his soul) untimely passing. But I'm not the asshole who clogs up people's news feeds with bullshit every time a God damned fantasy player of mine scores a fucking touchdown, either. I keep that shit to myself.

I grant you: you're more than likely unaware that you're being such an obnoxious fucking nuisance--but you've been duped; you're a shill and you don't even know it. This recent Atlantic Wire article talks about the scary and very real possibility that in the near future, facebook will feature even more prevalent advertising than it has already, and you're such a stupid asshole that you're basically letting shoe stores whore you into a virtual fucking sandwich board, right the fuck now, for free.

You see, Forrest, whenever your facebook buddy, good ol' Miss Shoe Fetish Boutique, "tags" you as a picture of 7 inch Louboutin stilletos made of hope and dreams, I am, as is EVERY OTHER "FRIEND" of yours, forced to look at the same God damned picture of what are in the end a terrible, terrible bastardization of the Platonic ideal of "Hey! Let's put things on the bottoms of our feet so we can move around better and not get hurt!" Did you know that wearing high heels can cause turf toe, the injury so named because it's prevalent amongst athletes who play football? Didn't think so...

Anyway, I've been on facebook so long that I remember when you could only join the site if you had an email address with an '.edu' at the end of it. And I'm tired of fucks like you doing your best to trash it up and turn it into God damned, ugly-ass myspace, lowering the hivebrain's collective IQ and shit. In closing, I'd just like to say that if I've offended you by writing this, I'd recommend doing what I do whenever I see your shoe-porn: click the little 'x' in the upper right corner of this post on facebook and select the "Hide all updates from this person" option.

Good day, madam.

Outlier's JP on Australia's Got Talent :: Down Under

2011-08-05T04:45:00.002-05:00

As a rule, I avoid music-based reality competition type shows; I often feel like their audiences don't have too much of an idea of what "good" music actually is, and oftentimes the winners seem chosen more on physical appearance than talent. That said, it's pretty much impossible to deny the awesomeness of this guy's performance right here. Makes me want to ditch my RC-2 for an RC-50 and get my ass to practicing.

Albert Goldbarth :: Myth Studies

2011-08-05T00:22:00.002-05:00

Myth Studies

The custodian erases whatever simple biology
lesson was on the blackboard: BIRTH.
It's only a several-seconds glimpse I've had
through a door on my way to the car, but enough
for me to think of him as the Saint
of First-Time Mothers. What I mean is,
after the walls split, and the screams stopped,
and Atlantis disappeared, another Atlantis
--the one we carry in our heads, of scented gardens
and ornate avenues--fills the emptiness.
I've seen it in my friends: the terrible
pelvis-wrenching pain is at an end, and then
some chemical washes the mind, and creates
the blankness of fresh possibility.

I Heart Miranda July

2011-08-04T23:50:00.003-05:00

Miranda July is one of my favorite artists in the world today. I say 'artist' because in addition to her most well-known work, the film "Me And You And Everyone We Know"*--which she wrote, directed and acted in--she is also a great writer of short stories and a brave-ass performance artist who's done her shit at the fucking Guggenheim.

She has a new film premiering in DC this Friday. It's called "The Future" and though it features a talking cat narrator and an anthropomorphized moon, it looks like it'll be fantastic, at least to me it does--it's getting a fair amount of Twitter hate right now, but who cares about that, really? Anyway, I'm going to see it with a friend on Sunday, and in my excitement I've been relentlessly watching Miranda July clips on youtube, which I will now share with you.

Here is the trailer for the film...

followed by an awesome out-take therefrom about how to be creative...

and also a nice short film she made back in 2005 with John C Reilly, Mike White, and a fellow named Chuy Chavez. It's called "Are You The Favorite Person Of Anybody?"

*MaYaEWK ranks EASILY amongst my top-5 favorite films of all time. SEE IT if you haven't. It's perfectly lovely.

Regular Show :: Best of Pops

2011-08-03T19:50:00.003-05:00

If you have never seen "Regular Show", which airs Monday evenings at 8:15 on the Cartoon Network, you are missing out on some of the best absurdist cartoon humor ever. This video is a compilation of hilarious things said by my favorite character, Pops, an effeminate, old British man who may or may not be mentally healthy. He is good for 3 hearty laughs per 15 minute episode; it's science. The show would be nothing without him.

Sesame Street does the Beasties

2011-07-21T14:21:00.001-05:00

Well, this is just excellent.

Sesame Street breaks it down from Wonderful Creative on Vimeo.

I know, I know...

2011-07-20T21:22:00.005-05:00

Another "sorry I haven't been keeping up with the blog" post.

It's not that I haven't had anything to say, it's just that I haven't had the time to say it. I know that my hearty presence on all of my other social networks would lead one to wonder why I couldn't just, y'know, update my blog with the same frequency I update facebook and/or tweet, but I submit that those social networks are much more easily accessible via my iPhone's awesome pocket computer-ness than any real blogging platform worth fucking with. Also, I insist upon having a real, physical keyboard attached to my real, old-timey desktop PC and a quiet room in order to do any kind of thinking worth blogging. Sadly, I am rarely home often enough to do that, so...

Speaking of "other social networks," I've joined the herd and got into both Google+ and Spotify. (I'm awwpeaches on both, naturally.) The former, I'm not so sure about just yet--too few early adopters to be useful right now--but the latter...WOW. I've been on such a music bender since Spotify came into my life, which is ridiculous because my life was pretty much already a music bender without it. I guess Spotify is my newest, most amazingly persuasive pusher is what I'm saying.

But anyway and anyhow: I do feel bad for neglecting this here blog, my oldest creative presence on the web. I'm going to be doing a lot more posts about music in the near future, and I'm even considering resurrecting my Saturday Mix Series posts, with downloadable ZIPs of the awesome playlists I make, which I used to do on here way back in 2007/2008--that's right, Spotify! I'm an O.G. playlist-sharer.

I do have plenty more things to say about non-music topics as well, and I hereby promise I'll do better at giving them the time they deserve to be said properly.

Seacrest out.

Future Islands :: Beach Foam

2011-07-06T04:21:00.003-05:00

This is my favorite song ever right now.

Inspiration of the day

2011-04-19T17:57:00.001-05:00

This is one wise little girl.

Paloffs is Now!

2011-04-12T20:25:00.005-05:00

The NHL playoffs start tomorrow night and my Washington Capitals are facing off against one of their semi-local I-95 rivals, the New York Rangers. After last year's devastatingly premature playoff exit courtesy of the 8th-seeded Montreal Canadiens, I approach tomorrow night's game (and the first-round series of which it is a part) with an internalized quiet nervousness, which I can only hope is punctuated by a shit ton of the kind of alcohol-fueled, fist-bumping, high-fiving and stranger-hugging camaraderie that only the playoffs can provide. Ovi, no matter what happens this time around, I'll still love you and the rest of the guys. But kick some fucking New York ass, and let's get on to the next round (and the one after that, and the one after that, and the one after that, too.)

Amen.

