MOG - 1234chainsaw's Posts

Sunday Under Covers :: "Tell Me Why"

1234chainsaw — Sun, 25 May 2008 09:45:21 GMT

Twee pop has been showing up on MOG in the past few days, so here's a cover to suit. The Frenchmen, a now-defunct C86-influenced bubblegum-jangle band from Sacramento covered Flatmates' twee classic "Tell Me Why" on their 2003 album Sorry We Ruined Your Party. Get ready for repeat plays and a permanent grin.

6 New Ceremony Tracks on MySpace

1234chainsaw — Fri, 23 May 2008 09:59:57 GMT

As I'm bouncing around Europe and living out of a suitcase, I don't have much of a net connection to speak of, and definitely not one for uploading tracks. But that won't stop me from noting that the aural-drool-inspiring hot-fuzz dream-noise-pop duo Ceremony have posted 6 new tracks on their MySpace page. (I can already hear Dale running...) They represent a small extension of the band's sonic palette to just a slightly cleaner sound and even to a couple of somewhat joyous tunes. And right now I'm simply unable to put into words how much I like them. It's a killer batch of songs that sadly isn't downloadable. Custom Made Music (that's a link to their MOG page) will be releasing a split 10" for Ceremony and Screen Vinyl Image this summer, but I have no track list information at this time. But perhaps they'll include "Stars Fall" (an earlier unreleased song that's astonishing):

Moving music?

1234chainsaw — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:36:35 GMT

A bit of syntactic ambiguity there. I'm not asking for emotionally moving music (I wouldn't know a lot about that), but for music that helps make packing and moving easier. It won't be terrible this time: I'm fortunate enough that my future employer is paying for a moving company, including a packing service. So today I'll be just finishing up preparing my place for the movers tomorrow. You can bet that I'll be unplugging my stereo the last thing tonight. So I've got a full day of tunage ahead of me. Help me pick!

I'll be trying to force myself to start cleaning the fridge to the tune of J.J. Barnes's magnificent "Chains Of Love" which I encountered first in The Dirtbombs' cover version.

Friday 's Funky Urges

1234chainsaw — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:15:26 GMT

One of the things I've lately been into is Syl Johnson's raw but soulful funk stuff that he cut for Twilight/Twinight Records in the late 60s before moving over to Hi Records for somewhat smoother output. "I Feel An Urge" should inspire you to get your weekend on. (Me, I'll continue sorting through my stuff as my last week in California begins.) And check out that hairdo . . . sweeeet!

Sunday Under Covers :: Al Green does The Beatles

1234chainsaw — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:49:36 GMT

Here's something sweet for this Sunday morning: Al Green doing up "I Want To Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles. The original hit me with its infectious greatness when I was about 10. But Green transforms the song's teenage innocence and nostalgia into something sexy and funky. The horn lines and that swelling in the bridge are enough to make you want to stay under those covers...

[Just to point out the obvious: it would be a fair point to argue that this is more a new creation than a cover. The melody and chord progression are completely different from the original. EDIT: I was wrong about the chord progression being different, as Ivylander's comment gently points out. I really should know better than to use words like 'obvious'...]

The Unbearable Charm of Aging: Nick Lowe @ The Fillmore

1234chainsaw — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:42:16 GMT

Nick Lowe, Robyn Hitchcock
(The Fillmore, San Francisco CA, 04/12/2008)

