- Doug Stephen in FOR FUCK SAKE EVERYONE KNOCK IT OFF WITH THE GOD DAMNED ACCORDIONS JESUS CHRIST Woah, okay Vice Magazine.
- Doug Stephen in Vampire Weekend - S/T I’ve never listened to a solo Paul Simon record, or to Graceland, so I don’t know about that. But the songs I’ve heard by Vampire Weekend...
- bjyhore in New Single: Patrick Wolf’s “Accident and Emergency” She had actually been robbed of it cant be cruel. Mistress. I could do. jennifer lopez porn Three.
For those of you who have not had the immense pleasure of taking a tour of melodious samplings of San Francisco based artist Josh Fix, then I suggest stopping what you are doing right now and going to joshfix.com to listen to his upcoming album debut in its entirety for free. I was lucky enough to stumble upon Josh’s incredibly talented Queenesque tracks through the magical world of the internet (God bless you Pandora and all you do for those of us who are confined to the cubicle world) and listen to it at least once a day.
Josh’s voice has a wide range and is eerily similar to that of Robbie Williams, he of Millennium fame. He plays all of the instruments himself (aside from the percussion) displaying an inconceivable array of musical ability; most of us have a hard enough time with just one. My only complaint would be that to my knowledge the gentleman has not made his way to Chicago to play a show, single-handedly depriving me of the opportunity to witness songs such as “Don’t Call Me In The Morningâ€, and “Burn It Downâ€, two of my favorite tracks on the album. Something tells me I will not have to wait much longer.
1. when historians listen to your most recent CD 1000 years from now, what will
they say?
“An effective early twenty-first century example of rudimentary Dickensonian
cowbell technique.”
2. if you could play a show with any band/musician living or dead, who would
you pick and why?
I would like to play a show with an imaginary band I just invented:
The Angry Hasselhoffs.
3. what is the strangest band-related dream you have had?
I own a guitar pedal that came in its own black satin bag. It’s both pimping
and kind of disgusting and dirty looking. The band has dubbed it the “May
Sack.†Last week our guitarist came to rehearsal informing us of a dream in
which he was diagnosed with “May-Sacks Disease.†I don’t know why
that’s funny, but it just is.
4. what do your fans look like?
How the fans look is far less important than how they smell. And ours smell
terrific.
5. what bullshit do you run into at most every show that makes you think “man,
this bullshit again?”
“Can I get more glockenspiel in my monitors?â€
bonus question: why won’t you forget to tip your bartender?
As a contingency plan, should my hare-brained capers fail to pan out, I’m
going to need access to strong drinks at a discounted price, most likely on a
long-term basis.
The biggest fucking news you’ll hear this week: THE STONE ROSES ARE REUNITING according to thetripwire.com. Of this weekend’s second annual Manchester v. Cancer, gig organizer Andy Rourke, bass play for the Smiths, tells the Weekly News: “… Mani’s going to be doing something with Ian Brown, and the grand finale’s going to be quite special.” Does this mean Ian Brown and John Squire are gonna make up long enough to play some songs? We’ll have to see.
thetripwire.com is also reporting that the Happy Mondays have written a new album with a single to be released in June. Could it be worse than anything from “Yes Please” which took Factory records to a place where it’s never been before… Bankruptcy? We’ll have to see.
It’s a happy monday indeed.
My friend who talked me into meeting him at the Red Line Tap to see Bicycle, Tricycle had cancel, but told me, “I don’t feel too bad about [not being able to make it] because you’re going to see a great show.” Spot-on analysis. They didn’t even deploy the signature Fender Rhodes that night, which was my primary motivation for going, and it was still a dynamite night of music.
Funny w/o being silly, catchy without pandering, Chicago band Bicycle, Tricycle has much to like about it, including that most important attribute: involuntary booty shakin’. The most recent album, Real as You Believe, is full of orchestral and psychedelic pop delicacies, and their forthcoming release Stay Foolish, Stay Hungry promises to heap on more of that good stuff. I can only assume that the tracks posted on their myspace indicate what is to come, and that, my friends, is a very good thing - look for it to be released in the coming months.
So along w/ advice about getting my shoddy Fender Rhodes fixed up for my band’s upcoming recording session, I also got 5 Questions out of the brains, looks and personality of the operation, Bohb. To wit:
1. When historians listen to your most recent CD 1000 years from now, what will they say?
“And to think they needed ears for this back then!”
2. If you could play a show w/ any band/musician living or dead, whom would you pick and why?
INXS, cause if Michael Hutchence hadn’t masturbated himself to death I’d LOVE to find out his secrets to hair styling.
3. What is the strangest band-related dream you have had?
I walked through this dream, but it wasn’t a good one it seems, the faces all said goodbye while I was saying hello. And as wild as it seems, I was translating what frees, the culture from the crowd as the people allow. And what’s so sad about this dream, is that it’s the same thing you believe. It’s real as real is real, and I can tell that you’re pretty real and that’s just as well…
4. What do your fans look like?
We’re trying to find that out for you… all we have now is a crude surveillance video.
5. What bullshit do you run into at most every show that makes you think, “Man, this Bullshit again?”
Jason scoring w/ very odd girls, very on the odd…
Bonus Question: Why won’t you forget to tip your bartender?
Because my mind is like a steel trap. Made out of elephants.
Hey, remember when celebrities killing people was nigh-unheard of, back in the pre-OJ days (Fatty Arbuckle notwithstanding, and even that is disputed to this day)? Ah, the days of yore, when famous musicians did their crimein’ behind closed doors, classy-like. Back when people talked about Phil Spector’s “wall of sound” and were referring to a production technique, not constant pleas of innocence via insanity.
