November 2005 Archives

From time to time, I've been known to be sort of judgmental. If I don’t like a bands name, I’m not going to even bother listening to the album. It’s the principal of the thing. Granted, I’m wrong occasionally, but more often then not, the name will tell you all you need to know.

So when I came across the Samuel Jackson Five, my interest was piqued. I’m assuming this bunch of Norwegians (Norway is better) are referring to Samuel L. Jackson, and while the man himself has become somewhat of a cliché with the whole angry black thing and the voice immodualtion problems, the essence of the man is still totally badass (Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death . . . ).

So given that and the fact that I was bored, I decided to check it out. And do you know what I discovered? I still love prog rock.

The SJ5 blast through some really good stoner/prog rock instrumental jams. In fact, their new album Easily Misunderstood is nothing but epic, spacey, instrumental prog, post-rock jams. It’s abstract in some places, just plain noisy in others and then all of the sudden – beautiful string orchestration.

I’m fairly impressed that this band managed to be heavier then Explosions in the Sky, took a page from the Tool book of prog, gave a nod to psychedelic rockers like Psychic TV and still paid proper respect to Norway’s love of soft electronica and twinkling strings. I’m going to keep listening. Hey, let’s listen together. What do you say?

Web Site: Here

Sample: From the SJ5’s new album Easily Misunderstood “Michael Collins Autograph” and “Song for Sarah”

Consumers react to the Sony XCP fiasco by hating the bands trapped in the middle.

Sony is really in trouble now. Here comes Spitzer!

Apparently America isn’t such a prude after all. It seems we like our sex and violence on the TV and would appreciate it if the government would gives us the remote back.

And the Blu-ray/HD-DVD mess gets even messier now that Microsoft is involved.

I’ve had the Magic Numbers’ self-titled album for a long time now. A long time. But I’ve been too lazy, selfish or stupid to tell you about them. This has resulted in me being scooped by every other media outlet. But, on the flip side, I don’t have to tell you all about how they are two sets of siblings, one from London and one from New York via Trinadad. I also don’t have to tell you that they harmonize like the ghosts of dead Beach Boys while spinning rock, soul and country into my guilty pleasure: perfect pop licks.

So there it is, I don’t have to tell you any of that and I can just go on to the stuff you really come here for.

Web Site: Here

Buy: Online Here

Sample: The Magic Numbers live on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic “Love is a Game” “Don’t Give Up The Fight” and “Crazy In Love”

In an effort to increase content and keep you the reader informed, I’ll be posting links to important news articles on a regular basis. If you have any tips, send them my way and help make this blog a happier, healthier, more informed place to be functioning dysfunctional members of society.

The BBC reports that the younger generation prefers illegal file sharing services three-to-one over legal services. Really? That’s shocking.

Send your CDs back to Sony and then boycott them for going Orwellian on your ass.

If you don’t know, and you should, learn more about how Sony intends to take over your computer and watch your every move all in the name of Digital Rights Management and copy right protection. And keep up with the latest in corporate hate at www.boycottsony.us.

UPDATE: Full list of infected Sony CDs here.

A couple things you should know about Thunderbirds Are Now! Their name rocks! The abbreviation of their name (TAN!) is second only in rockitude to Nine Inch Nails’ (NIN)! And TAN! Are Detroit natives! My favorite kind of native!

I’ve probably missed TAN! playing in the hole-in-the-wall club in my very own backyard a couple times by now but I will not miss them the next time around!

TAN! brings a Detroit perspective to the whole post-punk-dance-rock thing that is going on right now! TAN! rocks harder then those pansy-assed Killers! TAN! doesn’t suck and copy the Killers like the Bravery! TAN! doesn’t sound rip off Joy Division like Interpol! TAN! aren’t gay looking pretty boys like Hot Hot Heat! If I had to compare TAN! to someone else I would say that they are the American equivalent of Bloc Party but without the silly accents! I’ll quit with the vague, over extended, uninformed comparisons and exclamation points and move on!

I’d had higher hopes for this post. And I’m hoping that my lackluster writing won’t turn you off of TAN! because I can’t speak highly enough of their new album Just a Mustache. But, it’s one of those days and I’m sort of distracted because it’s snowing. It’s fucking snowing and my brain just refuses to work as it recoils in shock and horror of the impending cold, gray oppression of another Midwest winter that will, at the very least, last for the next five months. Fuck that.

Buy It: Online here

Web Site: Here (listen to the whole album here)

Sample: From Thunderbirds Are Now!’s Just A Mustache “Better Safe Than Safari” and “Bodies Adjust”

Three clues: Spandex. Wailing Falsetto. Face-Melting Gutiar Solos. Give up? The Darkness has returned with the new album One Way Ticket to Hell and Back!

