A review of Mother Feather at Bowery Ballroom (1.25.14) and the new "Living Breathing" EP

I knew this was going to be good, but I didn't know how good until it happened to me.
Seeing pictures of a Mother Feather performance, one might think that they have an idea of how the show will play out, but, just as a picture of a sumptuous meal isn't the same as indulging in said meal...you get the idea.

Seeing Mother Feather live is like watching a bonfire; they smoulder and dance and explode and burn.
Along with heat, they emit a strange, aggressive, confrontational sexuality.
At times, lead singer, Ann Courtney, is a screaming, fist-pumping dynamo and, at other times, she appears as a chastened child...the kind who plays with matches, her voice is warm, impish, admonishing, dirty, flirty and often soaked in both sincerity and innuendo.

This might sound fractured, schizophrenic, but it all fits, it's all Mother Feather.

Ann and Lizzie (backing vocals and keyboards) work in perfect concert, like some ferocious, otherworldly clock, telling us to revolt and dance and live, rather than just what time it is. Their smirking, perfectly placed and executed interactions serve to expertly display their background in theater and how well they utilize it.

Highlights of the evening included the playful choreography of their opener, "Egyptology", the energetic sensuality of their infectiously catchy "Trampoline" and, as always, their massive, anthemic closer, "Mother Feather", which you really need to experience to understand. These ladies and their harem of talented instrumentalists are so much more than just what's on record, if you're just listening to the music, you're not getting all of Mother Feather.

And, speaking of the music...at their Bowery show on the 25th, Mother Feather debuted their new EP, Living Breathing.
This was a truly excellent birthday present.

Mother Feather's new Living Breathing EP

Like their first, self titled EP, Living Breathing contains four songs that range from fun to fiery and, also like their first EP, nothing here doesn't stand out. The drums aren't just keeping a beat, Gunnar Olsen uses every measure to do something to keep the listener present and engaged, and the interplay between Basile (bass) and Foley (guitar) is always riveting, never rote.  While it may not be as catchy or packed with instant hits as their debut, I was too caught up in reveling in new Mother Feather music to complain. One thing is does feature is a song called "Egyptology" (usually their set opener) and that's worth the price of admission alone. It's a blistering rocker centering around how funky the Egyptians were and containing the lyrics "I go where he go / follow my pharaoh / to the underworld disco / down in Old Cairo".

Yeah.
 Steve Martin and the Bangles wish they could write a song this awesome.
Someone find a song like this anywhere else, and I'll buy you a trampoline.
There's also "Mirror", which is as dark and intense as three plus minutes of uninterrupted eye contact with Ann herself, and the title track, another god damn awesome rock song with a fun, slinky, twisty climax that might be the sexiest suicide ever.

One aspect of Mother Feather I keep returning to is the fact that, after all the songs and all the music that have been, they have an originality and theatricality that doesn't seemed forced, we're hearing and seeing the real them; it's genuine and doesn't suffer from the pseudo-intellectual eye-rolling that plagues most of pop culture. They love and care about everything they create and that rings true in every facet of Mother Feather.

If you're interested, I interviewed the ladies of Mother Feather for my podcast a while back.
Check it out if you'd like to know about what makes these vixens tick.

digressive_obscenity - ep. 12 - mother_feather

A review of "Default" by Atoms For Peace

Sometimes, Thom Yorke's otherworldly keening can serve to perfectly convey human emotion and, sometimes, it can annoy the piss out of me; "Default" is 100% the former.

I haven't heard Yorke use his voice this effectively in years; so much regret...
The first words we hear him speak are "It slipped my mind/and for a time/I felt completely free", but you don't start a song like that unless things are about to go downhill, fast, and they do.
The overall tone of "Default" is regret, unfathomable regret, but a resigned regret ("guess that's it/I've made my bed/now I lie in it"), poor choices were made, but he's learning to deal with them and be at peace with his decisions and move on, and it's almost believable until, towards the end, the dam breaks and Yorke sings, almost under his breathe, as an afterthought, "and it's eating me up" over and over. There's more emotion and expression and feeling in that quiet aside than some artists could ever hope to muster with their most tortured, throat-rending scream.
At that point, one might begin to think that the ever-present rattling noises they've been hearing this whole time perhaps betray his true self, the one his detached, disconnected voice has been trying to cover up, the one who's being crushed and killed by this regret.
While still admitting that "it's eating me up", he begins to say, "if I get free of these snares..." and then trails off, leaving the listener to ask: then what? You get free of these snares (that you clearly set for yourself), then what? Will you change? Will you start over? Or will you do all this over again?
Is that last statement, "if I get free of these snares...", one of hope or of fear?

And all of the above happens amidst a warm yet somewhat uncomfortable sonic landscape, the highlight of which is the buzzy, unstable synth line that comes sweeping in with the chorus. There's not one sound on this entire track that sounds correct, clean; everything has something, some tiny detail wrong with it: a stutter, a hum, a warble, and it reflects the mood and lyrics perfectly.