Now, we have the former lead singer of the mallpunk band Mest, some dude by the name of Anthony Lovato, who apparently just totally killed some guy:
Anthony Lovato, the frontman for the former punk band Mest, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of stabbing a 25-year-old man to death outside an apartment complex.
Los Angeles police from the North Hollywood station were called to the 10900 block of Bluffside Drive at 8:05 a.m. and found a man in the parking lot with stab wounds in his chest, said LAPD Officer Mike Lopez.
The man, whose name was being withheld pending notification of relatives, was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died, Lopez said.
Lovato, 26, was later arrested and was cooperative, Lopez said.
“It’s believed the victim and Lovato were involved in a verbal dispute, possibly over a girlfriend,” Lopez said. “That’s when the suspect whipped out a knife.”
Lovato is being held on $1 million bail.
Mest, a four-member Illinois based band that formed in the mid-1990s, released several albums on Madonna’s Maverick label and performed on the Warped Tour, a touring music and extreme sports festival, in 2003.
They broke up in 2006 with Lovato and other members starting up a new band, according to their Myspace.com site.
It may shock you to hear that i have never heard a single song by this “Mest” band, but from what i was able to gather during the years they were around and i was hearing their name here and there, girls ten years younger than me thought they were pretty foxy. Um, ok:
Lovato is the blonde.
It’s Monday morning and it’s early, and this is in regard to someone getting fatally stabbed, so i’m having a hard time coming up with something suitably snarky to toss at this (innocent until proven guilty) piece of trash, but let me try this:
Give the goth bands credit: when their singers get distraught over their messed up love lives, at least they have the good sense to kill themselves before taking anyone else with them.
Too much? Too cheap? Too beating Oliver to the punch to what was going to be his best joke in an upcoming Joy Division roast?
Yeah. Monday. I spent yesterday after band practice celebrating the first warm Wisconsin weekend of the year stuffing my face with Chorizo and High Life, so i hope you’ll understand if i’m a bit off my game.Â
Anyway. My point: some douchebag punk rock almost-was just killed someone. That’s fucked up.
I’m not what you’d call an avid MySpace user — I’ve never changed the background on my page from the default, and I log in mostly so that I can delete all the spam friend requests from porn webcam sites (My name is Charlise, and im just a fun-loving girl in a big world! i just bought a webcam and im luvvin’ gettin’ freaky on it! come check me out! www.youreabigfatloserwithnogirlfriend.com! and plz enjoy all the malware that comes up when u click on the “profile contains adult content” download! kthx!)
However, every once in a while, I swing by the MySpace Music page and listen to whatever album they’re previewing at the moment. Usually it’s pretty awful, but it’s also often entertaining, if you like that sort of thing. All of which is a long way of explaining why I’m reviewing Devils & Angels, the forthcoming sophomore release by the California four-piece Melee.
Melee play a sort of music the concept of which is fascinating to me. It’s polished, expertly produced pop-rock, aimed at a very specific audience: people who are too mature for Avril, too young for the Eagles or the Cars, and too independent for John Mayer — while at the same time uninterested in venturing much further afield than the Postal Service or “Chasing Cars.” It’s full of tight, shiny harmonies, rippling pianos, and sharp midrange guitars. Devils & Angels plays like an entire album in search of an episode of The O.C., and perhaps that’s the best bullet-point summary that I can give it.
There’s a sense in which that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s full of anthemic choruses and big hooks — “For a Lifetime” probably doesn’t sound right outside a stadium — and there are moments where the singer sounds a lot like the lately departed Brad Delp, who I always liked. I’m not offended or insulted by this album in any way, shape or form. It’s pleasant.
But it’s also resolutely unadventurous, and more than a little hollow. Melee do this well-enough, but it’s music by template, a template that the band rarely even hit the edges of, let alone go outside. Frankly, I don’t think they want to take any risks, and though I suppose it’s hard to penalize someone for that, I can’t very well reward them for it either.
When I was in college, taking a Shakespeare class, I once received a paper back with a lower grade than I had hoped for. At the end of it, my professor had written, “What you have done, you have done almost perfectly. What you have omitted cries out for your attention.” Perhaps analogously, as far as Melee go, they’ve done as well as is probably possible, but the path they’ve chosen is both so narrow and so well-traveled that it’s a little disappointing to find yet another band on it.
Release date: April 3, 2007
Label: Warner Brothers
Rating: I’m kind of waffling between a 5 and a 6/10
Hi, all. I’m Chris. Thanks for having me.
The Sea and Cake have their new album, Everybody, reportedly in the can (May 8 release) and are now releasing details of a bi-curi…ummm, bi-coastal tour. Here are the details, per the Thrill Jockey website:
- Mon May 14 Vancouver, BC - Richard’s on Richards
- Tue May 15 Seattle, WA - Neumo’s
- Wed May 16 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
- Fri May 18 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo’s
- Sat May 19 Los Angeles, CA - The Troubadour
- Sun May 20 Los Angeles, CA - The Troubadour
- Sun Jun 3 Montreal, QC - La Sala Rossa
- Tue Jun 5 Boston, MA - The Paradise
- Fri Jun 8 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts
- Sat Jun 9 Washington, DC - Black Cat
Support will be provided by The Zincs and (on East Coast dates) White Magic. Tickets for the SF show are set at $20 and would (still) be a bargain at say, $26.50. Join me, won’t you, in my excitement at seeing Chicago, Ill. represent to the utmost, when spring leads into summer?
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