California, Here We Come

Not actually. I'm quoting Phantom Planet.

Fun fact: I nearly moved to Laguna Beach on a whim a few years ago. This was before MTV had a vested interest in the town. I was in California with my mother and we drove down to Laguna for lunch on our last day. We ate at this hole-in-the-wall sandwich place on the beach and I kind of fell in love with the place. It just so happened that the restaurant was hiring and there was an apartment for rent right above it. Needless to say, after much deliberation, and my mother offering to leave me there and send my things to me, I decided against staying. And we missed our flight. Though I kind of wish I had stayed. It would have made a better story.

Anyway, I'm here to extol the virtues of The O.C. (not the real O.C., but the teen dramedy that ran for three seasons [it actually ran for four, but I like to pretend the fourth season didn't happen]). I've been re-watching the series (verging on ceaselessly) as of late, and I'd forgotten how good it is. The writing is sharp, and while it does get bogged down in a few tiresome plot lines, it's actually a very socially aware show. Thirteen from House plays a large guest role in season 2. Denny from Grey's Anatomy has a cameo. And, of course, it features "performances" from at-the-time popular bands. The show also played a large role in my music education. There was a time (high school) when I didn't know shit about music, and it was actually The O.C. that sparked my interest.

Having thrown myself into this teen angst marathon (I'm halfway through season 2) I can't help but compare The O.C. with Skins. And it made me curious as to how those of you who have watched both feel about them... Thoughts?

Objectum Sexuality.

I consider myself pretty accepting of alternative lifestyles. And sexual fetishes. You know, whatever wings your wang, I'm pretty much down. I might not be game, but it's your thing. Do what you want to do (I can't tell you who to sock it to...)

But.

This is fucking insane. Literally. And I insist you watch it. Or at least that you watch the first five or so minutes of part two.

It's about people who fall in love with objects.

From Associated Content:

With objectophilia, feelings of love, attraction, arousal, and commitment are focused on a particular object, and the mere thought of a relationship with an actual human being seems ludicrous. The politically correct term for the individual in love with an object is Objectum-Sexual.

Issues crop up in Objectum-Sexual relationships, just as they do in any type of relationship. One man found that he was particularly aroused by the inner workings of mechanical objects, and this often led to affairs. He would cheat on his beloved, a steam locomotive, a simple repair job would lead to all sorts of trouble for him. Incidentally, his steam locomotive partner is male to him. So, technically, as he will admit, he is living in an Objectum-Sexual, gay relationship.

Watch Married To The Eiffel Tower [Part 1]  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com


Watch Married To The Eiffel Tower [Part 2]  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Via my friend Melissa, who is awesome (and who insisted I watch this while we did the webcam thing so that she could watch my reactions).

I Like Crap Like This.

I like how this worked out, which is the only reason I'm posting it. Also, I do not claim to be proficient in things like Photoshop, so I will make no apologies for the simplicity of the text's format.

The full quote is Albert Einstein:

When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.

Ok. My internet break is now over. Back to the grindstone.

Ryan and I Already Did This (Or: I Deleted the Post Because I Was In a NyQuil Haze)

My band's name is: [List of] Books Banned By Iran; or BBBI as I like to call it. The album is entitled: Suitable for Some People. Here's the album photo but I'm too sick to work photoshop right now:

(Yes Ryan, I know that it's not the same one as last night but I lost the screen capture of that other one).

My buddy Jamee turned me on to this on Facebook (yea, suck); could be interesting for everyone though.

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Photoshop it

This Is A Movie (Or: Really?! What the Fuck Hollywood?)

Some piece of shit called (drum roll): Donkey Punch.

black lips and other such garage oriented rock.

so i found a copy of the black lips new album, 200 million thousand, online this morning.  so excited. (now you can click here for a .zip file of the album) i can't say exactly what i like about these guys, but they write interesting songs and don't give a fuck.  maybe a bit hype, but entertaining to listen to and follow their antics.  they recorded a live album in mexico, for which a mariachi band opened and introduced them.  the black lips just got back from a tour of india where they were pelted with bottles because no one liked their music.  and they set up a hotline for fans to contact them on a tour cellphone, you never know what to expect, which makes them better than most.

