killed by death

i always knew the killed by death LP comps were worth picking up, but i never did.  i guess i always found something else to buy.  however yesterday i found a torrent which included all but two or three of the volumes, and since it's downloaded that's all i've been listening to.   over ten volumes and ten hours of obscure catchy punk...

...holy shit.   no wonder the kids always snatch these LPs up.....lo fi creative loud fast sloppy, and mf'ng fun.  what punk should still be if it wasn't for blink 182 and hot topic...........

i highly suggest buying any and all of the killed by death comps.....

.....or if you come over to my apartment, i'll burn them for you.........(i forget where i got the torrent, it was either piratebay or mininova.....)

condo fucks

i hadn't thought much about the yo la tengo for years until this month.  all of a sudden those kids are everywhere.  playing pitchfork fest.  the soundtrack they did for the movie old joy (yeah its a couple of years old, but i just realized it was them doing the music)...and their new side project, the condo fucks. i imagine most bands wouldn't even think of pulling off something like this.  bands do cover albums, yes, but do they change their name for such an album while aping the style of music they're covering so close, you could pretend its all original work?  

yo la tengo as the condo fucks sounds like big star played through a slacker lo-fi filter that bands such as them and pavement perfected in the mid-ninties.  it's endearing to think yo la tengo became a band so that they could play songs of this caliber, and only after years of inspiring the indie rock scene do they take the time to have some fun and pretend their teenagers again covering their favorite songs.  but it works so brilliantly because they aren't newcomers, but talented musicians know exactly what they're doing (and for that matter are unpretentious about it.)

i just downloaded this album, thanks to dallas, and have listened to it three times in a row.  this will be a keeper for sure.  i suggest you hop over to the URFCKD blog and grab the link for yesterday's post and grab it for yourself......

death to the good indie music zines.

today i was saddened when twitter informed me that Blender magazine died.  in fact the issue on the stands right now is the last.  i've never been a fan of maxim, or its men's magazine cohorts, but blender was the bratty little kid in the mainstream music publishing world.  it wanted to best spin and rolling stone, which isn't very difficult, and yammer on about music for music sake.  yeah it was equivalent of 120 minutes justifying watching MTV, but all those layovers in terrible airports were more pleasant when you could read about music you actually cared about.

blender is just another victim of the bad economy and the internet.

of course some of the best zines are short lived.  the indie scene rises and falls with its magazines.  new ones need to replace the tired publications.  yet i will miss blender, just as i miss punk planet........

garage rock classics - the stooges

without the STOOGES rock n roll would've died along time ago.....  all three albums they put out are FUCKING ROCK N ROLL CLASSICS.... and if you don't own them, something's wrong with you.........

so KICK OUT THE JAMS motherfuckers.......
  and listen below - 

STOOGES ('69)-



FUN HOUSE ('70)-



RAW POWER ('73)-



(post script, this post has to be periodically updated so the youtube links work, but wouldn't be easier if you just had these album already?? i mean if it weren't for the stooges they would be no TINY GROOVES....!!!!!!!!)

xds and nyctaper and megapuss

so just a bit of miscellany.

jared suggested i check out experimental dental school, who are offering their new album for free here.  i haven't decided what i quite think of them yet, but it's an interesting listen.  and i think it will grow on me.

please check out the kids at nyctaper.com, they have turned me on to more good music than anywhere else on the internet in the past month.  sure they might be obsessed with woodsist records, but now so am i and the happier for it.

and one last suggestion.  megapuss.  it's devendra banhart's side project a la frank zappa that came out late late last year.  it's a good antidote to those of you who think he's just another weirdo freak folkster.  it's a hilarious and catchy psych/folk rock record.  i wish more indie kids just stop being serious for a minute and write such a good album off the cuff like devendra did with the megapuss LP.  anyway check them out on myspace, iTunes, hypemachine or whereever the hipster congregate on the web.  and if you like i am upload the whole album.....too tired to bother with it right now.

more later.

call me lightning

call me lightning is one of those bands that never quite got the hype machine going full speed in their favor.  though they got signed to revelation records when the label was looking for good indie bands to sign beyond their normal roster of post hardcore, and got signed for a second album to frenchkiss, when it looked like that label was going to take over the world with the hold steady and les savy fav--call me lightning never got much attention.

perhaps it is their unorthodox mix of garage rock and dance influenced post punk, or that they're from milwaukee and not brooklyn.  maybe because they are a 21 plus band and not the all ages starlets like japanther and no age that seem to get all the praise from pitchfork et al.  anyway these guys are fucking great, and you should check them out any chance you get.  

their two album are fun, noisy affairs that stand outside the genre box you could put them in.  so when everyone stopped listening to the rapture and such gang of four related indie rock, you could still spin their albums and not feel like it was still 2004.  they're fresh sounding, mixing elements of proto-punk with the late aught post punk.   go check out their myspace and take a listen.

they should have an album later this year, and it will most definitely make my top 10 list.

follow up albums...

Anticipated follow up albums always come with a burden. You automatically want to love the new album by the band you've obsessed over for years. Yet sometime these bands move in directions you hate. Or even better, they make new music beyond your expectations. Here's a list of new albums by artists I've loved for a while now and how they stand up.

