Touring isn't cheap or easy. We know, we've done it for years. We thought of this as a way for bands and music lovers to offer up their floor and couches. We've stayed in some great and not so great places while on tour, so we know it can be hit or miss. We figure people are fans of bands and bands become fans of other bands. If we give them all a place to meet under a common need, good things will come of it."
I just made up that I might be doing a weekly thing called "Metal Monday." This simply means that I'll post something metally on every Monday that I remember to. Here's the first one. It's some later-era Judas Priest. Ridiculous riffing? check. Screechy vocals? Check. "Dark" or "Evil" topic? Check! Enjoy some "Painkiller." It's on the house.
As a freebie, here's ANJ's tribute to the former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev (thanks to Ryan from Ryan's Smashing Life for pointing this one out to us):
We've been searching for a while for a band to have a feud with. Music feuds are awesome and hilarious. Oasis vs. Blur. Neil Young vs. Lynyrd Skynyrd. It's all good stuff. Anyway, yesterday at The Digital Bear Studio Party, The New Collisions (playing their first ever show) , "accidentally" knocked our commemorative framed album off the wall of the studio onto the ground shattering all of the glass encasement. They were so sneaky about doing this that it APPEARED that they didn't even touch it. Somehow though, none of the other displays fell off the wall. They are in big trouble!!!!!!!!!
Check out Melophobe's review of our show at TT's here. It seems that they had a fun time. They also posted some awesome stylized pics. I'll repost a couple here (hope they don't mind), but head on over to them to see the rest...
After almost a week, I too have my list of my favorite albums from each year that I have been alive. I kept to the spirit of this exercise by only choosing albums that I know and not repeating an artist (with one notable exception, 2008... since the year isn't over, I think I'm in the clear). Also, each of my choices fluxuates between stuff I used to listen to a lot (that is you, Mr. 1978 Van Halen) and stuff that I listen to now (1981, Signals, Calls, and Marches).
This was a far more exhausting process than I would've initially imagined hence, the week-long delay with the post. Like Mike and Travis there were definitely some years that had far too many viable choices, but my biggest surprise was that I never listened to many albums in the 80's (and the Mid-80's to be specific) and to this day, haven't really made a decent effort to revisit some of the music from those days, so that's my next task, right next to finishing all those books I've been meaning to read....
Without further ado, here's the list:
1978 - Van Halen - Van Halen 1979 - Rust Never Sleeps - Neil Young 1980 - Zenyatta Mondatta - The Police 1981 - Signals Calls And Marches - Mission Of Burma 1982 - Tie: Signals - Rush, Thriller - Michael Jackson 1983 - Genesis - Genesis 1984 - Double Nickels On The Dime - The Minutemen 1985 - No Jacket Required - Phil Collins 1986 - Graceland - Paul Simon 1987 - The Joshua Tree - U2 1988 - Day Dream Nation - Sonic Youth 1989 - Full Moon Fever - Tom Petty 1990 - Ah Via Musicom - Eric Johnson 1991 - Fear - Toad The Wet Sprocket 1992 - Gordon - Barenaked Ladies 1993 - August And Everything After - Counting Crows 1994 - Superunknown - Soundgarden 1995 - The Bends, Radiohead 1996 - Tiny Music From A Vatican Gift Shop - Stp 1997 - The Colour And The Shape - Foo Fighters 1998 - Moon Safari - Air 1999 - The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner - Ben Folds Five 2000 - Parachutes - Coldplay 2001 - Take Offs And Landings - Rilo Kiley 2002 - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips 2003 - Such Great Heights Ep - The Postal Service 2004 - A Ghost Is Born - Wilco 2005 - Be - Common 2006 - Everything All The Time - Band Of Horses 2007 - Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon 2008 - In Rainbows (Cheating A Bit, But The Year Isn't Over)
Here are some awesome, awesome photos by Kelly Davidson. Lots more great ones here. One of the photos of Matt will be appearing in the next issue of The Noise!
Sophia also took some awesome video of us rocking the place.