amanda and i are going to see them in march, hopefully they live up to their riotous reputation. but speaking of garage rock, we saw the mannequin men last night.  they're from chicago and are perhaps one of the many promising garage rock bands that hopefully garner attention beyond our hometown.  a mix between the velvet underground, the replacements and the clean...a good swirl of proto punk and garage rock.  and they have a song about not getting anyone to help them at reckless records (local store notorious for their bitchy attitudes, ben will love this song, cause he knows what they're talking about.)  anyway they have one album from 2007 on flameshovel records that should be easy to find and quite worth the listen.

also check out alex white and the red orchestra if you need some garage rock a la black velvet elvis.  from chicago and on in the red records, it's great nasty fun female-fronted garage rock.  alex has a new band white mystery that's a two piece, and as soon as i find a copy of their album, it'll be posted here, it's fucking great.....

(my new favorite record label may be chicago's hozac records.  they do mostly seven inches and have new releases by white mystery, france has the bomb (birthday suits, soviettes side project) and nobunny.  but i don't know how much hozac might interest you, if you come across any of their records, they're worth the purchase...)

Reading: It's an Adventure

I used to have a Mickey Mouse tshirt that said that, and Facebook notes aside, I thought I would briefly discuss the progress of my resolution to read more.

Currently, I'm reading three books:

"Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand

"The Will to Whatevs" by Eugene Mirman

"The Wanderers" by Richard Price

Thus far, I hate to say this, but I've been a bit underwhelmed by "The Will to Whatevs". It's possible that I expected to much, but it hasn't really been enticing me the way I thought it would. I was convinced I wouldn't be able to put it down, but it hasn't been that much of a challenge.

As far as "The Wanderers" is concerned, it is definitely a high school level book, and has also failed at keeping my attention. It's good, but reminds me a bit too much of "West Side Story" and "The Outsiders".

I've put off reading any Ayn Rand for a very long time (a decade, in fact) which I think, ultimately, was to my benefit. I am loving reading this book. I actually look forward to reading it, which is a big change for me, as of late. I find myself trolling the internet and then remembering that I'm reading "Atlas Shrugged" and feel like an idiot for opening my computer in the first place.

You'll Never Walk Alone (Or: How The Blog Earned a Theme, Maybe)

So Ryan and I were talking music tonight, I convinced him to listen to Pink Floyd and I think I made him somewhat of a believer that it is not stoner-space rock. Anyways, they sample "You'll Never Walk Alone" in their song "Fearless" from the album Meddle. The song is sung religiously at Anfield stadium by Liverpool FC supporters before and after games and while I'm an Arsenal fan (much like Roger Waters), I believe the sentiment rings true. This being said, I guarantee you, you'll never walk alone. Even more convincing, the group that initiates the singing is called the Liverpool Kop(pas?). So here are both versions:

Blahscars (Or: I Watch Too Many Movies. [But: Don't Be Confused By the Format of This Title, This Post Was Not Written By Eric.]) and Other Stuff

Hello again. It's been awhile. Nice to see you.

So I changed the banner photo again. It is once again a selection from Hedi Slimane's photo diary. Quick question for everyone: would you prefer that there occasionally be a banner photo that actually had color in it? Otherwise I'm going to stay the course, though I would like to renew my resolve to change it more often...

Also, if you haven't noticed (though she hasn't posted yet) we have a new contributor. Amanda finally accepted our invitation. Welcome, etc... I'm excited you're here.

Okay, down to business. I've been watching a ton of movies lately, and seeing as how the Oscars are tomorrow, though I don't really care about them, I figured a little movie review bit would be timely. Yep.

Slumdog Millionaire

This movie was great. Well structured, good story, good pace, awesome closing scene. I don't know if it necessarily deserves to win Best Film.

Milk

Gus Van Sant is r-tardedly talented and he did a wonderful job on this film. You kids know me, I'm not enthused by almost anything gay, but this movie is amazing. I may have cried. It's got an awesome cast. This is my pick for Best Film.

Doubt

Holy shit this movie is intense, but very good. Meryl Streep vs. Philip Seymour Hoffman? How could you go wrong?

Man on Wire

This is a documentary about the French tight rope walker who walked between the Twin Towers in the seventies. It's really good. Honestly, the best documentary I've seen since "Joy Division". It deserves the Oscar.

