Moonage Farm Team

I Still Love You

2008-10-20T16:06:00.005-05:00

I just haven't had Internet at my house for a little while now (reasons for which I will not bother to explain) and it's made it rather difficult to post recently. I'm actually posting right now from Bongo Java. Since I don't have my usual resources available, and since I'm short on time right now I'm not going to get into anything too heavy or in depth today, but do expect to see at least a new Chart Watch and some more Lost and Found updates as soon as the Internet returns to my home.

I'm not saying I won't still be dropping a few political posts here and there in the last few weeks before the election. It's just I'd been planning on doing some more regular posts before all this Internet stuff happened and now I'm backlogged so to speak. Anyway, I leave you with this:

Please enjoy!

Fact Checking the VP Debate

2008-10-03T17:15:00.001-05:00

Because I'm both biased and lazy, here's what FactCheck has to say about last night's Vice Presidential debate. I know I've been lax on the posting lately and I promise to have a real post up in the next few days. I also promise to get down off my political soapbox and get back to writing about music, at least for a moment. Until then, please enjoy what hard-working, educated, unbiased and nonpartisan people have to say about what Joe Biden and Sarah Palin want you to believe.

Not To Beat A Dead Horse...

2008-09-25T22:43:00.010-05:00

But seriously, Sarah Palin is completely unqualified to be John McCain's running mate for Vice President of the United States. Apparently, She thinks that simply being Governor of the closest state in the union to Russia and sharing a boarder with Canada gives her experience in foreign policy. Here she explaining that very thing to Katie Couric.

I don't want to go out on a limb here, but I'd be more than willing to bet that if the Republicans are trying to suspend the first Presidential debate of the year, they'll probably try to eliminate the VP debate all together. I'm just saying...

Just to put things into some kind of perspective, here's Katie Couric's Complete Joe Biden Interview.

That's the difference between children and adults.

Whose Campaign Is It?

2008-09-18T20:21:00.008-05:00

Yep, apparently Sarah Palin thinks she's running for President. Check it out.

That video comes from a Republican campaign rally held yesterday in Youngstown, Ohio. She's also been claiming that Alaska supplies 20% of the country's energy. Guess what? That's a lie!

Hey, wanna read her email? I mean, this is old news by now, but Sarah Palin's email was hacked and posted on Wikileaks.org. Turns out the Alaskan Governor had started using private email accounts to circumvent her state's freedom of information laws. Basically she was doing it in case official emails were ever subpoenaed. People only do things like that when they have something to hide. Here's a full article from Time on the subject. Why might her email's be subpoenaed? Probably for the court case for which her husband refuses to testify.

On a lighter note, Homeland Security is now using Sesame Street to scare the shit out of children. Awesome!

Getting Some Things Straight

2008-09-11T22:05:00.007-05:00

Now I know I promised some music related posts, and I will get back to them eventually, but I have some thing I want to get off my chest. As election day draws near I've come to the conclusion that I have no choice but to get serious and get involved. I've made a point about trying to keep this blog non-political and non-partisan, but I can no longer hold my tongue. It is my absolute opinion that if the republicans are given control of the executive branch of the American government once again, we are all of us, as a people on this planet, royally fucked.

Now, let me first make it absolutley clear that this has nothing at all to do with my friends getting maced and arrested (especially considering these things happened at both the RNC and the DNC), although, clearly that pissed me off quite a bit since I dedicated three posts to it. No, this has everything to do with the fact that I absolutely believe that as much as the McCain/Palin campaign tries to distance themselves from the Bush administration, they are absolutely the same people and they will continue to do the same things that have driven our country into it's current economic recession. Things will only get worse.

It's not so much John McCain that scares me, although the claims in his early ads that he stood up to "big oil" did totally baffle me considering he spent the past four years bending over backwards for the American Oil Companies. Never mind that choosing a woman who sued the government to have the Polar Bear taken off the endangered species list because it severely limited oil drilling in Alaska as his running mate doesn't help either, but It's a woman who's willing to do that that absolutely frightens me. I absolutely believe that Sarah Palin will be more detrimental to this country (and the world) than George W. Bush could ever dream. And I'd like to take some time and set some things about Governor Palin straight.

First of all, on that whole Bridge to Nowhere thing about which she claims she told the government "no thanks," it turns out she was initially behind it and even accepted money for it, which she never gave back. Click that link if you don't believe me.

Secondly, about that Jet she put on Ebay... turns out it's standard policy in Alaska to put things the Government isn't using on Ebay because they're so far removed from the rest of the country, it's the only way they can sell just about anything. Also, the Jet didn't sell on Ebay! As a matter of fact, she took it off Ebay, and sold it for far less than it was worth, meaning that not only was it not her idea to put it on Ebay in the first place, but she also didn't make a profit on the sale like she claimed.

But never mind her ability to stretch the truth, Sarah Palin can't even seem to explain the doctrine of the Bush administration, of which she plans to "reform." Take a look at two videos from her interview with Charles Gibson that I swiped from an article at the Huffington Post.

How can you claim that you'll do things differently from or better than the Bush administration if you don't know what exactly the Bush administration did. Making things even more interesting, she also seems to be a little fuzzy on her running mate's foreign policies.

I also absolutely believe that Sarah Palin will be more detrimental to this country (and the world) than George W. Bush could ever dream

But that's ok, because McCain clearly doesn't know his running mate all that well either...

Check out this video which I opted not to embed purely because I couldn't prevent it from automatically playing.

Assuming you've just watched that, I'd love to point out that McCain never explains why Governor Palin is right and Barack Obama is wrong, nor does he at any time prove that Palin has more experience than Obama. Also, let me just say that claiming that Obama never once took on his own party seems to be a really weak accusation given that the Democrats were not the party in office the past eight years that got us into all of this shit in the first place. By the way, here's the article where i snagged that video as well.

Listen, I'm not trying to say that Barack Obama is the answer to our nation's problems. I absolutely don't believe that. What I do believe is that he represents hope in the face of almost certain damnation, and when given those two options, I'll take hope every time. If you want to know the truth about what both parties are saying, read FactCheck.org daily, and don't just believe what the Campaign ads say. make your own informed decision.

Just One More Thing...

2008-09-09T01:12:00.013-05:00

Here's one more article on the whole thing, which just so happens to feature a decent picture of Nathan Weber's face, sans black eye. And here are some photos of the actual event, courtesy of Jonathan D. Woods. Please visit his website. He's a damn fine photographer who was very generous to let me use these pictures for my blog.

Here we see Nathan in handcuffs as Batman goes through Nathan's backpack.

And here he is being taken into custody.

And here we see Jim Winn being taken in as well. Jim has a photo blog with some more pictures from the RNC. Check it out here.

And last, but not least, a nice shot of police officers in riot gear.

Fin.

More Bullshit and Mace In America

2008-09-04T23:50:00.009-05:00

I know I promised not to get political again, but (in the words of The Big Lebowski) some new shit has come to light. Yeah. So it turns out that a few days prior to the events in my last post, another friend of mine was maced in the face while taking pictures of protesters outside the Democratic National Convention. Now, I know Christian, and in all fairness, of all the people I know, he's probably the person most likely to be mistaken for an anarchist, but not when he has a camera in his hands and a big bright and shiny press pass displayed for all to see. Looks like the Democrats are just as threatened by the truth as the Republicans are. Hmm.

For more information on the incident mentioned in my last blog, here's an article in which Nathan Weber explains how he was beaten by the police. Let's have a closer look at Nathan's face, shall we?

Could be worse, right? I mean Nathan just kind of looks like that normally, but he's clearly been beaten in the face with a blunt object as well. Also this picture is out of focus. Sorry, I didn't take it.

One more thing and then I'll go. Just so you know, a lot of what Governor Palin said last night wasn't exactly the truth. Here's Fact Check's take on what she had to say. Remember, she hates the polar bear, an animal that looks more cuddly than Nathan Weber, but is, in fact, far more dangerous.

For real, once my friends stop getting the shit beaten out of them for doing their jobs and exercising their Constitutional rights, I'll get off my soap box. Until then, God bless America.

Who's Afraid of a Few Photographers?

2008-09-03T22:43:00.004-05:00

The Republican National Convention, apparently. Check this out. Apparently censorship is as easy as claiming that photographing a protest is a breach of national security. What's there to be afraid of? I mean, nobody's trying to get polar bears taken off the endangered species list to drill for oil or anything...

In all fairness, polar bears are the number one threat to school children in this country, as this image clearly shows.

Listen, I'm not trying to get political or anything, but when people I know get maced and then spend the night in jail, and someone decides that money is more important than life on earth, I get pissed off.

I promise to have a more friendly, bipartisan post up in the next few days. Sorry for the delay, it's been a busy couple of weeks.

Reformat the Planet

2008-08-16T11:27:00.005-05:00

For one week only Pitchfork Media is showing the documentary Reformat the Planet about the burgeoning Chiptune scene. Don't know what that is? Here's the trailer.

Check out the entire film here. It's pretty amazing. Remember, it'll only be available for a week, so watch it while you can.

2008 Brings the Rock (So Far)

2008-08-12T00:30:00.010-05:00

There's been a lot of really great straight up Rock music already this year, and instead of telling you about it all, here are a bunch of videos, half of which I stole from Pitchfork.Tv. Not all of these were made this year, but they do all feature music that has been released in 2008.

Blood On the Wall

Black Mountain

Torche

Jay Reatard

The Black Keys

My Morning Jacket

Boris

Graffiti for the 21st Century

2008-08-10T22:33:00.007-05:00

Check this out.

Cool, huh? Wanna know how to do it? Go here. Wanna know more about modern forms of Graffiti? Check out the Graffiti Research Lab. They made the video you just saw. That specific page is here.

These people are on to something. Get involved.

Chart Watch: Creed

2008-08-08T18:30:00.002-05:00

Since I started the week off with a Chart Watch, I thought I'd end it with one. Here now, is one of the most pointless reviews of any album I've ever read in my life. Enjoy!

Title: My Own Prison (1997)
Label: Wind Up
Genre: Alternative

Pro-Social Content: The Band Empathizes with a girl forced to grow up in a dysfunctional family ("Sister") and logns for racial equality and brotherhood among mankind ("One"). The Social commentary "In America" looks askance at abortion, hypocrisy, the worship of money, and promiscuity. Otherwise fatalistic, "My Own Prison" acknowledges Christ's sacrificial death as the pathway to eternal life.

Objectionable Content: Bitter disillusionment is manifested in numerous lyrics confessing misery ("Torn"), anger ("One"), and hopelessness ("Illusion"). "Pity for a Dime" finds lead vocalist Scott Stapp wallowing in self-doubt, confessing a loss of faith. "Ode" expresses self-destructive nihilism. There's also a profane use of God's name on "What's This Life For."

Summary/Advisory: Lots of searching, but positive statements are well overshadowed by an outright rejection of biblical truth. Stapp says, "If it weren't for music, I might have ended up some crazed street preacher." Rock-n-roll is my religion." Not exactly the narrow path. Keep teens out of Prison.

What the fuck? Who on earth looks this deeply into Scott Stapp’s lyrics? I’ll give you one good reason not to listen to Creed and it’s a real simple one: they’re one of the worst fucking bands to have ever come into existence! To be fair, this review might have been well intended, since Creed were immensely popular at the end of the 20^th century, and anyone trying to keep people from listening to Creed is alright with me, regardless of their reasoning. I think my biggest problem with this entry is that he’s giving Stapp way too much credit as a songwriter. Every criticism he has of this album could just as easily be applied to Pearl Jam’s Ten, which is, without a doubt, a vastly superior album in every possible sense (regardless of your feelings toward Pearl Jam, you cannot deny this is true).

Still, I feel this whole review could have been made wholly simpler if he’d just said “Scott Stapp is a fraud and a poor excuse for an Eddie Vedder impersonator, and Creed sound, at best, like the world’s worst Pearl Jam cover band. The only threat they really pose to your teenagers is to their intelligence. If you want to keep your kids out of trouble, don’t let them be the ‘Creed kid’ at school.” It’s simple, effective, and spares us from having to delve into the rather shallow waters of Scott Stapp’s lyrical ineptitude. Also, “Keep teens out of Prison,” may, in fact, be the single lamest closing line in this entire book.