Wisconsin

2011-04-05T23:24:00.000-05:00

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of the oldest exercises in moral philosophy, that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. It is an exercise that always involves a certain number of internal contradictions and even a few absurdities. The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character-building value of privation for the poor."
- John Kenneth Galbraith

2010, in Review

2010-12-17T11:13:00.014-05:00

10. Josh Ritter :: So Runs The World Away

I once, between 2006's The Animal Years and this year's offering, reflexively resisted Josh Ritter's music because of an ex-girlfriend who was/is really into him. I'm over that now; Ritter's craft is just too strong to ignore. On this, his third proper LP, Josh proves, once again, why he's considered amongst the greatest living songwriters today. I really can't say much more than that.

09. Big Boi :: Sir Lucious Left Foot, The Son of Chico Dusty

With a list of collaborators that reads like an all-star lineup (George Clinton, Janelle Monáe, Gucci Mane, T.I., Jamie Foxx, B.o.B., Bun B, etc.), and three years in the making, this--not Kanye West's--is the best rap album of 2010.

08. Vampire Weekend :: Contra

To quote myself, from January 17th, 2010: "By adding certain electronic elements--namely, pre-programmed loop sampling and, shit, even autotuned vocals!--to the instantly familiar blend of hipster-approved, globalized influences...honed on their first album, Vampire Weekend emerges with a second album much more engaging and interesting a listen than the first. It's only 17 days into the new year, but I am certain this album is gonna be on everyone's best-of 2010 lists come December. Unlike Vampire Weekend's 2008 album, however, this one will also be on mine."

07. Wild Nothing :: Gemini

This is what it sounds like to take mushrooms with an old friend who's in town from Korea on July 4th and stay out on the lake with your brother and some more great friends and everyone in their underwear until the sun rises. At least, that's what it sounds like to me...

06. Arcade Fire :: The Suburbs

Have you fucking listened to "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"?!?! It's a god-damned perfect song, and a totally unexpected and brave one, coming from this band.

05. How To Dress Well :: Love Remains

Best sexy time music of the year.

04. The Besnard Lakes :: The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night

Dreamy, cinematic, guitar-driven, honest-to-God rock with a heart. From Albatross: "Those days are now long gone / Wish I had your picture / Never been able to be true / So I wanted, I wanted / I wanted to help you / I wanted to..."

03. The Tallest Man On Earth :: The Wild Hunt

Called this one back in April.

02. Titus Andronicus :: The Monitor

In a year when the cast of The Jersey Shore commands higher levels of our pop culture's collective attention than do most politicians, Titus Andronicus drops this Walt Whitman-quoting, Civil War-referencing reminder that, no matter what Snooki and her crew would have you believe, New Jersey is still the home of Bruce fucking Springsteen and the ever-present, suburban uncertainty of purpose born out of such constant, close proximity to--yet philosophical distance from--the big city.

01. Beach House :: Teen Dream

First off, the production on Teen Dream is just about spot-on perfect; the album marks a quantum leap forward for the duo from Baltimore whose self-titled debut made my #13 spot in 2006. Still present are the moody, ghostly atmospherics and heady, slow-burn rhythms that became Beach House's instant trademark, but gone now for the most part is the monotonous haze that encumbered and dragged down the mood of the group's first two records. What we're left with is a new, significantly more intimate version of Victoria Legrand's voice, pushed so much farther to the front of the mix, we wonder how in the hell they ever thought to drench it in so much reverb before now. In years to come, this album will mark the point in time when a new and important band had truly, finally arrived.

Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order)

Caribou :: Swim
Charlotte Gainsbourg :: IRM
Crystal Castles :: Crystal Castles
Erykah Badu :: New Amerykah Part 2 (Return of the Ankh)
Four Tet :: There Is Love In You
Gayngs :: Relayted
Holly Miranda :: The Magician’s Private Library
Janelle Monáe :: The ArchAndroid
Mumford & Sons :: Sigh No More
Phantogram :: Eyelid Movies
Pill Wonder :: Jungle/Surf
Plants And Animals :: La La Land
The Radio Dept :: Clinging to a Scheme
Sufjan Stevens :: The Age of Adz
Twin Shadow :: Forget

...but wait, there's more!

Above is a youtube playlist I made with one song from each of my top 10 albums of the year, in order:

01. Josh Ritter :: Lark
02. Big Boi :: Shutterbug
03. Vampire Weekend :: White Sky
04. Wild Nothing :: Chinatown
05. Arcade Fire :: Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
06. How To Dress Well :: Ready for the World
07. The Besnard Lakes :: Glass Printer
08. The Tallest Man on Earth :: Love Is All
09. Titus Andronicus :: Richard II
10. Beach House :: Walk in the Park

inudge? you nudge. we all nudge!

2010-12-07T20:35:00.003-05:00

Kayla just showed me this really cool website called inudge.net where you can create your own electronic music with the help of their simple, flash-based interface. Check it this simple little loop I just made, and head over their way to try making your own!

Sparsile

2010-12-04T15:33:00.001-05:00

The word of the day is sparsile.

Sparsile. (adj.) pertaining to a star that is not a member of a constellation

The Dog Door

2010-11-23T14:37:00.001-05:00

Russian animation: The Dog Door (+English subtitles) from Niffiwan on Vimeo.

Belle & Sebastian :: Sleep the Clock Around

2010-10-11T08:44:00.003-05:00

This Belle & Sebastian song has been stuck in my head for weeks, but I'd been totally blanking on its title and album up until this morning, when a quick click-through of the B & S discography solved my dilemma: it's "Sleep the Clock Around" from 1998's The Boy With the Arab Strap, and it's one of my favorite songs ever. I already told it I was sorry I forgot about it for a while. It's forgiven me.

Simon Christen :: The Unseen Sea

2010-10-07T19:22:00.002-05:00

This is beautiful. I don't have much else to add other than that. So, so beautiful.

The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen on Vimeo.

Diamond in the Rough

2010-10-03T13:04:00.002-05:00

I've just spent the last 15 minutes removing spam comments from this very blog you're reading right now, which is a task I normally hate. Well, today must not be a normal day, because I just found the funniest broken English/Google translate-shredded spam comment of all time. It's like it was written by Jonathan Safran Foer for Alex in "Everything is Illuminated":

Hey guys I'm not persuaded if this is the greatest category to send this, but I am having some corporeal strife learning seeking a girl I infer from seeking a girl on that internet site, but it actually didn't seem to give a lot of sense to me. Can someone please serve me? It's so hard to foregather the sexy women of my dreams.

This on the web wasn't clear to read

Ideas on How to satisfy Women in the Mall

If you are just one guy and aren't the ideal at locating a great deal much less meeting ladies and are wondering somewhere you could possibly visit get and meet a girlfriend, then these ten reasonable recommendations on how to fulfill a girl on the shopping mall, should arrive in mighty handy.

1 - Go for the food court. Feel it or not, the food court would be the absolute most helpful area inside the local mall to meet a young girl. Here's what you do. Choose a meals area and get in line for the meal. Whereas that you're in line, start looking around the location somewhere everybody is seated and eating. Look to get a woman sitting alone, as well as two ladies sitting together. When you've got your meal in hand, walk around to wherever she or they can indeed be seated and question if you'll be able to join them. If you're truthful and straightforward with them, your probabilities are rather fine.