I want to age like Nick Lowe: with great dignity. When I'm closing in on 60, I want his relaxed charm, faint smile, easy humor, gaunt figure, and confident grace. From the way Lowe transmitted these qualities throughout his 90-minute down-to-mid-tempo set at The Fillmore last night, it's hard to say whether resignation to age or hard boozing along the way are part of the deal. What I can say is that, among the artists I have seen perform solo, only PJ Harvey can match (via very different qualities, of course) Lowe's stage charm. From the set opener "When I Write The Book" onward, I also marveled at Lowe's easy ability to modify song rhythms and dynamics on the fly with nary a wrong note. His vocal phrasings in particular were a constant source of enjoyment. The set list was a reliable mix of old and new, with a brand new song in the middle of the set called "I Read A Lot" about the newly developed habits of a jilted lover. "Long Limbed Girl," "I Trained Her To Love Me," "Hope For Us All," "People Change," and "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day" made the cut from last year's At My Age. The simplicity of Lowe's solo performance underscored the remarkable way this material manages to have devastating effects on the listener through most slight and subtle chord changes. Other selections included his one hit "Cruel To Be Kind," Without Love," "Heart," "I Knew The Bride (When She Used to Rock'N'Roll)," "All Men Are Liars," "Soulful Wind," a touching "Shelley My Dear," an excellent "I Live On A Battlefield," "Man That I've Become," "Lately I've Let Things Slide," and "Has She Got A Friend?" Too-obvious-by-half set closer was "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" (yes, originally penned by Lowe). I was still thinking through my awe as the first encore was launched by "Beast In Me" (covered, like "Without Love" by Johnny Cash). Next Robyn Hitchcock joined Lowe to a great effect on covers of "Hungry For Love" by Johnny Kidd & The Pirates and "If I Fell" by The Beatles. A thunderous and incessant 5-minute clapping and howling was rewarded by quick versions of "7 Nights to Rock" and "Heart Of The City" as the second encore.

Now I want to see Nick Lowe with a band. Badly.

It's with a band that I'd prefer to see Robyn Hitchcock. As I prefer his more rocking material from the '80s and am less familiar with his more Syd Barrett type acoustic folk material, I didn't know most of the songs he performed during his equally solo acoustic set. Hitchcock was in fine vocal form, eccentric as ever in his between-songs banter, and clearly glad to be back in San Francisco, since he announced he was playing mainly songs he had written or recorded in the city. He was a good pairing for his old friend Lowe: one white-haired man whimsical as a kid, another white-haired man charming and distinguished. (And yes, I am aware that I used "charm" or "charming" about 4 times in this review.)

Not to forget that it's a Sunday under covers, under red button you can find Lowe's neat cover of The Uniques' "Not Too Long Ago" from At My Age (unfortunately not part of his live set).

For Against :: Shade Side Sunny Side

1234chainsaw — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:14:55 GMT

For Against: Shade Side Sunny Side
(Words On Music 2008)

I had hoped, before going out of town for about eleven days starting tomorrow morning, to complete a review of Shade Side Sunny Side by For Against. Officially released on April 8 but shipped to pre-order customers already a couple of weeks ago, it's the seventh full-length from America's finest purveyor of shoegazey dream-pop ever so far in the 24 years since they were first formed in Nebraska by the vocalist and bassist Jeffrey Runnings. But all I'm able to do is to give a quick rundown. Shade Side Sunny Side isn't quite the classic that For Against's finest achievement December is. But that doesn't mean it's not a damn fine record. In a year that's already seen a number of strong releases, it's among the best for me so far. What you get is a masterly balance of varied sonic textures, running from the post-punk stomp of the opening track "Glamour" (in the comments) to the atmospheric pop of the follow-up track "Underestimate" (reminiscent of the 2002 album Coalesced) to the fierce guitars (which are overall the stronger for the return of the original guitarist Harry Dingman III) on "Aftertaste" (under the red button). I don't have much yet to say about the lyrics, except that many of them seem to be reflections on the death of someone close to (perhaps a family member of?) the chief lyricist Runnings. This theme is particularly apparent on "Game Over" which winds through the first verse and chorus uncharacteristically with only a piano backing and builds up from there only with the greatest, most delicate restraint. Most of these strands come together, even if not altogether successfully, on "Quiet Please," which begins with tender Chameleons-style instrumental stylings and slowly transforms into propulsive three-chord riffing. Also included is a cover of "Friendly Fires" by Section 25 (one of the early Factory Records bands). I know many shoegeezers on MOG who will rarely get a better deal than the $11 that it costs to order this record directly from Words On Music. Shade Side Sunny Side comes strongly recommended from me.