There's something about the slightly menacing toneless electronic blips that pervade this track that make me want Trent Reznor and Thom Yorke to collaborate on something*, a triple-album resulting in a world tour preferably, but I'd settle for one song. These two have been innovators in their field** for, literally, decades and have yet to really cross paths. Now that Yorke is taking a break from Radiohead and Reznor is taking a break from Nine Inch Nails...well, one can yearn, can't one?
*sigh*

The full Atoms For Peace album is set for release in early 2013, and, if "Default" is to be any indication, it's probably going to be pretty amazing.

Go to http://atomsforpeace.info to hear "Default" now.





* That would be the field of amazing, progressive sonic creation.

Did You Rike It?

5.25.10

4:37 pm

At 12 o'clock this morning, the soundtrack to 'Tetsuo The Bullet Man' (third in the 'Tetsuo' series by Japanese director, Shinya Tsukamoto) was released in Japan.

At about 5:50 this morning, someone had ripped "Theme for Tetsuo The Bullet Man" by Nine Inch Nails and put a link to the mp3 in a message board.

At about noon, I downloaded that track.

This...is its story.

A few people had heard the track when it showed up over the credits of the film at the Tribecca Film Festival a couple of weeks ago and they had described it as a combination of two earlier works by Nine Inch Nails; the first was 'Fixed', an almost unlistenable remix album released in tandem with their super-aggro EP, 'Broken', and, what might be the best track off the massive instrumental album, 'Ghosts I-IV', 'IV Ghosts 34'.

After taking the whole thing in a few times (it's only five and a half minutes long), I can say it is MUCH more the former than the latter.

This track is very Nine Inch Nails.

It starts with what sounds like a fatal error message from a computer the size of a planet; just a ton of fucking huge, loud electronic death set to a rudimentary drum machine beat, then, suddenly, a ghostly, ethereal piano, which is shattered almost immediately by even more aggressive electronic screaming and some industrial (like industrial factory equipment) banging that somehow fits into the chaos.

Around then is when the actual theme begins.

A clear melody swallows the grinding, unpleasant noise like a tidal wave, being played on what sounds like an organ made of an ancient city.

The melody itself is epic and invocative; timeless, triumphant and sad.

And then it's gone and we're ejaculated back into the factory.

Then the cacophony disappears, replaced by an almost inaudible ambient whisper in the distance which is soon joined by the piano from before, but clear, rich and immediate this time.

The piano melody plays through once, twice and then the city-organ exhales the theme again, then silence.

It's over.

All in all, this is not for everyone.

In fact, I'd say the majority of it is so violent and abrasive it isn't for anyone.

But there's going to be a handful of people who will get and, going a step or two further, enjoy it.

And you will not be one of them.

Also, in slightly less unlistenable NIN related news, the release date for the How To Destroy Angels self-titled EP has been set.

Tuesday, July 6th.

I'll see you there*.

Not sure if I shared, but it turns out that HTDA isn't just a quick, one off hobby for Reznor before he jumps back into Nine Inch Nails, but something he's actually putting some effort into.

The EP is just a precursor to a full length album coming out in early 2011.

He said the first track released ('A Drowning') sounded more NIN-ish than he would have liked and that the rest doesn't sound as much like "his other band", but, after hearing the second release from the EP ('The Space In Between'), I've come to decide that it does, indeed, sound like NIN.

Then again, how could it not?

If "Trent Reznor is Nine Inch Nails", then how is anything he does not going to sound NIN, at least when he's in charge of writing/arranging/playing etc. the music?

He's talked about some upcoming NIN music he's working on that "doesn't sound like NIN".

I'll have to rack my brain as to what he's released that sounds nothing like anything he's released.

At the moment, the song 'All The Love In The World' is the only thing leaping to my mind.

Everything he does has the same...feel to it, the feel to the arrangement of instruments or chords or what have you.

Then again, so does everything Cake does.

Or eels or Beck.

Even Beck, who is stupidly multi-faceted, more so than Nine Inch Nails ever could be, he just makes whatever his does sound like Beck.

From 'One Foot In The Grave' to 'Midnite Vultures' to 'Sea Change'.

It isn't real folk, it's Beck doing real folk.

And so on.

Prove me wrong, Trent.

Prove me wrong.

And, quickly speaking of eels, turns out that little curmudgeony rabbit E has written a third album, completing what he started with 'Hombre Lobo' and 'End Times'.

I've learned my lesson with those first two and expect the new one to be:

•  14 -16 tracks
•  Between 45 to 50 minutes
• Very light on production, instrumentation and lyrics (in general and those that rhyme)
• Not great

Sorry, but all three albums are part of the same emotional period for E and, based on the sound and content of the first two, this is what I'm gearing up for.

Prove me wrong, E.

Prove me wrong.