2- Do some thinking. Before you even take into account proceeding towards the mall to satisfy a lady, sit oneself down and do some critical thinking. Want to consider how you could come in contact with a young lady and what you can say to her if you’re thriving. Take into consideration which components of the shopping mall you'd probably visit. Also, you're planning to really need to acquire something when there, what do you will need? Finally, ponder what meeting a girl in the public site entails. Definitely you'll will need to look and feel to get a wedding ring ahead of speaking to a chick, and you can expect to should bear in mind if it's wiser to speak into a lady alone or a person who is with other people. Lastly, you can have being reasonable about your own age plus the ages for the girlfriend you choose to satisfy. As in, you're likely to ought to inform yourself to become sensible and don't experiment with to fulfill girls which have been a whole lot younger or older than you’re, or that look and feel out of one's league.

3 - Ask for guidance. As soon as you’re at long last along at the local mall, an individual of a means to satisfy ladies is by asking them for benefit. Females be aware that males have no thought what they're engaging in once they are shopping, so asking for aid won't appear this kind of a ridiculous notion. Ask for guidance in picking out a jacket for oneself one example is. Engaging in so let's the woman know which you are single. If she agrees to help you, find out her other questions as you grab completely different jackets to have a shot at on.

Hey guys I'm not for certain if this is the sound place to mail this, but I am having some legitimate difficulty learning seeking a girl I infer from seeking a girl on that internet site, but it really didn't seem to give to me alot of sense to me. Can someone hold it in their heart to help me? It's so impregnable to foregather the chick of my dreams.

...and then it just stops. Not gonna lie, I'm kinda bummed that we don't get to see items 4-10 on this list of guileless advice.

Bright Eyes :: Light Pollution (live, 2005)

2010-09-21T17:45:00.001-05:00

Listening to records in his basement:
Old folk songs about the government
'It's love of money, not the market,'
He said these fuckers push on you
'And freedom yells, it don't cry
Whatever sells will decide
But there's no hell when you die
So don't look so worried...'

The Power of Music

2010-09-13T21:30:00.002-05:00

Hooray for human beings! Go music!

A Quotation From Breakfast at Tiffany's

2010-08-31T11:14:00.002-05:00

“you’re chicken, you’ve got no guts. you’re afraid to stick out your chin and say, “okay, life’s a fact, people do fall in love, people do belong to each other, because that’s the only chance anybody’s got for real happiness.” you call yourself a free spirit, a “wild thing,” and you’re terrified somebody’s gonna stick you in a cage. well baby, you’re already in that cage. you built it yourself. and it’s not bounded in the west by tulip, texas, or in the east by somali-land. it’s wherever you go. because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.”
- Paul Varjak

Radiohead :: Motion Picture Soundtrack

2010-08-26T03:05:00.003-05:00

One of the all time greatest sad panda songs, ladies and gents:

Red wine and sleeping pills,
Help me get back to your arms.
Cheap sex and sad films,
Help me get where I belong.

I think you're crazy, maybe.
I think you're crazy, maybe.

Stop sending letters,
Letters always get burned.
It's not like the movies,
They fed us on little white lies.

I think you're crazy,
Maybe. I think you're crazy,
Maybe I will see you in the next life...

Forgotten Records of the Early Aughts

2010-08-25T15:26:00.011-05:00

Having lately spent a great deal of friend time with various 20-somethings of a slightly younger age than my own--I'm a young 27, thank you very much--I've realized that several records seminal to my own musical and artistic development during my college years are sadly facing neglect at the hands of kids just 2-4 years my juniors. I mean, really...it's somewhat disconcerting to me when my mention of, say, Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"--arguably THE. BEST. RECORD. OF. THE. DECADE.--is met with the blank stares of those who should know much better. So, having said that, I intend to use the rest of this post as a means of spreading knowledge. In no particular order, here are, off the top of my head, a handful of somewhat obscure records released during 2002-2005, otherwise known as my early college period. While the albums may be "obscure," all that should mean is that I don't think that even most "artsy" kids these days have heard them, let alone the normals. All of these albums had profound impacts on my life, and it is my hope that maybe some of them will have similar effects on yours. Included with one sentence descriptions and album art will be links to places on the internet where you can download the music.*

2003 :: British Sea Power - The Decline of British Sea Power(Mediafire)

Literate, poetic lyrics propped up by upbeat Brit-pop instrumentation with healthy hints of psychedelia and punk.

Favorite tracks: "Apologies to Insect Life", "Something Wicked", "Carrion", "Blackout", "Lately".

2005 :: Black Mountain - Black Mountain(Mediafire)

Throwback, retro-stylized post-psychedelic freak-out proto-jam-metal with huuuuuge balls.

Favorite tracks: "Don't Run Our Hearts Around", "Druganaut", "Set Us Free", "Faulty Times"

2004 :: Thee More Shallows - More Deep Cuts(Mediafire)

Reeeaaaally awesome weed music; if you can get past the weirdness, this is an all-time great sleeper record.

Favorite tracks: "Post-Present", "Freshman Thesis", "Int", "Ave Grave", "2 AM"

2004 :: Comets On Fire - Blue Cathedral(Mediafire)

What it would sound like if you went camping with a band of magical, musical wood elves with unlimited food, mushrooms and weed, and just jammed out until you lost your mind.

Favorite tracks: "The Bee and the Cracking Egg", "The Antlers of the Midnight Sun", "Brotherhood of the Harvest"

[Special note: just listen to the fucking backwards reverb on the lead guitar on "Brotherhood of the Harvest"!!!]

2005 :: Mice Parade - Bem Vinda Vontade(Megaupload)

More a "mood" record than a "songs" record; this is just the epitome of chill, all layered fingerstyle guitars, hushed vocals, and brushed cymbals.

2004 :: Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter - Oh, My Girl(Mediafire)

Mournful, lyrical Indie-Americana/Country/Folk, with vocals along the lines of Lucinda Williams or Gillian Welch, and lyrics featuring the word fuckery on track one.

Favorite tracks: "Oh, My Girl", "You Are Not Gotten Here", "Tell the Boys"

2003 :: Calexico - Feast of Wire(Mediafire)

This record I actually consider to be one of the best and most thorough of the decade because the sheer range of its North American musical styles and influences--traditional Country, Americana, Blues, Acid Jazz, Mariachi, Rock, and even Morricone-esque Western stuff--keeps you listening, at full attention, to all 19 amazing tracks.

Favorite tracks: "Sunken Waltz", "Black Heart", "Woven Birds", "Corona", "Fallin' Rain"

*Please note, none of the D/L links are my personal creation. All were found through simple google searches.

True Story...

2010-08-25T14:03:00.004-05:00

I actually did do this to an old girlfriend. I loved her, too...just couldn't get past her dubious taste in music. Bummer.

On the bright side, 27 "likes" in 5 minutes of posting counts as...you guessed it, an internet win.

Trailer for AMC's The Walking Dead

2010-08-25T13:15:00.002-05:00

I am very much not a person who spends a lot of time watching television and/or blogging about favorite television shows. In this case, however, I am forced to make an exception on the grounds of blatant awesomeness. I present to you, dear reader, the trailer for the as-of-yet unreleased AMC show, "The Walking Dead," which is obviously going to be the best zombie television show of all time. I. Can't. Fucking. Wait.

I have seen the future...

2010-08-15T15:01:00.001-05:00

This is DEFINITELY what I want at my wedding:

Sometimes it hurts to be so right all the time...