Lost and Found: Neil Young

2008-08-07T17:30:00.010-05:00

Today's Lost and Found is a two-for-one, mainly because I couldn't decide which Neil Young album I wanted to talk about. Only Neil Young could have such an effect on me. So with out further ado I give you Time Fades Away and Trans.

Neil Young Time Fades Away
So what do you do if you've just released the critically acclaimed best selling album of 1972? Well, if you're Neil Young you launch a nation wide tour during which you play nothing off that album, opting instead for completely new material. Then you release a live album from that tour, completely baffling both fans and critics. Of course, that's only part of the story.

After Harvest was released in 1972, Young suddenly found himself with more fame and fortune than he knew what to do with. Most people would probably relish such success, but Young merely seemed to shy away from it. Then on November 18, 1972, Danny Whitten, guitarist for the band Crazy Horse, died of an apparent Heroin overdose, not long after having been fired during the preparations of what would become the Time Fades Away tour.

The first album in what is known as the Ditch Trilogy, Time Fades Away finds an artist who's not only trying to make sense of his new found celebrity status, but is also coming to terms with the death of a close friend. Young was apparently drunk for most of the tour, much to the frustration of his fellow band mates. As is the general theme of the Lost and Found segment of this blog, the album, which features guest appearances from both David Crosby and Graham Nash, was a total flop. As far as anyone can tell, that was OK with Young, who seemed to be looking for a fast exit from the spotlight. Unfortunately, the travesty does not end there. Possibly due to the use of poor techniques and unreliable equipment during the mastering process Time Fades Away has never been released on CD. Apparently there's a good chance it never will be, since there's almost no way of ever recovering the original master recordings, which were already quite muddy to begin with. This is quite unfortunate since the record contains the only recorded versions of some of Young's more intimate songs including, "Yonder Stands the Sinner," "Love in Mind," "Don't Be Denied," and "Journey Through the Past." As of now the only way to Hear Time Fades Away is to get your hands on a the vinyl, which is certainly hard to find.

Neil Young Trans
Often considered by critics to be one of Young's worst albums, Trans is not the misstep it's cracked up to be. Released in December of 1982, Trans was the first of five albums Young released on Geffen records, none of which were successful for either Young or Geffen. Actually, in 1984, Geffen sued Young for failing to release a commercially accessible album as per his contract. Regardless of Young's intentions behind the five Geffen albums, there certainly seems to be little to link them, except that they're all generally uncharacteristic albums for Young.

Trans is certainly no exception. Running his vocals through a Vocoder and opting to replace his defining guitar sound for synthesizers and a drum machine, Young was clearly stepping out of his comfort zone, but it actually pays off more than you'd think. The opening track, "Little Thing Called Love," as the only straight forward rocker on the album (and the only track to not feature synthesizers or the Vocoder) is actually one of the lesser tracks on the album. Aside from a completely digital reworking of Young's "Mr. Soul" (originally a hit for Buffalo Springfield), songs like "Computer Age," "Sample and Hold," and "Transformer Man" are all very stronge efforts, and sound absolutely nothing like anything Young has done before or since. If anything, these songs have more in common with Kraftwerk and Joy Division than anything else. "Transformer Man," incidentally, has had a life of its own as it is the only track to have survived Trans. The song made an appearance during Young's MTV Unplugged appearance and has also been covered by Sonic Youth.

The Truth is that Trans was such a drastic change from the rest of Young's repertoire that when it was first released no one knew what to make of it. In retrospect it feels more like an artist taking chances and testing his limits in uncharted territories. The results are somewhat varied, but overall successful, and Trans definitely deserves a second chance to redeem its place in rock history.

Lost and Found: The Fugs

2008-08-06T17:30:00.004-05:00

The Fugs The Fugs
No single album better encompasses the feel of the '60s than The Fugs. Not a pretty one, but an honest one. Part political protest, part hippie drug culture, part scum bag dirty humor, this album offers what is probably one of the most honest pictures of what it was like to live in a post-Kennedy, pre-Nixon America. Initially touted as the single most offensive rock album, The Fugs' second album is a dirty, raucous, aggressive in-your-face album that's intentionally difficult. Why was the album so controversial? Well, when you consider that the album was released in 1966, song titles like "Skin Flowers" and "Kill for Peace" should be a good indication. Need more proof? Here's a video of a Fugs performance from the film Chappaqua, released the same year.

When the Fugs aren't protesting the war they're trying to make the listener laugh uncomfortably, or at least amuse themselves. It's really hard to take a song titled "Dirty Old Man" seriously, which is of course the point. Oh yeah, and then there's that 11 minute closing track, "Virgin Forest." Again, keep in mind that in 1966 you were hard pressed to get a Rock n' Roll audience to listen to any song longer than three minutes. Especially one that's full of strange noises and the sounds of several members of the band simultaneously chanting "gobble gobble" (referred to on the back of the record as the "Gobble Chorus"), well any sober audience, anyway. If The Fugs sounds like artistic brilliance to you, that's because it is. If it doesn't, that's understandable, but you should probably get out more.

Lost and Found: The Everly Brothers

2008-08-05T17:30:00.004-05:00

The Everly Brothers Roots
Originally released in 1968, Roots was initially a commercial flop for the Everly Brothers. Containing none of their hits and only one original piece, the album failed to widen the Everly's audience as it was intended. Time however, has been good to Roots as it is now generally considered to be one the best early examples of the Country Rock genre. A loose concept album, Roots expounds upon the idea behind 1958s Songs Our Daddy Taught Us and finds the Everly's once again covering songs by the artists who influenced them like Merle Haggard and Jimmie Rodgers. It also finds them covering songs by more contemporary artists such as Randy Newman's "Illinois" and Glen Campbell's "Less of Me." Taking it a step further, the album is also interspersed with old clips of Don and Phil as young boys conversing with their parents on their father Ike's radio program, pulled from the family's own home recordings.

The production here is understated and simple, often featuring the brothers on acoustic guitars with little accompaniment. There's a very relaxed feel to the record even on the fully arranged pieces such as their take on Jimmie Rodger's "T for Texas" (complete with a wah-wah intro and a fuzzed out guitar duel). There are no true highlights to this album and thats on purpose. The Everly's conceived Roots as an album piece and it is certainly meant to be taken that way. Every song on this record is equally strong in performance and importance to the overall picture. A more beautiful and personal record you will not find in the Everly's catalog. You'll also be hard pressed to find an album this good in the whole of the Country Rock genre.

Lost and Found : The Outsiders

2008-08-04T17:30:00.003-05:00

The story of the forgotten album is nothing new. For whatever reason many great albums were not initially received with the acclaim they deserved, either critical or commercial. Pet Sounds for example was more or less a commercial flop, but has become legendary as one of the most auspicious and brilliant undertakings in the history of Rock n' Roll. Nick Drake's entire catalog didn't see commercial success until "Pink Moon" was used in a Volkswagen commercial. Some albums were initially successful when first released, but for whatever reason lacked the staying power necessary to last in the ever changing face of popular music. And then there are those records which simply were never recognized critically and simply stalled in record sales. Throughout the week I'll be writing about a few select albums that have lived a life time of obscurity. Today I give you: the Outsiders.

The Outsiders Happening 'Live!'
Allmusic.com said of the Outsiders, "If any two-hit, dance-oriented band from the '60s ever deserved a crack at being voted in [the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame], the Outsiders do," and that couldn't be more true. The Cleveland, Ohio quintet only released three official studio albums and had a hit with the song "Time Won't Let Me," which peaked at number five on Billboard's Top 100.

Released on Capitol Records in August of 1967, Happening 'Live!' is cleverly misleading as it is not a live album in the conventional sense (hence the quotation marks around the word "live"). For a long time it was not uncommon for record labels to release live albums that were actually just compilations of studio recordings with audience noise mixed in. With Happening 'Live!" the Outsiders took it a step further by removing any and all over dubs from the tracks, stripping them of any horns, strings, or generally anything that couldn't have been played by the five members of the band live on stage. To further the illusion, lead singer Sonny Geraci introduces all of the songs and the band as though they actually were performing in front of a hoard of screaming girls.

All of that would really just seem like little more than gimmicks were it not for the quality of material on the record. Aside from the band's two hits and a few songs from their three studio albums, Happening also includes a handful of previously unreleased material such as a fairly straight forward cover of the Beatles' "Michelle." However, the real stand out tracks here are a fantastic cover of the Temptation's "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," the stripped-to-its-roots version of "Time Won't Let Me," another original called "Girl in Love," which has a poor man's Brian Wilson feel to it, and a kind of garage-band-meets-lounge-act cover of Van Morrison's "Gloria." At the end of it all Happening 'Live!' turns out to be one of the friendlier and more easily accessible concept albums of the 1960s. On a funny note, if you look closely at the album cover, the Outsiders appear to have two bass players. I have yet to find any explanation for this, whatsoever.

Chart Watch: Radiohead

2008-08-03T18:09:00.009-05:00

Title: OK Computer (1997)
Label: Capitol
Genre: Alternative/ Industrial
Pro-Social Content: An isolated line on "Paranoid Android" states, "God loves his children."

Objectionable Content: "Exit Music (For a Film)" finds lead singer Thom Yorke waking a girl in the middle of the night to rebel against her parents and run off with him ("We hope your rules and wisdom choke you"). Anarchy and what sounds like a man's last words prior to committing suicide inhabit "No Surprises."

Summary/Advisory: According to the band's press materials, "OK Computer is a meandering, mournful, miserable celebration of loss and the unknown which aches relentlessly." Well put. The entire disc seems like the soundtrack for a despairing hallucination—dark and bleak. Even positive thoughts on "Lucky" and "Fitter Happier" seem sarcastic the way they're moaned. Don't let youngsters log onto OK Computer.

Yes, back by popular demand, it's Chart Watch. It's really hard to know where to begin with this one. Never mind that our authors clearly missed the point of one of the most important albums of the '90s, they can't even catch an obvious reference to Shakespeare. Yes, "Exit Music (For a Film)" does, in fact, tell the story of a boy and girl who decide their young love is bigger than the will of their forbidding, feuding families. Sound familiar? That's because it's not unlike the basic plot of one Romeo & Juliet, which also just so happens to be the "film" to which the song title refers. So if Thom Yorke, in his song, is encouraging the youth of today to rebel against their parents and run away, then I guess Shakespeare is further encouraging them to commit suicide. Following that logic, did you guys know that the Brothers Grimm's telling of "Little Red Cap" (more popularly known as "Little Red Riding Hood") is riddled with seriously perverse sexual overtones? Or that even the Bible itself is full of premarital sex, adultery, sodomy, incest, and murder? Nothing is safe! Parents don't ever let your children read or listen to anything ever! Keep them locked in the basement until their 31st birthday if you must!

Also, this entry contains one of my favorite closing lines ever.

Rush on Colbert

2008-07-19T02:10:00.005-05:00

Don't even act like you don't like Rush. I mean, it's totally understandable if you don't, but unfortunately you're wrong. Here's a no-frills-just-Rush clip of the show.

The entire episode is here. Also, there's a huge article in this month's Rolling Stone on Toronto's greatest rock band. Much love this month for the nerdiest band in Prog, apparently.

Pokey LaFarge

2008-07-17T22:01:00.007-05:00

This is Pokey LaFarge.

Pokey is from Louisville, Kentucky. Here he is again. You'll need to turn up the volume for this one.

Pokey's not a joke. He's the real deal. He's also on tour. Here, straight from his Myspace page, is his current tour schedule. Go see him.