Dedication

I've been waiting two years to see this movie. Justin Theroux's directorial debut that was released only in theaters. This is worth torrenting. The characters are some of the most believable I've seen in quite some time. And the dialog is incredible.

Rachel Getting Married

Good, but way too long. Not amazing. Watch it if you've got two hours to kill and you're not looking to be highly entertained.

Rock 'n Rolla

Definitely not Guy Richie's best work. It was good, but it didn't feel very original. Plot twists are pretty transparent.

Transporter 3

What do you expect? It's ridiculous and entertaining.

Death Race

More ridiculous, less entertaining.

Finally, I'd like to point out that Robert Downey Jr. was nominated for his role in "Tropic Thunder" which is fucking rad.

For Jared (Or: Anyone Else Who Wishes to Read)

Jared, here's that mic and the company that manufactures it. They actually have some high-quality mics for pretty damn cheap. Bressler (an audio instructor), recommends not using it for vocals but says it works great on amps, bass drums, etc. He trialed it alongside a AEA R44, a Royer R122 a Blue Woodpecker and a few other high-end ribbons and swears by it. List price: $109.95. Pretty looking thing too:

They have some other affordable mics listed as well. Not a bad buy I would speculate. I'm thinking I'll pick one up myself.

In other news: I was riding the 3 bus down to school yesterday, when a horrifying smell reached my nostrils and sent me into shock. That's right, I experienced my first public transportation shitting (the responsibility of someone else not me, I maintain continence), it was quite the experience.

High Speed Trains

Here's a look at what the new high-speed trains routes will look like. (Click the picture to see more).

love is all.

what uninhibited dance punk would sound like if most bands in that genre rose above the cookie cutter mold.  plenty of 80s post punk/new wave flavor, without the bland posing as the next go-gos or cure.   and though they're from sweden, love is all show up the hives et al,.....these kids should be huge.

anyway, love is all is the jam.  (and in heavy rotation in my iTunes.)

i just got their album from last fall, hundred things keep me up at night.  i would've gotten it sooner but money was short.  it's awesome.   and so is their previous effort from 2006, nine times that same song.  

and as i hope to continue sharing what music i'm into...

click here to download both their albums.

More Great News From the Awesome Front

Sorry to keep the random posting up. Ratatat is showing up at the Showbox SoDo, on March 29th. I know this may mean jack-schit [sic] to most of you, but I'm fckng [sic] excited about this whole thingy.

Road Diary Chapter 1

Not a lot to say. Its weird being at a transitional point but at the same time it's very refreshing to not be bound to anything except what you can't live without. And at this point these items consume an entire wagon styled car. So for those that don't know, I have left DC, and I don't advise that anyone move there ever. I'll rant on this subject at a later date, but for right now I'd like to share some pictures I took in the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico where I was just at yesterday. It's a very Sci-Fi looking place, like something out of the old Star Trek show. Enjoy:

Queen of the Universe

I don't know if any of y'all have heard, or if you even care, but this is sort of a big deal to me.

They're re-making Barbarella.

Robert Rodriguez is directing, and he cast his girlfriend Rose McGowan to replace Jane Fonda. She's pretty much the only one of today's actresses (in my opinion) who oozes sex appeal and doesn't mind exploiting herself for the good of cinema, so I think it could work. I'm almost more interested to see what Rodriguez's take on space looks like.


Yes?


It's sort of uncanny. Maybe they just photoshopped it since the rumor is the film is as yet unfinanced. BUT Rogriguez is directing the 2009 release Red Sonja starring-you guessed it, Rose McGowan. I think we have a muse in our midst.

Oooh I like the posters a lot. And I'm obsessed with redheads. I may be a convert soon.




Lick it up, bitches!

An Old Classic: Or What I've Been Up To Recently

Greetings. I hope that everyone is finding themselves in good order. Just keeping you posted with regards to life out West. First I have some advice for Jared's last post:

1. I don't know too much about comps, I'm running PT LE8 through a newer generation iMac that runs great and handles RTAS DSPs pretty well. For LE, I'd recommend a decent amount of RAM and a sizable duo-core. A refurbished Mac would suit well.

2. I don't recommend anything lower than an MBox 2 Pro, primarily for the sake of the firewire interface that the 2 Pro has. Lag becomes a huge issue when recording anything externally, especially during record/playback. The USB interfaces make it feel like you can be playing up to an 1/8 note behind the record playback, which sucks and means that you have to do more takes and quantize.