We had a really fun time opening the show at TT's and I got a bunch of video of the headliners, so here is all the video I could get before my camera died of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin at TT's 7-14-08.
I also took some photographs for the 10 seconds when I wasn't videotaping:
I am just beginning the healing process after a series of 3 shows in 3 days.
As always, a variety of nonsensical videos are available here.
On Saturday, we played in Washington, DC at The Grog and Tankard. It was an interesting room with a shallow setup, but kind of a cool vibe. It's in the nice part of town and we had a fun time. We were on super early, so the place wasn't exactly full, but our friend Pia did an awesome job recruiting friends. She made the whole thing fun for us and then took us on over to a nearby bar called Breadsoda.
We got a little lost on the way to Breadsoda, but met some friendly people on the street who helped guide us. Samantha, our new GPS - who Sony should be paying us for using and plugging (you reading this Lisa?), didn't have the place in her directory because it's too new.
We sat outside at Breadsoda and had a relaxing chat about books, movies, and other fine topics. I got to know some of Pia's friends including the one she affectionately refers to as "The Tall Guy." They were all totally awesome people and it was an all-around fine time. As the night progressed, PJ, as in Pamela Jean, decided to rib a fellow walking by in a striped polo shirt. She yelled, "nice shirt!" and laughed a bit. He walked away without responding. About ten minutes later, he returned and started yelling at Matt and Travis for making fun of his shirt (they, of course, hadn't said a thing to him) and called us all "fucking hipsters." We sort of sat there puzzled by the whole thing, but also sort of amused. His friends shook their heads, giggled, and dragged him back inside. It put kind of an amusing cap on the night.
We woke up the next day and hung out with Pia, Aaron, PJ, and Annie for a while before heading off to the fine town of Danbury, CT.
We arrived in Danbury at Cousin Larry's. We rocked the Sunday night with our buddy H (video of his set on our video page) and our formerly of-Boston pals Sarianna and the Swell. It was awesome fun except for the moment where we were playing "Grace Kelly" and I looked up and saw 6 TVs, each with a different show on. I started wondering, "what are all these shows?" Then, I realized I had already failed to sing one line and had no clue where we were in the song. Whoops!
Our visit to Danbury:
A couple of related photos.
We returned to Boston for some excitement. We had an interview with Ryan's Smashing Life, which was a fun time. Ryan was an awesome guy and asked a lot of great, insightful questions, particularly about some of the content and sources of the lyrics. Just as we were getting up to leave the 1369 Coffee House at the end of the interview, our song "The Most Beautiful Dead Girl" came on. It was kind of surreal.
We hopped on over to TT's. We were lucky to have Joel Simches doing sound for us. He definitely made the place sound good! We played really well and rocked our short set. Patrick mangled himself on the guitar. I got only a pretty poor photo of the injury, but here it is:
Our pal Kelly Davidson, who we met in Austin, took some of the best live photos of us ever yet taken. I will post those in another post shortly along with some fab video by Sophia. I will also post all of the video I got of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. They were awesome and nice, as were Ha Ha Tonka. All around, a fun and successful show!
So I saw Mike's last post about picking his fave records from each year he's been alive, and I thought it was a great idea. Unfortunately, I got through 3 years and realized there was no way I was going to be able to pick my favorite records, mostly because there are just too many. Instead, I made a list of the records that came out in each year (according to the wikipedia list ONLY) and picked one record for each year that I felt I wore out. These are by no means my favorites... I'm also sure that I'm missing some great records I listened to, but I only used the list posted on wikipedia, so I apologize to all of the records I listened to a lot and got the shaft. Here goes.