Jul 18 2008

9:00P

Off Broadway *CD Release* w/ special guests

St. Louis, Missouri

Jul 19 2008

2:00P

New Delhi

Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Jul 20 2008

8:00P

White Rock Coffee

Dallas, Texas

Jul 21 2008

9:00P

Hole in the Wall w/ TBA

Austin, Texas

Jul 23 2008

8:00P

Mia’s Lounge

Flagstaff, Arizona

Jul 24 2008

8:00P

Private Party

Los Angeles, California

Jul 25 2008

9:00P

Socha w/ Karen Celia Heil

San Francisco, California

Jul 26 2008

8:00P

Sophia’s w/ Jeff & Vida

Davis, California

Jul 28 2008

9:00P

Jambalaya’s

Arcata, California

Jul 30 2008

7:30P

Axe and Fiddle

Cottage Grove, Oregon

Jul 31 2008

8:00P

Sam Bond’s Garage w/ Kit Stovepipe

Eugene, Oregon

Aug 1 2008

8:00P

Pickathon

Pendarvis, Oregon

Aug 2 2008

8:00P

Pickathon

Pendarvis, Oregon

Aug 3 2008

8:00P

Pickathon

Pendarvis, Oregon

Aug 5 2008

8:00P

TBA

Portland, Oregon

Aug 6 2008

10:00P

Burt’s Tiki Lounge

Salt Lake City, Utah

Aug 7 2008

8:00P

Front Range BBQ

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Aug 9 2008

9:00P

Replay Lounge

Lawrence, Kansas

Aug 10 2008

9:00P

The Mill

Iowa City, Iowa

Aug 14 2008

8:00P

Off Broadway w/ Strawfoot & Curtis Eller

St. Louis, Missouri

Aug 15 2008

8:00P

Backstage Cafe

Elizabethtown, Kentucky

Aug 16 2008

10:00P

Family Wash

Nashville, Tennessee

Aug 22 2008

9:00P

Al’s Bar w/ The Swells

Lexington, Kentucky

Aug 23 2008

8:00P

Jug Band Jubilee @ Brown-Foreman Ampitheatre

Louisville, Kentucky

Aug 25 2008

9:00P

Bread and Bagel w/ Jordan Pendley

Bowling Green, Kentucky

Aug 26 2008

10:00P

Parrish Baker’s Pub

Oxford, Mississippi

Aug 27 2008

9:00P

Maple Leaf w/ Mayhem String Band

New Orleans, Louisiana

Aug 28 2008

9:00P

Chelsea’s w/ Mayhem String Band

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Aug 30 2008

10:00P

Finnegan’s Wake

Alexandria, Louisiana

Sep 3 2008

8:00P

Bin 612

Starkville, Mississippi

Sep 13 2008

8:00P

The V Club

Huntington, West Virginia

Sep 22 2008

9:00P

Acoustic Coffeehouse

Johnson City, Tennessee

Sep 24 2008

12:00P

Blue Plate Special WDVX Radio

Knoxville, Tennessee

Sep 24 2008

9:00P

Preservation Pub

Knoxville, Tennessee

Sep 26 2008

10:00P

JJ’s Bohemia

Chattanooga, Tennessee

Sep 27 2008

2:00P

Reclaim Festival

Athens, Ohio

Sep 29 2008

9:00P

Bread and Bagel

Bowling Green, Kentucky

Oct 3 2008

8:00P

Barking Spider

Cleveland, Ohio

Oct 11 2008

8:00P

Christians Spring Hotel w/ Special Ed and the Shortbus and Two Man Gentleman Band

Nazareth, Pennsylvania

Radiohead - House of Cards

2008-07-14T11:44:00.007-05:00

So if you haven't heard yet, Radiohead made a music video for "House of Cards" without the use of traditional video, film, or digital cameras. No, they used lasers. That's right, lasers. It doesn't really get more Radiohead than that, especially if you've seen any pictures from their current U.S. tour.

Here's a brief article on the subject courtesy of Pitchfork. And here's the actual video.

And here's a video on the making of that video.

And here's a page at Google explaining how you can download this technology yourself and upload your own videos to Youtube.

And just for some fun with ironic juxtapositions, here's this. Really, Axl? I mean, you can only have your heart broken so many times before you just pack up and move on.

Greg Wood to Open for Coldplay... Maybe

2008-07-02T22:33:00.004-05:00

As this article explains, Coldplay are auditioning unknown artists to open for them on their upcoming American tour, and Greg has entered himself into the running. I realize this isn't much of a post, but I felt more people needed to see this, and besides, Greg could probably use all the help he can get.

That's his real phone number. Give him a call, even if you're not Chris Martin. Tell him I told you to do so. He'll appreciate it.

Daniel Johnston at Mercy Lounge

2008-06-27T02:00:00.014-05:00

Most people with crippling mental disorders don't get out much. We like to think this is for their own protection. We tell ourselves that keeping these people closed off from the outside world, under the care of trained professionals is for their own good. We believe that were they left to their own devices, free to wander among the rest of society, it would only do them harm. Were they to go without the supervision of mentally stable college-educated individuals they would somehow hurt themselves. All of that may, in fact, be true (and it may, in fact, not), but who are we kidding? We keep these people out of the general populous because they don't fit in. They make us uncomfortable. They disrupt the status quo. They have the potential to challenge our fragile concepts of normalcy and threaten to disrupt our daily routines. At least, that's what we're afraid of. We're afraid of what we might see if we get too close to them, or they to us.

Yet, we are fascinated by what they are capable of. Beethoven was bipolar. Syd Barrett was schizophrenic. Van Gogh was schizophrenic and bipolar. Bono thinks he's the new Jesus, and Chris Martin thinks he's the new Bono. Hell, Dan Rather hosted the CBS Evening News for 24 years!

A third of the time we just like watching the unstable behaving in an unnatural representation of their natural environment, like animals at the zoo. This is why people obsess over those who are generally just ordinary and talentless like Britney Spears or Sting. Another third of the time they're serial killers, but the other third of the time we are astounded by those who have a unique ability to create art that is more pure and real than anything the rest of us are capable of. These are the people who, like Van Gogh, are the most tortured by the things in their own mind. This is the case with Daniel Johnston.

For those of you unfamiliar, Johnston suffers from manic depression, more commonly known (outside of the Jimi Hendrix catalog) as bipolar disorder. While they are separate mental disorders, recent studies have shown there to be links between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Daniel Johnston is a tortured individual. His music (and artwork) clearly come from a place deeper and darker than any of us could ever hope to reach within ourselves. It is unfiltered and real, straight from his heart to your ears (and eyes). It's not always easy to listen to, and not just because of the incredibly poor quality of many of Johnston's recordings, but because he writes from a place that most of us keep locked away. Johnston's darkest secrets and deepest loves are his source material. That's not to say that Daniel's songs are all dark and disturbing. Often the case is quite to the contrary. It's just that part of his genius comes from the fact that he is not afraid to write (or draw or paint) about what scares him.

As a performer Johnston is more engaging than you'd expect. With his two liter of Mountain Dew sitting next to him on a music stand, Johnston first took the stage by himself. Alone, Johnston's stage presence was captivating and moving, even as he struggled to remember the chords to his own song. After a brief acoustic set, including a cover of the Beatles' "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" (introduced by Johnston as "a John Lennon song"), and a brief accompaniment by a second guitarist, whom Johnston referred to as his friend from college, he announced that he was taking a short break.

Less than 15 minutes later, he returned, this time backed by openers, Hymns. Hymns, who on their own felt more like an enjoyable but unnecessary bridge between Supergrass and the Thrills, now proved to be an excellent supporting group, especially during "I Saw Her Standing There," Johnston's second Beatles cover of the evening. Other highlights included "Rock This Town," "Walking the Cow," and "Speeding Motorcycle." This time Johnston, who pretty much stood in the same place for the entirety of the show, for lack of a better word, rocked. He rocked hard. It's important that I make it abundantly clear that Daniel Johnston litterally just stood there through out his performance, and yet he was somehow electrifying. I honestly can't explain it any better than that. For the better part of 30 minutes, Daniel Johnston was punk rock. This surprisingly had nothing to do with Hymns, who as I mentioned before, were a fantastic backing band. This was 1oo% Daniel Johnston.

As Johnston left the stage after his previously announced encore a guy next to me began singing Johnston's "Devil Town" at the top of his lungs. In no time the entire audience, including myself, had joined in. Johnston never returned to the stage, but it didn't matter. The message was clear. Everyone in that audience loved Daniel Johnston, in much the same way that Daniel Johnston loves the Beatles. More over, there was an energy that lingered and refused to die. Johnston's hold on the audience would not let go easily.

With that I went home, my status quo having been thoroughly disrupted.

GayBomb

2008-06-24T00:54:00.004-05:00

Two nights ago I discovered my new favorite hole in the wall. Villager you have now been replaced by Betty's. It's less than 2 miles from my house, tucked away around the corner from Charlotte Pike, full of unusually interesting characters, they make a decent burger, and they have $1.50 PBRs. Basically I'm in love, but that's not what I wanted to talk about. However instead of talking, I thought I'd show you a video of what I saw on my first trip to Betty's. Lady's and gentlemen I give you GayBomb.

Call it what you will, you cannot deny this guy is doing something totally original. Honestly it was really hard to stay for the whole thing (as he definitely did this for a good 20 minutes), but it was also hard not to be astounded by what he was doing. The concept is simple enough. If you can record music to magnetic tape, and you can record information to magnetic strips on pieces of paper, ergo you must then be able to record music to those same magnetic strips. Now, granted I'm using the term "music" quite loosely when referring to GayBomb's performance, but my point is this guy is definitely on to something. Regardless, GayBomb was easily the most refreshing thing I've seen in a Nashville bar in a long time. I really wish I had more commentary than that, but I honestly still can't completely wrap my brain around it all. That's probably a good sign.

I'm Not Dead

2008-06-22T21:20:00.007-05:00

I just took a month off. In that time I saw the Sword and Torche at the Exit/In, drove to Cincinnati to see Mates of State at the Southgate House (which is actually in Newport, Ky), bought a lot of really sweet vinyl for practically dirt, had a noise rock party at my house, and started a band. I could've posted about all of those things, but I just needed a break. Well, my unannounced hiatus is officially over and I will have a real post up tomorrow. Until then, please enjoy this.

Foreplay/Long Time

2008-05-19T16:12:00.009-05:00

Yes, I know. It's been almost two weeks since I last posted, and that is completely unacceptable. No amount of excuses can possibly justify this ridiculous absence. It's simply easier for me to say that I've been lazy. So let me try and make it up to you right now. I now present you with something I like to call

MORE THAN A FEELING

Boston are easily the most frustrating band I have ever heard. Now, I realize that's a bold claim to make in a world where Rolling Stone Magazine listed Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight as the 25th best album of 2007, Weezer sill exist, and people actually find Devendra Banhart intriguing, but really admitting that these artists got under my skin the way a band like Boston does would be giving them all far to much credit. While I cannot fathom how anyone managed to convince Geffen to launch such a massive marketing campaign for Weezer's third album, I can generally ignore them. As for Linkin Park and Rolling Stone I need merely point out that same list also included Maroon 5, Down, The most recent Smashing Pumpkins album, Fall Out Boy, and Britney Spears. It also listed Devendra Banhart, who is (in the Farm Team's opinion) not only vacuous and boring, but also the poorest excuse for a poet since Jim Morrison posthumously defecated in a Paris bathtub.

All of these things are merely trivial issues that are barely worth mentioning save for the purposes of comparison. My problem with Boston is infinitely deeper and more troubling than one might first suspect. It calls into question everything I hold true about Rock n' Roll and thus threatens to shake lose the firm grip I believe to have on anything remotely resembling a reality. The problem is I actually like Boston. Now, to the unassuming reader that might seem like nothing more than a mere guilty pleasure. Let me assure you it is anything but.

However, in order to go further I must now take a few steps back. First, I need to put some things into context. I grew up in southeast Tennessee, right on to boarders of Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina. This is what I would like to affectionately refer to as "Skynyrd Country." The only radio stations within a 200 mile radius were Classic Rock and Country. Clearly the classic rock station would be the lesser of two evils. Of course at the time that's not at all how I looked at it. Classic Rock was the greatest music I had ever heard and KZ106 was the only radio station I ever wanted to listen to. This is how I discovered Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, The Band, Neil Young, The Who, ZZ Top, Foghat, Foreigner, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Van Halen, Guns N Roses, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jethro Tull, Yes, Kansas, Grand Funk Railroad, The Eagles, The James Gang (and thus Joe Walsh), Peter Frampton, Santana, Rush, Steppenwolf, the Guess Who, Thin Lizzy, AC/DC, The Doors, Deep Purple, Blue Oyster Cult, Aerosmith, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Allman Brothers, and of course Boston. The funny thing is now I can't stand 75% of those bands, but from about 1988 (the first year I actually remember being aware of what year it was) until about 1999 I believed in the power of classic rock. Incidentally, I purposely left out three incredibly important artists, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Black Sabbath because I discovered the Beatles through my parents and wasn't introduced to Dylan or Sabbath until I got to college.

