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Kick Back not Kick Ass

Date: Saturday, 20 Mar 2010 00:12

http://www.gnomonsong.com/michaelhurley/"Wildegeeses" - from Michael Hurley on the Ida con Snock LP

Author: "Jim H (noreply@blogger.com)"

Most relevant song of our times

Date: Friday, 05 Mar 2010 11:17

Raptor in the woods

by Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen

Did you hear that did you hear it?
Yikes! I think it's over there.
It's a monster. It's the wind.
Does the wind have lots of hair?
Can a dinosaur be hairy?
Stop! We'll never get some sleep.
It's the wind, there's nothing scary.
Look! A prehistoric sheep!

Chorus:
Is that a raptor in the woods
The Loch Ness Monster swimming by
Something's made off with our goods
That must be Bigfoot just outside
Wait! There's a simple explanation.
It's just our imagination.
Things that scare us in the night.
Just seem funny when it's light.
Right? Right. Right. Right.
Goodnight. Goodnight. Goodnight.

Did you see that did you see it?
Giant shadows in the trees
It's a wombat. What's a wombat?
No, I think it's killer bees
No it's worse. It's from the iceage
Something time has left behind
It's a giant pterodactyl, with a little puny mind

Chorus

You guys, you've heard my explanation,
It's just our imagination.
Who's around and hold me tight.
Just don't let the bedbugs bite
Right? Right. Right. Right. Goodnight.

But if I don't make it, give my goldfish to my twin.
I don't want your goldfish.
But you're my next of kin.
Sometimes you can't win.

Wait! I know the explanation.
It's not imagination.
Arm yourself it's time to fight
or let's book ourselves a flight
Right? Right. Right? Right. Right? Right. Right?

Chorus

Author: "Jim H (noreply@blogger.com)"

By popular request: Vox Pop

Date: Friday, 19 Feb 2010 22:34

I've had a request to repost the Vox Pop Mp3s from one of this blog's more popular posts on "The Man The Myth The Volume"

Done!

"Production" -

"Procession" -

"Become a Pagan" -

So... any other old posts I should reactivate? Given the current anti-Mp3 blog environment on blobspot, I'll make a decision based on whether the songs are available anywhere else... from what I can tell Vox Pop is not available generally anywhere else.

Author: "Jim H (noreply@blogger.com)"

Happy VD (day)

Date: Sunday, 14 Feb 2010 21:02

Yeah, just emerging from the murk that is life in the Tennies to DJ you a great cut from that ol' psyche band Mooseheart Faith for those who still have that mooseheart faith somehwere deep in the core of their bones. yeah, it's random....(and sorry Mooseheart for not getting your permission but here's their site, go buy their shit if you can find it). I do find it quite funny that Firedoglake still links to me. Thanks Jane, you are the coolest chick on earth.

"Golden Light" - Mooseheart Faith

Author: "Jim H (noreply@blogger.com)"

Gil-Scott Heron covering Smog

Date: Tuesday, 12 Jan 2010 14:35

Update: This song available free on Insound's Jan '10 Mixtape

Author: "Jim H (noreply@blogger.com)"

Happy Fucking Holidays - Here's Your Shit, Now Get Outta Here

Date: Thursday, 24 Dec 2009 12:30

It being the holidays and given that its a tradition at so-called MP3 blogs to give shit away that isn't ours, I thought I would be no different.

Here is a ringtone from New Times Viking's free promotional MP3 from their most excellent recent digital, uh, 7" - "Call & Respond" - the ringtone is renamed just "Call Respond"

Author: "Jim H (noreply@blogger.com)"

Jack Rose - some downloads

Date: Sunday, 20 Dec 2009 19:32

Silver Currant blog has a 2009 Jack Rose live show for download

And there are some links to Jack's favorite Raga, upcoming release news and tributes sites on Ilx's I Love Music Board

Author: "Jim H (noreply@blogger.com)"

"Which Of You Assholes Ate Christmas!"

Date: Saturday, 19 Dec 2009 23:23

DES ARK + PYGMY LUSH recorded in September 2009

http://desark.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/new-song-which-of-you-assholes-ate-christmas/

Author: "Jim H (noreply@blogger.com)"

Blog about Jenny Mae and the late Jerry Wick (Gaunt)

Date: Saturday, 19 Dec 2009 19:50

Bela Koe-Krompecher started a blog about his life with Jerry Wick from Gaunt and Jenny Mae (There's a Bar Around the Corner Assholes). via http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=505

Author: "Jim H (noreply@blogger.com)"

My Faves of '09

Date: Saturday, 19 Dec 2009 16:47

As if you all care... I mean I got delisted from Hype Machine in 2009 and posted maybe 20 times total but hey I'm still here and you know gosh-darn-it I still care.