The album is titled 'Tomorrow Morning' (hopeful, innit?) and is coming out August 24th.

Eels are also embarking on a world tour, the first since releasing these three albums, and eels is playing at Terminal 5 on Saturday, September 25th.

Hopefully with a fuller band than just him and the Chet, not that the show at Highline wasn't amazing, but a lot of eels music needs more than two guys, no matter how talented.

Tickets go on sale June 11th...anyone interested?

The fact that Cake and eels are playing a little more than a week apart is...mmm...good.

The kind of good that is better than that time Nine Inch Nails played a week before They Might Be Giants.

September is going to be good.

YOU HEAR ME YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES?!

SEPTEMBER IS GOING TO BE FUCKING GOOD!!!!

*"There" being whichever digital distribution house I purchase this non-physical release from.**

**Although it is coming out on CD.

Let's Dissect A Song!

5.4.10

4:22 pm

Okay.

This morning a track from the forthcoming self-titled Reznor, his wife, Atticus Ross side project, How To Destroy Angels, was put up on Pitchfork.

It's generated abut 30 pages of chatter on the official nin.com forums, obviously.

And why should I be left out of the judging-by-its-covertude?

I shan't, that's whyn't.

In a nutshell, some of it sounds like parts of a few NIN songs, namely "Me, I'm Not" and "Corona Radiata".

It also reminds me of a Rasputina song called "Zodiac".

The lyrics are...well, not great, and the only vocals are done by Mariqueen who does a husky, female whisper like you've heard before in everything with a husky, female whisper.

That said, it isn't bad.

It's good, and there's a lot of interesting layers there that float in and out of perception depending on how much attention you're paying to the song.

One such layer is an awesome deep, oceanic sounding guitar effect that nails the water imagery xmax.

There is, however, an odd mixing of metaphors when they throw in a line about "looking out a window at a swarm of locusts" right before a line about "keeping one's head above the tide".

Then again, the song is called "A Drowning", but the album and band are called How To Destroy Angels, so maybe there's some religious content in store for us.

Unless it's a tide of locusts.

Which doesn't work for me, personally.

Overall, it sounds like a "Ghosts" track with lyrics.

Whatever; Trent Reznor is making new music.

And pretty soon he'll make more.

You can hear the new track here.

SACK UP!!!

12.16.09
3:35pm

I'm going to try saying that a lot more often.
It's just so great to yell that in someone's face for little or no reason.
"Sack up!!"
Lovely.

Christmas is a' comin'!!!!!! WHOOP WHOOP!!!!!

I have an audition tomorrow morning that requires me to be a pirate.
Not a Pirate of the Caribbean or a Butt Pirate or a Pirate of the Hershey Highway, just a regular pirate.
But that is fucking awesome.
On screen, baby.
This is going to be a shit load of fun.
They require "an excellent pirate accent".
Done and done.
Arrrrr.....

Last week, The Onion put out their "Best Music of 2009" issue with their top 20 albums of 2009...get it?
As I enjoy much of the Onion, I downloaded four selections: Andrew Bird's "Noble Beast" (haven't gotten too far into it, but I do enjoy his stuff), Neko Case's "Middle Cyclone" (although I like the album, I'm really only into her mucho when she's with The New Pornographers; yet, strangely, I really can't get into A.C. Newman's solo stuff), The Antlers' "Hospice" (a dark, thick concept album which would be better if I had the lyrics in front of me) and "Actor" by St. Vincent (which is excellent and has been on my headphones since I got it).
This woman, Annie Clark, was with Polyphonic Spree and some other band of that ilk and then put out her own album in 2007 called "Marry Me".
In 2009, she did "Actor".
I've been listening to her first one and it's all right, but not as solid as "Actor".
You should check her out.
She's kind of ethereal yet classic with really great instrumentation and programming.
The Onion mentioned Kate Bush in the write-up, but I don't like Kate Bush, so I suppose they were just commenting on the eccentric feel of St. Vincent.
I think I might stop checking out the older stuff from bands I get into.
Walkmen, Charlotte Gainsbourg and St. Vincent are just three of the host of bands whose earlier stuff is not as great as their latest or later work.
Or so think I.
And this album that everyone seems to be squirting over for best of the year, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" by Phoenix?
Man, I tried and I might try again, but I just don't get it.
Their voices are so whiny...

