Rising Up / Rising Down

Dave aka Este aka the drummer from ROCKETS AND BLUELIGHTS is in a new hardcore band called Rising Up / Rising Down. He is wearing the same "GOOD RATS" T Shirt as seen in Rockets and Bluelights photos, so I know it's definitely him.

On their myspace page you may listen to three of their songs, but unfortunately not download them. The untitled one sounds the most like Rockets and Bluelights.

They refer to themselves as a "power trio," so they must be good! They also have a crappy geocities site like Rockets does, which does have this cool insect shirt logo, but no info on their recordings.
http://www.geocities.com/rurdweb/

IRA RYAN

Today In front of my office I saw the coolest single speed bike. It was marked "IRA RYAN" and I didn't know anything about it. So, I looked it up later today and found Ira Ryan is a bike courier here in Portland. He just started making his own frames and now makes bikes himself. Anyway, I thought this bike was so sexy and so awesome. Here it is. I am going to get a single speed or fixed gear pretty soon. I love them so much.
www.iraryancycles.com

Rockets and Bluelights

Rockets and Bluelights

Albany, New York's greatest band ever, Rockets and Bluelights now has a fan-run myspace page. It includes downloadable mp3s of "Now This Year" and a few other songs, although I've noticed "Forest Green and Autumn" is mislabeled. Anyway, it's fantastic:
http://www.myspace.com/rocketscats

Also, their website is back up, including some semi-infamous pictures:
http://www.geocities.com/rocketscats

Rockets and Bluelights, you are not only still very explosive, you are my favorite band of all time.

Since the Geocities site for Rockets and Bluelights is so unstable, and for a long time wasn't online, I have copied all the text from them here for posterity. Most of it kind of doesn't make much sense but I like it anyway.

july 15th once again forgot about this. we have been taking it easy. we have also compiled the two 4 song ep's we did at dead air recordings (first as rockets and songs from the 10") onto one music w/ new packaging and things. we still have copies of 10" as well. if you would like some music please email bluelights_tour@hotmail.com (cd's are $4 and records are $7) ask about postage please. full length extended play cd with 10 new songs should be out by the fall on peterwalkee records. also, we will be doing a split with once and for all that will be released by mike and oneohfive records.

last winter we got to tour with western sky, from new hampshire. there arent good words for how wonderful they are, but you should find out for yourself. at the end of the tour our wheels, the hacker express, had a stroke which he never fully recovered from. since then we've been living in albany trying to save and get a new van. trying hard but we're still pretty broke so if you want any music or patches or buttons or posters or drawings you can send us postage and maybe a donation or something and we'll really appreciate it. if you're into that you can send an envelope to :

treehaus 643 Morris Street Albany, NY 12208

if you include your email address it'll make it easy for us to get in touch with you if we dont have something

also, we have a 10:" record that we have to sell for 8 dollars so we can get more... the inside looks like this

on our first tour, two summers ago, we played a show in providence at our friend chris' house, the sickle. tin can fest was happening that night, which we couldn't play, so we flyered ours as a free after show. along with western sky, one reason and struction played. one reason are from mississippi and they love life and rock so hard with so much heart, and later brought us to our first waterfall at sliding rock. we love them very much. struction are amazing too. they're music is something very new that people will someday really appreciate. we just played two shows with them at the knitting factory in new york and the crack house in plattsburgh.

MUSIC:

we have an mp3 at this of a song called a smashed piano

we hope to have most songs here and alot of video as well...

we've put out 3 ep's by ourselves that all have 4 songs each, the first one under the name friendship isterrible, we called it unlearning the differences between... we wrote it and recorded it in rajesh's family basement in beautiful columbia county, ny, it goes a rambling discontent, father tells his son how to matter, what they made you mean to me, and junked up on chemistry... then we changed it to rockets and bluelights close at hand and made another version of this with a different picture on the front and one more song on the beginning called henchmen, that song was then put on an albany compilation by lin at losing face but, after that we went to North Amherst, MA and we recorded we are giants, henchmen, whatthey made you mean, and now this year (because we can't wait)... 2 or 3 of them may or may not be on the first one as well... then we came home, then we went back to Massachusetts and recorded a smashed piano, andee, forrest green and autumn, we bleed this in the winter and a song called wintermission that we haven't let anyone have yet, we put them on a cd at first but then we went to Rochester, NY and met Adam who put the aforementioned songs on a 10" record for us, which is nice... now we are finishing nine or ten new songs to put on a cd that our friend Matto is going to help us with thanks.

the day dan went to russia.

