getting out of school and getting out of hand.

big first snowfall in western new york today. listening to this and cap'n jazz, walking in the slush:

http://www.stereogum.com/mp3/the-gum-drop/4w3q%20Mark%20Kozelek%20-%20Celebrated%20Summer.mp3

Love and hate were in the air, like pollen from a flower
Somewhere in April time, they add another hour

I guess I'd better think up a way to spend my time
Just when I'm ready to sit inside, it's summer time
Should I go fishing or get a friend to hang around
It's back to summer, back to basics, hang around

Getting drunk out on the beach, or playing in a band
And getting out of school meant getting out of hand

Was this your celebrated summer? Was that your celebrated summer?

Then the sun disintegrates between a wall of clouds
I summer where I winter at, and no one is allowed there

Do you remember when the first snowfall fell
When summer barely had a snowball's chance in Hell?

ALTERNATIVE ROCK APPROVE!

I'm sure I haven't heard this song for years until today, but it's constantly in my head. I thought it was Mercury Rev or Sebadoh, but it's by a band called The Candy Skins.

Music Review: That Dog. - Retreat from the Sun (1997)

I have always liked That Dog, ever since I first heard them, but somehow I managed to live my life without owning any of their records. That changed a few months ago when I got "Retreat from the Sun," their last album, now 12 years old.

This record is so great. Basically, it's mid-nineties "alternative" rock but all written from a female bias. This means lots of incredible harmonies from the Haden sisters who are in the band. This means lyrics only women would come up with, like "we'll have wedding rings and baby seats." The lyrics are perfect, not cliched, and give the band its own voice.

To call this album "cutesy" would not do it justice, because it packs a bite. It's actual pop-rock and this record holds its own against other records from their friends Weezer, and even Jawbreaker, who they counted as friends. It's also got the superhits "Minneapolis" and "Long Island." They name-check Low in "Minneapolis", which I truly didn't catch until around the songs's 60th listen.

This album definitely did not do well commercially. I don't think it was popular at all. I think this is because the record label released "Never Say Never" as a single. This song is ok, but "Minneapolis," "Long Island," "Being with you" and "I'm gonna see you" are all way better songs. "Never Say Never" is kind of abrasive in a bad way. The other songs are super-poppy love songs.

Music nerds are always lamenting the end of some imaginary era of music, so I suggest checking out this record for a fresh serving of mid-1990s pop-rock. I really like this album and I listen to it all the time.

Music Review: Brand New - The Devil and God are raging inside me (2006)

I've always liked Brand New. Back in the day I saw them play once in Buffalo and once in Syracuse. I even hung out with them once. One of my friends always told me he was friends with the singer's little brother.

I picked up this record sometime in 2007, which was rare for me, because it was a major label release and I'm a card-carrying indie snob. I had heard them play the song "Jesus" on TV and was really impressed. The song drones in a hypnotizing way, and the guitar parts almost sound like Explosions in the Sky. The vocals are almost stream-of-consiousness styled, but work great because there are more dynamic parts. The song starts off in an almost Pavement-level middle voice but then get into pop-punk territory toward the end. Also, I had loved Deja Entendu, and we played that heavily on WGSU.

This album has some really pretty parts and just some relentlessly heavy and abrasive parts. I love the varied production, which I consider a response to the Audiogalaxy era. The songs contrast each other really well, just like on other great records of the 00 era like "Lifted" and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot." The songs are sad, but expansive. It's pop-punk but it's experimental and ambitious.

This record has staying power. I'm very excited to hear the follow up.

Now that summer's here...

Perhaps the greatest pop-rock song of all time:
"Girl From Mars" by Ash



I love Ash so much.

A few songs I love, right now.

Pretty much any time Christianity and alcoholism are mixed in a song, it's a winning combination. That is why I like this song by The Hold Steady entitled "212-MARGARITA."



This is my current favorite for listening while driving the VW. "Ghost Town" by The Specials. Please, if anyone would like to buy me a gift, purchase me the "Ghost Town" shirt from Supreme.




I found this video a few weeks ago (and by a few weeks ago I mean Valentine's Day). It puts original footage of Busby Berkeley's shows with the great Magnetic Fields song.

Punk's Not Dead

Oh wow! Jawbreaker/Jets to Brazil frontman and CUNY literature professor Blake Schwarzenbach has teamed with the Kerouac of Punk, Aaron Cometbus of Pinhead Gunpowder to form a new band called Thorns of Life.

This has made my day / week. Their sound is superpop/punk with the trademark Jawbreaker heavy / introspective break sections.

Alternative Press Videos on Youtube

Click for hi res image of them playing

Honda Trail 90

On June 3, 2008 Dan and I went to southeast Portland and he bought this baby, a 1965 Honda Trail 90. You meet the nicest people on a Honda.

Of course, my head wraps itself around the Beach Boys' song "Little Honda" at the sight of this "little motorbike." Here is a great video of the original song:



Being an indie rocker, I much prefer Yo La Tengo performing the song:

Lifter Puller - "Nassau Coliseum"

Here is an incredible fan-made video for Lifter Puller's song "Nassau Coliseum." Lifter Puller broke up and sort of reformed as The Hold Steady. Lifter Puller was more noisy and abrasive, while The Hold Steady goes for more of a bar-rock deal in the best possible sense.

This video is incredibly weird, vulgar, and awesome. It should be presented with a South Park style disclaimer that states it absolutely shouldn't be viewed by anyone.

This song was inspired by a Grateful Dead concert at the Nassau Coliseum, on Long Island, NY, where the biggest drug bust in Grateful Dead history took place.