Also, somehow, the new Eels, "End Times", leaked a month early.
You know you're getting popular when your album leaks a fucking month before the release date.
I've only gone through it all at once one time, but I was mistaken about E pulling a fast one like he did with "Hombre Lobo".
See, before "Hombre Lobo" came out, he released "Fresh Blood" as a single.
It was the only song on the album that sounded ANYTHING like it, all programmed drums, synths, etc., the rest was very stripped down with seldom more than three other instruments, usually guitar, bass and drums and I thought that maybe E was going to do the same switcheroo thing by releasing "Little Bird", a SUPER stripped down song, as the first single from "End Times" and then surprise fans with a thick, rich, layered album to follow.
That is not the case.
It's not as stripped down as "Hombre Lobo", but it's no "Souljacker".
In the pre-release write-ups, some people have been saying that this is the new Electro-Shock Blues and some have been saying this is the "after" to Lobo's "before".
As far as the subject matter, it is absolutely the latter.
Musically, it's a lot more like "Daises of the Galaxy" then anything else E's ever done.
Sadly, there's not a whole lot of innovation in either the music or the depth of his lyrics, but it isn't horrible.
Daises wasn't my favorite when it came out, but now I enjoy just as much as his other stuff, so we'll see.
Even Lobo, which I didn't really dig, sounds better with time.
It'll be interesting to see of the general public suddenly like Eels now because of this album.
Guess we'll see in January....

And finally, I just got my first $100 haircut at a place on Ludlow called Pumps & Pinups.
Apparently, I need to add some sort of gelid muck to my hair to recreate the effect.
That's probably not going to happen.
I just may be the laziest actor I know.

I Am Electric Booooy

12.11.09

4:37 pm

Not really.

I'm not really Electro Booooy.

The skinny guy from The Mighty Boosh is.

I was pleasantly astounded earlier today to learn that eels' "Little Bird" (a track from their upcoming 2010 release "End Times") has been voted as one of the best songs of 2009 (www.spinner.com/2009/11/25/top-2009-songs/).

I mean, as far as I know, 94.467% of the world doesn't know anything by eels except for "that Novocain song where they're floating", "that 'goddamn right' song from Road Trip" and "the creepy growly voiced songs in the 'Shrek' movies".

Way to go, world.

And, of course, I know that these lists don't really mean anything except for the fact that one of my favorite bands is getting some attention. I used to be torn about whether it's good or bad for one's favorite bands that not a lot of people know about to get better known (man what a clunky start to a sentence...AND I'M NOT THROUGH YET!!!!!!!!!!); on one hand, if they're too little known, they disappear from lack of attention and money, but if they get too well known, you get the posers and Johnny-Come-Latelys (fuck, I love that term...I have just decided that the loser in a game of Ooky Cookie is called Johnny-Come-Lately...spread the word.) and their ticket prices and such go up and, god forbid, they sell out and start making shit.

But, I think the great thing about the five bands I really truly dig is that they don't make shit.

At least in my opinion.

That's actually something I was thinking about the other day; Nine Inch Nails' "The Fragile" set a record for dropping the furthest the quickest on the Billboard charts.

It debuts at #1 and the next week it's in...maybe the 30's? Not sure, but it was a big deal at the time.

Thing is: I have NO idea why. I get that it wasn't "The Downward Spiral 2" and that it lost a lot of fans, but, it was a new, 23-track Nine Inch Nails album after NOTHING substantial for five fucking years! It had more depth, dimension, textures, themes and everything than Spiral did and, although I know the headbangers who jerked off violently to "March of the Pigs" were pissed and took their ball and went home, I would have thought that NIN had a smarter, more open-minded, more dedicated audience.

AND it was very well reviewed except for the occasionally use of "bloated" or "overlong".

Why was this considered such a bomb?

Even Reznor said he didn't like it, albeit years and albums later.

Meh.

Who knows.

I'm way too close to offer an opinion.

Going back to the odd success of "Little Bird" (a simple, two minute, four-track recording), I'm happy, very, but confused, also very.

The second "single","In My Younger Days" is also, IMHOLOLROFLPUKE, great, but, just like "Little Bird", it feels typically eels, like what they've been doing since they were just E in a basement in L.A.

Shit, he's still just E in a fucking basement in L.A.

Why is this song suddenly the sixth best song of the year?!

I'm going to stop fretting about it.

Let go and let God, that's what I always say.

Let the fuck go and let the fuck God.

Let the fuck get ourselves some mozzarella sticks, na'mean?

Wang Dang Doodle

10.15.09

3:23 pm

I love the way the birds all freak out when it rains.

It's like an Otter Party.

Listened to the new Air album.

Not great.

Also listened to the new Mika album.

A couple stand out tracks, but probably not the ones he wants to stand out.

I had a chance to see Kaitlyn before she headed off to Majorca and she was obsessed with the first single "We Are Golden".

Personally, I think it sounds like a Journey/Bon Jovi mash up sans testicles.

"I See You" and Toy Boy" are enjoyable though.

He should open for Scissor Sisters.

It would be pinker than description allows.

On Monday there was a post on the official eels web site that there is another new album coming out in January.

It's called End Times and I'm already more excited about it than Hombre Lobo (which I've listened to maybe five times since its release in June). 

E talked about how he had another full album finished when HL came out.  I really hope this is...fuller.

That seems to be the way he works, though.

Souljacker was rich and layered and sonically diverse, Shootenanny! was recorded in a week in a studio with a bunch of people gathered around a microphone (not that it was bad, there's a few great tracks on there).