Having said all that, It's important to note that I was never a huge fan of Boston. I liked them, but never have I owned any of their albums, including their self-titled debut (except for one highly scratch vinyl copy of said debut that once ordained the wall of my kitchen). I mention this record because it single-handedly embodies everything that I love and hate about Boston, and therefore represents in physical form that which may in fact prove that Descartes was totally wrong and we cannot, in fact, prove our own existence or really know anything ever. Of the eight songs on Boston's first album, three of them were top 40 hits and six of them still maintain moderate rotation on any given Classic rock station in the United States. Never mind the fact that guitarist Tom Scholz had (and I suppose still does) a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, and with that knowledge built his own equipment, including his own distortion pedal which gave Boston their easily definable guitar tone, and thus influenced the sound of nearly every hair metal guitarist throughout the 1980s.

This is where problems start to arise. While I legitimately enjoy an occasional listen to the songs on Boston's first album whenever they so happen to be played on a bar jukebox or from the stereo of Greg's old Ford Escort, I also understand that Boston undoubtedly represent everything wrong with commercial music and the bastardization of Rock n' Roll. Not only did they have a profound influence on the worst musical decade of the last century, but they also embodied the very of essence of that which is Corporate Rock. They were gear freaks and thus constructed a perfect sound that was prefabricated for stadiums and arenas. Boston may have played the club circuit, but it wasn't for very long. From the moment "More Than a Feeling" debuted on top 40 stations across America in 1976, Boston were selling out coliseums.

Also, let me point out that Boston's first album came out a year before Punk broke. This is in no way a coincidence as Punk was, at it's core, a rebellion against everything Corporate Rock stood for. It was about bringing music back to the close personal vibe found only in a dirty cramped and crowded club with no AC. It was about not making people pay an outrageous sum to see their favorite band play live. It was about making people get down and dance or bang their head or jump around or whatever they needed to do to express themselves. I mean, I realize I'm idealizing a lot of this, but really isn't that what it was supposed to stand for? It was about bringing Rock n' Roll back down to earth. One look at the cover of that first Boston album and you understand Punk happened because Boston happened.

How can I legitimately enjoy Boston if they represent everything I hate? What does that mean? Are there no absolutes in this world? Is nothing sacred? If I can like something that, on principle alone, I vehemently despise, then does that mean that love and hate are the same thing? How is that possible? How can I love something I hate? How can they be the same? If love and hate are the same then up and down must be the same too. Left and Right. Black and White. East and West. Real and Imaginary. Nothing is as it should be. Everything is the same and different at the same time. I know nothing. I understand nothing. I am nothing.

Fast Forward to the present. There I am, curled up in the fetal position naked, clutching that old copy of Boston I used to own and crying uncontrollably as the cold water from my shower relentlessly pelts me in the face, my tears mixing with the water and swirling helplessly down the drain with all my dreams and hopes for a better future. I don't know anything anymore. Nothing is real to me anymore. The very fabric of my comprehension has been torn a sunder and I am left but the fragile shell of a man who once believed he understood what it meant to love Rock n' Roll.

Chart Watch: Kenny G

2008-05-06T01:19:00.006-05:00

It's been a while since I've done one of these so I thought I'd make up for it with something completely ridiculous. For those of you who are new to this blog, you'll find a complete explanation about what you are about to read here. Otherwise, please enjoy one of the dumbest things I've ever read in my life. By the way, the previous owner of this book circled this particular entry, as if to say "yes, I am intrigued about the potential dangers this artist might present to my children." I also would like to preemptively point out that "ultramellow" is not a word.

Title: Breathless (1992)
Label: Arista
Genre: Jazz/Adult contemporary

Pro-Social Content: Only two songs on this mostly instrumental album contain lyrics. Both are romantic ballads, sung by soul artists Peabo Bryson ("By the Time This Night Is Over") and Aaron Neville ("Even If My Heart Would Break"). Neville's tune pledges a deep and everlasting love despite circumstances.

Objectionable Content: Bryson, on the other hand, hopes that "two lovers... will be together in the morning" without explaining whether or not they're married.

Summary/Advisory: Virtuoso saxophonist Kenny G's first album in four years features ultramellow instrumental sounds. A light collection of romantic mood music that is sure to be enjoyed by a wide audience—including some teens.

Holy shit.

Jay Reatard at Mercy Lounge

2008-05-03T11:56:00.007-05:00

"Hey man, kill the fuckin' Indian buffet music!" And without waiting for his order to be carried out, Jay Reatard tore into the first of an estimated 13 song set that lasted maybe 20 minutes. While that might seem oddly short, it was actually rather appropriate, especially when you know that Reatard NEVER STOPPED PLAYING. With spit flying and head banging, Reatard played so ferociously that 20 minutes may as well have been two hours.

A high school drop-out, 27-year-old Reatard (born Jay Lindsay), got his start on Goner Records in Memphis, Tenn, and has been making his own brand of dirty garage rock, in one form or another, for the better part of 10 years. It's starting to pay off too, as Reatard made the cover of this month's Memphis Flyer, and Spin Magazine recently called Reatard the "Next Garage-Punk Prodigy."

Reatard's cocky attitude and face-crushing live performances have, in a way, already become legendary. Take the following video of his performance at Silver Dollar in Toronto on April 17 for example.

As gnarly (yes, gnarly) as that looks, it turns out Reatard had his reasons for being so pissed. Here's what he had to say about the whole ordeal.

Having seen and read all of this before the show, I was pretty pumped. As a matter of fact, I was kind of hoping to see someone get kicked in the face. Alas I had to settle for seeing the bass player catch a rogue loogie in the crotch from Reatard himself. That's not to say the show was in any way disappointing. Far to the contrary, Reatard's ball-busting no frills rock n' roll delivered the goods like a steaming hot pizza, in 30 minutes or less. I honestly couldn't tell you a damn song the guy played because for one, I wasn't too terribly familiar with Reatard's most recent album, Blood Visions, and also because I was so close to the stage that I couldn't hear the the PA over the brain-rattling thunder emanating from the amplifiers. This in no way prevented me (or anyone else, for that matter) from joining in the fist-pumping action. After 20 minutes, I was sufficiently rocked.

Earth at the Dame/Springwater

2008-05-01T11:52:00.010-05:00

Earth are probably the single most important band you've never heard of. This is not surprising as their slow, glacial sludge style of instrumental Metal took more than 10 years to catch on. The story of Earth is not unlike that of the diligent tortoise who eventually finds victory over the hasty hare. Through diligence and dedication to his belief that slower is heavier, front man Dylan Carlson has managed to invent his own genre of metal, called Drone, a genre that is already beginning to change the very definition of Heavy Metal.

In those 10 years, Carlson, who originally formed the band in Olympia, Wash., saw his influence everywhere, and witnessed the quick success of his peers, but saw little recognition for his efforts. One might argue that without Dylan Carlson, the whole of the Seattle Grunge scene would have sounded drastically different. Unfortunately, Carlson may also be partially responsible for one of the most defining and tragic moments in rock n' roll of the past 20 years, as he purchased the shotgun with which Kurt Cobain committed suicide.

Then in 2005, just as a whole new string of bands like Sunn O))), Boris, Om and the whole of the Southern Lord label were wearing Earth's influence on their sleeves, the band dropped the distortion from their sound and replaced it with a country twang. This is the Earth I witnessed on April 27 and 28.

The first night was at the Dame in Lexington, Ky. Locals, Tight Leather (who once played Bread & Bagel), opened the show with some psychedelic surf-infused noise rock. Were there a spectrum of almost infinite scale upon which Pink Floyd were at one end and Man... or Astroman at the other, Tight Leather would find themselves at the dead center. With some late-60s-style visuals projected from an off stage laptop set up, the band brought the only high energy performance of the evening.

Earth were of course, a whole different beast all together. Like the tortoise, Earth were in no hurry to finish their set, or for that matter, any one song. This was as calculated a performance as I've ever seen. Playing material from their recently released The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull, Earth proved that patience is indeed a virtue, even within the realm of Heavy Metal. Most bands tend to play their live material somewhat faster even if only slightly. Such was not the case with Earth, who seemed to take great pride in their effortless however deliberate pace.

This was much the same story the following night at Springwater, in Nashville. The show was again opened by a local band, Hollow Ox, who were a fantastic combination of Post Rock and Post Punk, and yet another band clearly demonstrating Earth's vast influence over modern music.

Earth's performance was more or less same as the night before, right down to the setlist. This is also pretty much what I expected. So why go see a band two nights in a row when I'm 97% the two shows will not differ in the slightest? Because when will I ever have the chance to see a band like Earth twice in a row? Probably never, that's when.

The result from both nights was an audience of mostly long-haired guys in black t-shirts slowly nodding their heads in unison. Of course, this is also exactly what I expected to find. One does not go to an Earth show to get their face rocked off, but rather for the experience of seeing something much more rare; that of a band who refuse to be be effected by the ever quickening pace of the world around them. This is why Earth matters. Because of Dylan Carlson's unaltered belief that what he is doing is important enough to keep doing, he has not only outlasted his peers, but found a greater form of success than any of them. Carlson may not be famous, but he is leaving a deep mark on heavy metal in a way that is redefining the genre even as you read this.

You're Always at the Wrong Party

2008-04-24T23:28:00.011-05:00

I know it's a little late to be writing about the events of Saturday night, but I had to get that Okkervil/New Pornos post out before I could get to this one, and I wasn't really in the mood to write about it on Sunday, so here I am and here you are and thus here are we.

Saturday was the Rabbit Art Carnival, and I know you have no idea what that means. I honestly didn't really know either. Turns out the Rabbit, or the (Rabbit), is a tiny (literally and figuratively) magazine focusing on the underground art scene in Nashville. The party was more or less to celebrate their third issue and in true, underground art magazine form, it was held in a small warehouse-turned-art-studio, called Ovio, in Nashville's manufacturing district. This means it was supposed to be intentionally hard to find, and it probably would have been were it not for the 50 or so people standing outside of a well lit building in an otherwise desolate part of town.

Yes, that's me with a muffin in my mouth. Food Not Bombs provided baked goods for this event. Here's a basic formula for you to remember:

Nathan + Muffin + Camera = Frightened Children

Although two of my coworkers were displaying their art at this event, I really came to see the Early Evening, who were performing among a list of other bands and artists, most of whom I were unfamiliar to me. When I got there I found myself surrounded by a veritable who's who of underground Nashvillians. This really just means I ran into a lot of people I haven't seen in a while. It was weird.

On top of that the Early Evening played around 8:15 and I didn't even get off work until about 8:30. That's ok, Yazoo was selling two dollar drafts to raise money in support of the magazine so there's beer right? Yeah, if you want to wait in line for 30 minutes to get your drink on. Never mind that most of the bands that played were relatively lame, and if you know anything about this blog, you know I'm usually a big proponent of local music. Maybe I was just bitter about not getting to see the Early Evening.

Just about the time I was planning to leave, thinking I'd just paid seven bucks to listen to mediocre bands and not drink, the Mattoid took the stage. This band sounded like the Cramps and Minor Threat were having sex during a head-on collision ala J.G. Ballard's Crash, and looked like the cast of Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses. Needless to say they had my full attention. Here was a band trying to pick a fight with it's audience, and had not been playing for a bunch of hipsters, they probably would have succeeded. The sound wasn't too great, but at one point I was sure the band was shouting, "Crap your craps and fuck your fucks, it's party time!" Later the band's frontman announced, in what sounded like a fake Russian accent, that the band wanted to "suck every cock in the room," and then tore right into a song called, surprise, "The Cocksuckers," complete with simulated fellatio during the 'chorus. This band was nothing short of brilliant.

About that time a friend of mine from work told me of a house party he knew about and invited me to come along. After seeing the Mattoid, anything the (Rabbit) still had to offer was guaranteed to disappoint, so I left.

This is how I met, Ville Kiviniemi, lead singer and guitarist for the Mattoid, pictured below.