1977 - Fleetwood Mac: Rumours 1978 - The Police: Outlandos d'Amour 1979 - Fleetwood Mac: Tusk 1980 - Christopher Cross: Christopher Cross 1981 - Def Leppard: High N Dry 1982 - Fleetwood Mac: Mirage 1983 - The Police: Synchronicity 1984 - Prince: Purple Rain 1985 - Phil Collins: No Jacket Required 1986 - Bon Jovi: Slippery When Wet 1987 - Def Leppard: Hysteria 1988 - N.W.A: Straight Outta Compton 1989 - Billy Joel: Storm Front 1990 - Poison: Flesh And Blood 1991 - Guns N Roses: Use Your Illusion 1 & 2 1992 - Soul Asylum: Grave Dancers Union 1993 - Paul McCartney: Off the Ground 1994 - The Cranberries: No Need to Argue 1995 - The Smashing Pumpkins: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness 1996 - The Refreshments: Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy 1997 - The Refreshments: The Bottle and Fresh Horses 1998 - The Smashing Pumpkins: Adore 1999 - Matthew Good Band: Beautiful Midnight 2000 - Our Lady Peace: Spiritual Machines 2001 - Ben Folds: Rockin the Suburbs 2002 - Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers: Sonoran Hope and Madness 2003 - Dashboard Confessional: A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar 2004 - Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers: Americano! 2005 - American Hi-Fi: Hearts on Parade 2006 - Butch Walker: The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Lets Go Out Tonights 2007 - Modest Mouse: We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank 2008 - Dead Confederate: S/T EP (so far)
This is something I picked up over on Three Imaginary Girls. It's a list of your favorite albums that came out each year of your life. No repeats on artists. I cheated a little with a couple of greatest hits records...
Some years, it was a struggle to find anything much I liked (I'm talking to you 1977) and some years were tough to narrow down from 10 viable choices (late 80s/early 90s).
Anyway, here's what I've got. I reserve the right to change my mind...
1976 - Ramones: Ramones 1977 - The Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols 1978 - Tom Waits: Blue Valentine 1979 - Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures 1980 - Devo: Freedom of Choice 1981 - Go-Go's: Beauty and the Beat 1982 - Michael Jackson: Thriller 1983 - Def Leppard: Pyromania 1984 - Bruce Springsteen: Born in the U.S.A. 1985 - The Cure: The Head on the Door 1986 - The Smiths: The Queen is Dead 1987 - New Order: Substance 1988 - Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man 1989 - Pixies: Doolittle (close call with Nine Inch Nails: Pretty Hate Machine) 1990 - Depeche Mode: Violator 1991 - Nirvana: Nevermind 1992 - Lemonheads: It's a Shame About Ray 1993 - Violent Femmes: Add It Up (1981-1993) 1994 - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Let Love In 1995 - Radiohead: The Bends 1996 - Belle and Sebastian: If You're Feeling Sinister 1997 - Spiritualized: Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space 1998 - Neutral Milk Hotel: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea 1999 - The Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs 2000 - Bright Eyes: Fevers and Mirrors 2001 - Clem Snide: The Ghost of Fashion 2002 - Rilo Kiley: The Execution of All Things 2003 - The Postal Service: Give Up 2004 - Modest Mouse: Good News for People Who Love Bad News 2005 - The Decemberists: Picaresque 2006 - Rock Plaza Central: Are We Not Horses 2007 - Arcade Fire: Neon Bible 2008 - Dead Confederate: S/T EP (so far)
Friends! We have been selected as a finalist in the WFNX contest to find an opening act for Coldplay in Boston! Our video for "30 Lives" is now featured on Coldplay's special web site for this purpose:
I saw the midnight viewing of the movie Wanted last night and I found it to be pretty awesome. I won't spoil too much, but it includes all of director Timur Bekmambetov's favorite themes: father/son relationships, superhuman abilities, fate, and ancient races charged with maintaining the balance of good and evil in humanity. I love the overwhelmingly Russian fatalism and mysticism. I think Wanted is at least as good as his massive overseas hit Night Watch, if not better. (Day Watch was a disappointing follow-up.)
It's certainly a stylized, suspension-of-disbelief affair, but I found the characters to be compelling and the action, with the exception of a few overblown sequences, to favor suspense over explosion (there were plenty of explosions for sure).
I really hope directors from around the world follow Bekmambetov's lead and incorporate their cultural fables and literary themes into American-style, action-fantasy-sci-fi films.
