Pictures worth 100 Beers!

"If you don't like CCR, you're a fucking asshole" - one wise, pisskickin' hobo

"Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
"Lookin Out My Backdoor" by Creedence Clearwater Revival

A truer statement was never said in my opinion. It's really driving me crazy that I can't find my CD book, because I have the last three installments of my countdown written, I just don't wanna do a final draft until I've read them over while listening to the albums. I might be quitting both of my jobs soon in the interest of taking a higher paying job with fewer hours and you know what that means: more time to write = more posts = more pabst blue ribbon paired with country or southern rock of some variety. YES. Also, this week I'll either be rocking to Prince Paul or Murphy's Law on Halloween, I'm not sure yet. It's looking like I'm going Punk Rock, since the show is in Yonkers. Seeing Prince Paul would mean hauling my ass all the way to Times Square. Either way, this week is also going to find me rocking along to Colin and his wiley gang of Decemberists. Both nights should be a good time, I'll let you know how they turn out.

he doesn't want us back

With me taking so long between posts, my life is completely different with every post. Recently, I got evicted by my landlord whose name is Michael Jackson. His name is really Michael Jackson, and he basically said the opposite of this song:

I Want You Back - Jackson 5

But I don't even care. This house is cold, and I live in a basement with no doors and no windows. So maybe it's time to leave.

Top Songs to listen to when being evicted:

1.Everything's Just Wonderful - Lily Allen
2.Nobody Don't Dance No More - Kano
3.Burning Down the House - Talking Heads
4.Going to Georgia - Mountain Goats
5.Cold World - GZA

A few days ago I saw the Count Basie Orchestra live here at Seton Hall. Fantastic show, and the drummer, Butch Miles, is absolutely amazing.

So what else is new in my musical world? New Jay-Z song is trash. New Decemberists is great. Camera Obscura slowing taking over my world. In fact, let's put some songs up.

Lloyd, I'm Ready to be Heartbroken - Camera Obscura
Razzle Dazzle Rose - Camera Obscura

And while I'm posting songs, this is for all of the haters I live with who can't appreciate good stuff:

(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry - Darlene Love

Oh, and I am pretty broke. These days money is for cigerettes, intoxicating substances, and maybe food. Luxury items are just no on the bill these days. So I am starting the Fund To Get MC Abstract Douchipster Enough Money to Buy This:




He even has the wallabies on!

Also, I have been told that he is a jerk, but I really want this to happen to me.

worth 2,000 words

"Take the Money and Run" by the Steve Miller Band



"Midnight Rider" by The Allman Brothers Band

American Hardcoh

I was rocking my way through google reader and I came across a pitchfork review of a recently released Hardcore retrospective, which was kind of a shock. The comp is the soundtrack to the recently released Hardcore documentary, American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986. I started reading up on the movie and it really looks like its worth checking out. I mean, they interview Keith Morris and Henry Rollins, so how can it not be entertaining?

always wearing goofy glasses


always bursting a vein of some sort

I would post a video here of the trailer for the movie, but it's in a widescreen format and I think it'd be missing something if I just found a youtube version. The official movie website is very cool though and worth checking out. I can't imagine how hard it would be to make a good documentary on Hardcore music, the genre and scene as a whole are so scatterbrained. You have far right politics and far left politics, hard line straight edge and boozehound fighting mentalities. Things are stripped down and fast, then they're sloooowed way down and solos are being riffed with much ferocity. Everyone stresses Unity, but there's also a strong seperatist feeling towards anyone outside the scene and at times even people in other regional hardcore scenes. What other genre could have an album called Strength Through Unity with a track called "Bullet for Every Enemy"? It's chaotic, which makes perfect sense.

The soundtrack has a good amount of classics on it. These songs are some of the soundtrack choices, with some of my own personal favorites thrown in(I'll leave off the madball since I just posted them like 10 seconds ago).

The Fast and the Furious:

"Pay to Cum" by Bad Brains

Slow and Steady:

"Hallowed be Thy Name" by Indecision

Nihilistic, Hedonistic:

"Live Fast, Die Young" by the Circle Jerks

Hugs, not Drugs:

"Straight Edge" by Minor Threat

West Coast:

"Nervous Breakdown" by Black Flag

East Coast:

"Bullet for Every Enemy" by 25 ta Life

Misconstrued Right Wing Politics:

"Skinhead Youth" by Warzone

Straightforward Left Wing Cop Hating, Sometimes Misconstrued as Right Wing Cop Hating:

"Police Beat" by SSD

Oh and maybe I should mention the BEST HARDCORE COVER SONG EVER.