And now, to the complete dismay of some of you, and you know who you are, I’m totally going to pan it.

The Darkness’ new album sucks. Sucks bad. I hear a lot of Van Halen in this record, and not the “good” Van Halen. Not that “good” and Van Halen should follow each other in a sentence to begin with. But, for the sake of making myself clear, Permission to Land was Van Halen with Diamond Dave and One Way Ticket is Van Halen with Sammy “Can’t Drive 55” Hagar. Do you understand? Neither is a good thing but there is a marked difference in the two albums and it is generally agreed that Diamond Dave was the Man while Sammy was not. But, take heart Darkness fans, at least I’m not referring to One Way Ticket as Van Halen with that third singer who’s name no one bothered to remember. How bad does that suck? Your suddenly the lead singer of one of the biggest bands of the 1980s and no one – no one – not even the most hard core fans, bother to remember your name.

Other things I hear (that make me shudder) when listening to One Way Ticket: Mid 80s Rush: by far the most sucktastic Rush. Queen: the Queen that only the most obsessive Queen fans listen to. And assorted other hair-metal acts that I won’t name because to name them is to give them power.

Maybe it’s because today is Monday or maybe it’s because I’m feeling a tad bit salty or maybe, just maybe, One Way Ticket To Hell and Back does suck and the Darkness really were just a novelty act. I’m going to stop paying attention to the Darkness until the next album or until one of them does the proper rock and roll thing and ODs.

Buy It: Online here
Sample: From the Darkness’ One Way Ticket to Hell and Back “Bald” and “English Country Garden”

I would like to work for an advertising agency. I don’t want to write the ads, that just seems like too much work, and I don't like to work, let alone use my brain to do said work. All I'd want to do is choose the music to accompany the ads. That would be fun. And apparently I would be damn good at that type of thing.

Example 1: New Honda commercial featuring Brendan Benson’s “Cold Hands (Warm Heart).” I’m down with Brendan’s pop rock.

Example 2: Another Honda commercial featuring MIA’s “Galang.” Yeah, now what Honda? I would have used a Diplo remix.

Example 3: ESPN’s NBA promo spots featuring RJD2’s “Ghostwriter.” Big ups to Ohio! C-Bus represent!

Example 4: Yet another Honda commercial. This time featuring Postal Service's "We Will Become Silhouettes." Suddenly, I want to buy a Honda. Wonder why that is?

Added bonus: Stereogum reported last week about Cat Power’s foray into the commercial world.

I could keep going, but I think I've made my point. My music taste rules your TV.
Oh Yeah! Rules it hard!

Sample: From RJD2’s Deadringer “Ghostwriter” from Brendan Benson’s Alternative to Love “Cold Hands (Warm Heart)" and two remixes of MIA's "Galang (Serj Tankian Remix)" and "Ganlang (Dave Kelly Remix)"

I like blogging. When I start lying, no one can tell; it’s fantastic. In real life, when I lie, I shake and then hyperventilate after which I break out into monsoon-esque sweats. So this lying online thing is good. Take for example all of the pictures of “me.” That’s the neighbor boy; I killed him and stole his identity. I’m really a sixty-year-old woman. Also, about my extensive music knowledge – I’m just substituting crocheting terms.

What I won’t lie about, however, is my complete lack of knowledge when it comes to Cat Power.

So let me spin you a yarn and we can try to chain stitch this together when I finish.

Chan “Cat Power” Marshall has an alluring voice, a couple of critically acclaimed albums and that’s about as far as I got. The only reason I’m even semi-interested in Cat Power is due to her contribution to the Junior Kimbrough tribute album Sunday Nights – The Songs of Junior Kimbrough (link in site). Cat Power and Fat Possum alum Entrance teamed up for a great reinterpretation of “Do The Rump,” one of the highlights among cuts from several artists who you’d expect more from.

Anyway, Cat Power will put out her new album The Greatest at the beginning of next year. From what I can tell, her sound has matured a bit but I never really “listened” to her previous efforts. The new album features a mix of folk, rock, Americana and country. It will grow on you, when it comes out, two months from now, in January 2006, by which time I will have completely forgotten about it.

Web site: Here

Sample: From Sunday Nights – The Songs of Junior Kimbrough, Cat Power and Entrance “Do The Rump” and from Cat Power’s album The Greatest “The Greatest”

There is still a hole in my heart that was caused by the death of Old Dirty Bastard. And while I really couldn’t stand him or his crack-fueled antics and regarded him as the least talented member of the Wu Tang Clan, the world still needed him. But the time has finally come and I think I’ll be able to move on from Dirt McGirk as another mush—mouthed rapper has risen from the dead.