Sunday Under Covers: Reigning Sound do "Stormy Weather"

1234chainsaw — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:05:09 GMT

Here's what got my Sunday off to a rocking start: Reigning Sound's stormy garage version of "Stormy Weather" from their 2002 album Time Bomb High School. Written in 1933 by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler and first performed by Ethel Waters, it's best known in versions by Lena Horne, Judy Garland, and Frank Sinatra.

The Phantom Jets + Agent Orange live

1234chainsaw — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:49:07 GMT

Agent Orange, The Phantom Jets, The Stalking Distance
(Blue Lamp, Sacramento CA, 03/13/2008)

This week, trying to make the most out of my remaining six-or-so weeks in the US before moving back to Europe amounted to a high-end dinner one night and a raw and gritty concert another.

Wednesday night I drove to Napa with a couple of friends for a dinner at Ubuntu, a very good, if costly, vegetarian restaurant. No patchouli-smelling hippies here, just inventive cooking that for once provides a full-range experience for me as well (I'm a vegetarian). Also props for a serious but reasonably priced bottle of red Burgundy. (Yes, drinking French wine in Napa, I have no shame.) Warmly recommended if you get the chance.

Then Thursday night I walked over to Blue Lamp, a dingy 150-capacity bar, to catch a few garage and punk bands. Missing the first band, I also didn't get much out of The Stalking Distance, locals from Sacramento. Pretty unoriginal punk rock of the type that leans in the direction of metal in bass arrangements, guitar lines, and so on. Nothing you haven't seen to boredom in the past ten years. They had one good song, called "Serpentine" I believe.

The Phantom Jets, another Sacramento band, are a wholly different proposition. Having been often out of town for their previous shows, this is the first time I manage to catch a live set of their organ-peppered garage rock with surf-rock and power-pop influences. I'm glad I do, because this is one smoking set of good stuff! There are also a few really cool instrumentals in the batch which remind me a bit of Mofos. (Mofos were my favorite live band in Ithaca, NY where I went to grad school.) If I have one complaint, it's that the bass lines could be a bit more varied, instead of hewing pretty faithfully to the chord. But it's no biggie. Major props to our fellow mogger Shud33 aka Sarah for playing keyboard for The Phantom Jets! After their set, I grab two CD-Rs of theirs and have a chance to chat with Sarah for a few minutes to tell her how much I enjoyed the show, relay greetings from a few other moggers, and to let her know of the planned Bay Area Mog Meet before the night's headliner goes on.

Agent Orange are, frankly, pretty much a warmed-up version of yesterday's goods. There's hardly an original member left in the current trio lineup. But that's not to say you can't still get a kick out of "No Such Thing," "Mr. Moto," "I Kill Spies," or the punked-up covers of "Pipeline" and "Secret Agent Man." One blemish is the blatant pushing of their T-shirts and other merch, one other is the unnecessary and unnecessarily long cover of "Shakin' All Over." The playing is sort of sloppy, of course, as befits the occasion, but having just a couple of people trying to get a mosh pit going isn't enough. All in all, though, what I'm getting is a surprisingly enjoyable and invigorating set, given all the negatives I've mentioned about the current incarnation of Agent Orange. They have a robust, muscular sound. We end with "Living In Darkness" and "Bloodstains" -- predictably so, but those tunes pack a mean punch even in this context. I walk home through the night in a good mood.

Bay Area MOG Meet!?