2010-07-30T14:30:00.004-05:00

Once again, dear reader, I have beaten the venerable pitchfork.com to the proverbial punch. Just today, pitchfork placed the new and still-unreleased Arcade Fire track "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" on its Best New Music list:

A worthy addition to Pitchfork's BNM list, indeed; but as any of my devoted Twitter followers would already know, I had already tweeted a 140 character-long load of glowing praise onto the track last weekend:

Once again...I called it. And Pitchfork can suck it.

Even texts can be poems

2010-07-01T13:06:00.002-05:00

I received this text message from my good friend Zack a couple nights ago, all the way from somewhere out in the Nevada desert:

Every once in a while I like talking about last week's rodeo and slamming a bottle of jack with the bartender. He only charged me for half cause we were the only two in the bar.

Emily Elbert :: Who's Loving You?

2010-06-16T10:46:00.003-05:00

2:03 - 2:30 = Goosebump-inducing perfection, especially her crack on the lyric "becaaaaaauuuse" @ 2:16.

Al & Kelsey

2010-06-15T23:16:00.002-05:00

My youngest brother just called me with the great news: he just proposed to his girlfriend and she accepted! He asked me to be his best man, and I am just giddy happy right now for the two of these people, whom I love a whole lot.

Dave Bonta :: Notes Toward a Taxonomy of Sadness

2010-06-13T19:20:00.001-05:00

There are as many kinds of sadness as there are things that prompt it, each as exquisitely adapted as a species of ichneumon wasp to its smooth or bristly host. There’s the sadness of 100-year-old postcards that were written on but never sent, the sadness of an alarm clock that was turned off three minutes before it was due to throb, the sadness of countries too small or crowded to accommodate wilderness, the sadness of a pump organ whose church music has long been silenced by mice chewing holes in the bellows, the sadness of open USB ports, the sadness of cities with utterly predictable weather, the sadness of a faded Sears Wishbook catalog kept in lieu of toilet paper in a seldom-used outhouse, the sadness of milk served in the last chipped member of a favorite set of drinking glasses, the sadness of time travel, the sadness of fireflies broadcasting their positions every few seconds in total silence, the sadness of an overcooked vegetable that tastes like rain, the sadness of dust mites whose entire civilization depends on a giant stranger’s poor housekeeping, the sadness of airports that afford no views of the runway, the sadness of pasture roses forced to weather the loving ministrations of those that chew the cud, the sadness of lights designed to illuminate billboards, and the sadness of pulp science fiction magazines from the 1950s that could predict flying cars but not oil spills, let alone this flea market, the world-wide web.

July 4th, 2007

2010-06-03T11:17:00.006-05:00

Since it's Allen Ginsberg's birthday and all, I thought it'd be appropriate to share a few pictures from an adventure a few friends and I took back on the 4th of July in 2007...well, it really started on the night of the 3rd, but our adventure definitely bled into the wee hours of the 4th. Our intention was to force people into considering the words of Ginsberg's subversive screed/poem "America" while engaged in their American Tradition staples of cooking out, block parties, fireworks and beer. For the record, we used chalk...because we were either pussies or polite--you decide.

Happy birthday, Allen Ginsberg!

2010-06-03T10:22:00.003-05:00

excerpted from "Transcription of Organ Music":

...I had a moment of clarity, saw the feeling in
the heart of things, walked out to the garden crying.
Saw the red blossoms in the night light, sun's
gone, they had all grown, in a moment, and were wait-
ing stopped in time for the day sun to come and give
them...

Flowers which as in a dream at sunset I watered
faithfully not knowing how much I loved them.
I am so lonely in my glory--except they too out
there--I looked up--those red bush blossoms beckon-
ing and peering in the window waiting in blind love,
their leaves too have hope and are upturned top flat
to the sky to receive--all creation open to receive--the
flat earth itself.

The music descends, as does the tall bending
stalk of the heavy blossom, because it has to, to stay
alive, to continue to the last drop of joy...

Excerpt from Adrian Blevins' "Watching the Newshour"

2010-05-31T16:20:00.001-05:00

                       It is just so wrong of me not to know what to
   call the paraphernalia
the boys are given to extinguish the women inside them

by killing off the women inside the others, but I don’t have that
   kind of dictionary here.

An epiphany

2010-05-31T16:03:00.002-05:00

I've been out of touch with poetry for waaay too long. I'm gonna start reading some fucking poetry--a fucking lot more poetry; starting with Adrian Blevins' new book, Live From the Homesick Jamboree. Then I'm gonna write some fucking poetry. I'm fucking tired of poetry being something I "did," rather than something I "do." That shit's gonna change. I'm blogging this via iPhone, so that's all for now. Seacrest out.

Paul Guest :: User's Guide To Physical Debilitation

2010-05-30T13:17:00.002-05:00

It has been at least 4 years since a work of literature made me weep, but not any longer; this poem just hit me like a sledgehammer.*

Should the painful condition of irreversible paralysis
last longer than forever or at least until
your death by bowling ball or illegal lawn dart
or the culture of death, which really has it out
for whoever has seen better days
but still enjoys bruising marathons of bird watching,
you, or your beleaguered caregiver
stirring dark witch's brews of resentment
inside what had been her happy life,
should turn to page seven where you can learn,
assuming higher cognitive functions
were not pureed by your selfish misfortune,
how to leave the house for the first time in two years.
An important first step,
with apologies for the thoughtlessly thoughtless metaphor.
When not an outright impossibility
or form of neurological science fiction,
sexual congress will either be with
tourists in the kingdom of your tragedy,
performing an act of sadistic charity;
with the curious, for whom you will be beguilingly blank canvas;
or with someone blindly feeling their way
through an extended power outage
caused by summer storms you once thought romantic.
Page twelve instructs you how best
to be inspiring to Magnus next door
as he throws old Volkswagens into orbit
above Alberta. And to Betty
in her dark charm confiding a misery,
whatever it is, that to her seems equivalent to yours.
The curl of her hair that her finger knows
better and beyond what you will,
even in the hypothesis of heaven
when you sleep. This guide is intended
to prepare you for falling down
and declaring detente with gravity,
else you reach the inevitable end
of scaring small children by your presence alone.
Someone once said of crushing
helplessness: it is a good idea to avoid that.
We agree with that wisdom
but gleaming motorcycles are hard
to turn down or safely stop
at speeds which melt aluminum. Of special note
are sections regarding faith
healing, self-loathing, abstract hobbies
like theoretical spelunking and extreme atrophy,
and what to say to loved ones
who won't stop shrieking
at Christmas dinner. New to this edition
is an index of important terms
such as catheter, pain, blackout,
pathological deltoid obsession, escort service,
magnetic resonance imaging,
loss of friends due to superstitious fear,
and, of course, amputation
above the knee due to pernicious gangrene.
It is our hope that this guide
will be a valuable resource
during this long stretch of boredom and dread
and that it may be of some help,
however small, to cope with your new life
and the gradual, bittersweet loss
of every God damned thing you ever loved.

*At age 12, the author, Paul Guest, was paralyzed from the neck down as the result of a bicycle accident. He wrote this poem on a typewriter, with his mouth.