Turns out that accent wasn't fake, although I was wrong about his country of origin. Ville hails from Helsinki. He also informed me that tonight's performance was not up to his standards. Apparently they usually "kill." Upon telling Ville that I write a music blog, he said, "Tell them to come to our show and shoot us with guns! Tell everyone to bring their guns and fucking shoot us!" So you read it here, folks. Ville Kiviniemi wants you to assassinate him.

After talking with Ville for a few more minutes, I headed down to the basement where I discovered the other highlight of the night, We Were the States. It's not that I was blown away by this otherwise run-of-the-mill garage band, it's that I and everyone else in that tightly packed room, FELT it. With no stage to define a boundary between audience and band, the connection was immediate, and as long as the band kept the energy high, the bond was industrial strength.

This is where rock n' roll lives and breathes. It survives in small cramped suburban basements and dies the moment it smells fresh air and sees it's first rays of the sun. By the time it makes it to high society art shows, it's nothing but a rotting flesh and rigor mortis, unless of course it's played by a crazed Finnish maniac with an SG.

New Pornographers with Okkervil River at the Cannery Ballroom

2008-04-21T17:23:00.010-05:00

For a Friday night, this one already had one strike against it. It was pouring rain like the monsoon season of some remote island country, and me without my umbrella. Then we arrived at the Cannery only to find out that Neko Case had dropped out of the tour due to a foot injury a day or so before the Nashville show. That was strike two.

Like a band with some place else to be, Okkervil River took the stage right at 9:00, and the big disappointment began. Will Sheff turned out to be one of the least engaging front men I've ever seen. It wasn't so much that he wasn't trying, but rather that he was trying too hard to convince me he was worth my attention. The thing is, I didn't need to be convinced, and all he succeeded in convincing me of was the exact opposite. His movements were unnatural and forced at best, and down right absurd at worst. At no point did I actually believe Will Sheff felt his own music.

Fortunately for Sheff, the rest of Okkervil River seemed to be more concerned with actually playing their instruments, but unfortunately for the audience, Sheff's antics only prevented his band from successfully supporting their singer. Their performance did manage to get better as it went on, but the damage had already been done. Sheff's overcompensations not only hurt the band's performance as a whole, but actually managed to change my opinions about Okkervil's 2007 album, The Stage Names. The best thing I can say about Okkervil's performance is that the unexpected support of guitarist Greg Whelan of the Wrens for the duration of Okkervil's half of the evening actually seemed to add strength and balance to the band's performance. Too bad it wasn't enough.

I can't explain how grateful I was when the New Pornographers took the stage. Here was a band with no misconceptions of their role as entertainers. A.C. Newman, wearing the shirt and beard he probably woke up in, led his band through song after song of nonstop, high-energy, indie rock. This was exactly what I came to see. As a matter of fact, the band performed brilliantly, even without Neko Case, and her presence was hardly missed. I mean, she wasn't there, and you certainly noticed that, but from the moment the band kicked off their first song, you suddenly didn't care. This certainly speaks volumes for Kathryn Calder, who more than filled the gaps left by Case's absence. Highlights included epic performances of "Electric Version," "Testament to Youth and Verse," "Twin Cinema," "Sing Me Spanish Techno," "Use It," "The Bleeding Heart Show," which many people will recognize as the song from the Phoenix University commercial, and an unexpected but well-received cover of "Don't Bring Me Down," which sounded EXACTLY like ELO's original studio recording.

There was certainly a suprising lack of material from the Pornographers' most recent album, Challengers, but that really didn't matter much. The band's energetic, no-nonsense performance more than made up for any complaints anyone might have had about the set list, as well as the poor weather and the lackluster performance of the night's openers, Okkervil River. No hard feelings, though. Near the end of the night, A.C. Newman admitted to enjoying Okkervil's presence and invited Sheff on stage for a brief collaborative effort. With The New Pornographers as his backing band, Sheff was actually slightly less irritating, but only slightly.

It was certainly a night of highs and lows, but for the most part it was money well spent. Especially considering the Cannery Ballroom is one the worst sounding venues in Nashville. Overall it was a good night. If you've got a chance to catch the last leg of this tour, do it. Maybe Okkervil will have their shit together when you see them. One can only hope.

Soap Box

2008-04-21T00:35:00.005-05:00

First let me say that there are political forces at work all the time in just about every issue imaginable trying to sway your opinion one way or another. 99.9% of the time money is the motive behind all of it. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing. The very nature of capitalism nearly demands things be that way in order for an economy to be successful.

However, when that principle is applied to environmental issues, it only complicates things. This is why millions of Americans either believe global warming is a myth, or are completely confused about the issue all together. Everyone has an agenda to push and everyone wants to get paid for what they do. Don't be fooled by car and oil companies who are already congratulating themselves on a job well done. When you see that sign at the gas station saying "all octanes contain some ethenol" you should be angry. Ethanol is NOT a cleaner burning fuel.

The following video is a message about liquid coal. The people who made it have an agenda to push. So do the people trying to get liquid coal cleared as a viable replacement for gasoline. It's not the agendas that matter, what matters is preserving life as we know it on this planet. It's no longer about our children's children's children. It's not even about our children. At this point it's about us, right here and now. Don't get caught up with agendas and ulterior motives. These are merely distractions from the real issues at hand.

then go to We Can Solve It and read more. The more educated you are, the greater your chance of making an informed decision about all of this.

I'll get down off my soap box now. Keep a close eye on the Farm Team this week as I'll be working overtime with updates, starting with a review of the Okkervil River/New Pornographers show the other night.

Sea and Here: Part One

2008-04-17T12:58:00.005-05:00

Summer is fast approaching and that means many things, but most important among them is more shows. Here is a list of upcoming shows to catch if you are willing and able. For those of you in the Bowling Green, it's time to put down that remote, get up off your ass, and support some local music. There's life outside of Lost and Adult Swim, I promise.

Bowling Green (Bread & Bagel)

Ocelots — 04.18
Sound and Shape/Victory at Last/Bossa Nosferatu — 04.19
Brooks Ritter — 04.25
The Cash Wilson Band/Hue Deaf — 04.26
Via Audio — 04.30
Chainsaw Red — 05.02
Aron Wright/Daniel Elsworth — 05.08
Derik Hultquist& Redbeard Rattlesnake — 05.16
The New Whole Usuals/Miss Umbrella & Josh Preston — 05.17
Dancing with the Lion/Pineapple Explode — 05.23
Micah/The Lasting — 05.24
Von Guarde/Justin Weatherbee — 05.30
Pokey LaFarge/Jordan "Funky Pants" Pendley — 06.03

Nashville

Okkervil River/New Pornographers — Cannery Ballroom — 04.18
Spoon — Vanderbilt — 04.18
Aaron Robinson — The Groove Record Store — 04.19
The Early Evening — 425 Chestnut Art House — 04.19
Murder By Death — Exit/In — 04.20
Sonic Youth — City Hall — 04.25
Cory Branan — Douglas Corner Cafe — 04.25
Pelican — Rocketown — 04.25
Brooke Waggoner — The Basement — 04.25
Destroyer — Mercy Lounge — 04.29
Jay Reatard — Mercy Lounge — o4.30
Lou Reed — Ryman Auditorium — 05.02
Aaron Robinson — The End — 05.02
Motion Decay — Springwater — 05.02
The Dynamites — City Hall — 05.03
British Sea Power — Mercy Lounge — 05.03
Holy Fuck/M.I.A. — City Hall — 05.05
The Sword — Exit/In — 05.11
Sea Wolf — Exit/In — 05.23
Silver Mt. Zion — Mercy Lounge — 05.26
The Roots — Andrew Jackson Hall — 05.27
The Kills — Mercy Lounge — 05.27
Nada Surf — Mercy Lounge — 06.05

More dates in more places to be posted soon. For now, I must to go to work.

Chart Watch: Spin Doctors

2008-04-13T14:16:00.007-05:00

Title: Pocket Full of Kryptonite (1992)
Label: Epic
Genre: High-energy folk

Pro-Social Content: None

Objectionable Content: "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" bids good riddance to a "b—ch" who totes a shotgun ("I hope you heard this song and it p—ed you off"). Superman's sidekick propositions Lois Lane to dump the Man of Steel on "Jimmy Olson's Blues" ("Come on downtown and make love to me... I got a pocket full of kryptonite"). "Refrigerator Car" refers to alcohol as a means of escape.

Summary/Advisory: Weird, bizarre stuff. This 5-million-selling album's dismal tone is accompanied by lyrics that devalue meaningful relationships and the establishment in general. In addition, Spin Doctorism has become a psychedelic cultural phenomenon with fans traveling across the country to take in concerts, an appeal due mostly to the group's high-energy, R&B-inflected funk. Spin past this downer of a disc.

Let me just start by saying that if you needed a reason not to buy this album it's because if you've heard any one of it's ten tracks, you've heard the entire album. If you feel the need to exert more energy than that on an album as repetitively mundane as Pocket Full of Kryptonite you're not just wasting your time, you're insulting the intelligence of your readers. That is of course unless you're writing for an audience of bible-humping fascist parents who fear the world around them and completely misunderstand and constantly misrepresent their own religion...

Now that's off my chest I think I can say with some degree of certainty that the Spin Doctors are not the first band in the history of Rock n' Roll to condone alcoholism. They also are certainly not the first band to be stalked from city to city by a horde of zombie-like cultists wreaking of Patchouli and burnt cannabis. Actually, I'm more shocked that anyone would want to see the Spin Doctors in concert ONCE, let alone an entire tour. Finally, "weird" and "bizarre" are just about the last two adjectives I would use to describe Pocket Full of Kryptonite; mediocre and derivative maybe, but never "weird" or "bizarre."

Films Greg Wood Should See

2008-04-05T12:48:00.009-05:00

Today's post is a bit of a departure from my normal subject matter, i.e. it is not directly related to music. It is however, directly related to a man who is closer to my heart than any other fellow heterosexual male not directly related to me by blood: Greg Wood.

For those of you who don't know Greg, he writes Kick the Amp Over, which is also linked in the Label Mates section of this blog. I have known Greg since the dawn of civilization, which by my calculations happened sometime in the early part of 1998. Throughout our friendship Greg and I have shared women, drugs, needles, sewing materials, underwear, drinks, sweaters, a ridiculous sense of humor, and an unhealthy love of music, among other things. OK, so really only the last three things in that list are true, but you'd never have known that if I hadn't told you so just forget this sentence all together for the purposes of this post.

One thing I know about Greg is that up until the past couple of years, he wasn't a big movie fan. Outside of a bizarre love for Owen Wilson, Zoolander, the collected works of Wes Anderson, and Cameron Crowe Greg always told me he had trouble sitting through movies and thus didn't really like them. All of that has changed now. About two years ago Greg expressed to me a new found desire to watch films and become more familiar with the language of the cinema. Well today's post is dedicated to films that Greg Wood should see. This may or may not become another reoccurring section of the Farm Team similar to Chart Watch, I haven't yet decided. Regardless, today's selections are of relevance to Greg because they had direct influence on Cameron Crowe, and more specifically influenced Crowe's film, Almost Famous.

The Apartment

Directed by Billy Wilder and winner of a whopping five Academy Awards including Best Picture in 1960, The Apartment stars Jack Lemmon as C.C. Baxter, a young entry level business man who's found that he can quickly climb the corporate ladder by allowing his multiple bosses to use his apartment as a safe haven to freely cheat on their wives. All is going according to plan until he falls for CEO J.D. Sheldrake's own mistress, Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLane). The film, at first a more or less straightforward screwball comedy, suddenly takes a dark and genre defying turn when Baxter comes home to find that Kubelik has attempted suicide by swallowed a bottle of Baxter's own sleeping pills. From this point on the film is about Baxter's desire to set things right and stand up for both himself and the woman he loves, meanwhile Kubelik must battle between her troubled relationship with Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) and her new feelings for Baxter.

Parallels can be drawn between Baxter and Crowe's Almost Famous protagonist, William Miller as Miller naively allows the members of Stillwater to push him around in hopes that it will eventually get him the story he is desperately trying to write. Also similarities can be seen between Kubelik and Penny Lane, as Lane finds herself the object of affection of both Stillwater's lead guitarist, Russel, and the young Miller. Lane's suicide attempt is actually a direct reference to the scene in The Apartment. Even Lane's memorable fur coat is a reference to a coat worn by MacLane at the end of the film. Crowe was actually such a fan of director Billy Wilder that he wrote a book entitled Conversations With Wilder.