My friend Dan, who is also the bassist for the Get Awesome Ninjas, is now in Russia and I am really excited about it. He is blogging a bit about it on his blog:

http://foreign-lawns.livejournal.com/

He also reports:

I gotta get you some pictures of the Ladas and Zhigulis over here. Lots of Benz and VW sightings too. A few scooters here and there, and some VINTAGE Russian motorcycles getting everyday use still.

I love Ladas - I used to see them in Costa Rica. I don't know what a Zhiguli is. What is it, Dan? I would love to see some of the motorcycles and scooters they are riding in Russia, and what the Russia style for 2 wheelers is. Dan, can we get a report? What is cool in Russia? Sorry, guys, but this is much more exciting than me talking about how much I love ORGASM DEMENTIA, even though they are great.

Dan you are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Movie Every American Must Go See

The conservatives have said United 93 is the movie every American must go see. The liberals have said An Inconvenient Truth is the movie every American must go see.

I say "WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?" is the movie every American must go see.

link

Volvo Update:

when I got the Volvo it had 161,xxx miles and now it has 170,000 miles. It needs an oil change, new windshield (cracked on route 26 somewhere I believe), a good interior cleaning, some summer tires, and a STEREO so I can listen to The Pine instead of 94.7fm!

Yellow Mica Recordings

Yellow Mica Recordings is an indie pop label from Sweden that releases CD-Rs and 7"s. They have released records from such musical sunbeams as The Capstan Shafts and Boyracer. I mention them for no reason.

>link<

The Pine

The Pine

Since I was involved in the music scene in Geneseo, NY, I was also interested in the music scene in Oswego, NY - home to another college of the State University of New York. Although the label located there, Alone Records, might only be loosely associated with the college, I like to imagine that it takes over Oswego and everyone there knows about the bands on Alone Records. Thus, I was browsing their website one night looking for bands to hear, and stumbled upon a track by the group The Pine.

Although I always say I love punk and hardcore, I only recently realized I only like about 1 percent of it. Probably less; but it's that small portion that I love intensely. But then I hear The Pine and I can not escape them. Their self titled record is the hardest record I have bought in the last year. They sound similar to a Rockets and Bluelights cover band composed of members of Still Life with Matthew Good on vocals. They are really heavy, but also very dynamic.

That, and they attempt to only release music on vinyl.

The first song I ever heard by The Pine was a track called "Growing Calm Together." It was taken from one of their newer albums. Here is a link to it. The Pine - "Growing Calm Together"


Then I heard their early stuff, taken from their first full length and first seven inch. Although some of the titles sound more like Linkin Park tracks, they are great and intense and I love them.
The Pine - early tracks

Links:
Alone Records, Oswego NY
http://www.staticpulse.com/pine/releases.html
http://www.heroine.org/index1.html
http://www.gridsector.com/owsla.html

Notes on The Nineties at Noon

Lately i have been listening to a lot of 94.7 FM "Alternative Radio." I had just assumed that there would be a lot of great stuff on the radio here - incredible stuff on caliper with KEXP or WGSU or WFMU or KCRW - but no.

Instead, I have been enjoying a station that "gets you through your alternative weekday" and plays "the nineties at noon" (despite playing an overwhelming amount of nineties alternative music during all hours of the day).

Anyway, I have still been listening, and thinking about these songs and what they mean. I have listed them in a spectrum - from best to worst - to try to figure out some things about "alternative music." Some bands are listed with actual songs I heard on the air, while some are not.

To prevent this from becoming a cumbersome (lol!) essay, I've left this in the form of notes.