1234chainsaw — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:18:46 GMT

A little while back, Sturgell and I had a brief correspondence about arranging a Bay Area MOG Meet. So I'm thinking it's time to take the bull by the horns. We thought Zeitgeist (@ Valencia & Duboce) might be a good place: it's roomy, the music is pretty decent and the beer is not exorbitantly expensive. I'm thinking of Friday, March 28. But, if people prefer, Saturday, March 29 would also work for me. So, who's in? (I'm sure this post won't reach all interested Bay Area Moggers, so please spread the word!)

Noise Pop 2008 :: The Gutter Twins

1234chainsaw — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:33:42 GMT

The Gutter Twins, Great Northern, Monotonix, Apache
(Bimbo's 365 Club, San Francisco CA, 03/01/2008)

After a day spent record shopping at Amoeba and strolling around, my second night at Noise Pop takes me to the sold-out Bimbo's with its plush red velvet furniture and uniformed wait staff. Upon arriving I get a beer and park myself close to the stage just as the show's about to start.

Apache from San Francisco kick things off with New York Dolls/Sweet style '70 proto-punk that's all fleshy guitar riffs, stomping drums, and glammy vocals from a swaggering singer. It's still early and the crowd's thin on the ground, as most people are sitting at tables towards the back of the venue, but the band deal well enough with some nervous joking. Some songs are quite good and I liked Apache fine.

Monotonix from Tel Aviv, Israel, are the most audience-engaging performers I've seen in a good while. That's because they set up their gear not on the stage but on the floor and play in (that is, amidst) the audience, occasionally doling out parts of the already minimal drum kit for people to play or at least having someone sit on the bass drum to keep it from moving. The guitarist slinks among the audience, the hirsute singer runs around, jumping up and on patrons and rolling on the ground with glee. So they're also the craziest performers I've seen in a good while, even as the singer doesn't duct-tape himself to anyone and they don't set the drum kit on fire (both can be witnessed on YouTube). I didn't even mention yet that the singer looks like Yanni and the drummer like Borat. The music is unsurprisingly sloppy but quite adequate to its purpose: slightly progressive heavy-riffing blues-garage in the Black Keys vein with clear Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy influences. ("Body Language" on Myspace is actually quite good.) The emphasis with Monotonix is on show.

Great Northern from LA are previously unknown to me. They sport fairly clean keyboard-aided cinematic textures not unlike those of The Delgados. But the vocalist doesn't hold a candle to the likes of Emma Pollock. In some cases, song structures could benefit from greater maturation. But all in all not bad.

The Gutter Twins are hot off the gate with "The Stations" (I think) and from there on out it's one fleshy, grimy, smoldering tune after another. The pair (whom Dulli has dubbed "the Satanic Everly Brothers") have already played a handful of shows with their four-man touring band to preview Saturnalia (release March 4). I hesitate to say too much about individual songs because I don't really know the album yet. (In addition to most of the Saturnalia tracks, we get Massive Attack's "Live With Me" that Twilight Singers feat. Lanegan covered on Stitch In Time EP and, I think, a cover of Jose Gonzalez's "Down the Line"?) What I can say is that although not all songs come off great, mostly they sound majestic, and that overall the material compares favorably with anything (including the strong 2006 record Powder Burns) that Dulli has done with Twilight Singers, even if it doesn't reach the heights of the best Afghan Whigs stuff or Lanegan's solo work. On stage, Dulli is, expectedly, the more energetic of the two, rocking out around the immobile Lanegan who maintains his slight forward lean, with one hand on the mic and the other on the stand, for the entire 75-or-so-minute set to give an unadorned delivery of one of the best rock voices of our generation.

At one point only, the facade cracks: as Lanegan's solo track "No Easy Action" (one of the five encores, all culled from Lanegan's solo work or Twilight Singers) receives an enthusiastic reception, Dulli laughs and whispers something to Lanegan's ear, giving us the spectacle of seeing Lanegan smile for more than a few seconds. Lanegan also seems to be clean: unlike some other times I've seen him, he's got some flesh on his bones and isn't pale as a ghost. I hope The Gutter Twins ends up being a fruitful collaboration for Lanegan, my favorite artist of the two. His and Dulli's different strengths have at least a chance of complementing each other nicely and their stage chemistry seems to work OK. This performance, at any rate, was deeply convincing and impressive.