Ted Garber :: The Giving Tree

2010-05-19T12:59:00.006-05:00

To blatantly name-drop a bit, I just got off the phone with Ted Garber regarding some dates he'll be playing this summer for us at Lakeside Inn. The phone call reminded me that, though I've meant to do so, I haven't yet blog-mentioned Ted's awesome new album, American Rail, which came out earlier this year. So I'm doing so now. You can buy American Rail here on iTunes annnnnd here on emusic.

AND come see Ted Garber, live at Lakeside Inn in Reston on Saturday, June 5th from 9:00 pm - 1:00 am. As always, no cover charge.

Brit Hume is an Asshole

2010-05-18T02:37:00.004-05:00

It's on Fox News, so I'm not all that shocked...but Brit Hume actually had the gall to ask, during a "discussion" of the worst environmental tragedy in generations, Where's the oil?

IT'S RIGHT THE FUCK HERE, HUME, YOU FUCKING SLIMY CORPORATE SHILL!

Bowerbirds :: Northern Lights

2010-05-16T12:44:00.003-05:00

I don't need from you a waterfall of careless praise
And I don't need a trophy for all the games I play

But all I want is your eyes
In the morning as we wake for a short while

And I don't need you to catch my wandering mind
And I don't expect a southern girl to know the northern lights

And all I want is your eyes
In the morning as we wake for a short while

And I do need the wind across my pale face
And I do need the ferns to unfurl in the spring
And I do need the grass to sway
Yes, I do need to know my place

But all I want is your eyes
In the morning as we wake for a short while

The Truth About Justin Bieber

2010-05-16T10:39:00.003-05:00

BABY! - watch more funny videos

Pocketknife & Cousin Cole :: Tambourine Dream

2010-05-07T07:41:00.005-05:00

I had never heard of this mix before Hanny suggested the link. She totally nailed me; this is practically made of 100% favorite songs ever:

Iron & Wine “Each Coming Night (Pocketknife Remix)”
Beirut “Scenic World (Pocketknife Remix)”
Jose Gonzalez “Storm (Pocketknife Remix)”
Roy Montgomery “Long Night (Cousin Cole Remix)”
Joanna Newsom “The Book of Right On (Pocketknife Remix)”
Devendra Banhart “I Feel Just Like a Child (Pocketknife Remix)”
The Duke Spirit “A Message To a Pretty (Cousin Cole Remix)”
Feist “Gatekeeper (Pocketknife Remix)”
Nico “I’ll Keep It With Mine (Pocketknife Remix)”
Panda Bear “Bros (Cousin Cole Mix)”
White Magic “The Gypsies Came Marching After (Pocketknife Remix)”
Neil Young “My My Hey Hey (Cousin Cole Remix)”
Nick Drake “Know (Pocketknife’s Remix)”
Paul Simon “Paranoia Blues (Pocketknife’s Remix)”
Seu Jorge “Rebel Rebel (Pocketknife’s Remix)”
Lavender Diamond “You Broke My Heart (Cousin Cole Edit)”
John Lennon “Oh Yoko! (Pocketknife Remix)"
Bruce Springsteen “I’m On Fire (Cousin Cole Remix)”

Kseniya Simonova

2010-05-03T06:57:00.002-05:00

I'm really late to the party, but I just came across this amazing video from the finals of the 2009 season of "Ukraine's Got Talent." It's this artist, Kseniya Simonova, working with sand and a back-lit tracing table. Just amazing...

Suck it, KFC!

2010-04-26T03:46:00.008-05:00

I told you there'd be more workplace culinary exploits to report... Tonight's edition: our even more gratuitous version of KFC's disgustingly awesome new Double Down "sandwich." How besides using fresh, unfrozen ingredients did we make ours so much more gratuitously, disgustingly awesome than its corporate prototype? Easy: jolokia in the egg wash and sauce, twice the cheese, twice the bacon, and with the addition of a cordon bleu-esque slice of ham.

You better believe Chris, Jack, Billy, Paul and I DEMOLISHED those things. KFC can suck it.

The Tallest Man On Earth :: The Wild Hunt

2010-04-23T12:53:00.003-05:00

There is a crow moon comin' in where you keep looking out
It is the hollow month of March now sweeping in
Let's watch phenomenons arise out of the darkness now
Within the light, she is my storming heroine
And old machines abandoned by the ancient races and
I hear them hummin' down below in hollow earth
Oh hell, I guess I don't know why I will go under to
But just for now I let the spring and storm return

I left my heart to the wild hunt a-comin'
I live until the call
And I plan to be forgotten when I'm gone
Yes, I'll be leavin' in the fall

And I will sleep out in the glade, just by the giant tree
Just to be closer when my spirit's pulled away
I left a nervous little boy out on the trail today
He's just a mortal to the shoutin' cavalcade

I left my heart to the wild hunt a-comin'
I live until the call
And I plan to be forgotten when I'm gone
Yes, I'll be leavin' in the fall

Let's open up the windows, have Satan departin' now
And we'll be even when the blues fall down like hail
Hell, I don't even care no more about cadejo now
If he's a white one or a black one on the trail

I left my heart to the wild hunt a-comin'
I live until the call
And I plan to be forgotten when I'm gone
Yes, I'll be leavin' in the fall

Yes, I'll be leavin' in the fall

Dixie Carter's Un-Workout

2010-04-19T12:37:00.002-05:00

I know I'm about 9 days late to the RIP-fest, but this clip can't not be shared.

Rest in peace, Dixie Carter.

Well, I Scooped Pitchfork Again...

2010-04-16T07:08:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, Pitchfork placed The Tallest Man on Earth's new album, "The Wild Hunt", on its venerable best new music list. As you'll see in the picture below, however, I lauded the album with the same fervor, oh...about a month ago.

Once again, this proves that I have, like, the best taste in music evar. I win.

A.A. Bondy :: Mightiest of Guns

2010-04-16T06:57:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow I'll be out of my mind
The bear will dance and the organ will grind
And I'm laughin' cause I know there ain't no sin
All the world on the head of a pin
Turning fast beneath the mightiest of guns
Turning fast beneath the mightiest of guns

Nina Simone :: Be My Husband

2010-04-11T14:48:00.002-05:00

Live at the Harlem Festival, 1969

Happy Birthday Mix CD

2010-04-11T14:30:00.004-05:00

Just made this mix for Kayla's birthday. I'm posting it now so I can sharpie it later.

