ahhhhhh. Now I feel better. Heart rate back to normal. Blood pressure good. Sanity in tact.
If this is what people are into, I am officially old. 27 is the new 40.
So I guess I am going to my first Raptors game tomorrow. I am pretty jackt actually. Never been, and its something new. I am sure it wont even fuckin come close to a Toronto FC game, but I plan on drinking to the point where I might even be interested in basketball. Mind you that might take an unnatural amount of booze, but I am up for the challange.
Secret Chiefs 3 are opening up for Les Claypool in March. I cannot fuckin wait to see Secret Chiefs 3. For those who dont know, Secret Chiefs 3 is basically Mr. Bungle sans Mike Patton. At this point however, Trey is the only member of Bungle still in this band. I would have to go out on a limb and say I think I took Treys side in the great Bungle divorce. He rules.
Here is an amazing cover they did of Good Vibrations
Secret Chiefs 3 - Good Vibrations
Here is a wicked cover of the Halloween score. Live. So fired up.
March cannot come soon enough.
Nothing jacks me up more then getting a sweet sweet package in the mail from an equally sweet band. My Ween shirt and cups came in the mail today, and I am fired up. All thats left is to lose a good 20 pounds so I can fit in this shirt. I guess buying beer glasses is counter productive to that plan. AH WELL!
So on December 19th I put an order in to buy the last record from Burdocks. A wicked album called What We Do is Secret. It was a pretty sweet price, 9 bucks or something like that. I go through the standard ordering crap, paypal. Once I speed through my order, I realize in the receipt that it had my old address listed as a shipping address. Within minutes I email the guy explaining my situation, and giving my new address to ship too. He wrote back saying he got my email and will in fact ship it to my current house.
WELL.....
Today I email the guy wondering why over a month later, I have not received my LP. He writes back saying he sent it off a couple weeks ago, and that I should have gotten it. At this point I am sure you know where this story is going so Ill wrap it up. He wrote asking what my address is, and he will check with his files. Short story shorter, he sent it to my old house. He then asked A) do I know anyone that lives there so I could pick it up, and B) do I still live there?
Pretty bitter. Pretty annoyed. Kinda funny.
Burdocks - Turn the Century
This is from an Exclaim article. Kinda sucks that they broke up, but to be honest, they never really topped American Water. Starlite, Bridge, and Water are amazing albums, but they, or rather, he kinda lost his edge after that. Some might say its the lack of Stephen Malkmus, and that some might be me. Regardless, read on:
After 20 years of sharp-witted rock’n’roll, Silver Jews are apparently no more. Via a message entitled “Silver Jews End — Lead Singer Bids his Well-Wishers Adieu,” the long-running band’s heart and soul, David Berman, announced on his website’s forum late Thursday (January 22) that he’s throwing in the Silver Jews towel and “moving over to another category.”
In Berman’s own words:
Hello, my friend.
Cassie and I went to the cave and it looks great. 58 degrees but the humidity makes it feel like 72. I'm just going to play 15 songs. My 15 favorite ones. A dollar per song. Plus Arnett Hollow. I don't want to keep you underground for too long. Fall Creek Falls State Park State Lodge is great, by the way. Yes I cancelled the South American shows. I'll have to see the ABC Countries another way. I guess I am moving over to another category. Screenwriting or muckraking. I've got to move on. Can't be like all the careerists, doncha know. I'm 42 and I know what to do. I'm a writer, see?
Cassie is taking it the hardest. She's a fan and a player but she sees how happy I am with the decision. I always said we would stop before we got bad. If I continue to record I might accidentally write the answer song to "Shiny Happy People." What, you thought I was going to hang on to the bitter end like Marybeth Hamilton?
love david
And if this news wasn’t already enough to digest, Berman followed it up a few hours later with second message called “My Father, My Attack Dog,” where he told his “gravest secret,” one “worse than suicide, worse than crack addition.” That secret? Apparently, his father, who he calls everything from an exploiter to human molester to a mother-fucking son of a bitch.
Before we get to that emotional piece of soul-bearing, let it be said that Silver Jews put out six damn good albums in their career, with Starlite Walker and The Natural Bridge standing as two of the finest albums of the entire ’90s. Sure, Berman has had his ups and downs but nevertheless, there’s no doubt the group will be sorely missed.