After the show, I run into the valued fellow Mogger Mike The Knife in the Bimbo's lobby. Mike is just as intelligent, thoughtful, and verbally adroit as you might imagine from his posts, so I couldn't be more glad about our first off-line encounter. But alas, it's getting late, so we chat for about 20 minutes and disperse into the night after having made a plan to make plans to get together for a more leisurely drink at a later date.

Noise Pop 2008 :: A Place To Bury Strangers, White Denim, Holy Fuck

1234chainsaw — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:57:06 GMT

A Place To Bury Strangers, White Denim, Holy Fuck, Veil Veil Vanish
(Bottom Of The Hill, San Francisco CA, 02/29/2008)

On my way to the Bottom Of The Hill, I stop by at the Parkside for a Noise Pop happy hour show. I knew I was sadly going to miss Portland's High Violets (sometimes the vegetarian super burrito at El Farolito takes precedence), but I arrive in time to enjoy a leisurely beer with the carefree and eclectic post-punk freak-pop of The Don'ts (made up of Jonny Don't sing, Joey Don't guitar, JJ Don't bass, and Kenny Don't drum...). Arriving at the sold-out Bottom Of The Hill with about 100 hopefuls queuing up for a ticket already at 8:30pm, I'm reminded what a lovely, intimate venue it is.

Veil Veil Vanish from San Francisco open up with a half-hour set of reverential 80s-style gloomy post-punk/shoegaze/gothic psychedelia. But the bands they revere (The Chameleons, The Sound, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cure) are so great that even a good copycat with urgent guitars and seductive choruses is just fine by me. I should have bought their EP Into A New Mausoleum.

White Denim from Austin deliver the surprise of the night, beginning with the text on the bassist's T-shirt: "Serious X-Men Reader" (!) The trio clearly have great fun on stage, and the variety of dimensions in their music impresses me deeply. As some of you know, I'm not easily impressed. The set begins with "Migration Wind" which starts off with the guitarist/singer James Petralli laying down multiple guitar loops for a couple of minutes before the band explodes into a pummeling beat (watch video from another performance). So we have dynamic kind of post-punk with instrument-geek experimentalism. Nice! But as the set rolls on, it would be equally accurate to say that we have Grand Funk Railroad power trio done in Fugazi style. Or that we have Nuggets-style garage overdrive with dissonantly tuneful melodies. Click the red button for the title song from their "Let's Talk About It" vinyl EP, which is their only official "hard copy" release. I hope they get on to a record label soon. On the basis of a brief merch table chat, they also seemed like nice, good, humble people. If anything, they seem surprised when they receive a passionate response and raucous applause from audience. So the bottom line is that I thought White Denim were wonderful.

A Place To Bury Strangers once again don't disappoint. While I don't really have anything substantive to add to my previous concert and album reviews, I could wax ecstatic about the heavy fragility they achieve on "The Falling Sun," or how the ticking beat on "To Fix The Gash In Your Head" makes my foot tap faster than I can manage, or myriad other things. But I'll just say that it's another top-notch set that's pioneering in its musical use of noise and hypnotic in the way that also Amber and Mike, among others, have documented. The more intimate venue than where I last saw them (The Mezzanine) works in their favor, even as it provides no opportunity for their customary film projections. The searing and intense sound works for me like a power wire straight into my mainline. The one downside is that the set fails to reach its usual climax in transition from "I've Lived My Life To Stand In The Shadow Of Your Heart" to "Ocean" because Jono's bass amp fails. That instrumental interlude is now spent on getting an extra guitar amp do the duty for him and the set's dynamic culmination comes more traditionally only at the very end. It pleases me to see a band who don't care one whit about courting audience response during the set. It pleases me that I sneak a quick word to Jono that there's a group of people here on MOG who truly appreciate what APTBS are doing musically. It also pleases me that I manage to grab the last medium-sized copy of this shredding T-shirt in gray:

Holy Fuck, the headliners from Toronto, seem like a bunch of nice Canadian boys. They're an instrumental, improvisational electro-indie group that are fun and energetic enough to keep the party mood going. But musically . . . boring as fuck. (If someone can explain to me why they merit the superlatives I keep seeing about them, I'd be grateful.)