Blinking Lights was epic, amazing, disparate etc., HL was a few weeks in a studio and uses about five instruments total.

Plus, End Times is just so evocative.

Feels a little Year Zero personally; Alpha and Omega type shit.

An eels album of Biblical proportions.

Dogs and cats living together...well, you know...

Finished Chuck Palahniuk's non-fiction book.

It was like a bunch of Chuck P. short stories but less interesting in most cases.

In one though, he outright gushes over a writer named Amy Hempel.

So I picked up her collected shorts.

I've read about eight (only forty plus to go...her shorts are SHORT) and she has quite an obsession with earthquakes and people in hospitals.

If she wasn't in either of these positions at some point in her life...well, then she needs to switch it up a bit.

Not as I-have-seen-the-eyes-of-God as Palahniuk made it out to be, at least not yet, but enjoyable.

I also just finished the first book in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.

The Chandler tropes are...palpable.

But there's magic and I'll read anything with more than three books in the series so I'm in for the long haul.

Picked up Brütal Legend (and, incidentally, just learned how to type an umlaut...it's Alt+0252...how fucking cool is that? üüüüüüüü!!!!! BWA HAH HAH HAH HAH!!! þÿÔÕ.  Awesome.) and I'm not being blown away.

Three games came out on Tuesday that I was considering: Brütal Legend, Uncharted 2 and Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition.

I was, literally, ambivalent about BL and Uncharted because both are supposed to be amazing, but have a lot of multiplayer, which I am never going to use and Fallout 3 is a game I'd played through already, xmax, but this has about 20 more hours of different stuff and I need to own it (I'd borrowed the original from Ray).

But as I walked away from the counter on Tuesday with BL in my hand, almost immediate Buyer's Regret set in.

I know I'm going to get all three of these fuckers at some point, probably some point soon, but I think I should have gotten Uncharted first.

Oh well.

Such problems as only an American like me could have.

Oh dear! I know not which video game to purchase first!  Plus there's a strawberry seed on my elbow and my thighs are chaffing from walking the twelve feet from my chocolate pool to my sex tent! Get the phoenix-drawn travois!

I've had sex in a tent.

You ready?

It was "in tents".

Heh heh heh.

I'M OUT!

They're not just a band...they're a social club.

6.23.09

5:21 pm

The Street Sweeper Social Club album came out last week.  They opened for NIN and were excellent so I decided to check it out. 

Wow.  SO flat on wax.  Not even worth mentioning.

See them live or don't bother yourself with them at all.

Chris is away with massive Dad issues.

Things are very confusing at the moment.

Lots of trepidation.

So. Much. Nothing.

5.29.09

11:59 am

Recently:

Finished the fourth to last published Discworld book - Fun as ever. Worried what I'll do once I've craved though the last three...  Phil has suggested a series by Joe Butcher or something along those lines, the Dresden Books?  The man hasn't steered me wrong yet.

Finished Battlestar Galactica - Have quite a few questions.  Three actually.  But, in case anyone who reads this is watching or planning to watch the show, I will not raise them here.  Overall, a great show, but the ending felt a bit lacking, but like most things that are massive and amazing, it's hard to get an ending that reflects, retains and etc. all the epic glory of the show itself.  Unless you're the Shield or the Wire.  In which case you do it and do it well.

Finished the Simpsons Game - Some pretty damn hilarious stuff there (bosses include Will Wright...the actual Will Wright, creator of the Sims and Spore, Matt Groening and God...who challenges you to a DDR Showdown), but nothing about the gameplay really makes me want to go back through it.  Good game though.

Reached the point in the Simpsons television show where I can see (without any argument) what people are complaining about.  It was a series of THREE SHITTY EPISODES IN A ROW towards the back half of the 19th season.  One was a badly written and disjointed episode sort of kind of referencing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the next was a shoehorned 90's story that just felt odd and incongruous with the ENTIRETY of the show thus far and the third was another disjointed election '08 themed episode which seemed more to be a collection of gags without any through line.  Then there was one of those let's-Simpsonize-three-stories-that-share-a-theme episodes about Valentine's Day and love.  Just shit.  And last night, there was actually an anti-smoking episode.  They tried to be irreverent and etc. with it, but an anti-smoking episode starring the Simpsons is as transparent as an anti-drug episode starring a team up between G.I. Joe and Cobra..  On the other hand, show me something that lasts 18 years which is more good than bad.  Asshole.

Watched The Promotion, an hilarious movie starring John C. Reilly and Seann William Scott.  It's a subtle (at times) comedy which makes you understand why Seann William Scott keeps getting work and why people are always going off about how awesome John C. Reilly is.  It also features the first off-screen gay banjoist jokes I have ever heard.  God, I'm sheltered.

Watched The Amazing Screw On Head.  Fucking excellent.  I wish there was more. 