The 400 Blows

The first of five films by director Francois Truffaut to feature actor Jean-Pierre Leaud in the role of Antoine Doinel, The 400 Blows is a fictional story about a troubled adolescent boy's attempts to make sense of a world that rejects him at every turn. More or less an autobiographical piece taken from Truffaut's own childhood, The 400 Blows was instantly hailed by critics and quickly defined Truffaut as France's leading New Wave director, also helping to define the genre and the use of Camera-stylo or the "Camera-as-pen" style of narative. Cameron Crowe did this exact same thing with Almost Famous. Taking another cue from Truffaut (who cast the then unknown Leaud as his lead), Crowe also cast an unknown actor, Patrick Fugit, to play his fictional childhood self. Like Doinel, Fugit's character finds himself in a world where no matter how close he gets to someone, he is inevitably doomed to remain an outsider.

Greg, you love Almost Famous as much as I do. You must see these films to truly see that Cameron Crowe is a bigger genius than we ever previously gave him credit. For everyone else, If you haven't seen any of these three films please do, and then come argue with me about them at great length.

Building an Archive

2008-03-31T17:04:00.007-05:00

Being the musically obsessed individual that I am, I own a lot of CDs. Not only that, but I am constantly buying new CDs to add to this collection. For as long as I can remember I've had this absurd desire to build a massive personal music library, which, in all reality, will never be finished. That still will not stop me from attempting to own every Radiohead b-side to the entire catalog of famed french singer/songwriter and notorious lady's man, Serge Gainsbourg. The latter of which is actually already in my collection, no shit.

Recently, for my birthday, I received a 500G external hard drive. For me this is the equivalent of early man touching the black monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. My entire world has been turned upside down. Up is down, left is right, black is white, and Jesus is Philip Seymour Hoffman. I don't even know where I stand anymore. All I know is now I am in the process of putting every single CD in my collection on to the monolith. Now, I own somewhere between 500 and 600 CDs.

This is going to take a while.

Chart Watch: Beck

2008-03-27T14:08:00.008-05:00

Title: Odelay (1996)
Label: DGC/Bong Load
Genre: Folk rock/Pop/Rap

Pro-Social Content: Fragmented ideas could be interpreted as positive, but this entire project reflects a disjointed stream of consciousness.

Objectionable Content: General themes are hard to make out, but isolated lines prove problematic. Vague contexts notwithstanding, the word suicide appears on “Hotwax,” “High 5,” and “Novacane.” The artist alludes to bisexuality on “Where It’s At.” “Devil’s Haircut” refers to “discount orgies” amid expressions of hopelessness. Several profanities find their way onto “High 5.”

Summary/Advisory: Feedback. Distortion. An effects-laden background track including what sounds like a dentist’s drill. That’s the “music.” Lyrically, one man’s nonsense is another man’s offbeat street poetry. And while Beck Hansen has toned down the offensive material of his last effort, Odelay falis to clear the hurdle of acceptability.

First of all I know for a fact that Beck himself takes a considerable amount of offense whenever people refer to his lyrics as “stream of consciousness,” but never mind that. It’s always easy to write off something you don’t understand as “nonsense,” but how are you going to call Odelay nonsense and then complain about the message it might be sending? If you truly believe it to be nonsense then doesn’t that by definition mean there can be no discernible message?

Also beware repetitive use of any word in the English language. Watch out kids! If you hear the word “suicide” three times within a 45 minute span, you’ll be unwillingly compelled to take your own life. You’re young, stupid and incapable of making decisions for yourself. Besides, everyone older than you knows three is the magic number… for mind control!

The Best Music You've Never Heard

2008-03-24T18:38:00.015-05:00

johnnytwentythree

From: Cincinnati, Ohio
Sound: Imagine Godspeed You! Black Emperor with the live ferocity of Fugazi
Album: JXXIII
Investigate: www.johnnytwentythree.com, Myspace

Sleeptalker

From: Nashville, Tennessee
Sound: Dark and moody alt-rock reminiscent of a simpler Bends-era Radiohead
Album: Simplifysimplify
Investigate: www.sleeptalker.net, Myspace

Snowglobe

From: Memphis, Tennessee
Sound: Brian Wilson and Flaming Lips experimental pop without surfboards or robots
Album: Oxcytocin
Investigate: Makeshift Music, Myspace

Roh Delikat

From: Boston, Massachusetts
Sound: Think stripped-down Blonde Redhead meets a more serious Giant Drag
Album: Sunny
Investigate: Sadly they've broken up, Myspace

The Early Evening

From: Nashville, Tennessee
Sound: Neil Young's down to earth songwriting with Paul McCartney's sense of melody
Album: Same Amazing Person
Investigate: www.theearlyevening.com, Myspace

Motion Decay

From: Nashville, Tennessee
Sound: Mix the thunder of Black Sabbath with the instrumental precision of Pelican
Album: NA
Investigate: Myspace

Aaron Robinson

From: Nashville, Tennessee
Sound: Ryan Adams without the bullshit meets the Counting Crows and Mark Kozelek
Album: We Are Racing Ghosts
Investigate: www.aaronrobinsonmusic.com, Myspace

The Slow and Steady Winner

From: (surprise!) Nashville, Tennessee
Sound: A mellower, more organic Explosions in the Sky
Album: Narrative Euphony in Nine Parts
Investigate: Myspace

Now go listen to some music and maybe get your ass to a show or two.

Don't Kid Yourself or Five Ways to Know You Don't Get Rock n' Roll

2008-03-18T22:23:00.017-05:00

Do you ever wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night afraid you don't understand Lou Reed? Do you sometimes get the shakes because you can't tell a Lennon song from a McCartney song? Do you like REO Speedwagon? If you said yes to the last two questions (it's actually OK if you don't get Metal Machine Music) then there's a good chance you don't understand Rock n' Roll. To know for sure, here are five things that will tell you for sure if you are meant to feast on lamb in Valhalla or gorge yourself on the buffet at Shoney's.

1) You Actually Think "the Beatles or the Stones" Is a Legitimate Question

A lot of people think that your answer to this question defines what kind of person you are. This, of course, is absolutely ludicrous. As much as people like to pretend these two bands have a lot in common the fact is they actually have very little. The real thing the bands have in common is that they were both more or less responsible for the so called "British Invasion." Regardless of your answer to this question you are really only revealing that you understand very little about either band. Having said all that, there is a right answer to this question. Your ability to answer it correctly proves nothing. It will merely determine whether or not you and I will ever be able to carry on a stimulating conversation together.

2) When You Sing Along With "Don't Stop Believin'" You Aren't Being Ironic

Listen, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but if you actually like Journey, you probably shouldn't go out in public. While I'm pretty much over the strange phenomena of the "Don't Stop Believin'" bar sing-a-long, if you weren't kidding when you belted out the line "hold on to the feeling" it's time to stop drinking, permanently. Also, you should know your friends have been laughing at you behind your back. This is why everyone suddenly goes quiet whenever you enter a room. Yeah, you're that guy. No one really likes you, just like no one really believed Steve Perry was a legitimate front man.

3) You Don't Like Led Zeppelin's Third Album

This only applies to you if you like Led Zeppelin. It's actually Ok if you don't like Led Zeppelin. Understanding Rock n' Roll is not actually determined by whether or not you think John Bonham is a god. However, if you think "Stairway to Heaven" is the greatest song since "Freebird," but think "Since I've Been Loving You" is boring then you not only don't get Rock n' Roll, but you also don't get Led Zeppelin. There's also a good chance you don't get Lynyrd Skynyrd, especially if you hate Neil Young because of the song "Southern Man." For further information on this last part see the Drive-by Truckers album Southern Rock Opera.

4) You Can't Stand Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Lou Reed Because of Their Voices

Seriously if you actually think that Rock n' Roll is about vocal prowess it's no wonder you like Journey.

5) Iggy Pop

If you need more of an explanation than this or the accompanying picture there is simply no hope for you, sorry.

So there you have a simple way to quickly determine if you truly get Rock n' Roll. There are many other ways to tell, but these are five definitive questions to ask yourself the next time you can't decide between Styx or Fugazi at the record store.

Chart Watch: Crash Test Dummies

2008-03-17T12:54:00.008-05:00

Title: God Shuffled His Feet (1994)
Label: Arista
Genre: Rock

Pro-Social Content: None, though several nonsensical songs avoid offensive themes.

Objectionable Content: A wave of sexual double entendres floods "Swimming in Your Ocean." "In the Days of the Caveman" includes Darwinist philosophies ("See in the shape of my body leftover parts from the apes and monkeys"). Tequila and swimsuit magazines are recommended as positive distractions on "I Think I'll Disappear Now." The title track is disturbing in its irreverence for God, His nature, and biblical concepts, while the single "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" shows disrespect for churchgoers. Other songs speak positively of alcohol, medieval potions, and psychic phenomena.

Summary/Advisory: With a Jethro Tull-minus-the-flute style and lyrics often bordering on utter nonsense, Crash Test Dummies has found a niche with an audience tired of the downer music of various alternative bands. This group has a more upbeat tone, though it comes off sounding like the same tune played 12 different ways. These guys don't take themselves too seriously. But herein lies the problem: The band doesn't take it's lyrics seriously either, offering several less-than-wholesome messages. Crash Test Dummies are an accident waiting to happen.

Well there you have it. Beware the band who hums an entire chorus, likes to drink, and reads Tolkien and T.S. Eliot. While I have to agree with him about every Crash Test Dummies song sounding the same (more accurately the whole album sounds like the work of someone who read a how-to book on formulaic songwriting) that's not really unusual for an early 90s band. Both Hootie and the Blowfish and the Gin Blossoms had relative success writing the same song over and over again. In fact, the Spin Doctors are still trying to find a new way to rewrite "Jimmy Olsen's Blues." Also the only world in which Crash Test Dummies sound like Jethro Tull is one where Stephen Hawking has a chance at beating Carl Lewis in the long jump.

Pure Unadulterated Filler

2008-03-15T14:06:00.007-05:00

I realize it's been over a week since I last posted anything. Sorry about that. I'll have something soon I promise. For now I'll leave you with some music recommendations. These are the albums I've been listening to as of late.

Go Check that stuff out. The second one is a local Nashville band called the Hot Pipes.

Good stuff.

Losing My Religion or One Man's Narrow-Minded Conservatism Is Another Man's Treasure

2008-03-07T00:23:00.016-06:00

If you aren't already one of the five people who actually read this blog then you're probably not reading this blog now either. On the off chance that you are reading it and are not one of those five people, you should know that I work at a used bookstore. This job affords me some obvious perks including ridiculous discounts on everything in the store and the ability to talk about music, movies, and books all day. This is a very frighteningly appropriate job for me, and yes I am most likely selling myself short when I say that.

One less obvious perk that you probably don't know even if you are one of the aforementioned five is the occasional discovery of small goldmines of entertainment found in items that would otherwise be thrown away by any reasonable person. One such item is a book called Chart Watch. The cover of this book modestly claims to offer "more than 100 album reviews," which is all well and good if you stop reading right there. However, it goes on to say, "and practical ways to help families make sound music choices." If that doesn't send up any red flags for you the very next line says in larger bold yellow text, "Forward by Michael W. Smith." The moment I read that I knew I'd hit pay dirt.

Skipping past Smith's introduction we find our author opening his first chapter by telling us that the progression from Elvis to Nine Inch Nails "didn't happen over night." Really? You mean roughly 40 years of music history didn't miraculously pass in the night? You mean I can't travel through time while sleeping in the backseat of my Delorean? Jumpin' Jiggawatts! The author goes on to give us a time line of sorts, taking us from "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to R. Kelly's "Bump and Grind" calling the latter a "sexually descriptive ode to intercourse." That's certainly one way to put it. This time line also makes pit stops on George Michael's "I Want Your Sex," Jethro Tull's "Bungle in the Jungle," and Olivia Newton John's "Physical." I mean come on! The only person who ever had sex because of Olivia Newton John is Olivia Newton John.