I know that the fellow Mogger indiepixie (aka Faith) is in town to shoot Noise Pop shows and is supposed to be at this show. After the bands are done, I manage to guess correctly who she is from those who are sporting pro-level photography equipment. It's getting late, so we only have a 15-20 minute chat, but it's an interesting and pleasant one, and I'm happy to have met yet another Mogger in real life who turns out to be a smart and nice person. I took some crappy APTBS pictures myself from my third-row location, but I'm hoping Faith will supply us with something better!

Lately on my platter

1234chainsaw — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:08:30 GMT

I've had a busy February (what with life decisions, research deadlines, conferences, teaching, and faculty meetings) and so I haven't showed up much here on MOG. But that doesn't mean I've been without wicked new tunes. And for some of them, mad props are due to some fellow Mogs.

Numero Group's Eccentric Soul series compiles regional '60s soul scenes from places like Florida and Ohio which never made a mainstream splash. But not because they didn't deserve it: there are loads of soul goodies spread over these discs. Thanks so much to Cody for bringing the series to my attention. I've been particularly enamored by The Deep City Label and The Prix Label installments of the series. They've been my cooking music for the past few weeks. Click the red button to hear the scratchy but wonderful acetate pressing of "Darling I'll Go" by Moovers.

British Sea Power: Do You Like Rock Music? I'm glad to see BSP return to the more expansive, eclectic, and raucous style of their debut after trying out a more concise and straightforward pop format on Open Season.

LoveLikeFire: An Ocean In The Air. A lovely energetic dream-pop band from San Francisco. In addition to getting their records, I saw them live recently. The only bad thing about the show was the disappointingly short set that didn't even include "Unlighted Shadow". Well, OK, it was a Monday night. But the turnout wasn't all that bad. These sweet sounds were brought to my attention by Anna; check out her post!

The Len Price 3: Rentacrowd. A short and giddy gem of a British Invasion pop/'77 punk crossbreed. This lot of fun was brought to my attention by brendanhalpin; check out his posts! Also check out his novels. I recently read Dear Catastrophe Waitress and admired the way Brendan has a light and funny touch with dialogue without compromising some of the novel's serious themes.

Madrugada: Madrugada. The fifth studio album by the Norwegian noir-rock band. The recording was completed after the death, last July, of the guitarist Robert Burås (also of My Midnight Creeps), who'd laid down his tracks already. Probably not released outside Norway yet, but their Myspace page features several songs from it. For fans of stuff like Nick Cave. Here's the video for the lead single "Look Away Lucifer:"

The Bambi Molesters: Sonic Bullets: 13 From The Hip. Morricone-style instrumental surf rock from Croatia of all places. Genre-faithful but not kitschy, and very much fun. The twang was brought to my attention by bloodtea. Here's a video for "Theme From Slaying Beauty":

I've also been enjoying parts of the Los Campesinos! debut Hold On Now, Youngster; not all of it though. The music that'll probably take over my CD player next week includes The Gutter Twins' Saturnalia, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' Dig Lazarus Dig!!!, The Duke Spirit's Neptune, Clinic's Do It!, and Mark Pickerel's Cody's Dream. Finally, not new, but also of note, are two reissues.

Bram Tchaikovsky: Strange Man, Changed Man. A little-known power-pop gem from 1979. Now how about reissuing also Pressure (1980) so that we can get a high-quality version of "Can't Give You Reasons"?

