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

Apples of the Earth - "Pearl Jam is not a very good band."

I'm not going to give you an mp3 of this yet. It's not finished. But some recording is better than no recording. This is my band's song "Pearl Jam is not a very good band." You can hear it on our Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/applesoftheearth

This song is a response song to the local 94.7FM KNRK radio station playing Pearl Jam all the time. I should also mention that we are available to play shows in the greater Portland, Oregon area. So book us a show at your house or at your favorite club! Here are the lyrics. Enjoy.

Pearl Jam is all you ever wanted in a band. You bought all their record company issued live bootlegs from their old tour. Did you buy them for the Who covers, or because you wanted to hear "Daughter" as performed in Milan, Italy in the summer of 1998? Would you like me
any better if I were Eddie Vedder. Yeah you would, and truthfully I would too. What's the song about the lonely woman behind the counter in the small town? I've not heard that one in years or if I did, neither I nor Jessica could remember it. What's the guitarists name anyway? Was it Mike? Did you like Yield, Versus, the new album with the avocado on the cover? Did you buy it the first week it was out? I tried to get you in to Pavement and Built to Spill. I made you a
CD-R of "There's nothing wrong with love," but I don't think you listened to it. So hey I give up, yeah I quit.

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

Christie Front Drive

I have been meaning to post about Christie Front Drive for a while now.

I can't think of any good bands from Colorado except for Christie Front Drive. I bought their self-titled "Stereo" album last year for $5 at one of my favorite record stores.

Their songs are epic and actually sound like Colorado.

Here is a link to some of their tracks as well as an interview with the singer:

http://www.liepaper.com/eric.htm

Here is a link to a few more of their tracks from a fan site:

http://www.christiefrontdrive.com/

Low quality photography of bands: Part One.

Of course, while I promise a series of compelling "greatest hits" and "best ofs" posts, it's only natural to start another series.

I used to be very opposed to concertgoers taking pictures of bands during their shows. In my old age, it's one of those things I guess I just don't care about, like boycotting Old Navy and The Gap.

I am not a very good photographer and I take pictures only with my cell phone. Here is !!! from a thursday night show a few weeks ago at the Someday Lounge:

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.

My new ride

1976(?) Raleigh Grand Prix fixed gear.
Thank you Dan!

Fixed gears are the new skateboards.

BOUNCIN'

I've been listening to a lot of music from about ten years ago. Kind of unpredictably, I've gotten back into jam rock supergroup PHISH. I have been downloading many shows from www.momadance.com and enjoying them very much. My tattooed punk girlfriend refuses to hear about how DIY and great Phish are, how they are so DIY that they only play guitars made by their neighbor from Vermont, how they give all their profits from Phish Food ice cream to charity, how they have a great sense of humor, and how they became huge without any mainstream radio or pop culture support. Actually, I don't think any of my friends want to hear about how great Phish is. So, here is a performance of Phish's biggest "hit" - hated by all mid nineties Phishheads as the ultimate "newbie" song, only suitable for bathroom breaks mid set:

Bouncin Round The Room, performed in 1990

Maybe it's how I don't want to talk about politics any more and have a boring job that Phish's music calms me for. Maybe it was seeing the Phish tribute band Phix play last year. Maybe it's that I'm getting old and I actually saw Phish shows over the summer every summer from 1997 to 2000. I don't know.

My favorite Phish song of right now is "Punch You In The Eye". Look it up.

For the punkers out there I've been downloading all these tracks and loving them too:
One guy's history of Emo from the 1990s to 2000s:
http://www.canyouseethesunset.com/2007/04/spoonful-of-emo-revisited.html

My favorite song from this collection right now is Jejune's song from the split with Jimmy Eat World. I'm totally ripping off stuff like that and Unrest for our band Apples of the Earth.

Car of the Month: My Volvo

My Volvo died on me a few weeks ago, so I sold it. I'm now driving my VW full time, with a lot of Vespa action in between and during the overtime. The transmission went out and needed replacement, and I don't have the cash for it and didn't want a new automatic transmission anyway. This car got me across the United States. A moment of silence, please.

Kind of Like Spitting - “March 25th, 1998"

On Friday I was walking around town when I ran into Ben Barnett. Ben is the artist formerly known as the one man band Kind of Like Spitting. On my computer, the top two most frequently listened songs are Kind of Like Spitting ("You Got Served," "A Song for Annie's Harmonica") and so it really brightened my day to say hi to one of my favorite songwriters.

Ben told me he is getting training at Stumptown Coffee and has formed a new band that's looking for another guitarist. I forget the name of this new band, but I told him I would love to see them play when he gets it together. He told me to "myspace me" and then he and I both had to get back to work.