3. As far as mixing consoles are concerned, I'd look at the Yamaha MG124CX. It's affordable and comes with a 12-channel and 4-bus channel capabilities and has a built-in compression system. That or I'd look at the smaller Behringer Eurorack series, it's what I use and it's perfectly fine for a bedroom Pro Tools setup.

4. As for affordable cardiod mics, I'd personally recommend, the Beta 57a. It's a go-to for almost any instrument setup (sans drums obviously, vocals and acoustic guitar). If you're looking for a good, rich and most importantly, affordable condenser mic I'd recommend the KSM27. It's pretty cheap and good all around. I would recommend, that whatever mic(s) you go with to run a HPF somewhere around 75-90Hz to cut the room noise that you get in home recordings.

But I digress. Seattle's insane. School's amazing. I love showing up for class everyday, even though I wake up a few days a week at 6am to catch the 7:15 bus. My history degree was in vain. I'm still settling in, but I've adjusted to the city exceptionally. Some photos of the things I've been up to:




Dinner: Fettucini with fresh clams. Did you know that "Buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo Buffalo." is a complete sentence in the English language? Damn right!


Cribbage night at the Hop Vine Pub, up on Capitol Hill.


Cribbage and beer, hooray! Did you know that Cribbage is the only game that you can legally bet on in pubs in Britain? Brain food yo!


Bought a soprano melodica, it's fucking awesome sounding.


The studio in my bedroom. Clustered with homework and music theory books.

Mt. Rainier from my balcony. My view's insane, you really have to see it to believe it. This mountain may blow up and kill me one day but at least I'd have a great view of my impending demise.

Anyways, not much else is new. I'm going to see This Is A Process tomorrow at Chop Suey (that one's for you Ben) and I'm waiting for Tony to get up here soon so we can make some music.

handsome furs.

click here to download the new handsome furs' album face control. 

i could rant and rave about this side project of wolf parade, but it's not necessary.  it's as awesome as you'd expect from those quirky canadian indie kids.  

hot contender for my best of 2009 list for sure.

Laaaadies!

Since Myspace or Facebook won't let me post these photos of paintings I recently did, I thought I'd share them with y'alls.

I don't even really consider nipples nudity unless its a tasteless photo or in real life if someone whips her titty out (Courtney Love shout-out). Then it's weird. But alas...



The next two are in a joint gold frame that's impossible to take a photo of.

("Lady Problem")

("Look to the female")


Happy Fuckin' Valentines Day....

I think people are scared of boobs. Out of all the paintings I made, coincidentally all the ones with boobs didn't sell. But that means I get to keep them so it's not a total loss.

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot. I hope you guys appreciate this gem. Whaaaat?


Happy V Day, Y'all.

Out of Teeth

Yo Dallas,

here's the jam: Obie Trice vs. Hall & Oates- Gots Some Teeth (popchop mash)

franz ferdinand vs wavves

so if you want to pretend you're going to hip rock shows in nyc with jared, just hit up this site, nyctaper.com.  it offers free downloads of live shows of bands such as wavves and belle & sebastian.  the sound and the bitrate of the mp3s are both high quality...and its free.... how can you beat that.  i find it a good way to check out what's going on in the nyc indie scene.....

and also  click here to download the new franz ferdinand album, tonight, that some of you requested.  i've included the deluxe edition bonus tracks cause they're dance floor killers...... hope you enjoy.........

more music miscellany to come.

but for the moment i'm working up something hilarious to say to eugene mirman when amanda, ben and i go to his book reading on friday night.  ben might get his chest autographed.  but i'm hoping to post some insane photos this saturday of us with eugune drunk at some bar.  here's to keeping my fingers crossed.

(and to those readers such as eric in seattle, he's doing a free reading there to.  so don't be sad......)

What would Ben Rouner Do?

(Or any other of yoose) in regards to digidesign vs. other hardwares, macbook pros, and acquisition of softwares by nefarious means....

With limited budget, my main first query is around the mbpros; any particular models to stay away from (as I will be going the refurbished route), and what would those in the know consider to be the base ghz/RAM edition for quickly and reliably running mainly protools/audio programs? I may dabble in filmaking down the road as I got a gig doing film archival stuff, and some work doing scores for some small film projects, which leads me to believe I may not want to skimp on processing power whatsover when working within video editing.