Downloaded the Wolverine movie as well.

Why is Deadpool Cyclops?

Started reading the third to last Discworld book.  Not too far into it, but it's pretty much exactly what I've come to expect based on the previous twenty four.

Started playing the new PS3 game, Infamous.  This game...it's going to keep me up...  Hopefully it heralds the coming of the Age Where Playstation Is No Longer Xbox 360's Bitch.  Apparently there's a slew of really truly enjoyable games coming out exclusively for the PS3 this year and it may actually put a slight damper on Xbox 360's towering sales disparity.  Uncharted 2, Infamous, Project Trico (although that's probably 2010), God of War 3 and Heavy Rain to name a few.  You can do it Sony, you can do it.

Found out on Tuesday, in an oddly State heavy day that the comedy album they recorded back around the show had leaked (it's as brilliant and stupid as the show itself) AND that finally, the goddamn DVD is coming out July 14th.  Day One motherfuckers, Day One.

Had a few weeks with the new Marilyn Manson album.

Meh.  Not as horrible as the most recent, but hardly memorable.  Here's a hint, when you have the guy who did programming for Nine Inch Nails for two albums and then went on to create Tweaker...let him go nuts.  Manson is done.  And, incidentally, there is a line on the new one where he calls the listeners "rapists werewolves".

"Rapist werewolves".

Think about that.

Ah...so poignant.

BUT the new eels is up on their Myspace and a lot of it is already growing on me.  Obviously I'm going through the same kind of withdrawal I did when NIN took six years to put out a single disc after taking five years to put out their double album, but these things happen.

Unless you are Prince.

However, I must not listen to the new eels until after tomorrow night.  For tonight is Cake (was feeling pretty mellow about this until I started listening to them today) and tomorrow is TMBG.  I'd be more excited if I weren't so tired.  To get to the show tonight, I have to work early today.  All in all, not a bad trade off, the more obnoxious employees aren't here until three or so but it still knocks the shit out of me.  Another problem is the building excitement over the two NIN concerts next weekend.  That shit is going to be off the hook, to use the parlance of our times.

There's rumors that Bowie is going to join them for a song or two.

Jesus Fucking Christ.

There's also some new hotness up on RSPS and Dead Ends.

You should take it.

Oh, and there's a barbeque this weekend at Colin's new place.

That's bacon.

Jouncy!

5.19.09

4:48 pm

Working straight through 4:30 to 11 today.

Phil and I are going to try to recreate his lost memories regarding the Grind Show series.

I'll like a muse, but with stuff that's been forgotten...who's the saint of forgotten stuff?

Chuck?

Harold?

Eh. Whaeva.

Been listening to a band called Other Lives recently.  Discovered them while searching for leaked eels.  Really great stuff.  Very simple, sad and beautiful.  One of the guys in the band worked with eels and the producer has worked with Beck, Radiohead and Outkast, although there is NO Outkast flavor on this,

Guitar, piano, drums, violin and that's pretty much it.

I wouldn't usually dig the guy's voice, but it just fits with the melancholy tone of the music.

Melancholy yet hopeful at times.

Also a bit on the short side, both the individual songs and the album as a whole, but really moving from start to finish.

I highly recommend it.

Getting pretty hard about the upcoming NIN shows (SO many new/unplayed songs...).  In fact, I think it may be sort of obscuring my enthusiasm for the Cake and TMBG shows.

But this is the path I choose and I shall walk it, hard and resolute.

Pour your sandwiches down on me.

4.9.09
10:04 pm

You know how people say "you learn something new every day"?
Well, I don't.
I really, really don't.
But today...I do.
I learned that, when it comes to being forced to order food delivered to my place of work, I no longer have to settle for greasy Chinese, greasy Italian, greasy Mexican or greasy deli.
I have discovered Seattle Cafe.
LAUGH!
SCOFF!
MAKE LIGHT!
"Ooooh, way to join 2002, Paul!  Do you like coffee?  Have you heard of this place Starbucks?  They make homosexual coffee! 'Tall' means 'small' there!"
I don't really care WHAT you think of me.
I have discovered a wonderful new alternative to my take out regimen.
They make paninis.
I like paninis.
They are not horribly overpriced nor are they greasy.
Hey Food Rut...prepare to become a notch deeper.
Bring on These Economics Times...I've got grilled chicken club sandwiches on focaccia, bitches.

In non-gastrointestinal news, I just finished the 7th or 8th to last Discworld book.
Man this guy is a brilliant humorist.
And he's going to die not knowing who he is or where he is.
That is utterly undeserving.
Why can't my enemies get the degenerative brain diseases?
Or even just some random asshole?
Why Terry "I'm Smart and Funny" Pratchett?
Hey, I know a certain crackhead who'd look just great lying in a gutter covered in his own bodily waste...