"Just Like Heaven" by Indecision

Also, next Thursday, you should tune into channel 7 to catch Ugly Betty. The executive producer just so happens to be my favorite person, Ms. Salma Hayek.

She also just so happens to be taking her shirt off in the previews for next week's episode. I know I'm tuning in. Number 3 on the countdown comes as soon as I can find my CD book!

number 4!

So here we are at Number 4 on my countdown of the albums most influential to ME. Since I'm a rebel without a pause, er cause, I can never obey the self imposed numerical limits of my countdowns. So... this one's a twofer.

When I first really started listening to music, I was in 7th grade and I liked sublime and nirvana. I don't mean I liked those bands the best, I mean I really don't remember listening to much other music. After I got sick of the What I Got EP, I brought 40oz to Freedom home from Coconuts and my parents freaked out. That moment goes on my all time top 5. I mean, here I am, just turned 13, walking in the door with this album with a "Parental Advisory" sticker. So they previewed it. I don't know if I've ever seen them so embarrassed, angry, and uncertain of what to do. I mean, this album's title alludes to alcoholism, and the subject matter of the songs, Oh! the subject matter. We've got prostitution, genitalia, hard drugs, hard drinking, soft drugs, crime, nazis, literally everything "bad" is mentioned on this album. Oh and I think they drop the f-bomb more times than I could count. If my parents' goal was to get me to love this album, they certainly did the right thing by trying to shield me, cuz of course, that means I'll listen and I won't want the CD more. Even aside from its rebellion factor though, this is the one album that I can credit with getting me interested in varying forms of underground music. The style-hopping on this album is ridiculous. The more I fell in love with the album, the more I became open to punk rock, ska, reggae, hip hop, folk music, jam, all genres that are touched upon. In addition to the genre jumping nature of their own songs, Sublime always covered a huge range of artists. Six tracks on the album are straight covers, and other songs draw bits and pieces from other artists, like the specials quote at the end of "DJs". I read up on the album a lot, and when I found out that they took a lot of material from other artists, it inspired me to dig deeper and seek out these other artists. Thanks to 40oz to Freedom, I picked up albums by Bad Religion, Toots & the Maytals, the Specials, the Grateful Dead, Public Enemy, and maybe the most importantly the Descendents.

See, although it was 40oz that got me into the Descendents, the Descendents really pulled me into Punk Rock, my first true love. When I bought Milo Goes to College, it blew my mind that someone would let a bunch of kids into a studio to record an album. The lyrics showed the confusion and frustration of adolescence in a way no one over 17 could ever hope to capture. Even if the music wasn't technically proficient, it felt so real and so impassioned that I don't think I turned this CD off for weeks. I remember listening to this album and having my mom ask me, "what is musical about this?" and sitting there and just thinking, "Ooh! She doesn't understand at all!" I was so angsty, man, and this was the perfect album for it. My love for the album translated to curiosity, just like it had with 40oz, so I investigated other bands on the Descendents label, mainly Black Flag and Bad Brains. Then before you knew it, I was just doing everything I could to learn about and listen to everything punk rock.

40 oz to Freedom
"New Thrash" by Sublime
"Let's Go Get Stoned" by Sublime
"Waiting for my Ruca" by Sublime
"Hope" by Sublime


Milo Goes to College
"Hope" by the Descendents
"Bikeage" by the Descendents
"I'm Not A Loser" by the Descendents
"Suburban Home" by the Descendents

I always jump the gun on these things

I need to calm my trigger finger, because now that I spoke too soon I can't stop listening to that stupid Papoose song.

It's still stupid. Number 4 comes never, I'm going to bed.

Oh and this is an example of one of the steps in the transition from hippie to yuppie. Ya know, starting to finish college.

Hippies should just stay like this.

????

Anybody remember a little while back when I said I was starting to come around regarding Papoose?

note: his left hand holding the camera up to the mirror was cropped out

"Friend Request" by Papoose

Yeah, forget it. Honestly, I know I'm from the suburbs, but even I'm pretty sure that you get your ghetto pass revoked when you rap about computer networking. What would the Weird Al Parody be for this? Would he just talk about selling coke? It's too bad, cuz the beat is kind of awesome, but I really don't need Papoose telling me "Tom is a Genius!"