Where I would have to begin being seriously cost efficient will be in the arena of Mbox/digidesign hardware. The mini doesnt have enough inputs necessarily, but Im not opposed to it because its so damn cheap. Any feedback on Mbox 2 vs Mbox 2pro? Good stories/horror stories with any of these (especially around latency/general performativity)? The main selling point for having at least 4 live inputs would be the drum kit, other wise I really only need 2 anyways. Anything out there that is the toyota 22re of hardware; that is, I could find it used much cheaper and count on it lasting a while?

Any soundboards you would stay away from, or utterly recommend for small home studio?

A yes or no will suffice if no one wants to incriminate themselves or this blog, but could one count on "finding" plug-ins/other programs out there? I know that historically the answer to this is in constant flux, so at the moment, could one pirate if one chooses to go pirating?

Any cardioid mic feedback? I cant believe how cheap some of the Sure cardioids are these days, but I feel like they may be so for a reason.

So many review sites assume $ is no object, hence I am curious what yalls with knowledge in this arena have to say.
Cheerz

P.S. I painstakingly uploaded a few photos from my phone:

The lovely Oneida

the blob in the middle is Thurston Moore. He's fucking tall, and knows alot about Volvos.















This license plate says blaxmaxx, with a brooklyn signature on the window.















and then there's this















I think Tony already posted this guy-who is going to be my next tatoo:















The empty space on my block where a building was, which perished on election night:















Peace!

I Looked Left, and This Went Right.

I think I need to start paying attention to what's going on around me. For serious. I seem to miss a lot of what's worth noting, probably because I'm usually running on sensory overload. You know: listening to music while playing the Wii, trying to write while chatting with Ryan on AIM, watching movies while surfing the net, perusing music blogs while playing Wordscaper, or just having 96 fucking tabs open... It's got to stop. For me, at least.

Case in point: I DJ-ed at KBGA all of last year, which means I usually had access to new releases, usually a week or two before they were actually released. I'm friends with a group of music savvy folks. I have at least twenty music blogs bookmarked, and I check them pretty regularly. Sure, I don't consider myself a 'music person,' but dammit! I like music, and I try to at least keep up with what's new and notable.

-HOWEVER-

I somehow completely missed Passion Pit's Chunk of Change EP, which was released in September of last year. What's sadder, I distinctly remember downloading at least one of their tracks from Elbows. And you know what?

It's pretty fucking awesome.

So, on one hand, I'm mad that I somehow managed to maintain a long-standing ignorance re: Passion Pit, but on the other hand, I'm kind of glad: it has (marginally) brightened my otherwise dull days here in Limbo. It's all dance-y (in a 'wave-your-arms-around-like-you're-drowning/interpretive-dance' kind of way, which is perfect for me) and all sappy-romantic-y (also perfect for me) and kind of gives me butterflies. And since the full length album is 'scheduled to be released in early 2009,' I feel like Passion Pit has potential to stay on my heavy rotation for at least a large part of 2009.

Here's the EP, in case anyone else missed it:


BONUS!

"Sleepyhead (Wallpaper Dio Remix)"

Other Stuff I'm Currently Interested In:

-I'm pretty stoked for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance- Now With Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! I love Pride and Prejudice. I also love zombies. From what I've gathered, the guy who wrote How to Survive A Horror Movie has just interjected Austen's original text with zombie scenes... Which could potentially be Awesome (capital 'A') or retarded. Either way, it's on my book-list for 2009.



-THIS IS THE RADDEST PERSONAL LIBRARY IN THE ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD.

-This website both horrifies and amazes me.

-Finally, Nikki Farquharson's project "Rebuilding Expressions" takes all of those annoying little proverbs that people spew at you in cliche situations and 'updates' them for modern American society. It contains such pithy gems as:

THE BLOG IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD

and:

KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE AND YOUR ENEMIES ON LIMITED PROFILE.

and:

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE REHAB.

Ok. That's all. I'm tired now. Goodnight.

P.S. I went out to smoke, and the clouds were arranged around the moon like this:

~ (°)

(With the ° being the moon.) And of course, all I could think was, "Penis-> Vagina."

Although, that would be a rather crooked penis. I have sex on the mind. Grr.

