The Replacements reunite.

The Replacements are a great band that started in the early eighties and in my opinion are probably second only to R.E.M. They are famous for their truly great and American rock and roll songs and also their antics (like throwing their original tapes into the Mississippi when they heard their record company wanted to issue their albums on compact disc). They are reuniting, and I am rather excited about it. One of their best and most famous songs is "Can't Hardly Wait" and here are the lyrics. They have a lot of great songs, like "Kiss Me On The Bus," "Alex Chilton" (which I wrote about last year on this blog) and "Achin' To Be" (which Pinhead Gunpowder covered on "Shoot The Moon" - a fantastic record). Paul Westerberg, the singer, has solo work that is really great and is on the pop-emo label Vagrant Records. My favorite solo song of his is "We May Be The Ones" which was a big WGSU hit. Anyway, here's to The Replacements.

"Can't Hardly Wait"

I'll write you a letter tomorrow.
Tonight I can't hold a pen.
Someone's got a stamp that I can borrow.
I promise not to blow the address again.

Lights that flash in the evening, through a crack in the drapes.

Jesus rides beside me
He never buys any smokes
Hurry up, hurry up, ain't you had enough of this stuff?
Ashtray floors, dirty clothes, and filthy jokes

See you're high and lonesome
Try and try and try

Lights that flash in the evening,
Through a hole in the drapes
I'll be home when I'm sleeping
I can't hardly wait

I can't wait. Hardly wait.

Car of the Month: Honda Hiccup

March is almost over and we almost didn't have a car of the month! The car of the month for march is the Honda Hiccup. The Honda Hiccup is an old Honda hatchback from the 70s converted to a pickup truck by some cutting! My coworker said his friend came up with this and built one in Southern California, but I can't get it out of my head.

Kind of Like Spitting - The Thrill of The Hunt

Kind of Like Spitting is not a band I try to push on people. It's whiny and weird. The songs are desperate and ugly at points. But, I just picked up the new Kind of Like Spitting album, "The Thrill of The Hunt," and there are so many things to like about it.

First, this is the third KOLS release in almost as many months. Hush Records from Portland put out two releases: one of all Phil Ochs covers and one of all originals titled "In The Red." My good friends at Redder picked up the, well... leftovers, and put out this one. Although both Hush releases are great, the Redder one accidentally is the most interesting.

First, it's the most casual. The songs are some Ben Barnett originals, but a few were by David J (of another one man band Novi Split). In fact, the first song on this, the title track, is a David J number.

Also, there are numeroous covers interspersed with the originals. The covers are interesting and earnest, not unlike my favorite batch of covers ever, Bob Nanna's 2001 covers. Bad Religion's song "You" is done wonderfully and will appeal to any fans of Tony Hawk. Redder had posted three Kind of Like Spitting Bad Religion covers on their website, and this is one of them. Mr. Barnett also plays "Lay Some Happiness on Me" by Jean Chapel and Bob Jennings, and "A Song For You" by Leon Russell and Willie Nelson. Those are songs I am unfamiliar with, but I love the casualness of the covers. Because of this, the disc could sound like a 'party album.'

Furthermore, Kind of Like Spitting covers a Kind of Like Spitting song. "The Thing About Distance" is taken from the old Hush Records self-titled release, and was one of my favorites. It features the timeless lyric "It doesn't mean I can't wish her the best / I hope she gets that job in Ireland." It's a memorable track that will stick in your head, and it's a great example of Barnett as a great songwriter.

But the best tracks on here are some new ones. "Share The Road," which is available for free download on www.redderrecords.com, is a brilliant bike-riding-as-relationship metaphor. It's well done and brief, cutting the proverbial fat right when it counts.

There is another take of "You Got Served" which was one of the high points on Redder's "Metaphysics for Beginners." In fact, that song is one of the few complaints of the album. It is such a good song it should have been the album closer. Instead, the album closes with a cover of Big Star's "Thirteen."

I have a large problem with the track "Thirteen" on this record. First, "Thirteen" is covered more famously by Elliott Smith. It was recently used in the movie Thumbsucker and appeared on it's soundtrack. Smith covered it for almost his entire career, and it also appeared in another short film. Kind of Like Spitting covers this song in the same style as Smith, adding nothing.

This is what is wrong. Kind of Like Spitting and Elliott Smith are not the same thing. They are both emoish boys from Portland, yes. Their methods are the same, but their results are not. The cover of "Thirteen" would have been much better replaced with Kind of Like Spitting's Yo La Tengo cover "Tom Courteney," which is excellent!

For me, the last track almost negates the greatness of the rest of it. The track says "I was just kidding - this is what I wanted to sound like" and it doesn't compliment the talent of Barnett at all. Luckily, the rest of this is killer I still love it.

Lastly, yellow is a great color for this. Kudos to Aaron from Kalpana, who I assume picked it out.

www.redderrecords.com

"Mopeding through the Pacific Northwest looking for Bigfoot sounds ridiculous to many but is something I put everything into and on the line for."

The best story I've read recently is of this guy who rode his moped from Los Angeles to the Seattle area looking for Bigfoot. I wish I had read this a week ago, because I just went to a Moped Army meetup the other day and could have asked them about this. Although looking for Bigfoot is considered ridiculous by most, the author is unfazed. He explains everything and gets you into the story, from his perspective. It's perfect zine writing, and I love it. Please do yourself a favor and read it:

http://www.crappylittledreams.com/expedition.htm

The Secret Stars - "Wait"

In a few weeks I am hopefully going to see Geoff Farina play live. Geoff is an indie rocker who has played in two major groups: the jazzy-emo ensemble Karate, and The Secret Stars. The Secret Stars are not well known. They recorded most of their stuff in the early 1990s, and were a quiet boy/girl indie pop duo. Their first song on their first seven inch is called "Wait" and it was covered by Death Cab for Cutie, which probably brought this song to the biggest audience. The song is really sweet, and both The Secret Stars' version and Death Cab's version are available for download on the online. I don't think Geoff Farina will sound like this or play this song live. His solo stuff is more jazzy, I know. But, that doesn't make this song any less great.

Link to The Secret Stars' version:
http://www.southern.com/southern/band/SECST/biog2.html

Link to The Secret Stars' website:
http://www.secretstars.com/

Label that put out the original seven inch of this song (and a whole bunch of great other stuff I won't get into now):
http://www.simplemachines.net/

Link to Geoff Farina recieving NPR approval:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4138925

Death Cab's Version:
http://www.barsuk.com/

Testamonials:
http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=132214

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Every town has a diner,
where I'll meet you
and your friends, too
Things are just a bit nicer
over some coffee, you can tell me all about your day
I don't know much about you
Not that I want to
Not that I want to
Sometimes I can't escape from my room
So excuse me
I'll be just a little late

You will wait for me
You will wait for me

Every town has a corner
Where I'll see you
And your friends, too.
Hang out, looking cool
Saying the same things
Over and over again.
Sometimes we all feel stupid
We say the wrong things.
You're not the only one.
Sometimes we all get left behind
In a race of style
It's a dumb thing.

You will wait for me.
You will wait for me.
You will wait for me.
You will wait for me.