captains dead

i am feeling real bitchy/catty/petty tonight for no apparent reason. my feelings bring to mind how mr costanza must have felt during the opening festivities of festivus. i got a real problem with the people or actually one particular person at merge. i will preface this by saying that merge is probably my favorite label and i hold no ill will towards the blind higher ups, but their publicity department leaves something to be desired. being a former publicist for 8 years, i know a little something about the game and how its played. granted, i am no stereogum, aquarium drunkard or my ol’ ky home, all great sites in their own regard, but this little edge of the blog-o-sphere does pretty ok for itself. i am about to burn a bridge but i really dont care, its not like they have done anything for me. so about two months ago, i had requested a couple of interviews from the lady publicist at merge. i was told one artist would be available and the other two were questionable. fine, i can deal with that. i went through the trouble of typing up a few questions and sent them over. i didnt expect a quick reply but we are going on three months and have yet to hear anything. at this point i aint expecting anything, but you know what? just out of professional courtesy, an email saying “hey the artist(s) dont have time, sorry” or “your questions suck, so go fuck yourself.” either/or would have been sufficient. i am a big boy and can handle rejection, but silence is not necessarily golden in this case. how difficult is it to send an email stating either of the above scenarios? its not difficult let me tell you. i used to do it just about everyday. at least people know where they stand. i dont know if its some fucked up indie rock ego trip, or just plain laziness. whatever it is, fuck em. i dont need em. i am not on any one’s mailing list so quite frankly i dont feel compeled to lightly suck on the fingers that feed me.

with all of that bullshit being said, i will not hold it against los angeles’ the broken west, who recently signed to merge. their debut i can’t go on, i’ll go on chaulk full of jangley pop brilliance. usually when you describe a record as such there is something a bit pussified about it, but the broken west have created a “dudes” version of the jangley pop genre. i cant go on, ill go on is very reminiscent of the power pop invasion of the mid 80’s and 90’s which included bands like teenage fanclub, one of my personal faves, red kross, matthew sweet, another favorite, and big star. the broken west is not re-inventing the wheel here, but they are definitely adding another spoke that is really quite difficult to resist. if this doesnt end up in my top ten of the very young year, i would be really suprised.
they are touring as we speak, and will be in athens @ the 40 watt on 3.20. check out their myspace page for details.

so it goes

brass ring

“down in the valley” live

i dont have much for ya this evening except my favorite chan video.

i am procrastinating at the moment. so i may as well throw this out there. i am still on the fence about these young lads. although, i dig the new record quite a bit more than their debut.

here they are performing on 1.30.07, maide vale radio one session.

1. intro

2. song for clay

3. hunting for witches

4. positive tension

5. banquet

6. waiting for the 7.18

7. the prayer

8. this modern love

9. i still remember

10. like eating glass

11. two more years

12. sunday

i am not going to get into my obvious disappointment of the turnout of sunday evenings game. the first half was decent, the second half looked as if my alma mater, chicago christian high school’s jv team could have man handled them bears. whatever, sure it would have been nice but the selfish bastard in me didnt want them to win cause i could not be in chicago to partake in the festivities.

one band that i have been diggin on over the past 6-8 months, which in my head was more like 2 years, is the roadside graves and their self titled debut. my first listen to the roadside graves was not one of immediate satisfaction, it was actually quite the opposite. i couldn’t quite tell if i was supposed to take them seriously or not. strangely enough, there is nothing jokey about them at all but “jesus is a friend of the family” kind of struck the annoyance nerve right off the bat. luckily there was just way too much to like to let my initial listen keep me from venturing forth. anyways, the boys in the roadside graves have a new ep out entitled what happened to him could happen to anyone. it features a couple of tracks of off said debut, a couple of unreleased songs, and the lead track, “west coast,” off of their soon to be released lp, no one will know where you’ve been. “west coast” is a bouncy little number with a chorus that hast been replaying in my heads for the past few days. there is something about “west coast” that reminds me of the band. i maybe totally off base, though.

west coast

see you on the other side, friends.

runnin the ball is like makin romance - no truer words have ever been spoken

ok, so i am preparing to bust out my black and orange zubazz that may or may not be 3 sizes to small. considering the last time i wore them was 1987. the way i look at is this. firstly, people will get a great and enhanced view of my junk due to the extreme tightness of said zubazz. secondly, it maybe another 20 years before i get to bust them out again and at that time i will be 52 thus making it oh so creepy. on top of the zubazz i got my “monsters of the midway” foam finger, a ditka shirt portraying him as jesus, a bears helmet that conveniently holds chips and salsa, and my good luck saint singletary charm. if there is a god in heaven, he will look down on the bears and their fans and grant them just one more victory in what has already been a season full of heavenly miracles. also, i dont think i can take any more 85 bears references. seriously, its time to move on people.

this can now be found here

in the mean time here is an orgasm inducing collection of born to run outtakes.

1. a love so fine

2. born to run (alternate)

3. thunder road (take 1)

4. thunder road (take 2)

5. thunder road (acoustic)

6. night

7. linda let me be the one

8. backstreets (take 1)

9. backstreets (take 2)

10. lovers in the cold

11. born to run (double tracked lead)

12. she’s the one

13. the heist

14. jungleland

15. jungleland (alternate)

one reason i dont report on too many “up and coming” artists is that i find it difficult to put my stamp of approval on an artist after listening to merely one or two songs. it may not mean much to you dear reader, but it does to me. i try to report on artists that i can see myself listening to a year or even five years from now. crafting one or two good songs is really not enough to convince me of anything. shit, i could even probably put together a decent song or two, and that aint sayin much. couple that feeling with my inability to string together a sentence greater than “this song is pretty damn cool” after only listening to a song a few times. its not a recipe for great pr for that artist. so why bother, i guess? sometimes i get a good feeling about an artist, see kamikaze hearts, and just hope they can keep my attention over the course of an entire record.

with all that being said, i will say very little about the following artists other than i think they have the potential to be pretty great.? listen or dont, its all the same to me.

minneapolis’ the coach and four

hello destroyer

tiger high 85

girls arms redux

brooklyn’s fulton lights?

thank god for the evening news

fire in the palm of my hand - this song is really great

in other news, my man sean o’hagan and his band of merry men, the high llamas, have a new record entitled can cladders coming out on drag city, shortly.? if you have never listened to the high llamas i cant recommend their twisted blend of pet sounds era beach boys pop and psychedelia enough.

winters day