Billy I'm Not Ready

Ugh!

Damn you, Skeet Ulrich! You're like the Barry Watson of cinema in that you ruin everything. You're like the King Midas of shit. King Shitas. At least they killed him in that one episode of Family Guy.


I heard a rumor that Crispin Glover is being cast to play the next joker...Those are some big shoes to fill. But if anyone remembers him as Cousin Dale in Wild At Heart, I think he might just be the only other person fit for a role like that. But really. Not having Heath Ledger is gonna sting. Feel the burn.


Also if anyone has ever heard his 1989 album "The Big Problem Does Not Equal The Solution, The Solution Equals Let It Be" let me know. I've heard a couple tracks and it's utter insanity. A guilty pleasure though. Apparently he included his home phone number on the back of every album so that when the purchaser figured out the 'big problem', they could call him and tell him what they thought. Apparently he was surprised at the amount of people who figured it out. I am not one of them.



There's a track called "Clowny Clown Clown" (about...duh) and then one called "Auto-Manipulator" about masturbastion that made its way onto a random mixtape I got from a dude at a craft fair. Gems!

new music. yes.

So I've been acquiring music non-stop and rather than you buy/download some album unawares, I'm going to give you a short review of some of the new records I've come across this year so far.

von bondies- love hate and then there's you...  Don't bother.  All their punchy garage rock sound has been sacrificed for emo pop sheen.  In fact I'm going so far as to deleting it from my iTunes.

ac newman- get guilty...  If you're looking for incessant pop hooks, this is for you, or if you want something with a little more street cred than the lastest Death Cab album.  Not bad for a dreary winter afternoon, but the album won't get much play from me.

wavves- s/t... lo-fi punk a la no age and the black lips.  Very catchy good song writing, and not just another hype band that will be forgotten soon (which I hope is what happens to the vivian girls and times new viking.)  buy this when it comes out on fat possum in march.

mi ami- watersports... two former members of the black eyes, doing their own twist of liars, deerhunter, chromatics dub noise post rock.  very promising release, though I've not heard the whole album yet.  buy this when it comes out on touch and go in march.

pains of being pure at heart- s/t... despite their lack of creativity in naming themselves, these guys are surprisingly interesting.  and though they wear their influences on their sleeves (smiths, jesus and mary chain, my bloody valentine, belle and sebastian), they pull off songs you want to listen to over and over again.  it's out right now, and i can upload a copy of the album if anyone wants a copy.

no bunny- love visions... though this came out at the end of last year, i just found out about it from jay reatard's blog.  maybe hard to find everywhere, but definitely worth it if you need some new fuzzy garage punk anthems to rock your way into spring.  highly suggested for road trips when the weather is nice.

franz ferdinand- tonight...  the kids bought some steely dan records, some new synths, and if you believe me, made an album worth listening to.  less trapped by their britpop dance punk mainstream constraints than some of their peers (you fill in the blanks), they seem to want to break their own mold and make something less straightforward and more subtle.  their lyrics are still kind of annoying, but the keyboard parts are totally engrossing me.  maybe i'm going soft, but i think it is worth at least downloading, not buying.  i can post this album if you want to decided for yourself.

titus andronicus- airing of grievances..  this came out last summer, but XL reissued it recently and i just though all you kids might like it. sort a noisy arcade fire, akin to those other lovable new indie darlings los campesinos.  brash out of control indie pop.  who wouldn't love it.  now that it's on XL you ought to be able to find it everywhere.  and maybe ben will let you borrow the seven inch he bought last summer before they were huge.........

also on deck is very promising new albums by the pink mountaintops, the black lips, swan lake, handsome furs and the thermals.  i believe 2009 will be a good year.  so far it's been a slow start musically.  but animal collective's new album the first week of 2009 was a good way to start.  for fucking real i can't stop playing the album.....

please let me know what you're into.  i miss drinking beers and listening to music with you kids.