Had seven auditions last week ranging from Com-goddamn-motherfuckin'-cast legal copy to eating a fake burger and yelling "DANGUS!" at the top of my voice on camera.
May have snagged one, but who knows...
One in seven, people keep telling me, is pretty impressive.
At some point, I might even believe them.

Going back to all that music blither blather: the new Depeche Mode has leaked and it is some of their best stuff in years, plus six of the fifteen new Manson tracks have also leaked...they're...hm.
They're better than everything off  'Eat Me, Drink Me' (which, apparently Manson also thought sucked, because on his most recent tour he played only TWO songs from it each night), but none of them can hold a candle to anything off 'Antichrist Superstar'.
One or two Tori tracks leaked as well.
Straight up adult contemporary.
I hope the whole thing doesn't sound like them.
Still chomping at the bit RE: the new eels.
There's some half hour "making of the album" doc that will probably come out with the album.
Looks pretty masturbatory, but E has made his career out of having people watch him bleed and cry and masturbate, so no problems here.
The trailer to it has some of another new song, "Tremendous Dynamite", a song whose title has, sadly, written a check the song itself cannot cash.
But "Fresh Blood" is BEATING BEYONCE on AOL's Top 40 this week.
THAT is something to freak out about as eels has always been a smaller band, even though you've probably heard they're music in ALL the Shrek movies, Road Trip and a bunch of other places you wouldn't expect to hear it.
This just means more people for E to isolate.
Way to do it, E, you bearded cantankerous old misanthrope.
I say okay.

A Weensy Addendum

4.2.09
8:09 pm
Forgot to mention the last track on "LotusFlow3r", 'No More Candy 4 U' is fucking awesome.
If Prince could be MORE like Little Richard...well, this is that song.

And also that the first single Manson plans to release from "The High End of Low" (as in the song that will herald a new Marilyn Manson album and be played on the radio and have a music video to be shown...wherever music videos are now shown) is called 'Arma-goddamn-motherfucking-geddon', which, of course, on the radio and TV will be called Arma-*******-*************-geddon and will obviously have a huge silence in the middle of the chorus, which features Manson yelling the song's title four times in a row.
He did this a few albums ago when he released 'This Is The New Shit' as the first single off "The Golden Age of Grotesque' as either 'This Is The New ****' or (and this is worse) 'This Is The New Hit'.
*sigh*
Way to shoot yourself in the goddamn motherfucking foot.

Let's Get Inchoate

3.12.09
9:03pm

Sending out a Facebook thing in regards to this, so I'll just touch on it here.
THE INCHOATE TRILOGY IS NOW UP.

All right.
Just so.
In other news, I discovered today that Gorillaz is indeed releasing a third album.
That makes me all happy n stuff because, while it isn't always the best music, it's big fun getting lost in the mythos associated with the band.
I enjoy getting caught up in mythoses.
Mythoi?
Hm.

Since I last posted, I've finished Lost District and it made my very soul tired and cold.
Way to kill the sun, Joel Lane.
I then picked up and finished Alex Garland's The Tesseract which came very, very highly recommended by one Wade, Jessica AKA Deadpool AKA The Jesseract.
Although she was unable to recount a SINGLE REASON WHY, she insisted it was an excellent, brilliant, etc. book.
It was all right.
The ending was better than the beginning and that's a shame since the ending was about 9 pages.
I don't want to sound like I'm dissing her though; I want to make it clear that when certain people recommend books to me (namely those in the book business, people I know who have the same taste as me, people I know who actually write and write well or the occasional, mythic person who embodies all three of these traits in a wonderful Simpatico Smoothie) I expect them to be nothing short of amazing.
ESPECIALLY if they actually say the book they are recommending is, in fact, amazing.
Next on the docket is Diamond Age by Stephenson (recommended by Colin).
I think there were a few others floating around out there, but I'll need to check in with my tastemakers.

Saw Watchmen on Sunday.
That Ackerman chick needs to die.
Or just stop talking, whichever.
Yes, she had great breasts and a pert little tush, but a nice set and an picturesque bottom DO NOT a good actor make.
And the three and half minute bone scene do not make up for the rest the movie in which she is clothed and talking.
So few actors have what I call the Total Package.
I think it's just me and...well, Harrison Ford and me, that's it.
Don't hate us because we're beautiful.
LOVE us because we're beautiful.
You guys gotta get ORGANIZED.
FOCUS.
Other than her loud sucking throughout, I thought they did an all right job with this thing.
Rorschach was perfect.
Comedian was perfect.
If you nail those guys, you can afford some imperfections along the way.
But god damn I hated that chick.

Saw the aforementioned Terminator trailer with the NIN song in it.
Man I love hearing Nine Inch Nails on huge goddamn speakers...

Also started watching The Boondocks and Battlestar Galactica.
Enjoying both for different reasons.

Downloaded the third "volume" of Heroes because I liked the first and second just fine.
Might wait until I get tired of BSG (or al least fatigued) before I pick it up though.
BSG has my enjoying it at the moment, so I'll be happy to leave well enough.
Alone.