Moving on to the next chapter, entitled "The Need for Biblical Discernment," our author tells us about the dangers of Billy Joel in a section called "Limiting Spiritual Casualties in the Civil War of Values." Because we've all heard the story of how so many troubled teens decided to try crystal meth for the first time after they heard the chorus to "Uptown Girl." A few chapters later he describes a scene where he and his family almost walked out of an unnamed pizza restaurant when someone played Nirvana on the jukebox.

Nirvana is not welcome in our home. But what were we to do now that we were being "force-fed" Kurt Cobain and his nihilistic ramblings? My instincts wanted to yell, "Okay, kids, grab the pizza and lets head to the car right now!" I resisted the urge. There had to be a better solution. Indeed there was. I turned the incident into a "teachable moment" by pointing out why the evening's dinner music failed to meet our family standard.

Man, who doesn't want to hang out with this guy? I mean I hate it when people play Creed at Pizza Hut as much as the next guy, but like the next guy I get over it the moment my deep dish Pepperoni Lover's arrives. I've certainly never considered walking out because of someone else's bad taste, but then nothing gets between me and my Pepperoni Lover's, nothing. Oh yeah, he's also complaining about arguably the most relevant band of the last decade.

After four chapters of explanation we finally get to the reviews and they are as off base as one can possibly imagine. Each review contains a brief introduction and is then followed by three sections: Pro-Social Content, Objectionable Content, and Summary/Advisory. Whether he's warning us that purchasing volume one of The Beatles Anthology may lead the unwary consumer to purchase volumes two and three or explaining that Bell Biv Devoe's Hootie Mac is "saturated with profanity and sexual slang" one can't help but enjoy how completely out of touch this guy really is.

SO I tell you all of this to say that from now on I will occasionally be posting selected reviews from Chart Watch on the Farm Team, so keep an eye out for them. To eliminate any confusion between my own opinions and the Chart Watch opinions I'll headline each of these posts with Chart Watch in the title, but seriously if you can't tell the difference between rational opinion and Bible-thumping lunacy, you probably shouldn't be reading my blog. Fortunately, if you do you're probably not one of the five people who actually read this blog in the first place.

Baby You're A Rich Man

2008-03-02T22:49:00.006-06:00

Basically until next Tuesday I have somewhere between $30 and $40 on which to live. I'm not complaining, mind you. I'm just stating the facts. Because of this I won't be going out much or really AT ALL until I get paid again. Personally I'm fine with living off of bread, turkey, eggs, and Ramen noodles. Honestly, I would probably do this even if I had money to spend.

However, since I am in said monetary state today I have literally done nothing but play NBA Jam on my Super Nintendo. For at least six or maybe even as many as eight hours I have played as former President, Bill Clinton, in a two-on-two match generally as either the Chicago Bulls or the Charlotte Hornets vs. every team in the NBA circa 1993. I have beaten the game at least once and will probably do it a second time before the night is over. I now have a huge blister on my left thumb as well as tiny blisters under both my thumbnails and one on the inside of my left index finger because of this game.

Really, I don't even like video games all that much, especially sports-related video games, but NBA Jam is easily the most fun game for the SNES system save only Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past. This is really all about childhood nostalgia.

I am absolutely not ashamed to admit any of this. I realize none of this has anything to do with music. I promise to have that real post up in the next two days, seriously.

People Who Matter or Nothing New So Here Are Some Videos

2008-02-29T00:13:00.007-06:00

First This.

Now These:

Tom Waits: I Don't Wanna Grow Up

MC5: Kick Out The Jams

Iggy Pop: The Passenger

Joy Division: Transmission

Talking Heads: Warning Sign

Black Flag: Rise Above

Fugazi: Waiting Room

Real post coming soon, I promise.

New Logo

2008-02-28T13:39:00.002-06:00

So if you haven't already noticed, I have a new logo designed by one Emily Spence. That's really all I have to say right now. I discovered the greatest book at work the other day. I'll be posting about it in the next few days. For now I'll just say that it involves really short sighted album reviews that more or less completely miss their mark.

That's all for now. Time to get ready for work.

Addiction

2008-02-20T23:11:00.003-06:00

This image represents the 58+ CDs I've bought since I acquired my new job. 50% off is a horrible discount for someone like me. I thought about listing all of them, but I decided that was worth too much effort for something no one would read anyway. The point is I have a problem and my job only makes it worse, much worse.

That's all I have for now. Maybe I'll have a real update later on this week, and maybe I won't. Who knows?

Radio On the TV

2008-02-18T23:12:00.006-06:00

If you’re like me, and for your sake lets hope you're not, but if you are you’ve noticed something lately: terrestrial radio is all but totally irrelevant. Now, honestly you don’t have to be anything like me to notice this, so if you have don’t worry, we’re probably nothing alike. It really doesn’t take much to notice that there are a rather exorbitant number of artists doing considerably well for themselves without the aid of radio. As a matter of fact lately it seems fans are more and more likely to cry “sell out” when they hear their favorite band on an FM station.

Of course the concept of underground artists surviving without the aid of radio play is certainly not something new. The Grateful Dead managed to sell out shows on the smell of patchouli oil alone. Lately however, it seems like the number of artists on the radio are vastly out numbered by the artists who are not being played on any FM frequency (excluding college radio, of course) and still having no problem with ticket sales. A lot of this is due in no small part to the internet, but for many artists there is another factor entirely and that is commercials.

It used to be that if your favorite band were suddenly being played on the radio you got excited and called your friends to tell them to tune in and listen. However, the moment you heard them in a diaper commercial you threw your albums away and started listening to Motorhead. This is what the American Medical Association has come to call the Motorhead syndrome. Apparently when the human brain experiences a loss of faith in any band it goes in to a fight-or-flight type of response where by one’s subconscious suddenly understands that the only band that can be trusted to never sell a song for promotional use is Motorhead. The mind thus assumes that Motorhead will never betray their fans, and therefore the only logically safe option is to listen to “Ace of Spades” at maximum volume.

However a strange phenomenon has occurred in the past few years. Suddenly artists are turning to commercial advertising as an outlet for their music and without a massive surge in Motorhead album sales. It seems that commercials are the new radio. My Morning Jacket can be used to sell beer and we don’t immediately think “hey, My Morning Jacket wants me to drink MGD.” We’re seeing it in the most random of artists as well from Mates of State to Andrew Bird to the infamous rewording of an Of Montreal song for the “lets go Outback tonight” campaign.

What’s so interesting about all of this is not so much that so many underground and Indie Rock artists are turning to commercials as an outlet for their music as the fact that we seem to be ok with it. There certainly seems to be a difference between The Arcade Fire in an NFL commercial and the Counting Crows selling soft drinks. Where we once used to see it as endorsement we also seem to understand that our favorite bands are just trying to make it.

I honestly am not really sure what this says about us. Should we be upset about this? It seems to me that either way the revolution is well over and marketing has won. All I know is I suddenly have a strong urge to listen to Motorhead.

Amplive Remixes Radiohead, I Finally Join the Technology Era

2008-02-13T17:32:00.007-06:00

So if you haven't heard about the trials and tribulations behind Amplive's remixes of Radiohead's In Rainbows, here's the short and skinny of it. Amplive planned to release an album (of sorts) of remixes and reinterpretations of the new Radiohead album with help from such big names as Del the Funky Homosapien and Chali2NA without asking permission from the band. No problem right? After all the album was released to the public via the internet for basically free. Wrong! Apparently Radiohead's management felt that this wasn't the kind of forward-thinking progress the band would encourage and filed this.

Well to keep a short story brief, things have been worked out between the two camps and you can now freely download Amplive's Rainydayz Remixes here. All is right in remix land again.

In a bit of personal news, I finally bought an Ipod. Thanks to my job I was able to purchase a gently used 80G Ipod for less than half the price I would've paid for a new one. I can finally mark step one off my technology checklist. Now for step two: build army of robots who weap openly while listening to Leonard Cohen's Songs of Love and Hate. Why? Because I can!

Sources: Tiny Mix Tapes, Pitchfork.

Review: Boris with Merzbow Rock Dream

2008-02-09T14:25:00.002-06:00

The first thing you must understand about a band like Boris is that they do not believe in stagnation. Since 1994 they have refused to stay put, testing the boundaries of Heavy Metal and pushing the genre beyond its expected limits. They are simultaneously the loudest and most subtle band of the genre. To call them experimental would only be selling them short. Boris simply refuse to be limited by genre definitions. One moment they sound like the darkest Drone outfit since Sunn O))), the next they’re tearing through riffs like a heavier Bleach era Nirvana.

In the past three years Boris have released four studio albums, three of which were collaborative efforts with other artists like Sunn O))) and Michio Kurihara. I managed to see Boris with Kurihara in October of last year and it was easily the loudest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. It also was a strong contender for the best show I saw all year.

In 2005 Boris released Sun Baked Snow Cave, a collaborative effort with experimental noise artist, Merzbow. This album was an absolute struggle to get through as it’s only track, clocking in at just over 62 minutes, seems more like an exercise in aural torture than anything else.

Fortunately Rock Dream is about as far removed from Sun Baked Snow Cave as you can get. Recorded live in Tokyo, Rock Dream is in many ways more reminiscent of the show I saw than any of the previous Boris/Merzbow collaborations of which, I understand, there are three. Granted the first track of this two-disc set is the 35 minute “Feedbacker,” which then leads directly into “Black Out” and then deteriorates into a cacophony of Merzbow’s noise (a track called "Evil Stack") before finally giving way to the much quieter “Rainbow” from last year’s Kurihara collaboration of the same name. Before you know it disc one is over, and that’s saying a lot for any album with a half-hour long opening track.

The second disc kicks you in the face with bone-shattering force as the band powers through the 1-2-3 punch of “Pink,” “Woman on the Screen,” and “Nothing Special” in their exact order from 2006’s Pink. After a few more Merzbow-driven tracks, including the beautifully epic “Flower Sun Rain,” the album closes with flawless back-to-back performances of “Just Abandoned My-self” and “Farewell.”

With the recent news that Boris will be releasing their first non-collaborative album since Pink later this year, Rock Dream is certainly something to wet the appetite. It’s also a perfect example of everything Boris are capable of, presenting the band in a peak performance. It also must be played at top volume. You don’t get the full Boris experience unless your hearing is irreversibly damaged.

Review: Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings 100 Days, 100 Nights

2008-02-06T21:51:00.002-06:00

From note one of 100 Days, 100 Nights you know exactly what Sharon Jones is all about. This isn’t one of those records that requires some time to digest, and it certainly isn’t a concept album. No, this is an album about one thing and one thing only: Soul. This also isn’t about some kind of late 60s R&B revivalist movement. Jones and The Dap-Kings make their music as though Memphis Soul never went out of style in the first place. More accurately, this album literally sounds like it was made in 1969 at the Stax studios.

The songs themselves serve as such perfect examples of how to write Soul music, you’d almost believe Sharon Jones wrote the book on the subject. Every aspect of the genre is covered here. Songs like “Keep On Looking” and the title track have that fast shuffle-like groove that makes even the stiffest of people want to get up and dance. “Be Easy” on the other hand sits in a steadier groove that cruises rather than drives. The Dap-Kings are certainly in no hurry to get anywhere. “Humble Me” slows it down even further to give a bluesy performance that gives Aretha Franklin’s “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” a good run for its money. The real prize of this record comes at the end of the album, however with “Answer Me,” an epic Gospel number that features Jones on the piano.

Honestly the greatest thing I can say about this album is that had I heard more of it last year, it would’ve made my top 25 in place of Amy Winehouse. Winehouse's music may be steeped in Soul history, but Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings actually make it.

A Quick Update, Then Sharon Jones At The Cannery Ballroom

2008-02-04T23:15:00.001-06:00

It’s been far too long since I last posted anything. I know I said I would get better about this, and I promise I will, starting now.

In a short update about myself, I got that job with the used bookstore. So far things are going rather spectacularly, and as long as I can contain myself and not spend my entire paycheck there (employees get incredible discounts), it should prove to be fairly lucrative for now.

In other news I saw Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings at the Cannery Ballroom two nights ago and for my first show of the year, I have to say they set the bar pretty damn high. For someone who is almost 50, Jones knows how to work a stage and an audience like James Brown in the early 60s. This seems to come as little surprise when you find out that like the Godfather of Soul, Sharon Jones is a native of Augusta, Georgia. Maybe it’s something in the water.