Good:
The dBs "Black and White" By far the best thing I've heard on this station.*
The Cure - anything other than "Friday I'm In Love"
Blur "Charmless Man" and anything other than "Song 2"
Nada Surf "Popular" and "Do It Again" (new one!)
Sublime - yeah love the 'blime
Cake "Frank Sinatra"- anything by them
Primitive Radio Gods "Standing outside a broken phone booth with money in my hand"
Daft Punk - are great! yay!
Hum "Stars" ok this song is great.
Dinosaur Jr. "Feel The Pain"- ok great awesome - Sebadoh too!
The Lemonheads - anything, even "Mrs. Robinson" is well-recieved by me.
The Strokes "12:51" ok this song's guitar used as a synth and great lyrics win me over, no probs
The Smashing Pumpkins - anything by them, even "Perfect" is great.
Weezer "Say it ain't so" (always great especially when DJ announces song as "Say It Isn't So" lol)
Matisyahu - "King without a crown" - this is some reggae dude or something that is a big change at any point and is listenable so I give it the thumbs up!
The Talking Heads, The Clash, Green Day, Radiohead (with an enthusiastic YES!)
Beastie Boys - still fun
The Ocean Blue
The White Stripes - because why not?!
The Verve "Lucky Man" - ok I bought this album back in the day. yeah orchestral britpop i'll take it.

Middle Ground:
Gorillaz "Dare" - I like this but the song doesn't really go anywhere and isn't dynamic enough. The Gorillaz are awesome, though, so I have high standards.
Poe "Angry Johnny"
She Wants Revenge - Who is this band? Sounds like a rip off of Interpol and Interpol is a rip off of Joy Division so i can't hate them for that. anyway i guess this is the middle ground because I don't care either way about this band, but still stomach it as something new.
Everclear "I Will Buy You A New Life"
Blink 182
Sponge "Wax Ecstatic" : woke up with this one in my head and I guess that means it doesn't suck REM "It's the End of the world as we know it (and i feel fine)" please play anything by REM besides this

Bad:
Pearl Jam - anything
Luscious Jackson "With my naked eye" (they played a jungle remix or was this the original. who cares this sux.)
Coldplay - anything except "Yellow" that song is ok.
Beck "Devil's Haircut" - sorry Beck you don't do it for me...
Weezer "Such a pity" (man this song blows even though it's new. It sounds autotuned, even, which is just sad for such a talented group. The lyrics are horrible and sound like they were translated back and forth between english and japanese a handful of times, literally. - see addendum)
Temple of The Dog - I am never hungry for that "i'm going hungry" song
Stone Temple Pilots
Blur "Song 2" aka Blur "Whoo hoo"
Dishwalla "Counting Blue Cars"
The Cure "Friday I'm In Love" played on a day other than Friday
U2 - Bono is cool but I just don't ever feel like listening to U2, sorry dudes.
The Police "Roxanne" not this one again, please
Nirvana
Foo Fighters
Queens of The Stone Age
Jane's Addiction "Jane Says"
Bush "Glycerine"
Soundgarden
Audioslave "Be Yourself"

* - this was heard on a late night sunday broadcast, not an alternative weekday.
--
Addendum:
Lyrics to "This Is Such A Pity" by Weezer

How is your heart, little darling?
I didn't mean to get so made
Let me just hold you closely
How did things get so bad?
I know how to pick on you
You push me over the edge
We cause so much agony
We can't seem to move ahead

This is such a pity
We should give all our love to each other
Not this hate that destroys us
This is such a pity(This is a pity)

What kind of future will we have?
Will we ever find peace?
Everybody thinks we're crazy
They're about to call the police
I don't want to be a chump
You think I'm a fascist pig
Right now everything is black
I don't think we'll ever give

This is such a pity
We should give all our love to each other
Not this hate that destroys us
This is such a pity(This is a pity)

This is such a pity
We should give all our love to each other
Not this hate that destroys us
This is such a pity(This is a pity)

This is such a pity
We should give
We should give our love(Destroys us)Our love...

Pictures

Kalpana / L-R: drew, blair, aaron, michael / march 2004


The GAN / L-R: dan, jeff, zach / march 2004


The Detachment Kit (NYC) / September 6, 2004


The Pink Cammies / L-R: russell, brad, jeff / feb 11, 2005

[I was checking up on WGSU, and it seems they have a gallery of pictures. Many of these pictures were taken at shows I organized or promoted at SUNY Geneseo, and surprisingly many were shots I had not seen. These four are some of the best ones there.]

[click on the pink cammies one - it gets bigger]

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

+
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.