One other thing, I was in the bronx today, like 2 blocks from my job, and I heard someone speaking spanish with a chinese accent. I could understand and everything, it was definitely spanish, but they were just speaking with all that intense inflection that chinese has. It sounded almost as crazy as

"Up Your Speed" Remix feat. Chamillionaire by Sway

The idea of a US/UK hip hop crossover makes me tingly, of course, but this really wasn't what I had in mind. Did Sway actually say to himself, "Hmmm, what would make this little derek b-side better? I'm really liking this double album that consists entirely of Mike Jones and Paul Wall disses, so maybe I should call up Chamillionaire and see if he wants to have a spot of tea." I hope he said the spot of tea part. I want there to be an election for new ambassadors of hip hop to the UK. Rhymefest and Chamillionaire have got to go. I vote Q-Tip.

#4 on my influential albums list coming tonight. Stay Tuned!

this picture's worth 1,001 words

"Gone For Good" by the Shins

Wallowing

When you're in the mood for a good wallowing session, you need just the right music. Just in case any of you readers out there were planning on a life questioning depression kick, here's my quick list of

5 Great Songs for Wallowing, Despair, etc.

As is usually the case, these are in no real specific order.

5. "Wasted Days" by the Slackers

Take the repeated line "what have I done wrong" tossed in with some mournful hornfuls and you've got yourself a self-pity pie.


4. "Autumn Sweater" by Yo La Tengo

The organ melody here is key. If you take out the organ, there's a lot of really rocking percussion going on with nothing to counterbalance it. Ira Kaplan's bashful vocal delivery helps too.


3. "I'm Still Your Fag" by Broken Social Scene

Gentle quiet vocals, meandering instrumentals, spaced out drums. All the elements are there.


2. "Walking On A Wire" by the Get Up Kids

A lot of Get Up Kids songs rely on the lyrics to convey the emotion of the song. The lyrics relate to the mood here, but the slow winding guitar tells much more of a story than anything that's sung. This was the first get up kids song I ever heard and not one other song by them sounds anything like it, which to me is a shame.


1. "If You're Feeling Sinister" by Belle & Sebastian

The second song on this list that was my introduction to a band. This song is like "Autumn Sweater" in a sense; elements of the song are very upbeat, but the overall package is certainly not. When I saw this song played live, it was an upbeat show, and they delivered a dancy/rocking tune, more evidence of the power of delivery.


Now, I believe that wallowing is a good thing to do every now and again. It's a good way to get that built up sadness out of your system. But while it might be a fine place to visit, it's certainly no place to live. If you find yourself staying too long, maybe you need to remember that you don't have to be so sad.

The Wailing Wailers

Here we are at the start of my countdown, inspired by the work of our contemporary Sal Paradise. Over the next few days I'm going to go through the five albums that I consider to be the most influential to my understanding of music. The albums will be in a loose order of importance, by which I mean that number 1 is definitely the most important, but I'm not really sure about the ranking of the others. So anyways, at number 5 on the list we have:

It's a bit odd, maybe, that the first doo wop music I ever discovered and fell in love with on my own was made by a man who was famous for a very different sound. Still, the Wailers' B-Side and Rarities compilation Destiny: Rare Ska Sides from Studio 1 brought me a real love for music that up until then I had only had a passing acquaintance with. Early in Marley's career, his band was simply the Wailing Wailers, with no "Bob Marley & The" tacked onto the front. He was one of three (clean cut) frontmen, trading spotlights with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer.

I bought the CD immediately upon its release, having read about it a few months prior. I was completely fascinated by it because it was a Bob Marley that was so different from the "Trenchtown Rock" Bob Marley I'd known before. The tracks on the CD are all over the map. There are covers of American standards like "White Christmas" (absurd for a band of Jamaicans to be playing, which they acknowledged by singing "white christmas, not like the ones I used to know") and "What's New, Pussycat?". There are Doo-Wop originals like "Don't Ever Leave Me" and there are ska tracks like the titular "Destiny". Even when the group ventures away from typical Jamaican sounds, a reggae-ska flavor remains, thanks to the backing work of the Skatellites and mostly thanks to the definitive style of Ernest Ranglin's guitar. This album takes a very interesting look at the Wailers' development and if I'd never gotten a hold of it, there'd be a lot of music I wouldn't have bothered to check out.

Notables:

"Don't Ever Leave Me"(Take One) by the Wailing Wailers

"Where is My Mother" by the Wailing Wailers

Roooooooosemaaaary

Well, I've returned from Florida and the Matriarch of my father's side is in good health for now. I realized on the plane that I never posted the list of the five albums most influential to my appreciation of music. I've had it written for weeks and done nothing with it. I have work soon, so I'm not going to go all out with the post now, but while I was down in Florida, I picked up Interpol's Antics, something I'm waaaaaaay behind on. I mean, I already knew a couple of these songs, but there are definitely some gems that I had never heard before. The radio sucks down there so I had to buy something, but everything I looked at in Walmart (the only place to buy CDs) was edited, save the Interpol CD and a 2 disc Johnny Cash Live set. Anyway, the Interpol disc came with some videos, the coolest of which is definitely "Evil", with its weird muppet singer.

