May 2006 Archives

Seriously, I played with Play-Doh (sometimes my job rules). I made a little man and then a little dog. Then I made the man squish the dog’s head. After which I felt kind of bad for the dog so I squished the man in an act of vengeance.

And just for the record, Play-Doh does not smell or taste quite the same as I remembered. And it comes in much smaller cans now. Of course that might be because I’m much bigger than I was twenty years ago.

If you have a couple bucks, I highly recommend that you go buy a couple cans (I got two for 99 cents!) It’s loads of fun and slightly nutritious.

Stuff to Sample: Here are two songs from Self’s Gizmodgery. The album was recorded entirely with children’s toys, “Trunk Fulla Amps” and “5 Alive”

I’m ashamed to say I don’t have anything new for you. I’ve been working on some new things for eLarceny and generally being lazy. Plus, I’ve been so on top of my game the last couple of months I’ve sort of run out of new releases to tell you about.

Ok, that’s a ridiculous lie. I’ll tell you about Cold War Kids. They are the new hipster sensations who were touring with last month’s hipster sensation Tapes n’ Tapes. And since indie sensations beget indie sensations I might as well play into the whole vicious cycle. Totally caving to peer pressure.

Cold War Kids do not have a full-length album out yet but they do have several excellent EPs full of minimalist indie rock, squawky vocals, swaying melodies and jangley guitar.

All hail indie rock.

Web Site: Here

Order: Online Here

Stuff to Sample: From Cold War Kids’ EP Up In Rags “Hospital Beds” and “We Used To Vacation”

I haven’t been exited by any new music recently. It may be because, as King Wookie put it, I’ve been “spent the better part of the last few days in a Robitussin-induced stupor listening to the Black Keys.” This is true. The new Black Keys EP Chulahoma contains six excellent renditions of Junior Kimbrough songs and a message from Junior’s wife thanking the duo for doing her husband proud despite being pastey white boys from Akron, OH. This, however, is nothing new for the Black Keys considering they owe a majority of their sound to the late, great blues man.

But, as I was coming down with the Sick and before I entered the Haze, I was feeling pretty rundown and sorry for myself so I was listening to some wishy-washy folk music. I listen to music to compliment my mood. Casue that's how I roll. So being sick makes me listen to folk.

Actually, Josh Ritter’s Animal Years is excellent and I highly recommend it to any Paul Simon or Andrew Bird fans, but now that out of my haze I’m all full of piss and vinegar and thirsting for rock ‘n’ roll and fist fights. Go suck on it Folk.

Web Site: Here

Order: Online Here

Stuff to Sample: From Josh Ritter’s Animal Years “Girl in the War” and “Thin Blue Flame”

It won’t stop raining. And on top of that I’ve been sick for the past week. So, to go along with the constant drizzle from the dead Ohio sky, I have some sinus pressure and a pretty hefty disassociative cold medicine buzz. As a result my fingers won’t listen to my brain because my brain isn’t telling them to do anything in particular. Horray Robotussin! I’m really hoping the sun will come out and dry out the land, dry out my nose and chase those  cats off of the ceiling.

Stuff to Sample: From the Black Key’s new EP Chulahoma “Have Mercy on Me”

Note: Did you know our Ohio blues boys will be opening up for Radiohead on their jaunt across the US? Also, Thom is releasing a "solo" album. Go use Google, I’m not going to explain it.

How ‘bout some hip hop? Haven’t dropped phat beats around here in awhile so listen up. MC Lars is sooooooooo white and as nerdy as they come. His beats are all whipped up inside his laptop and that gives his new album The Graduate a very flat and generic sound. Not that the beats are bad, it’s just that it’s lacking a bit of character, the analog warmth, as it were (although he does manage to sample the Tetris theme song and Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger”).

On the lyrical side, MC Lars could put most any rapper to shame. The dude is a wealth of literature, music and pop culture knowledge and has an uncanny ability to mock himself while taking some seriously funny and dead-on shots at the music industry.

Warning: MC Lars’ album The Graduate falls in to the hip-hop subgenre of nerd-core (ala MC Chris [who appears on the album] and Grand Buffet, etc). If you are not down with nerd-core, humor or intelligence in rap music, ignore this post.

Web Site: Here

Order: Here

Stuff to Sample: From MC Lars’ The Graduate “Generic Crunk Rap” and “Rapgirl”

I don’t know if any of you have seen this yet, or care, but Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers has his panties in a bunch because someone leaked the new RHCP’s album Stadium Arcadium (how shocking!). I didn’t even care that it was coming out but since Flea is such a whiny bitch, I thought I’d go break his heart a little bit more and download it.

I'm super suprised by how good it is. I hadn’t even considered buying it, but now I might. You're marketing plan has become all too clear, Flea. How devious.

Preorder: Here

Stuff to Sample: I’m guessing that Flea and his broken heart are in the mood for litigation so go look elsewhere.

There have been a bunch of bands springing up with the word “wolf” in their names. I’ve managed to ignore most of them, because I can. I don’t, however, think that it would be wise, or even possible to ignore Australia’s Wolfmother. On their self-titled debut they drop impressive rock riffs and organ solos like they were straight out of the 1970s. Seriously. The organ work on “Mind’s Eye” is so Emerson Lake and Palmer backed by Led Zeppelin ferocity that I wanted to die and be reborn into a womb of tight blue jeans and blow while some shirtless, hairy white dude with long, luscious hair, bad side burns and a handle bar mustache played a face melting rock guitar solo at ear-splitting volumes as the rest of the band performs some occult ritual involving three naked virgins. Oh, and then on “Witchcraft,” there is a totally wicked flute solo. Flutists are so rock and roll. There is also one song where they totally sound like the White Stripes, but I can look past that.

Wolfmother is like the best parts of Zepp, ELP and Jethro Tull all rolled into one. I’m totally gonna blare this album all daylong while I lay down rubber in my El Camino and relive the greatest decade - even though I hadn’t even been born yet.

Website: Here

Order: Online Here

Stuff to Sample: From Wolfmother's self-titled debut "White Unicorn" and "Mind's Eye"

Bonus: Oh, yeah, Wolfmother's album cover art is by Frank Frazetta. How badass is that?

Sometimes it’s easier to just not think. In fact, I would contend that thinking is bad and ignorance is bliss. But as hard as I’ve tried I still can’t shut down the unending thought process. Ridding myself of all those pesky brain cells is not easy.

But what if there was a way to trick them in to shutting off or at least taking a quick break? At loud volumes, the Black Angels’ new album Passover makes all of my brain cells line up, switch off and head bang until their tiny little necks get sore. At which point they stumble back to work and I go back through my day blissfully unaware of my plummeting IQ.

The Black Angels are an Austin, Texas outfit with this thing for Nico (Christa Päffgen) of the Velvet Underground and Nico fame. Everything about the record is droning. The singer drones as the band drones and the droning totally rocks. It’s like if the Velvet Underground were given Black Sabbath’s instruments while tiny little Nicos danced in stilettos on their frontal lobes. I dunno, just listen to it. Put in on your portable music player, go to the park, turn it up as loud as you can stand it (they sound so much better through headphones) and just stare at something while all of your brain cells drop what they were doing and line up.

Website: Here

Order: Online Here

Stuff to Sample: From The Black Angels’ Passover “Black Grease” and “The First Vietnamese War”

Bonus: The KEXP podcast has a great Black Angels performance available for download here.