01. The Radio Dept. - Heaven's On Fire (3:32)
02. Brian Eno - Needle In The Camel's Eye (3:11)
03. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - The Mighty Sparrow (2:37)
04. The Octopus Project - Ghost Moves (3:31)
05. How to Dress Well & cokc dokc - Ready for the World (3:46)
06. Helado Negro - Playas (1:47)
07. Gayngs - The Gaudy Side of Town (7:07)
08. Burial - Archangel (3:58)
09. Simian Mobile Disco - Cruel Intentions (3:04)
10. Archie Bronson Outfit - Shark's Tooth (3:12)
11. Feist - Sea Lion Woman (3:39)
12. Wild Nothing - Summer Holiday (4:12)
13. Bonobo - Recurring (5:06)
14. Sea Wolf - Middle Distance Runner (3:27)
15. Brian Eno - I'll Come Running (3:50)
16. The Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt (3:21)

Erykah Badu :: Twinkle

2010-03-28T10:58:00.005-05:00

Because her new album's coming out this week, I thought I'd transcribe my favorite part of her last one: the rant which begins around 5:22 of "Twinkle"

I don't have to tell you things aren't good; everybody knows things aren't good! We know the air's unfit to breathe, and our food is unfit to eat! Young punks are running the streets, no one knows just what to do, and there's no end to it! The dollar buys a penny's worth, banks are going under, and congress keeps a gun under the counter! But we sit watching our idiot boxes while some local anchorman tells us that today we've had 18 murders and 80 violent crimes as if that's the way things were supposed to be! We know times are bad--worse than bad! People are crazy! It's like everything everywhere is going utterly mad so we never leave our homes! We sit in our comfy abodes while the world gets smaller and we say, "Come on! At least leave us alone in our family rooms! Let me have my microwave and my flatscreen and my 20-inch wheels and I won't say anything! Just leave us alone!" Well I'm not going to leave you alone! I want you to get angry! I don't want you to riot, I don't want you to protest, and I don't want you to write your senator because I don't know what to tell you to tell him! I don't know what to do about the recession and the inflation and the crime in the street! All I know is that you've got to get mad! You've got to say, "I'm a human being, damnit! My life has value!"

Frank Turner :: Photosynthesis

2010-03-26T23:25:00.003-05:00

Oh maturity's a wrapped up package deal, so it seems
And ditching teenage fantasy means ditching all your dreams
All your friends and peers and family solemnly tell you you will
Have to grow up, be an adult--yeah, be bored and unfulfilled
Oh but no one's yet explained to me exactly what's so great
About slaving 50 years away on something that you hate:
"Look, I'm meekly shuffling down the path of mediocrity"
Well if that's your road, then take it, but it's not the road for me...

Justin Nozuka :: Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay (Otis Redding cover)

2010-03-26T17:37:00.001-05:00

This guy's voice makes me want to quit music/never stop practicing ever again.

Workplace Culinary Exploits: Part 1

2010-03-23T01:52:00.004-05:00

Jack, Chris, Marcus, and I happen to be pretty big foodies; the fact that we all work together in a restaurant/bar is rather conducive to this shared interest. A few weekends ago, we decided to formalize our impromptu series of late-weekend-night culinary experiments--based initially around the application of Jack's homemade habañero sauce to various, inexpensive proteins purchased from the grocery across the parking lot--into a more serious competition of sorts. [We're quite a competitive bunch, but more on that in a later post...]

It's a simple concept: whenever it's your "turn," you supply the recipe and enough raw ingredients to feed everyone--including bussers and bartenders--and you just try to out-do the last guy's dish. I was off on Friday night, so I missed out on Jack's bourbon-marinated, grilled pineapple porkchops (which I heard were excellent), but my turn came up next, on Saturday. I fell back on an old standby of mine: seafood steak with homemade mango salsa.

I started the salsa first so its flavors could get all nice n' comfy together for a few hours before the meal:

4 mangoes, peeled, cored & roughly diced
3 fresh jalapeños, finely diced w/ seeds still in
1 medium red onion, finely diced
Fresh chopped basil
Juice of 1 lime

The store was out of my first choice in proteins, Mahi-Mahi, so I settled for some nice looking Swordfish steaks on my friend Flip's recommendation from behind the seafood counter. About an hour before grilling time, I threw the Swordfish into simple marinade of soy sauce, white pepper, and the juice of a couple limes. Right before the steaks were ready for the grill, I prepared another sauce of mayonaise, honey, white pepper, and the juice and zest of one lime. After draining the first marinade liquid from the steaks, I lightly applied some of the mayo/honey mix to the outside, and immediately grilled for roughly 2 minutes per side. After letting them cool a bit, I covered each steak with some salsa, dressed the plate with the rest of the mayo/honey sauce, and served with a side of flash-steamed, sauteed asparagus.

There were 8 happy mouths that night. There will be more to come.

Free Ringtones, Fuck Yea!

2010-03-18T06:10:00.004-05:00

Thanks to this super-helpful article from PC World, I just spent the last 2 hours painstakingly creating this badass collection of ringtones for my iPhone:

If I actually hang out with you in real life, expect the novelty of my asking you repeatedly to "call my phone, dude!" to remain intact for a solid fortnight or so.

Couple of VERY old covers from a life ago

2010-03-14T22:20:00.009-05:00

The first "video" is a super old--as in, 2004ish--cover I made of one of a long-time FSE of mine: "A Lack of Color" by Death Cab For Cutie. I made it in what used to be my bedroom, which I used to share with Jenny, who used to be my girlfriend, in what used to be the apartment I used to share with my friend Brad while we all used to attend GMU. I don't have a particularly good reason why I've never put it on the net before; nor do I have a particularly good reason why I'm doing so now, other than the fact I'm still kinda proud of the way it sounds.

And this second one is from the same time period: my bedroom-recorded take on "In Circles" by the seminal emo band Sunny Day Real Estate.

If anyone, for whatever reason, would like the actual MP3s of (one or both of) these, for your iPod or whatever, shoot me an email or leave a comment.

Caps On Their Final 24 Hours

2010-03-11T13:47:00.002-05:00

If you're in the DC metro area and you don't, how the hell can you not cheer for these dudes?!

Logorama

2010-03-03T14:38:00.003-05:00

Nicolas Schmerkin's "Logorama" (direct link) is one of this year's nominees for an Academy Award in the Short Film (Animated) category. It is 16 minutes of "Pulp Fiction"-esque dialogue and violence, set in a world composed almost entirely out of corporate logos and trademarks. If you're anything like me, you will cheer when Ronald McDonald gets what comes to him.

Holly Miranda :: The Magician's Private Library

2010-03-01T00:25:00.008-05:00

This is a point I've made many times over the years in real-life conversation, but never in internet form: Pitchfork is absolutely dead-on, unarguably correct about the music it reviews well; its best new music section is--and I'm only slightly exaggerating here--about all one would need to keep decently updated on the latest and greatest in the world of artsy fartsy music. Pitchfork's impeccable ability to divine the proverbial rice from the chaff, however, carries with it a downside--sometimes a few good grains sneak by its myopic gaze undetected, and truly great music ends up, forgotten, in 6-or-so-out of-10 territory, instead of the canonical, BNM-worthy 8.5-and-up range. Though regrettable, this phenomenon is understandable: any overly picky (and sadly single) member of the dating pool would understand.

Midlake's 2006 "The Trials of Van Occupanther" (6.8/10), The Avett Brothers' 2009 "I and You and Love" (5.8/10), and Mobius Band's 2005 "The Loving Sounds of Static" (5.8/10) are just a few albums which I consider recent near-classics despite their less-than-stellar Pitchfork scores. Holly Miranda's just-released solo debut is yet another, having just received a meager 6.7/10 from Pitchfork this week, despite the presence and contributions of two of the publication's most revered hipster names to drop: TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek, who produces, and Kyp Malone, who adds guest vocals on "Forest Green Oh Forest Green" and "Slow Burn Treason", two of the stronger tracks on the album. Anyway I hate to blather on too much, especially about something best experienced on one's own through a pair of good headphones, so I'll just leave you with my strongest recommendation to check out Holly Miranda's beautiful new album, even if bits of it may soon end up on Grey's Anatomy--as Pitchfork's reviewer speculated was soon possible, and for which he deducted hipster points, I'm sure--you still heard it here first.