De La Souls

I dropped like 3 posts within a couple hours, but I'm going to be out of internet range until Saturday on family business, so I gotta pack it all in now. I was kind of under the impression that I was a pretty rare breed for loving De La Soul and the Bouncing Souls with equal fervor (maybe leaning towards those Jersey punks a little bit more), but apparently I'm not the only one.

"De La Souls" by P.O.S.

That's another track that you have to thank the kind folks at Daytrotter for. This site is rapidly becoming one of my favorites.

Spectoriffic

Just a little simple math here. "Then He Kissed Me" + "Be My Baby" = "Back to Me" by the Positions. Is this a bad thing? Nah, if you're gonna bite, they picked the right person to bite from. Both parts are taken pretty obviously too, so maybe we can say that it's some kind of homage. At the end of the day, I'm enjoying the Positions. The vocalist sounds like Monique from Save Ferris (they did that ska cover of "Come on Eileen" that was sort of popular around 1999?) and since the band has a lot of horns, I thought it might actually be her at first. Turns out the vocalist is named Nicole Stoop though. Maybe it's just an alias.

"Then He Kissed Me" by the Crystals
+
"Be My Baby" by the Ronettes
=
"Back to Me" by the Positions

The other stuff I've heard by them is pretty cool too. Thank excellent online for "It's Okay, It's Alright".

"It's Okay, It's Alright" by the Positions
"Bliss!" by the Positions

One more thing, a friend of mine sent me the new Deftones, which I wouldn't really have sought out on my own. I was definitely surprised by it. You won't think this first song is the Deftones at all. You'll believe the second one is them. They haven't really been my bag for a long time (even though they were the opening act at my first real concert) but I like this spaced out vibe that their new album has.

"Pink Cellphone" by the Deftones
"Cherry Waves" by the Deftones

Worth a thousand more words

"I'm a Long Way From Home" by Waylon Jennings
"I'm a Long Way From Home" by Shooter Jennings

that's all she wrote

CBGB finally closes its doors tonight. I wanted to get to one of the last shows, the Bad Brains / Bouncing Souls show specifically, but ticket prices were jacked up so Hilly Kristal can have some extra cash to fund his CBGB Las Vegas venture. Fuck that. I caught at least two shows there that I can remember, a Madball show in high school and then a Ted Leo show when I was a freshman in college. The Madball show was their first in NYC after they got back together, incredible fucking show. Usually the worst part about hardcore shows is the opening bands, but every band that night was on point. If I remember correctly, Awkward Thought and On the Rise went on before Madball. This picture's actually from that very show. There used to be a bunch of them on their website, with yours truly right up front. The pictures were taken after I got punched in the face though, so I wasn't looking super photogenic.

"Look My Way" by Madball
"Can't Stop, Won't Stop" by Madball

The Ted Leo show was totally different. It was a Lookout! Records showcase and every band aside from Ted and his Pharmacists was poo. The Douchipster and I were standing through the whole thing and tired as hell, but when Ted hit the stage it was absolutely worth it.

"The Sword in the Stone" by Ted Leo
"Under the Hedge" by Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

So, another piece of NYC history is gone, along with Coney Island and the Wetlands. It's sad to see a place with so many stories closing, but let's be honest it had quite a punjent odor and the Continental is a better venue anyway. Any five shots for $10 is a deal and a half if you ask me. Not that I've been there since I've turned 21, but still.

Worth a Thousand Words

"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" by the Band

I said this ain't no mecca man, this place is FUCKED

I was going to post something yesterday, but it was Judas Priest friday, so I ended up just eating some fungus and wandering around my house convinced that everyone else there and everything I've ever known was a dream. But that's a story for another day.

There's a cool list at Stylus about the top 10 songs by artists singing about other artists and I was really surprised to see Rancid's "Journey to the End of the East Bay" on there. Does it really count as being a song about another artist when you're singing about your old band? Maybe. At least it counts as much as Chuck Berry singing about himself counts. Even though my musical tastes may have expanded far beyond punk rock and the like, the blurb for the song kinda sums up my love of the genre.