HOLD STEADY

I just stumbled on to this site, an index of Hold Steady lves shows and radio session downloads:

http://holdsteady.blogspot.com/

They even have Lifter Puller stuff.

Rockets and Bluelights video

Rockets and Bluelights : Forrest Green and Autumn

Video

Three Songs:

I was walking around today and it occurred to me that I'm the only person I know who really, really loves these three songs. I consider each to be really great examples of the specific type of music. See if you can hear what I hear.


Craig Morgan "Redneck Yacht Club" (2005)


Buzzcocks "What Do I Get?" (1978)


Phish "Punch You In The Eye" (2000 performance)

West of Wakefield - "Lottery"

There is very little information on the internet about this band. They are called West of Wakefield and have one CD, the five song ep "Connecting the Dots." I believe they were from Michigan and released this CD around 2001. Here is the first song.

West of Wakefield - "Lottery"

I came across this as a DJ at WGSU in 2001. It has a real autumnal feel, with a song about winter. It's got a real midwestern pop-emo vibe, heavily influenced by The Get Up Kids and The Anniversary. The recording is clear, and I consider it so good it must only be listened to once in a year. Yes, pop punk worth savoring.

One of the members of this band went on to a band called Flashing Red Airplane, who are really good too.

Photo: Mamma Mias Pizza Geneseo NY Winter 2002.

The Mountain Goats on 2StrokeBuzz

2StrokeBuzz.com, the blog I have been reading longer than any other blog, recently referenced a Mountain Goats song in a post about a scooter rally, trumping anything I've written recently.

Check it out: http://2strokebuzz.com/index.php/?p=3700

THE HOLD STEADY

For Joe Mar:

NPR explains three songs by The Hold Steady.

I recently visited California and the entire place struck me as not that sweet, except for San Francisco, which really turned on the charm toward me. The soundtrack to my trip was this song:



i can't believe i was worried about hurting you.
i should have kicked it with your cousin when i had the opportunity.
i was at some party and she said she had to talk to me
and then she didn't say anything.
i can't believe i worried about hurting you
while you were banging around the bars trying to scratch up something new.
you left me fifty bucks and nothing much to do
but think about getting back at you.

i heard that you've been back around the neighborhood.
you might be still strung out but you still look pretty good.
i heard that kid from california turned out to be an asshole.
i think i could have told you.
you left with burning bridges but you never saw the beach.
you had stars in your eyes but modesto's not that sweet.
when you only know one guy and he disappears for days at time.

i can't believe i was worried about hurting you.
i should have kicked it with your cousin when i had the opportunity.
i was at some party and she said she had to talk to me.
she didn't say much of anything.

Sarah 100

I stumbled upon a great find. This blog has posted two Sarah Records compilations in their entirety: the last one, Sarah 100: There and Back Again Lane, and the first one, Sarah 587: Shadow Factory. Sarah Records is perhaps the greatest record label in music history. A boy/girl combination named Matt and Clare decided to do a label of all their favorite pop bands, releasing mostly seven inches. They had a zine called "Are you scared to get happy?" and included poems, mostly about being in love near some river in England, with each release. They decided to break up the label after 100 releases, noting their art was theirs to make and theirs to destroy, and it was perfect while it lasted.

Both compilations include the fantastic track "Pristine Christine" by the Sea Urchins, proving it as a true superhit. Shadow Factory also includes The Orchids great song "Apologies."

Here are bands featured:
The Field Mice, The Orchids, The Poppyheads, Northern Picture Library, The Springfields, Another Sunny Day, 14 Iced Bears, Boyracer, Brighter, Action Painting! and more!

Please do yourself a favor and download these if you have ever wondered what "pop" music would sound like on the radio in a perfect world, or in the future as imagined in 1966.

Sarah 100: There and Back Again Lane

Sarah 587: Shadow Factory

Sarah Records on Wikipedia

Stylus guide to Sarah's first fifty releases

Boys Life - "Sleeping off summer"

I'm going to rip off this blog and post a follow up to my Christie Front Drive post, which had encouraging comments from people I don't know!

Christie Front Drive did a split, one that I still don't have, with one of my favorite emo bands ever. The band released one of my favorite emo albums entitled Departures and Landfalls. This album I like so much because you can't even understand most of the lyrics and it has field recordings of rainfall and crickets and trains mixed in. I love it. It's one of my favorite true albums ever, in the sense that all the songs compliment each other for one artistic whole statement. I even bought a poster of the album cover for my room.

The band is Boys Life and here is track five from it, entitled "Sleeping off Summer." The picture above is a really cool treehouse I walked by this afternoon.

LINK

THE VERY BEST OF...

A lot of bands that I love are never going to be big. They're on the decline, they've broken up, no one knew them to begin with. It goes like this. But, in my mind they're huge. They're fantastic. And anyone who saw them years ago or even heard of them is rad. They've had superhits stuck in my head for years.

And it's better if this happened for my friends, too. This was the magic of college radio - there were secret superhits that only we knew about. Tons of bands like this: The Dismemberment Plan, The Weakerthans, The Wrens, Ted Leo. Bands that were sort of pop, sort of punk, all indie.

Now, it's been years since I first heard these bands. I feel I should be stopping by Best Buy picking up their "Gold" collections, their best ofs and box sets. But these bands will probably never have best ofs.

That's where I come in. I'm going to put together some best ofs for my favorite bands that will never have their own.

First on the list is Jawbreaker. I'm trying to get Dan into Jawbreaker, so I'm going to pick out my ten favorite songs and see if it works. Wish me luck.