An Open Letter To PPM

Dear Professional Property Management,

YOU GUYS ARE FUCKERS! In my original lease you failed to mention that my upon the end of the lease it would not default to a month-to-month basis. Rather you informed me that I would be renewing my lease upon paying for rent the month after the lease expired via a letter you sent...A MONTH BEFORE MY LEASE EXPIRED! Unfortunately there is nothing I can do besides provide you with a monetary sum of $200 in order to break my lease. After all, I have already paid tuition for a school in Seattle and really don't feel like sticking around in Missoula until my "new lease" expires. Furthermore, I'm aware I cannot legally sign anyone else on to the lease because the girl that I signed over from is still on the lease and is off in the South Pacific somewhere. Wow, PPM you really have me in a bind. I guess I have no choice but to pay you the $200.

Now you're telling me that I have to pay you rent from the first until the 19th because "the unit became re-rented on the twentieth". BULLSHIT, a package was delivered there on January 7th, that was collected by the current resident. Also you're withholding $590 from my deposit for "An installed storm window" (which wasn't broken but just need to be put back in place), "Window blinds" (which cost $90 at most) and rental and dump fee for a mattress. FUCK OFF PPM! I'm sure that if I don't pay the money you want you will certainly sue me and shoot my dog. That's a horrible thing to do to a poor college student. I'm not saying that you made the threat, but I think you would shoot my dog.

What are some other things that I think you would happily do? Here they are:

You would give Iran nuclear weapons, just for fun. And then give them a map with Israel circled several times with a big red marker.

You would make AIDS apples and sell them at elementary school cafeterias.

You would construct a cat grinding machine that grinds young children's beloved felines into sausage which you would force feed same said children.

You would molest thousands of children and get no pleasure out of it. You'd simply do it to molest children.

You'd kick old women down flights of stairs, film it and then put it on Youtube, starring PPM.

You would yell racist things at minorities, and speak of the "master-race rebirth".

You would set fire to hospitals, just for fun.

You would rent out shitty apartments to Jewish families and call it Holocaust, the sequel: Missoula.

You would take starving children from Africa and force them to watch episodes of "Next Top Chef", "The Biggest Loser" and 24 hours of the Food Network. Then you would feed them only dirt cookies and lint from all the crappy laundry machines in your shitty buildings.

Finally, you would continue to take advantage of young, naive college students and an unconcerned legislature to ensure the return of the Third Reich through your offices.

I'm not saying that you do or will do this things, I'm just saying I think you would do this things. This isn't libel. On that note:

GO FUCK YOURSELF PPM! I hope you fall out of a fast-moving van of some sort and explode in a ball of flames. I'm not going to pay you the $544.00 you want. See you in court.

Rub on It

I've mentioned this site to a few of you, but I thought I would finally get around to sharing it with all. Some friends and acquaintances from my NYC days used to run a blog called Crackers United. It was basically a forum for a bunch of friends to share some culture. This evolved into regular loft parties, which, with a little bit of exposure, a lot of friends, and some great connections evolved into a monthly show called Friction. I was there for the first couple (above is the poster for their first show), but left the fair city before it got big. Nowadays, Crackers United has become Friction NYC and they throw one hell of a monthly show with KEXP featuring everyone from Crystal Castles, Fuck Buttons, Health, and These New Puritans, to Japanther.

I have to say that when we started this blog it was always a quiet goal of mine for all of us to eventually live near enough that we could do something similar.

Newsies

ha!

Christian Bale goes apeshit on a lighting technician during filming for the new Terminator movie. Luckily, someone had the foresight to record the rant AND make a dance mix of it.

BEHOLD.

tweet.

i was a bit curious about twitter-- especially after a friend of a friend tried to sell me on the idea while drinking old style and smoking cigarettes this past weekend in one of chicago's more hip neighborhoods.  apparently twitter is all the rage in wicker park.  but living in a more ethnic section of town, i wasn't aware that everyone who was anyone was on twitter.

so i set up an account.  i don't necessarily suggest you do.  but it may be addicting.  i already connected my phone to twitter, so we will see.

but in case you're bored, check out twitter.com/xjamarkleyx for a constant feed on my activities.......

UPDATE:  ben is on twitter as well, follow him at twitter.com/satellitenoise.

Billboard v. Pitchfork

Via NOTCOT, from Very Small Array:

Visual comparisons between Billboard's "Top 100 Hits of 2008" and Pitchfork's "Top 100 Tracks of 2008."





Click to see images in full.

Beyond the fact that I just like graphs, I thought it was interesting. Bitch about Pitchfork though we will, maybe it's time we give 'em some credit for recognizing such a broad spectrum of musical genres?