Tag Archive for 'pop'

i feel my hatred grow all the more extreme

reznor.jpg

im going to give you three guesses as to what i am not doing at the moment:

1. googling for gisele bundchen topless

2. reporting/twittering from sxsw

3. watching saved by the bell

im going to be real coy and let you figure it out.

from the “since you put it that way” file: i received an email this fine morning with the opening line “hey dickhead.” now, i was treat that email the same way lisa turtle treated screech. but i figured what the fuck, what jesse wanted me to convey to you dear reader, is that the brakes have signed with hyena records. who the fuck are the brakes you ask? well here’s how the well penned press release summed em up…

“On Tale Of Two Cities, The Brakes are captured at an idyllic time in their evolution, transitioning between an intimate neighborhood listening room and a legendary big city rock club. But more importantly, it presents a young and swaggering rock band coming into their own, clearly electrified by the music they’re making. The Brakes seamlessly intertwine infectious indie-pop circa Ram-era Paul McCartney, crunchy California rock in the spirit of The James Gang and starry-eyed British psychedelia akin to Traffic. The resulting breadth of vision belies a band whose oldest member is 23-years old.”

got it? well whatever. still, check em out cause they are pretty cool..

into the ground

the brakes myspace

i never listened to say hi to your mom. it was the name that just uprooted visions of the classic high school-era jokes that would end inevitabely in “yeah, but your mom didnt think so last night!” i gots issues, no doubt. they recently stopped by woodland studios in spring grove, illinoize for basement tapes session. actually say hi to your mom didnt show up, its actually just say hi, now. i’m actually kind of diggin their stuff and will, if i remember, seek out their latest, the wishes and the glitch. anyone familiar with either moniker’s work? here be the basement tape sessions including a cover of the beatles “im so tired.”

toil and trouble

spiders

northwestern girls

im so tired beatles

zero to love album version

say hi site / myspace / basement tapes

you guys/gals like your rock a little ragged around the edges? i know i freakin do. the more polished a record, the more bored i get, typically. if you answered yes, or better yet “hellz yeah,” then let me introduce you to some men from athens, ga, the brothers gore. in my world shit like this goes a long way. very replacementy, but more coherent, and also kind of big starry, but a little less poppy. either way you slice em, the brothers gore has got yr number if you like your pop with power. check em!

you can download their entire debut, frag, for free cheapasses, via their site.

the stomp

one day i’ll lie

liberty slut

the brothers gore site / myspace

the first record to actually leave me both cold and indifferent, and yet drunkenly in love was pretty hate machine. i, to this day, cannot name a record, off the top of my head, that doesnt give a fuck what you think about it as much as pretty hate machine. while that was super awesome at 15, at 33 its kinda draining but yet still leaves me cold and indifferent every time i listen to it. which i suppose was its primary goal. i dont know if time has treated pretty hate machine kindly, its still a record that, undeniably, fucked up the system during its time.

here he/they are playing in melbourne, fl on 7.1.90 @ the powerstation.

1. intro/terrible lie

2. sin

3. something i can never have

4. sanctified

5. thats what i get

6. suck

7. the only time

8. get down make love

9. ringfinger

10. down in it

11. head like a hole


my relationship with allison ashmore lasted for 6 hours

dont know if i mentioned but i somehow landed a new job, which i started a couple of weeks ago. its a cool gig although not particularly exciting - monitoring the wan for the army. the only real downfall is that i, again, work nights - 11 pm - 7 am. it is a grand time to study for my ccna. yeah, exciting shit, i know.

anyway, one band i used to absolutely love, and still do, is knoxville’s power pop maestro’s superdrag. sadly, they disbanded a few years ago. lead dragger, john davis, released a solo record last year but it failed to live up to the quality released by his former group. walking along side the footsteps of superdrag is another knoxville based group, tenderhooks. i have only listened to the first single, “kidstuff,” off their yet to be released, don coffey, jr, of superdrag fame, produced record vidalia, but its pretty damn good. if you dig cheap trick, big star, superdrag, etc then these guys and one gal are probably gonna scratch right where you been itchin.

kid stuff

check out their myspace page for all the gritty details including tour dates, which features a performance at bonaroo.

baby goes to 11 - superdrag

feeling like i do - superdrag

both of those tracks are off of their last real release, last call for vitriol. they just released a collection of home recordings and other goodies entitled changing tires on the road to ruin.

man, i am slippin. first i post that hold steady in store then the springsteen show from hammersmith that was released on columbia. i am fuckin retarded sometimes. in its place here is bruce, supposedly, on the streets of copenhagen performing the river with a local street musician.


if you cant join em, fuck em

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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


hey, verbena! wtf happened? w/ a knapsack beginners ep

there two bands to come out of the overcrowded underground of the mid to late nineties pop/punk/whatever crowd. one band, knapsack, immerged kinda unscathed when front man, blair shehan went onto form the equally great, the jealous sound.  i am sure most have heard of the jealous sound, but i am not to sure what kind of splash, if any, knapsack made on a global or even a national scale. there was not too much to the knapsack sound that set them apart from?other like sounding groups, but it was blair’s voice and lyrics that really made the shine. lyrically he rarely treds into the melodramatic waters like most of the groups/genres that knapsack are typically clumped together with.?all three records are just great poppy punky rock.

the other band in question is the blink and you missed em band outta the ‘ham, verbena. their 1997 debut, souls for sale, is a perfect blend of stones type swagger and a royal trux type sleaze. at the time i had not been so excited about a bands potential then that possessed by verbena. shortly after the release of souls for sale they jumped from merge to capital, and this is when it all went to shit. their sophmore/dave grohl produced record, into the pink, was a huge departure from souls for sale and sounded like an attempt win over a crowd that really no longer existed.? all things aside, souls for sale is still a freakin awesome record and i dont hold the last two heaping piles against em.

knapsack

off of silver sweepstakes

cellophane

casanova

off of day three of my new life

thursday side of the street

boxing gloves

off of this conversation is ending starting right now

katherine the grateful

skip the details

verbena

off of souls for sale

hot blood

junk for fashion

come on

This Conversation Is Ending Starting Right Now Day Three of My New Life Silver Sweepstakes Souls for Sale