I get a massive quantity of spam with subjects like: "this girl is looking for you," "someone loves you," "bad girls," "let's chat," etc. For the past six months or so, these messages, of which I've received thousands, have almost always contained a photograph of the "girl" who is interested in me. Here she is:
I wonder who this poor girl is. She is now forever associated with some spammer's endless barrage of silly messages. I'd like to interview her and find out her reaction. I suspect that her picture was just grabbed off myspace or something. Anyone know her?
Maybe it's not spam after all and she really is interested in me. She is trying very hard to chat with me and I have denied her all this time. Maybe she will stop at nothing to "show me her pictures." After all, she is "willing to meet with me." How much longer can I resist!?!?!?!
Here is an example of the e-mails: "Hello! I am bored this afternoon. I am nice girl that would like to chat with you. Email me at (ADDRESS REMOVED) only, because I am using my friend's email to write this. I want to show you some pictures."
UPDATE (7/7/08): I've just started receiving messages from a new "girl" who looks like this:
This isn't exactly new, but it's pretty awesome for both its innate greatness and its 80s-style fade video montaging mixed with Blair-Witch-spooked shaky cameras. I love it. I also love the observers mixed in with the band. Oh yeah, awesome song too. That's all.
The new Girl Talk album is available for whatever price you choose (including $0.00) at: http://74.124.198.47/illegal-art.net/. I really enjoyed the last record and, although I've not been active lately, I was involved in doing a lot of music along the same lines a while back...
Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright is one of my favorite films ever. I am in the process of seeing every Hitchcock film (75% through them) and I think it may even be my favorite of his films so far...but that is a hard choice to make. He is most certainly my favorite director of all time and his worst movies are better than most directors' best.
Anyway, I just found out that they have the movie available for free download on Archive.org at:
I don't want to talk about it at all and ruin anything, but I really enjoyed the way the plot unfolded in this one. It features Marlene Dietrich at age 49. She was a fascinating woman and an excellent actress. She portrays a complex and unusual role perfectly in this movie.
If you've got 2 gigs free and a couple of hours, I definitely recommend it!
While Mike reads the newspaper to find random industry-placed adverts, upon my morning flip of the paper found this interesting article about the new head of EMI... A music producer, like Rick Rubin? No, a financier named Guy Hands. Known primarily for rescuing Pubs and Petrol Stations from bankruptcy, he found the Music Industry was quite different than the corporate boardrooms he was accustomed to patrolling. I'd be curious to see what people think about his approach (hint... leave comments!), but I just don't think that applying the same cost-cutting measures that may be effective for restaurants and traditional businesses is going to work.
You may remember a while back, I had posted that thing about the burrito being mistaken for a baby in the trash. Well, I found the source of that tidbit of joy.
(The above says - in response to "Do you have any advice for older people?" - if you have blood sugar, take a knife and make a cut and then let it bleed so the sugar runs out. I read this in a pirate book.)
UPDATE: BAH! THE PAGE IS OFTEN GIVING A "Bandwidth Limit Exceeded" ERROR. TRY AGAIN LATER.
So, I am trying to learn more about video editing. I hope to make a short film for the 48 Hour Film Project next year. As an exercise in editing, I spent all day making a music video for Jean-Paul out of public domain footage from the Prelinger Archives. It was particularly interesting to try to cover as much of the story of Jean-Paul as I could using the limited footage available. It turned out okay. I could work on fixing some of the timing and making things a bit better, but I only wanted to spend a fixed amount of time on the project, so once I reached that limit, I figured, I should just be done.
It contains a lot of strange stuff including prominent use of an old stag film, spiders, educational films, war films, commercial propaganda, etc. I don't want to ruin things too much by giving away specific sources. I tried hard to build the tension and dramatic elements. I think it was reasonably successful given the time and material limits.
If you don't like spiders or are bothered by a brief period of flashing lights, I'd suggest passing on this...
Here it is:
Better quality stream on Revver (with ads you can turn off):
