sup peoples? i am so far behind on my uncle bob news/music its kinda pathetic. for some reason i have been selfish with my listening habits as of late and i barely listened to standard gargoyle decisions and coast to coast carpet of love. i hear they’re great but i think i may have od’d on everything bob/gbv for the better part of 15 years that i had to cease to care for a while in order to maintain the relationship. anywho, i didn’t know that he split with merge to form his own label which he has respectfully and lovingly called guided by voices inc. the second release, first being the 3 song ep weatherman and skin goddess, on his new label will be robert pollard is off to business which was produced by tim tobias and comes in at a scant 10 songs (gasp!) maybe he’s coming to grips with that inner editor he desperately needs from time to time. here be the first single and some other stuff to cozy up to.
in other bob news (taken verbatim - see copy and pasted from his site)
On August 6, Robert Pollard will release Town Of Mirrors: The Reassembled Imagery Of Robert Pollard, the first ever collection of his artwork. This 144-page tome will collect more than 180 collages that Pollard has created throughout the years, including several made exclusively for this collection. The full-color, coffee table-ready book, which will be published by Fantagraphics, includes an introduction by author Rick Moody, who performed similar honors for 2004’s self-explanatory The Wilco Book. No stranger to the art world, Pollard created most of the surreal album covers for Guided By Voices and his solo albums, and his work has been exhibited in Michael Imperioli’s Studio Dante in New York and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in his native Ohio. order it here.
note to self: next time you purchase a dresser from ikea plan on investing close to 4 hours putting it together and need a nap afterwards.
anyone know what happened to rbally yet again?
here be spoon on 1.23.08 @ the enmore theatre, in newtown, sydney, australia. it’s a fm broadcast, fyi. btw, they have a new remix ep of “dont you evah” which features remixes by ted leo, matthew dear and a few other choice artists. btw part II, it looks as if merge has a new download store, which looks awesome/not good for my budget. anyway, check out the spoon store here. btw, part III the rosebuds are offering up a free remixed version of their night of the furies via the merge store. dont think i ever listened to the rosebuds, but i guess now is my chance.
can someone answer me something? why is it, and this only happens half the time, when i update my ipod it sometimes alphabetizes all the “the” artists together and the sometimes, not? also, sometimes i can get it to scroll and the letters will show up on the screen and then other times, again, not.
i am going to be in raleigh, nc for a day/night next week. can anyone recommend a good place to eat/grab a beer or two or three? keep in mind i will be with a 3 year old. thanks!
i have been listening to oakley hall’s gypsum strings quite a bit as of late. when it came out last year i listened the hell out of it, then i just stopped. that happens quite a bit and i suppose burnout tends to happen to those of us who tend to be a bit obsessive. as it turns out they have a new record coming out on merge entitled i’ll follow you - its due out on 9.11.i didnt even know they signed to merge, or did i? its hard to keep up.
mary timony always reminded me of a little sprite. like i could scoop her up, put her in my pocket and she would sing me wonderful little sprite songs as we went about our merry way. enough with my prepubescent fantasies. mary’s got a fairly new record out called the shapes we make. i havent heard it but i am sure its grand.
in case you fell asleep or whatever, here are the two arcade fire performances from last evenings snl - which was not that funny, sadly. they performed “intervention” and “keep the car running.” i was confused by the awkward guitar smashing at the end of “intervention.”
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.
anyone happen to catch bill gates on the daily show last evening? i was quite suprised on how awkward the whole interview went down. one would think that if an individual was planning on going onto either the daily show or colbert, they would either a. have some kind of sense or humour or b. be quick witted. bill gates was neither of these, but i guess when you are bill gates you dont have to be. still, it was quite odd especially when he bolted off stage while they were still on camera. there are a few early reviews in on vista, some good, some bad, some indifferent. i played with it a bit at bestbuy the other day, and my initial reaction was “so what?” granted thats a pretty sophmoric reaction, but there was truly nothing outside of the animated wallpaper that would make me want to upgrade. although, if i had an intel mac i would maybe invest in it.? check out this post over at gizmodo.? it piqued my interest quite a bit.
it took about 6 months and a shit load of convincing from kyle over there at more cowbell to make me a believer in the arcade fire. i listened the hell outta funeral to little personal fanfare during that estimated time frame. i dont know when, specifically, i started diggin on funeral but i can almost say with 90% certaintity that my new found appreciation was fueled by either a. beer or b. vodka. the most excellent things in my life have been discovered under the influence of the above liquids, see my wife and child for evidence. while i would like to consider myself a mid-size arcade fire fan, i have yet to listen to any of the leaked tracks off of the yet to be released disc. i’ll get around to it one of these days, i am sure of it.
here they are playing at first avenue in minneapolis on 9.29.05 - great recording, btw.