Fave tracks: "Joints", "Waves", "Canvas" "Sleep on Fire" and "Sweet Dreams"

2010-02-21T04:48:00.003-05:00

The blog "Fuck Yeah Tattoos" just featured my Lord of the Rings armband. Apparently 170 people already have commented positively: 128 'likes,' 40 re-blogs, and 2 offers of marriage = mega internet WIN!

Phantogram :: Mouthful of Diamonds

2010-02-21T03:58:00.002-05:00

OBSESSED with this song.

Ed's Birthday Pie

2010-02-21T03:45:00.001-05:00

Reason #58 why I love my job: Not even our boss/owner is immune from the traditional birthday pie to the face. This is my workplace.

Ways a four-top can piss off a server

2010-02-15T16:40:00.004-05:00

Order only 4 waters to drink.
Order only 4 half-priced specials to eat.
Interrupt your server while he's with another table.
Shake your raised, near-empty water glass several times at him to non-verbally indicate that you'd like some more.
Ask for 4 separate checks after your check's already been printed.
Do the "took you long enough" eye-roll/sigh when your server returns with your separate, voided & re-rung checks.
Have all 4 members of your party pay in cash anyway.
Tip under 20%.

Doing any one of these alone would be enough to piss a server off. Doing all 8, though, in one visit, is like painting the Mona Lisa of douche-itude. Fucking assholes.

208

2010-02-13T15:44:00.001-05:00

I just weighed myself and am happy to report that I have officially lost 20.4 pounds so far since the first of January this year.

Jo Walston!

2010-02-11T18:04:00.003-05:00

Jo Walston, the lead singer of Austin-based bluegrass group The Meat Purveyors JUST FRIENDED ME on facebook!!!

Paul Shirley is still an idiot...

2010-01-27T11:13:00.006-05:00

Back in mid-September, I blogged about a "writer" for ESPN's website named Paul Shirley who had written, at the time, an article which very dubiously criticized the most sacred of all my cows: The Beatles...

Well now, it appears the esteemed Mr. Shirley is no longer in the employ of ESPN, which just fired him in light of some rather heinous commentary he made recently on the tragic situation in Haiti.

As always, I was right.

(BYAH!)

From Conan's Goodbye Speech

2010-01-23T15:07:00.002-05:00

"All I ask of you, especially young people...is one thing. Please don't be cynical," O'Brien said. "I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen. I'm telling you, amazing things will happen."

Right on, Conan. Right on.

Ryan Koriya - Blood Bank (Bon Iver cover)

2010-01-18T02:08:00.003-05:00

My friend Kat asked me a while ago--I haven't forgotten!--to work up a cover of this Bon Iver song. With dudes playing it this well on youtube already, I hesitate to fulfill her wish.

Vampire Weekend - Contra

2010-01-17T15:30:00.009-05:00

Full disclosure: I hated Vampire Weekend's self-titled 2008 debut album. Well, actually, 'hate' is probably too strong a word to use; more accurate would be to say that I didn't understand what the band did to deserve so much blogosphere hype. To me, the endless stream of music blog posts about Vampire Weekend could very well have been written by printing the terms "New Wave," "Reggae," "Afro-pop," "Talking Heads," "Paul Simon's Graceland," and a random assortment of overly effusive adjectives on small pieces of paper, throwing them into a bag, shaking it up, and simply re-writing them in the order they came out. Verily, Vampire Weekend seemed like a band tailor-made for hipsters. Their resulting hype machine echo chamber effect felt eerily similar to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's brief 2005 period of instant, debut album internet domination, but something was different. Where I'd fallen madly in love with CYHSY's brand of Talking Heads-influenced, hipster-approved music three years earlier, the best I could muster for Vampire Weekend's schtick was bemused indifference.

But where Clap Your Hands Say Yeah went on from their vibrant, DIY yet modish debut to release a disappointingly bland follow-up album, Vampire Weekend did the same, but in reverse order. By adding certain electronic elements--namely, pre-programmed loop sampling and, shit, even autotuned vocals!--to the instantly familiar blend of hipster-approved, globalized influences they honed on their first album, Vampire Weekend emerges with a second album much more engaging and interesting a listen than the first. It's only 17 days into the new year, but I am certain this album is gonna be on everyone's best-of 2010 lists come December. Unlike Vampire Weekend's 2008 album, however, this one will also be on mine.

Check out track #2, "White Sky", here on youtube.

My Belated Best of '09

2010-01-13T16:46:00.010-05:00

10. Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong

Song: When I'm Gone (youtube link)

09. M. Ward - Hold Time

Song: Never Had Nobody Like You (youtube link)

08. Old Abram Brown - Alive In Winter

Song: Cadence on the Heavy Hand (youtube link)

07. The Dodos - Time To Die

Song: Small Deaths (youtube link)

06. Here We Go Magic - (self-titled)

Song: Fangela (youtube link)

05. Girls - (self-titled)

Song: Hellhole Ratrace (youtube link)

04. The Avett Brothers - I And You And Love

Song: The Perfect Space (youtube link)

I wanna have pride like my mother has, / And not like the kind in the bible that turns you bad. / And I wanna have friends that I can trust, / That love me for the man I’ve become and not the man that I was.

03. The Very Best - Warm Heart Of Africa

Song: Warm Heart of Africa (youtube link)

02. Volcano Choir - Unmap

Song: Island, IS (youtube link)

01. The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns

Song: In the Summertime (youtube link)

And when we’re middle aged,
You tell me I loved you like a renegade
And how I say the things that make you sway.
And mostly I tell you you did the same.

And once in a while,
I know our hearts beat out of time.
And once in a while,
I know they’ll fall back in line.

Our love is strong.
Our love is strong.
Our love is strong.
While my heart’s still pumping blood.

Justin Vernon & MHS Jazz Ensemble I - For Emma

2010-01-13T14:01:00.003-05:00

Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) performing "For Emma" with the Jazz Band Ensemble from Memorial High School in Eau Claire, Wisconson.

Just fantastic.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-08T15:13:00.002-05:00

Well...I've resolved this new year to do several things; some of which I've done well thus far, some of which I'm here now to start doing better.

Resolution 1: Lose my winter weight, starting now. I weighed in on New Year's Eve at 228.4. Today I weighed 221.2, so that's 7.2 pounds lost in 8 days--go me! I won't stop til I'm under 200, and I won't shave my beard until at least that point.

Resolution 2: Interact more via my online social networks--including this blog, my youtube page, my twitter page, and my facebook page. No longer will I be that guy who posts one blog update per month, one tweet a week, and two youtube videos per year. I'm not saying I'm gonna blog every day--I definitely don't want to overshare inconsequential BS--but when I have something to share, I'll do so in some form or another on the intertubes.

Resolution 3: Get my musical aspirations in high gear by summer time. I'm freaking 27 years old now and if I don't get my ass moving, I'm afraid I'll be banished forever to the scrap pile of "untapped potential." I have to take the next step in my (still young) performing career, and I have to do it myself. By June, I resolve to (A) finish the EP I've been working on, (B) make myself a demo/presskit/professional webpage, (C) get regularly booked in at least 4 more bars, and (D) keep practicing with better musicians than myself, like Steve Iorio and Sam Gunderson, local legends with whom I've become friends over the past year. I've got a lot to learn still, and I don't ever want to forget that.