Just watching her move during “My Man Is a Mean Man” was enough to make me feel like I’d just run four miles. If you can picture a 33-year-old Tina Turner performing “Proud Mary” you’ll have some idea of what I’m talking about. Jones’s dancing was equally matched by her voice, bending some notes to their breaking point while belting others with that wonderful effortlessness and aching crack of someone like Etta James. Basically what I’m saying is that Sharon Jones is absolutely everything one could ever ask for in a Soul singer.

The Dap-Kings also proved to be not only a solid accompaniment to Jones, but a perfectly solid act on their own accord, performing a few of their own songs to warm up the audience before introducing the star of the evening. Once Jones took the stage the Dap-Kings went into overdrive, churning through song after song without stopping. Part of the reason they called James Brown the hardest working man in show business was because his band worked as hard if not harder than he did. The Dap-Kings definitely understand this. Of course Brown infamously fined his band members for any mistake in a performance. The Dap-Kings just seem to play that tight because they can, and Jones knows it.

Aside from Jones turning the entire audience into her own backup singers on “Be Easy,” other highlights of the show included stellar performances of “Nobody’s Baby,” “How Do I Let a Good Man Down?,” “Tell Me,” “Let Them Knock,” “Your Thing Is a Drag,” and an encore performance of the Godfather’s own “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World” turning the song on its head the way Aretha Franklin did with Otis Redding’s “Respect.”

If there was ever a candidate for the birth of a Soul revival, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are absolutely it.

Having said all that, I’m reminded that I’ve been planning to do some brief reviews of a small selection of albums released last year that didn’t make my top 25 purely because I hadn’t heard them until now. I’m gonna try to knock those out this week so expect to see some pretty regular updating, finally. That’s all for now.

Stuck Inside My House With the Unemployment Blues Again

2008-01-15T14:21:00.000-06:00

I'll make this brief since I really have nothing much music related to speak of. Basically it's January and that generally means down time for the music industry. Unless your the Strokes and are hoping your album will go unnoticed or your Radiohead and your album has already been released officially through your website (more or less for free), nobody really releases new albums in January.

Having said that I realize there are probably albums that have already been released this year other than Radiohead. The thing is I'm unemployed, sick, and working on a computer built by Nikola Tesla. So that's my excuse.

The good news is I have a job interview with a used books/music/movies store on Wednesday, so hopefully I won't be unemployed much longer.

That's all for now. I hope to have a real update soon.

So What Didn't Make the List?

2008-01-04T17:23:00.000-06:00

In light of my last post I thought I'd list the other albums I heard this year that didn't make my top 25. I want to tell you that this will shed some light on the process by which I came to my conclusions, but really I think I just like listing things. You can probably expect to see more lists in the future.

Other Albums I Heard This Year

1990s - Cookies
Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
Air - Pocket Symphony
Art Brut - It's A Bit Complicated
Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation
B.R.M.C - Baby 81
Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew - Spirit If...
Caribou - Andorra
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Some Loud Thunder
Dr. Dog - We All Belong
Earth - Hibernaculum
Grizzly Bear - Friend
Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer
Interpol - Our Love To Admire
Jay Z - American Gangster
Jesu - Silver
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
Liars - Liars
Minus the Bear - Planet of Ice
The National - The Boxer
The New Pornographers - Challengers
Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
Oakley Hall - I'll Follow You
Pelican - City of Echoes
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Vietnam - Vietnam
Kanye West - Graduation

Albums I Wanted to Hear But Didn't

The Apples In Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder
Black Lips - Good Bad, Not Evil
Boris with Merzbow - Rock Dream
Dan Deacon - Spiderman of the Rings
Deerhunter - Cryptograms
Ghostface Killah - The Big Doe Rehab
Gorgol Bordello - Super Taranta!
Justice - t
Les Savy Fav - Lets Stay Friends
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
M.I.A. - Kala
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
Youssou N'Dour - Rokku Mi Rokka
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline
Wu Tang Clan - Diagrams

Albums That Came Out Last Year But Still Made Other Lists This Year

Lilly Allen - Alright, Still
Peter, Bjorn, and John - Writer's Block

Anyway, that's that. Please feel free to comment and tell me if you feel I grossly under estimated an album or if their's an album I should have heard but didn't and didn't list.

Also I added pictures to the first post for those of you who, like me, can't read anything online longer than a paragraph without visual stimuli.

The 25 Best Albums I Heard in 2007

2007-12-30T00:51:00.002-06:00

Before I get into all this I want to preface by saying this is a list of the best albums I heard this year. Now, I am merely one person (with a very limited amount of income) and thus there were a lot of albums I simply didn’t hear this year. In fact, there were a lot of albums this year I wanted to hear, but sadly didn’t.

Also so many critics like to present their opinions as though they were God’s last words to mankind. This is why I hate critics. Having said that, I also realize the very nature of this post places me in that category. I’ll get over it.

Now that’s off my chest, here’s my list of the 25 best albums I heard this year.

25) Okkervil River – The Stage Names

This album had to grow on me. It took me a while to get passed Will Sheff’s voice. The lesson to be learned here is if you wanna make hipsters happy, blatantly reference their favorite albums in your own music. It works almost every time.

24) Queens of the Stone Age – Era Vulgaris

This album also had to grow on me. After 2005’s Lullabies to Paralyze failed to do anything but highlight Mark Lanegan, I was really afraid to even touch this album. Fortunately it turned out to be Josh Homme’s strongest album to not feature Dave Grohl. If only Mark Lanegan were on more tracks.

23) Band of Horses – Cease to Begin

Almost all the reviews I read of this album talked about how the band had moved from Seattle to South Carolina and the effects that seemed to have on their sound. Honestly, I don’t hear it. It may not be quite as good as 2006’s Everything All the Time, but I don’t really care. In less than a year they made an album that was better than anything the Shins were able to do in four.

22) Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

I was really just glad this album didn’t suck. Having to follow up 2004’s Good News for People Who Love Bad News seemed a daunting enough task as it were. Then the news of Johnny Marr joining the group didn’t exactly warrant the warm fuzzy feeling you’d expect. Proving my fears totally wrong, Marr not only adds to the Mouse’s sound, he redefines it in a way that is both subtle and unexpected.

21) Dinosaur Jr – Beyond

Again, I was really glad this album didn’t suck. Not that I expected J Mascis to suck, but few people are able to pull off albums this good when they seem to be passed their prime.

20) Explosions in the Sky – All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone

I used to argue that if you’d heard one Explosions album you’d heard them all. I don’t believe that anymore, although I can see where the casual listener or a Friday Night Lights fan might see it that way. While they’ve never been quite as good as 2003’s epic The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place, this is a different kind of album. It’s the shorter tracks like “What Do You Go Home to” and “So Long, Lonesome” that bring out their best this time around.

19) Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam

I find that the harder an Animal Collective album is, the better it is. Strawberry Jam is painfully brilliant. I considered every track on this album for a mix CD I made this year, and only “#1” actually made it. I guess that means “#1” is the easiest track to listen to, which I guess also means it’s the worst track on the album.

18) Jesu – Conqueror

Considering Justin Broadrick basically did all of this by himself, and it sounds nothing like Napalm Death (of which Broadrick was once a member), I have to say this might be the best metal album of the year.

17) Amy Winehouse – Back to Black

Not since Dusty in Memphis has a British woman sounded this soulful. Tabloid headlines, associations with Pete Doherty, and her husband’s drug bust aside… hell all of that just seems to make her cooler, somehow! This album was everything Joss Stone could never be.

16) Black Moth Super Rainbow – Dandelion Gum

Man is this album strange. I don’t even know where to begin, really. Its brilliance lies buried somewhere deep beneath melotrons, synthesizers, and acid-trip vocals. If nothing else it certainly sets a mood.

15) Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha

Andrew Bird simply took his already well defined sound and tightened it. This is a very focused, very mature album made by an exceptionally talented musician who’s vocal power is more than a little reminiscent of Jeff Buckley.

14) B.R.M.C – American X

Every song on this EP should have been on the full length Baby 81. Everything that B.R.M.C. does well can be found here. However, if you want a quick and easy cookie cutter version of the band, get Baby 81 instead.

13) Boris & Michio Kurihara – Rainbow

Boris is easily the loudest live band on earth and yet somehow this album is more about understatements and juxtapositions than blowing out your eardrums. Kurihara’s guitar playing adds yet another layer to this already dense thicket of genre-defying talent. Since once again the liner notes are badly translated I still have no idea what they’re saying, but who cares. This is more about musicianship anyway.

12) Battles – Mirrored

The sound of this album is nothing if not huge. It’s also nothing if not eclectic, at least in texture. It’s quirky, rhythmic, percussive, and well, weird. Think Animal Collective meets Minus the Bear and you might get some idea of what Mirrored sort of sounds like occasionally. Needless to say, I loved this record.

11) Deerhoof – Friend Opportunity

When you’re already an experimental art rock group who goes on tour with Radiohead and the Flaming Lips, you make this album.

10) Wilco – Sky Blue Sky

After A Ghost Is Born it seemed like Wilco’s forward motion was slowing off a little. At first glance Sky Blue Sky would seem to indicate it had stopped completely. This is far from the case, however. By stripping their sound down to simple in-studio live performances with absolutely no special effects (even though they added Nels Cline to the arsenal) Wilco made one of the most brilliant records of the year. Backwards is forwards, apparently.

9) The White Stripes – Icky Thump

Every White Stripes album simultaneously feels like a return to form and a giant leap forward. Icky Thump just seemed to do it better.

8) The Good, The Bad, & The Queen

I’m always weary of anything resembling a super group, and rightly so. It’s rare that any band can support more than one huge ego. However this is not a band of super egos, except for maybe Damon Albarn. Thankfully just about everything Albarn does these days is at least worth a listen or two. The Good, The Bad, & The Queen is not only that, but is easily better than the last Blur album.

7) Menomena – Friend and Foe

This album falls somewhere between TV On the Radio and Tapes ‘n Tapes. Actually if Tapes ‘n Tapes made Return to Cookie Mountain it might have sounded like this.

6) Various Artists – I’m Not There

This album is a hipster’s wet dream. Iron & Wine, Stephen Malkmus, Sufjan Stevens, Jim James, Cat Power, Eddie Vedder, Sonic Youth, Karen O, Jeff Tweedy, Mark Lanegan, The Hold Steady, Yo La Tengo, and the Black Keys (among others) all doing Bob Dylan songs. Need I say more?

5) Beirut – Lon Gisland

Releasing both this EP and the full length The Flying Club Cup this year, Zack Condon proved to be a formidable force to be reckoned with. While the full length sets a more somber mood, Lon Gisland feels like the perfect summer album for the French Riviera in the early 1920s.

4) Feist – The Reminder

When I bought this album I seriously thought I was going to have to convince people it was good. I know I’m not the only person in the world who’d ever heard of Feist, but I couldn’t believe how good it was. I also didn’t believe it when suddenly she was huge. How does any member of Broken Social Scene get that huge so quickly? This album is certainly a strong possibility.

3) Radiohead – In Rainbows

I could tell you this album is brilliant because of how it was released through the band’s website in light of their release from Capitol. I could tell you this album is brilliant because it’s a new Radiohead album. I could tell you it’s an excellent blend of reworked older material and road-tested new material. I could tell you all of that, but you should already know it.

2) Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

Neon Bible didn’t just pick up where 2004’s Funeral left off, it made some heavy forward progress. Not only did the songs get tighter, they got more epic. It seemed as though everything Win Butler did, the rest of the band matched. This is the kind of album that most bands will spend their whole career trying to make. I just hope that’s not too much for the Fire to handle.

1) Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog

Sam Beam’s rugged roots sound comes into its own world, finally. We first got a taste that Beam was ready to branch out from his simple folkish sound when he released 2005’s Woman King, which merely left his listeners wanting more. The Shephard’s Dog is not so much an extension of that as it is the sound of a man who’s found a real home playing with a full band. It’s the kind of album made by someone who’s excited at the prospect of seeing what he’s capable of doing when his possibilities are no longer limited. This is far from self-indulgence, however. It’s simply the most rewarding album of the year, for both Beam and his audience.