Also also watched the first season of the Britcom "Peep Show".
Of course I like it and, of course, only season one (of its four or five seasons) is on DVD here in the US.
Something about the main character Mark is very familiar and depressing.
He reminds me of me, somewhat, in high school.
Very depressing.
Very.

Happened to hear GNR's 'Estranged' on my iPod earlier this week.
Say what you will about Chinese Democracy (uh, yeah, I know I said I would give it another chance, but that hasn't happened yet) but they HAD IT back in the early 90's.
That song is just so everything-you-want-in-a-GNR-song song.
The fucking things is over NINE MINUTES LONG, there's at least three guitar solos, the chord progression is exactly what it should be, Axl counts off during it, he plays piano, he sing about water imagery, death imagery and death-in-water imagery.
It's THE DEFINITION of what a Guns N Roses song should be.
AND, it has a correlation with me.
Check it out...
So, the videos for Don't Cry, November Rain and Estranged form a triptych (at least according to MTV and Axl Rose.
Estranged was the final piece of the puzzle.The third and final installment.
Know anyone else that's recently finished a third and final installment of something?
I don't know.
Just symbolic, you know?
Not really, but, you know?
Come on, COME ON!

Yesterday was quite a talky day!
Had lunch with Jade (who is Aussietastic and was able to answer my question about how Australians in general feel with regards to Flight of the Conchords (enjoyment)), had an in-depth conversation about something or other with Colin which was interrupted, in the best sense of the word, by a call from Jeannie who I spoke to for quite some time after which I ate some very nice Chinese food, only to be interrupted AGAIN, by Philip chiming in my ears.
Very talky.
Spoke again with Mme. Radbill this evening and I hope to continue doing so.
She is one of the best and falling out of touch with her is always a bummer.

Anything else of note?
Mmmm....went to a party on Saturday.
It was....a party.
The hour disappeared while I was there.
Yep.
You COULD say the party was so good that it actually distorted the time/space continuum.
Although I would probably correct you.
And call you a fucking idiot.
But, hey, that's just me, not saying I would for sure, but also not saying I wouldn't.
Or something.
Ease up, hombre.

Ah, that triggered something.
Eels has FINALLY announced the new album.
It's called "Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire" and it's coming out June 2nd.
I'm ambivalent because I'm obviously excited for the new eels, but I'm also setting myself up for disappointment because the last eels album was this incredibly beautiful double album and this is only 12 tracks.
Who knows, maybe it will be 12 tracks of pure gold.
The same thing happened when NIN announced their first album after The Fragile.
BUT E has stated that he has another full album finished, so maybe he'll drop something before four more years have passed.

Along with the new eels, there's a new Manson album in the works coming out right before Hombre Lobo.
It has most of the production team from Antichrist Superstar, one of the only great Manson albums.
Could this be a return to form?
Maybe if Manson stops drinking so much goddamn absinthe.
This is the first album written with Twiggy in about ten years as well.
If Twiggy picked anything up from Reznor while he was with NIN, then this new Manson project just might be listenable.
How cool would that be?
Manson actually returning from this ridiculous nose dive he's been in for so many years?
Yowza.

All right.
That's it.
Go watch the Inchoate Trilogy.
And feel just awful about it.

Sexy boing boing.

7.13.07
3:48 PM
Excellent, excellent day.
First off, I FINALLY did the XM thing and it was, well, excellent.
Anyone with XM who listens to the Comedy channel (150), you will hear me promoting their "Ladies Night" program.
It was great to get to show Bill that I'm very good at what I do.
I'm being immodest and loving it.
It went perfectly.
After that I had a delicious tuna salad sandwich (garnished lightly with lettuce and tomato).
And thirdly, throughout the day, I've been digging the latest Rasputina album, 'Oh Perilous World'.
(I subtitled this last portion 'Soot Flavored Cello')
Just to start, THEY ARE NOT A GIMMICK.
They are solid musicians who have a tasty definitive style that kicks ass.
At first they might be hard to get into, the lead singer's (Melora) vocals can be a bit...spastic?
Plus some of the electric manipulations done to the cellos might kill a few people.
But their songs are unique and dynamic and there is beauty among the creepy burnt out hovels through which their music takes the listener.
If I had to pigeonhole them, I would label them historical natural disaster electro cello pop.
And a beefy bag of fuck you to anyone who can describe them better.
Stand out tracks include: Cage In A Cave, Draconian Crackdown and A Retinue of Moon/ The Infidel Is Me.
Other crispy bits include: Choose Me For Champion and Oh Bring Back The Egg Unbroken.
And to wrap this delightful 13th in a shiny vinyl raincoat, I was contacted earlier and informed that I have to rerecord something I did a few weeks ago which means double my money.
What else can I say but sexy boing boing?
Nothing.
Sexy boing boing.