Sam Gunderson - Let's Just Say Goodbye

2009-12-20T05:30:00.004-05:00

I had a show at Lakeside tonight, but then the biggest December snowstorm of local recorded history happened. The show got postponed to tomorrow, due to the lack of an audience to play to. Nonetheless, my friend Sam Gunderson was one of the brave few in attendance, and he ended up sticking around until the last customer left after an early last call. He and I passed my guitar back and forth and sang for our friends, my Lakeside co-workers who'd toughed it out with us through the storm, while the night's last bits of business were being finished. This is an original song of Sam's, and while I presume to title it as "Let's Just Say Goodbye", it's definitely my favorite song of his, and it'll be on his upcoming solo album.

Sam will be playing at Lakeside Inn on Christmas Eve night, which happens to be my birthday eve, at 8:00.

I Want You Back (Jackson 5 cover)

2009-11-13T06:20:00.002-05:00

This is from this past summer; I'd just purchased a loop sampler pedal for my guitar, and I'd just got the new iPhone, the one that could record video...I'd recorded this for kicks and then forgot it was there.

Goofy, I know...

SAM GUNDERSON @ LAKESIDE!!!

2009-09-28T14:06:00.002-05:00

The above video is of the man we've just booked to play 4 of the 5 Thursday nights (the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th) in October at Lakeside Inn...sort of a special, one-time, artist-in-residency thing, you could say. The guy used to be the guitarist for Taylor Hicks'--the silver-haired American Idol dude--band and can totally bring it every time. I am super excited to get to see Sam so many times, and you should be too. Come on out, have some dranks, and watch a truly great musician do his thing. Without a cover charge, as always.

My Brother, the Hero

2009-09-22T17:43:00.002-05:00

I've just arrived home from a day at work and am currently bathrobed and about to take a nap. My little brother Al, however, has been up to matters more consequential... just the usual, you know, like RESCUING FUCKING KITTENS IN IRAQ.

My brother rules.

Paul Shirley is an Idiot.

2009-09-15T18:05:00.003-05:00

I may have missed the memo on this one, but since when are career journeyman pro basketball players--who have played for thirteen different teams, mind you--entitled to share their dubious opinions about music with millions of impressionable sports fans?!

Get a load of the crap that Paul Shirley just passed off as journalism in a guest piece he just wrote for ESPN.com. In it, the venerable Mr. Shirley makes his case that--drumroll, please...The Beatles are over-rated. A few of his talking points:

The Beatles are not better, by any measure, than The Guess Who, Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, or Creedence Clearwater Revival.
U2's album, "Achtung Baby" is superior to The Beatles' "Abbey Road". Which, by not too strechy an extension on my part, would seem to mean, to me at least, that "The Joshua Tree" ranks, somehow, somewhere below "Achtung Baby" as well.
Dean Koontz is a better writer than Bram Stoker because he's less boring.
The song "Eleanor Rigby", which Shirley labels as--and I quote--'primitive hackings,' is an inferior piece of music to Guns N' Roses' "November Rain" because the latter was released during the writer's lifetime and the former was not.
All Beatles fans born after the band's breakup are simply poseurs using the band's music (and mystique) as social currency to seem cool. [Ed. note: this is Shirley's least retarded point and I would only disagree with the "all" part.]
Oasis is better than the Beatles.

I mean, really...this asshole GOT PAID to write that shit. Just click the link and read the story...Shirley's retardation is on full display, courtesy of ESPN.com.

As for me, I'm off to find Ike Austin to see what he thinks about Radiohead's oeuvre. I'm sure you're all dying to know.

The Top 13 Albums Project

2009-09-10T18:46:00.014-05:00

Any regular reader of my blog, if there is one, would know how much I like making best-of lists about the music I'm listening to. Well, dear regular reader, I just came across a website called The Top 13 Albums Project, where user-submitted lists of the top-13 albums of the 2000's will be compiled into an over-arching, democratically selected master list of the past decade of great music. There is a deadline of October 2nd, so get yours in as soon as you can. Here's what I just submitted as mine:

1. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

2. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

3. Calexico - Feast of Wire

4. British Sea Power - The Decline of British Sea Power

5. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary

6. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

7. Arcade Fire - Funeral

8. Bright Eyes - Digital Ash in a Digital Urn

9. M. Ward - Post-War

10. Radiohead - Amnesiac

11. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell

12. Girl Talk - Night Ripper

13. The Decemberists - Picaresque

The NYC PS22 Chorus - Don't Stop Believin'

2009-09-08T13:35:00.002-05:00

I just saw a video of this amazing elementary school chorus from New York City. Their teacher...does God's work. Nothing to add; just beautiful.

New playlist...

2009-09-06T23:04:00.003-05:00

Thanks to twitter, Greg Gillis'/Girl Talk's "Feed the Animals", and--most importantly--Evan Williams bourbon in a plastic handle, I have 14 new songs to learn...

1. Roy Orbison - You Got It
2. Temple Of The Dog - Hunger Strike
3. Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U
4. Blackstreet & Dr. Dre - No Diggity
5. Outkast - Ms. Jackson
6. Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives Me Crazy
7. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On, Eileen
8. Yael Naïm - New Soul
9. Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton - Islands In The Stream
10. Carpenters - Superstar
11. Big Country - In a Big Country
12. Rick Ross - Hustlin' (Remix) (Feat. Jay-Z & Young Jeezy)
13. Usher - Love In This Club
14. George Harrison - What is Life

I'd better get crackin'...

RT @myself

2009-09-06T22:08:00.003-05:00

I'm mildly drunk, having just worked a Sunday double, and I'm tweeting the hell out of my twitter account in search of musical gold to re-invigorate my live shows and open mics. I'm growing tired of playing the same shit every week/end, and using Girl Talk to remember pop-culturally deep cuts that everyone needs to be reminded they love.

I'm just nerding out to music--one of my favorite activities. Just like sex; better with friends, but without them...it'll still do.

http://twitter.com/awwpeaches

The Rural Alberta Advantage :: Hometowns

2009-09-05T12:44:00.004-05:00

They're Canadian, they're on Saddle Creek, and they're really good.

This album's definitely on my personal best of '09 shortlist. You can download "Don't Haunt this Place" and "Frank, AB" as free MP3s from their website. But do get the full album, it's great. They're playing the Rock & Roll Hotel on October 4th...anybody else wanna go?

Joey & Rory - Free Bird

2009-09-03T11:53:00.002-05:00

This is the only version of "Free Bird" I can tolerate. Next time Anastasya does a show with me, I think we'll bust out a similar take whenever a jackass yells "FREE BIRRRRD!" between songs. Minus the scripted (though endearing), lovey dovey stuff, naturally.

Friends and former family

2009-08-31T03:17:00.006-05:00

I've started writing a handful of new songs that will eventually become my demo to throw around at shows and on the internets. I dig all the song titles a lot, so my hope is that the four songs on said demo will become big brothers and sisters to a whole album of little sibling songs.

"friends and former family" is/will be the demo/album's/first song's name. Here're my song titles that are demo-bound:

friends and former family

love is an abattoir (for the sacrifice of self)

las personas que no nos quieren

you may not be a cat person but I am afraid of being alone like you