All hail the second coming of Fatlip. Like ODB, Fatlip came up in an influential and groundbreaking hip hop outfit – Pharcyde. And like ODB, Fatlip and his lyrical brothers had some disagreements. Fatlip left Pharcyde, or was asked to leave, and was expected to spit hot fire on a highly anticipated solo effort, especially after the release of the single and Spike Jonez directed video for “What’s Up Fatlip?” But the months passed, then years and then almost a decade and still no full-length Fatlip album. Seems our boy had writer’s block. Thankfully he got over it and now you will all know the genius of Fatlip with his debut LP The Loneliest Punk. Go prepare yourself for the Second Coming.

Web site: Learn more here.

Buy it: Online here.

Stuff to Sample: From Fatlip’s The Loneliest Punk “The Story of Us” and "Writers Block"

Here we go again, the soft spot in my heart for perfect pop music shines through and suddenly, all the indie rock cred I had worked so hard to cultivate last post just flies out the window . . . or does it?

This, friends, is Calamine. Apparently they felt the soothing medicinal liquid was an apt description of their soothing pop licks.

Calamine wrote the theme for Sealab 2021. The show jumped the shark after Harry Goz, the voice of Cpt. Murray, passed away and they stopped making it (thank god! It was getting really stupid) last April. But no matter how stupid the show was, I still found the theme song to be catchy and fun.

I had done my research and discovered Calamine a while ago. They had released a self-titled EP in 1999 but that was all I could find at the time. Then came the rumors that they had broken up. The rumors were unsubstantiated but I stopped paying attention none-the-less. Then, just last week, I happened upon a couple of songs from their new album What We Forgot to Remember and I was delighted. I hope you are too.

Website: Buy their new album here.

Stuff to Sample: From Calamine’s forthcoming What We Forgot to Remember “These Days” from Calamine EP “Trampoline” and the theme from Sealab 2021.

OK, enough of this Tom-Foolery. I’ve been neglecting my duties as the resident music snob and I’m sure you are all suffering because of it. So let me look down my nose at you while I talk in a bored yet semi-knowledgeable air about Tom Vek.

Vek, who has by far the coolest last name – ever – yet an exceedingly tedious first name, is a 24-year-old kid from London, England. He began his music career noodling with a four-track recorder in his teen years while rocking out in the garage with his dad.

Vek’s new album, We Have Sound, shows off this DIY mentality and his influences or just his ability to ape other people’s styles (which ever you want to believe is fine).

I’d be more critical but Vek played every instrument on his album, aside from the obvious drum machine tracks. But it’s that electronic beat that gives We Have Sound the all-important swing so many albums seem to be missing these days.

Vek is currently on tour in the States right now. Check out his website for a full list of dates or to purchase his new album We Have Sound.

Website: www.tomvek.tv
Stuff to Sample: From Tom Vek’s We Have Sound “C-C (You Set The Fire In Me)” and “A Little Word In Your Ear”

eLarceny proudly presents it's very own internet radio show No Frequency Radio. For those of you who don’t like to read, and let’s not kid ourselves, there are a lot of you, eLarceny now comes in full-fledged stereophonic sound.

Tune in every day as Vince, the host of No Frequency Radio, tells it like it is, or isn’t, depending on his mood. This is talk radio for the eLarceny generation. It’s irreverent, fun and informatively stupid.

The daily Internet radio show (AKA a podcast) will feature Vince’s slightly stilted view on the state of things, guest spots by your favorite eLarceny writers, interviews with whoever we can find, comedy tidbits and much more.

Head over to No Frequency Radio to download the latest show in .MP3 format.

I had originally started this blog to document all of the things I steal and my general life of crime. Because, when you get right down to it, I’m just a petty thief with a high-speed Internet connection. However, things have changed a bit since my first post. I learned some code, started to apply myself and actually gained some readership. Who'd a thunk it?

On Friday, November 4, 2005 eLarceny will celebrate its first birthday. To commemorate the occasion and show a little bit of appreciation for the people who stop by occasionally, I will give away some presents. All you have to do is send me an e-mail containing these three things:

1. Name and address.

2. Color and type of underwear you are currently wearing (a picture would also be acceptable - preferably if you are a female)

3. Any thoughts/feelings/ideas you have to make eLarceny, the blogs associated with eLarceny and this whole thing we are doing here better for you as a reader or in general (The underwear thing was a joke, this request is not. Please give me some feedback. Tell me I’m special. I just want to be loved. Oh, I'm so lonely).

Do those three simple things and I will send you a package of birthday surprises via our proud and pompous United States Postal Service.

And thank you, all of you, from the very bottom of my blogger heart, I couldn't do it without you.

Update: Birthday offer has ended. Thanks again!

Stuff to Sample: Have some Cake and ice Cream.