SWAN LAKE- Enenymine: I love their first album, Beast Moans, so much, but since its release all three members have less then wowed me with their mainstay projects. Wolf Parade's new album is good, but Sunset Rubdown, Frog Eyes, Destrpyer and the New Pornographers all put out lackluster new records. Still good but not as exciting as I hoped. So I was sort of dreading the Swan Lake name being watered down with a new humdrum album. But I was not disappointed. I mean how can these three indie stalwart multi instrumentalists/songwriters disappoint. Another album of quirky indie pop songs that will always be there when you need them. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE NEW ALBUM.

PINK MOUNTAINTOPS- Outside Love: Well I knew this would be good. The second Black Mountain record was entrancing, and the last Pink Mountaintops 7 inch from about a year and change ago, never really left my turntable. I guess I'm too biased to think they would suck it up, but these songs are terrific. Sean is sort of the indie rock version of Neil Young. I want to play all three of these PM records for everyone I know, cause they are vastly underappreciated. Maybe his Canadian counterpoints ( Swan Lake, Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, et al) overshadow his public relations, but not his songwriting. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE NEW ALBUM.

RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS-Underneath the Owl: These kids always played a version of lo fi garage punk that never ventured into the annoying territory of the Warped Tour and emo. More akin of lesser know Dirtnap and Goner records bands than Bad Relgion or NOFX. But I guess they finally wanted their chance at stardom. This is one of those punk records that apes a good pop album, meaning you have ballads, anthems, mid tempo songs and thrashing heartbreak closers all present. This would be fine if R Gamblers had the talent to expand their narrow but great formula of garage punk, but they do not. It's really disappointing that one of my fav punk bands threw a junk record at me. I suppose fans of Against Me and such will love this album, but any music fan past their teenage years won't. Too Bad.

rough draft: top albums of 09 so far

obits- i blame you

animal collective- merriweather post pavilion 

wavves- s/t

handsome furs- face control

pains of being pure of heart- s/t

black lips- 200 million thousand

i need to keep a running list because generally albums released in the first three months of the year get overlooked in my year end best of--which just is not fair.  

(ie.  black mountain's in the future fell off my best of 2008 because it came out in february, and it is an album i listen to quite a bit.  and animal collective released their new album the first tuesday of this year, which is just asking to be forgotten by august.)

i need my phone to be more rock n roll.

now i've figured out how to use google, twitter and blogger on my phone, but why is iso difficult to upload music to my phone from my macbook?

i don't want to pay for v-cast.  i have enough music already.  i just want to get those mp3s onto my phone.  why can't it be easily done?  why must these media companies pretend they are offering such an interconnected world, when really they just want another way to sell us the same thing. 

like i need a special ringtone (or ringback tone).  i wouldn't even buy a jay reatard ringtone.  though iTunes probably offers one, though i doubt verizon does.

most of this entry was blogged via my phone.  so why can't i get my music to jump the other direction....?

gentlemen jesse and his men

the black lips show lived up to its chaotic hype.  an auditorium packed with close to 800 people going bonkers for their sloppy garage rock sounds, dancing and crowd surfing as if the black lips had cast a spell over the event.

but their tour mates may have upstaged them.  gentlemen jesse and his men, fellow atantla rockers, played a clean fast power pop set that had you singing along to the lyrics by the second verse of every song regardless of hearing them for the first time.  the band, a side project now mainstay for one of the members of atlanta's carbonas, should be the next big thing.  taking off where the exploding hearts were headed after their sadly cut short career, gentlemen jesse is super bouncy catchy 60s power garage rock that makes you want to forget that the world is more than drinking girls and partying.  they play much tighter than the black lips and carry through with much of the same energy.  where the black lips head off into psych rock, gentlemen jesse puts on the cheap trick.

look out for gentlemen jesse in the future.  they are worth the cover.  

and yes i decided the black lips can live up to the hype, which is difficult to do.  the lips just might save america's youth from their screamo tendencies and that would make the world a better place for sure.

black lips

going to see the black lips tonight.  should be awesome. 

there is something transfixing about their new album "200 million..." which their previous effort lacked.  seems more whole and focused.  but what appeals to me about the black lips is there rough edged bluesy garage punk.  often attacked for lack of substance, these guys offer unpretentious rock n roll that is seldom found today.  punk bands know the stance, but they often play the standard pop punk, instead of taking the same approach to other subgenres. the black lips' so called flower punk is interesting for its mix of standard fare garage and 60s rock with psychedelic and post punk elements.  

the black lips don't always translate well on their albums (check their live disc which at times is both awful and riotously good).  that's why i hope the show tonight surpasses my expectations.

i'll let you know if they can top the hype.  

watch out....this is the beginning

all i ever want to listen to is king khan--whether with the shrines or with bbq show, it doesn't matter.  

in fact i must admit i never file his records away.  they stay comfortably next to the record player in the living room.

king khan is playing right now, while we get ready to hit the thrift stores.  i'll be bopping through racks and racks of used clothes, humming along.  

and i'll probably cue the record up where i left off when i get home.