Fave albums - these are selected as stuff I like to listen all the way through, in order and not get tired and then do it again... the songs hang together -- that's why they call them albums or something like that:

Embryonic / The Flaming Lips (psyche headphone masterpiece)
Transmissions from Sinai / Various Artists (nice collection of art doom metal)
For the World To See / Death (literally retro Detroit I-spit-on-you rock)
Summer of Hate / Crocodiles (the album NTV should have done)
Horehound / The Dead Weather (surprised me, too)

Honorable mention (because not all the songs work): Dark Was The Night compilation album & Steve Earle's cover album of Townes van Zandt songs

Most Over-rated: Grizzly Bear's album that starts with a V

My fave songs tended more towards poppy shit than my fave albums did. Most of these artists had so-so albums lightened up by these great songs and alot of these songs can be found online easily:

"Now We Can See" - The Thermals (pictured above)
"I Don't Feel So Happy Now" - Personal and the Pizzas
"Angela" - Jarvis Cocker
"Pine On" - the Obits
"Home" - Edward Sharpe
"They Done Wrong / We Done Wrong" - White Rabbits
"My Only Offer" - Mates of State
"The End is Near" - Fiery Furnaces
"My Friend" - Bill Callahan
"In Our Talons" - The Bowerbirds

Honorable mention: "Wet Wings" - Dan Deacon (I'm so not on this guy's wagon but this experiment worked well on a mix-tape I made)

Favorite Shows I Played or Saw:

Pygmy Lush (picture above) at MacRock, Harrisonburg VA (guys blew me away with both their electric and acoustic set)
Whatever Brains at MacRock, Harrisonburg VA (insane set)
Vetiver at Iota, Arlington VA
Soft Power at Black Cat, Washington DC
Parade (me on drums) at St. Marks' Church in DC (loved doing this show about Leo Frank and The South)

Most over-rated: The XX on Carson Daly - whatta bunch of moronic deadbeats!

Author: "Jim H (noreply@blogger.com)"

Versus / Soft Power at Black Cat DC 12/12/09

Date: Sunday, 13 Dec 2009 10:57

let's get technical

Soft Power | MySpace Music Videos

Soft Power is sort of a late 80's "Underground" power / art / guitar band - Nice Strong Arm, Music From Elba, late 80's Sonic Youth but as if rewritten by some German art rock band from the early 80's. The band is fronted by the guitarist and guitarist/bassist who offer male/female vocal tradeoffs on the songs. The drummer ties this band together - innovative beats and knows the songs better than the others. There's a keyboardist who generally provides background with occasional riffs thrown in - I kind of like it when the keyboardist knows how to take the backseat.

The band does some interesting stuff with odd measures. I counted one songs that appeared to be in 15/8 and another that veered from 6/8 to 4/4. The drummer never stumbled on any of this. A band to continue to watch over the next few months.

Versus are a mid-90's to late 90's Teen Beat/Merge who (I think) were once local to DC but now live in Brooklyn and aren't really a "functioning" (touring) band anymore but are putting together a new set of songs. They've got guitar, bass, violin/keyboardist, drummer. They added a fifth member halfway through the set - I think he was covering bass but couldn't really see from my vantage point.

The pros for this band is that half their tunes are an interesting take on post-punk - where the "punk" part is defined as garage punk (so I guess its post-garage punk). These songs (and I can't name them) shimmer and throw in exciting twists at the genre. Richard Balyut (the nerdy lead), while not exactly a likable prescense onstage, does best when he's mixing/harmonizing vocals with the competent female bassist (Fountaine Topps?).

However, the other half of their stuff seems too 90's indie rock and antiquated. The thing is I don't know enough about their music to tell whether this was the old stuff or the new stuff. I'm thinking it was the old stuff I didn't like.

The problem with this band is the drummer. He doesn't know the meaning of loosen up. A kid playing pots and pan in the kitchen plays with infinitely more joy and ease than he does. It's in the wrists man - feel the beat, be the beat, it's like you are trying to hunt and kill the beat. Being as the drummer is the lead's brother I don't see them changing up anytime soon.

Like I implied above, I didn't really "get" the lead singer. He's kind of a nerd who thinks he's cool and I just find that, well, annoying to watch onstage (I don't like Carrot Top either). Judging from my +/- CD collection, Richard Balyut may be better suited for studio work than live appearances.