Here is my first favorite Kind of Like Spitting song:
Kind of Like Spitting - "March 25th, 1998"

What's your interpretation of the course of events that swings from a line on the outside of the fence. I got in a fight at the Team Dresh show and always fighting, me, it came off macho. And I am a lion roaring out loud. In my dreams I'm angry I never touch the ground. I feel like I'm flying somewhere underneath the sheets. I took your bracelet from the bathroom I've had it ever since we met. check your lipstick in the mirror, sway and swing your hips. Head out to the New Bad Things show at the end of Burnside at the oh hell used to be the x-ray, not all that familiar with the history of this town, only been here for a short while, but you knew it. Say your sick of all the narrow eyes and all the lies and the actors feeding on our hearts. We had this one drive, don't talk, don't lie. Everyone is on call for a job that they hate. Check the mirror, check the bathroom, check the toilet, filling up this room. Room that you made yourself from the hangers from the closet down, he was asking for it but you knew it.

Purchase the album "The Thrill of The Hunt" from Redder Records.

Apples of the Earth

Apples of the Earth played our first show on Friday at "Plastic Matt's House" in SE Portland.

Here are the songs we played:

Bluelights
Smile, Come With Me And (Castawaves cover)
Wait (Secret Stars cover)
Pearl Jam is not a very good band
Giraffe (instrumental)

Thanks to Hurah Hurah and The Clearing for playing a show with us! I should really write about those bands because they are both fantastic.

Rocket Punch broke up.

Sorry, fans. Rocket Punch broke up! Instead, Apples of the Earth, our new band, will be playing a house show this friday - March 16, 2006 - in SE PDX with Hurah Hurah and The Clearing.

Come to the show to hear the new hit "Pearl Jam is not a very good band" before it hits MTV Europe.

Car of the Month: Porsche 356

Here is a lovely Porsche 356 my girlfriend insisted we take a picture of when we saw it on the street the other night. It is kind of hard to believe these cars have a basic flat four 1600cc engine - the same as my Volkswagen Bus. The silver paint is nice, but the tomato interior really does it.

Jawbreaker – “Accident Prone" (live)

Last weekend I was in a minor car accident. Everyone is okay, though. No one was hurt. I was wearing my Jawbreaker shirt and so here is one of my favorite Jawbreaker songs.

The song isn't about a car accident, but here it is nonetheless.

Jawbreaker - Accident Prone (Live - April 30, 1996)

It's off their fantastic live album which is available from Blackball Records.

What's the furthest place from here?
It hasn't been my day for a couple years.
What's a couple more?
And if I go, don't forget the one good thing I almost did.
I learned your name without words.
I used my eyes, not my hands.
What's the closest you can come to an almost total wreck and still walk away,
All limbs intact?
And when I go, you'll be there crying out, begging me.
I won't hear.
I'll just go fast into this night on broken legs.
A near miss or a close call?
I keep a room at the hospital.
I scratch my accidents into the wall.
I couldn't wait to breathe your breath.
I cut in line,
I bled to death.
I got to you, there was nothing left.
What's the meanest you can be to the one you claim to love
And still smile to your new found friends?
In the same confusing breath,
You pull away and draw me in.
I wanted you. You wanted more.
I built this life and now it's mine.

PREEMPTIVE V DAY

Pre-empting Valentine's Day, here's one of my favorite Valentine's Day songs. It's off of an out of print compilation entitled "Ooh Do I Love You." I like this song because it's a ridiculous metaphor and also references the band singing the song ("the Plan has love for everyone!")

THE DISMEMBERMENT PLAN - "THE LOVE WAR"

http://www.dismembermentplan.com/plan_audio/mpeg/dplan_the_love_war.mp3

Everybody here is a freak
And if you disagree you're even weirder
The world should disinherit the meek,
So let's go for broke and arm the gates of authority
It's what we allow,
And if we're better looking then victory is ours
To spin the bottle, baby, and how,
We've got a war to win, let's win it now

The love war was won with a single love bullet from a love gun
And the Plan has love for everyone!
Don't be left out when a love war breaks out Yeah, oh-wah-oh-wah-oh-oh
It's treason in this town to not be getting down
Yeah, oh-wah-oh-wah-oh-oh
And every day could be Valentine's Day (Oh, oh, oh, YEAH!)

Lovin' is a threat to The Man,
And if he had his way he'd squash it out right
Despising what he can't understand,
So arm yourself and defend your letter
Try to make a joke of it might
But the history of freedom will never be denied...
The carriers of liberty's lights: Oh, Jefferson, Voltaire, Thomas Paine, and Barry White!
The love war was waged by a million love soldiers in a love rage,
And the Plan is fighting every day!
Better pick a side when the love war arrived Yeah, oh-wah-oh-wah-oh-oh
Lives to be loved and the love war needs you all Yeah, oh-wah-oh-wah-oh-oh
It's treason in this town to not be getting down Yeah, oh-wah-oh-wah-oh-oh
And every day would be Valentine's Day
And everyone would love to choose to love in their own way
So do your part; the traitors are kissed at dawn, that's what they say
And every day could be Valentine's Day!