I’m going to be an old man one day, and I’m going to opine endlessly about music I listened to in high school. “We carried JanSports to school,” I’ll say, “our ‘Anarchy’ patches would wiggle out of their safety pins twice before lunch!” I’ll say. “And pop-punk…well it meant something too, and bands would sing of younger and better bands, sillier and more idealistic than themselves!” I’ll put on Rancid’s homage to the strangely enduring Operation Ivy, and I’ll tell the grandkids to go bother their grandmum, I will. “Got a garage or an amp we’ll play aaaanytime…”

21 dead monkeys

I hate on Rancid a lot, but my contempt is really directed towards the latter day Rancid, once they sort of became a caricature of themselves. If we're talking about earlier stuff, there's definitely a soft spot in my heart for that two chord nonsense. I'll never like Rancid as much as Op Ivy though, Jesse Michaels is just a better vocalist than Tim Armstrong. Armstrong should've just stuck with his guitar.

"Journey to the End of the Easy Bay" by Rancid
"Bombshell" by Operation Ivy
"Soundsystem" by Operation Ivy

Joe Budden is a ridiculous human being. Why you ask? Because he chose to freestyle over Mr. Mister's "Broken Wings". He starts talking about A-Rod and Cory Liddle somewhere in the middle too. Absurdity.

"Broken Wings Freestyle" by Joe Budden

spankin

So my posts have become less frequent, which is sad. Times are mad hectic with work, school, and being a dudebro, keg-sucking, frat-bro. But regardless of what's going on, I can still find time to shake my ass to some of that ill sticky shit:


Bump - Spank Rock
Rick Rubin - Spank Rock
Once again I am behind the times on this. The album dropped in May or something, and after 3 different people recommended it this summer, I finally listened this to this guy. OH MAN, what was I thinking waiting that long?

I have been conducting a test with the song "Bump". Try it at home. Find a time when you and some people are hanging out and without calling attention to yourself, put that song on. 90% percent of the room will make some sort of movement to this song (the other 10% have no souls, or are scientologists).

I am also really happy that Green Hornet found a Bonnie Billy song he digs. It inspired me to post this creepy ass cover:

Ignition (R. Kelly cover) - Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Matt Sweeney

Brief foray outside of music, then back.

So, I don't know how much of a splash this made in headlines outside of the Tri-State area, but a small airplane crashed into an apartment building yesterday and in the ensuing media frenzy I found myself once again full of contempt for the media at large, the country, and humanity as a whole. As far as I know now, the only casualties were the two folks in the plane, yet radio news felt the need to inflate and deflate that number over the course of the day, sometimes it was two, sometimes there were four, I heard six at one point. As the reporting progressed, it became an opportunity to talk about all the things we've learned since September 11 and how much more prepared we are now for a terrorist attack on the city. Everyone was so quick to jump up and pat NORAD on the back for their quick response to the situation, after they sent fighter jets out over several American cities. If NORAD is so on top of their game, why was an aircraft allowed to get that close to the Manhattan skyline in the first place? It doesn't matter that it was a small personal aircraft, the incident still shows that the city is completely vulnerable. Does anyone realize how easy it is to get ahold of a Cesna? A lot easier than sneaking more than a dozen hijackers onto commercial flights, I'll tell you that. So just because one of the Yankees was flying the plane, we get to pat NORAD on the back. That plane could've just as easily been packed full to the motherfucking brim with explosives. But it wasn't, so pats on the back all around. You didn't do SHIT NORAD, you were just lucky.

whatever.

On a much more positive note, I was watching the King of Queens today and Patton Oswalt went to a shoe store with Jerry Stiller. Stiller went for some docksiders, Oswalt asked the attendant for a pair of Clarks Wallabees.

Also, I heard a fairly new Pipettes track, the B-side to the "Judy" single. For the record, I like Judy a lot better than this song. I mean, it's a fine song, but sometimes Lovey songs just make me sad and they say the word love in this song more often than I say the word "wack". And man, that's a lot.

"The Burning Ambition of Early Diuretics" by the Pipettes

I guess if anyone pays attention to that download link they're gonna notice that it's to Pitchfork. After two years of not going there, I caved again once I set myself up with a google reader.

Speaking of mp3 links stolen from other websites, I really really like the camera obscura song that was posted on stereogum today.

"If Looks Could Kill" by Camera Obscura

And if my contempt for Lady Sovereign hasn't grown enough lately, I saw today that she's covered a Sex Pistols song. I hate the Sex Pistols so much. She did cover "Pretty Vacant", which isn't the worst song in the world (that would be "Anarchy in the UK"), but it's still not going to win her any points with this guy.