Author: "Jim H (noreply@blogger.com)"

Jack Rose - 1971 - 2009 RIP

Date: Sunday, 06 Dec 2009 20:28

More sad news:

Jack Rose, a renowned Philadelphia-based acoustic guitarist, has died of a heart attack at 38, the Philadelphia Daily News reports.

Rose was born in Virginia in 1971. His professional musical career began in the Richmond noise band Pelt, which formed in 1993. But Rose is best known for his solo work, which he began recording in the early 2000s, releasing numerous EPs and LPs on a number of different labels, most frequently VHF.

http://klang.org/stories/219-1971-2009

Pelt - "Deep Sunny South"

Author: "Jim H (noreply@blogger.com)"

Al Alberts RIP

Date: Saturday, 05 Dec 2009 22:43

Just was squeezin' out a log in the water cabinet, reading this week's EW and come across the sad, sad news that Philadelphia's Uncle Al Alberts has succumbed. This is indeed the capstone of celebrity deaths this year for me!

As anyone who grew up in the 70's in Philadelphia and watched too much TV, Mr. Alberts curated a weekly show of proto-Jon Benets and 8 year old boys in suits, with spit-coiffed hair, trained to sing like Frank Sinatra. Mr. Alberts and his wife were sort of the local Jim and Tammy Faye except their religion was 30s and 40s show tunes and standards. Hosted on the twisted WFIL Channel 6 (which also featured the perennially sloshed Sally Starr, the ambiguously gay Gene London and legendary sky divin' anchorman Jim O'Brien), Mr. Alberts was just as freakish as the little kidults he hosted every week. Paul Begala could only wish to have his forehead topped by the Conway Twitty style hair apostrophe.

Despite all this, perhaps Mr. Alberts will (hopefully) be fondly recognized not for his Phillie freakshow but as one of the Four Aces whose graceful male harmonies soothe us even to this day.

Love Is A Many-Splendored Thin...

Stranger In Paradise - The Fou...

Image found at http://www.singers.com/jazz/vintage/fouraces.html

CORRECTION: Gene London was on WCAU Philadelphia (the CBS channel). As Wikipedia notes: "Early programs began with Gene London opening the door of his General Store and flipping the sign to read "Open for Business." As the kids passed by Gene, he palmed the tops of their heads and sang the opening theme song."

Author: "Jim H (noreply@blogger.com)"

Arms - "Kids Aflame"

Date: Friday, 04 Dec 2009 18:52

ARMS (Todd Goldstein) photo by Elizabeth Weinberg, June 09

This is lo-fi bedroom closet pop at its best - vocal harmonies mixed with banjo and finger snaps all fronted by a Neil Youngish nearly breaking vocals whining "They lie, they lie to your face / you were in love / you were on your way." The band does shows so there must be a band as well and not just a multi-tracking gargoyle behind this.

Group/project called Arms who released an LP this year that was massively and unfortunately (for them and anyone else who cares) ignored. Guitarist is also with Harlem Shakes but I have yet to hear of them so I just offer that as a factoid.

Here's a direct link to the subject MP3 [Arms - "Kids Aflame"] - but do go to the Arms site and check out the music tab for more. "Whirring" is another tasty piece of home recording for ya.

Author: "Jim H (noreply@blogger.com)"

Apostle of Hustle - "Soul Unwind"

Date: Thursday, 03 Dec 2009 21:48

The band of the day is guitarist Andrew Whiteman's Apostle of Hustle from Toronto, Ca - home of the Space Needle and a bunch of fine restaurants and bus stations.

While the 2009 album ("Apostle of Hustle Eats Darkness", great name) was a bit uneven, perhaps too overladen in experiments and concept, this track, which incidentally is free, was the standout.

Not sure whether its the Broken Social Scene ca. 2006 vibe or the amped up drums and vocal recording distortions.

You can download "Soul Unwind" at RCRD LBL - here

Apostle of Hustle website

Author: "Jim H (noreply@blogger.com)"

A Classic Education - free digital single

Date: Wednesday, 02 Dec 2009 16:17

Today's band is an Italian bunch that make wistful yet dark lo-fi pop and cover old classics like "Spanish Harlem".

Anyway, Holiday Records has a digital freebie of their original "What My Life Could Of Been" b/w "Toi", a cover of a song from an obscure 60's movie. It's not the best I've ever heard this week and I certainly wouldn't order you to go out of your way to buy their records until I hear some more virtuosity and originality but it's free and at least worth the time it takes to click.

You can pick up the digital single at Holiday Records and learn more about the band at SoundSXP.