Now, without further ado, over to Berman, and stick a big ol’ [sic] on all this while you’re at it:
Now that the Joos are over I can tell you my gravest secret. Worse than suicide, worse than crack addiction: My father. You might be surprised to know he is famous, for terrible reasons. My father is a despicable man. My father is a sort of human molestor. An exploiter. A scoundrel. A world historical motherfucking son of a bitch. (sorry grandma)
You can read about him here.
www.bermanexposed.org
My life is so wierd. It's allegorical to the nth. My father went to college at Transylvania University. You see what I'm saying. A couple of years ago I demanded he stop his work. Close down his company or I would sever our relationship. He refused. He has just gotten worse. More evil. More powerful. We've been "estranged" for over three years.
Even as a child I disliked him. We were opposites. I wanted to read. He wanted to play games. He is a union buster. When I got out of college I joined the Teamsters (the guards were union organized at the Whitney). I went off to hide in art and academia. I fled through this art portal for twenty years. In the mean time my Dad started a very very bad company called Berman and Company.
He props up fast food/soda/factory farming/childhood obesity and diabetes/drunk driving/secondhand smoke. He attacks animal lovers, ecologists, civil action attorneys, scientists, dieticians, doctors, teachers. His clients include everyone from the makers of Agent Orange to the Tanning Salon Owners of America. He helped ensure the minimum wage did not move a penny from 1997-2007! The worst part for me as a writer is what he does with the english language. Though vicious he is a doltish thinker and his spurious editorials rely on doublethink and always with the Lashon Hara. As I studied Judaism over the years, the shame and the shanda, grew almost too much. my heart was constantly on fire for justice. I could find no relief.
This winter I decided that the SJs were too small of a force to ever come close to undoing a millionth of all the harm he has caused. To you and everyone you know. Literally, if you eat food or have a job, he is reaching you. I've always hid this terrible shame from you, the fan. The SJs have always stood autonomous and clear. Hopefully it won't contaminate your feelings about the work.
My life has been riddled with Ibsenism. In a way I am the son of a demon come to make good the damage. Previously I thought, through songs and poems and drawings I could find and build a refuge away from his world. But there is the matter of Justice. And i'll tell you it's not just a metaphor. The desire for it actually burns. It hurts. There needs to be something more. I'll see what that might be.
DCB
My Rockumentary about our roadtrip to the States to see Robert Pollard.
Hey hey!
I decided to throw some songs together every once in a while, and upload em here. Tunes that have caught my ear over the last month or so. Anyway, click the link below to hear 15 kick ass tunes.
Guided By Melvins - Nude with Tractor Rape Chains
Here is my Top 25 most played songs for Jan 2009. Whole lotta good stuff on here. The top two songs are there because I took them from my friend Megan's iTunes, and she is obsessed with those two bands. I don't feel bad though, because those tunes deserve to be on this top 25.
There also seems to be a lot of John Carpenter scores. Probably because when I am not listening to Howard Stern at work, I will throw on some movie scores while I work on After Effects. Christine is a bad ass movie, and equally awesome soundtrack. I am also glad to see a tune from Last House on the Left made it, this is sure to pump up Gary a little.
A note about that Melvins tune, Nude with Boots. Call me crazy, but I swear to god it sounds somewhat like Tractor Rape Chain by Guided By Voices. My buddy at work herd me crankin said GBV song, and he quickly brought up how much it sounds like this new Melvins tune. Its not spot on by any means, but its similar. Both tunes in the end kick fuckin ass, but only one has Mitch Mitchel. Apologies to King Buzzo.
I actually put both songs together, and I will post the outcome in a moment.
This is probably top 3 albums I have herd all year. I have yet to hear an album that is this heavy and yet so catchy.
My favorite songs: Grenades, Across the Shields, and Fat Waves.
Check out this website where the whole album is streaming. Fuckin heavy. Fuckin rockin. Fuckin toe tappin.
http://www.torche-meanderthal.com/
CRANK IT!!
What better way to kick off this blog then by having the worlds greatest music video, by the worlds greatest band, from the worlds greatest album?