Nick Lowe: Jesus Of Cool. The long-overdue reissue of a classic album (on its 30th anniversary) that had been languishing out of print for ages.

Sunday Under Covers: Johnny Cash on Nick Lowe

1234chainsaw — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:13:54 GMT

I just grabbed a ticket to see Nick Lowe at The Fillmore on his tour for the reissue of Jesus Of Cool on its 30th anniversary, with Robyn Hitchcock opening. Needless to say, I'm ecstatic. I haven't seen either artist live before, despite owning sizable chunks of their back catalogs. I wasn't going to pass up the chance to see them just because Ticketmaster fees brought the $35 ticket up to a total cost of nearly $50. Since it's Sunday, here's Johnny Cash's 1979 cover of Lowe's "Without Love." Its loose twang probably works better for a Sunday morning than his considerably more claustrophobic cover of "Beast In Me" from the first American Recordings disc. Here's Nick Lowe's US tour schedule so far:

04.09. The Grand Ballroom New York 04.11. El Rey Theatre Los Angeles 04.12. The Fillmore San Francisco 04.15. Boulder Theatre Boulder 04.17. Sons of Hermann Hall Dallas 04.18. Antone's Austin 04.21. The Belcourt Nashville 04.22. Variety Playhouse Atlanta 04.23. ArtsCenter Carrboro 04.25. Satellite Lounge Charlottesville 04.26. Ram's Head Tavern Annapolis 04.27. Byham Theater Pittsburgh 04.30. The Linda Albany 05.01. Calvin Theatre Northampton

Editors @ The Warfield

1234chainsaw — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:57:42 GMT

Editors (+ Hot Hot Heat, Louis XIV)
(The Warfield, San Francisco CA, 02/08/2008)

I was happy to get another chance to see Editors at an indoors venue (I was in Europe at the time of their show at The Fillmore last fall), despite the fact that The Warfield doesn't have terribly good acoustics. After rushing to San Francisco from a three-hour faculty meeting (argh), I manage to arrive just in time to find my friends Patrick and Tessa at a pretty decent spot (by the front rail of the second tier in the general admission area, with an unobstructed view to the stage from maybe 10 yards away) before Louis XIV go on. This is one fucking terrible band. The song material is dreadful through and through. Enduring through their set was painful to me. I haven't followed Hot Hot Heat after their first record, which I liked alright. I thought the the same as when I saw them in 2003: this band just can't achieve the same limber groove on stage as they do in studio. Stick to their records and don't try too hard to catch them live.

Editors more than make up for the humdrum opening acts. The set list is mostly a predictable selection of two-thirds of their two albums. I'm only surprised by the inclusion of "Camera" as the set opener and "Push You Head Towards The Air" (until I learn that it's the next single from An End Has A Start). The quiet and lovely rendition of the latter is a welcome break in the set. The band is tight, as usual, and Tom Smith's deep baritone is in fine form. While his bodily contortions are less extreme than the last time I saw them, he moves around quite a bit, frequently jumping on the top of the piano and back down with his guitar. So, all in all, a very engaging, enjoyable, and generous 14-song set plus a three-song encore (though I would've liked to hear a cover of "Lullaby"). I only wish that Editors were a bit more adventurous live band and tried different song arrangements on stage. Now the songs are pretty faithful to their studio versions. This isn't quite a phenomenal show (blame, in part, The Warfield), but it is very good. Someone has put the whole show up on YouTube. Here's "Lights" courtesy of that person.

Set list:

1. Camera 2. An End Has A Start 3. Blood 4. Bullets 5. Weight Of The World 6. Escape The Nest 7. Lights 8. When Anger Shows 9. Spiders 10. Munich 11. Push Your Head Towards The Air 12. Bones 13. All Sparks 14. Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors

Encore: Racing Rats; You Are Fading; Fingers In The Factories.

Moving (back) to Europe

1234chainsaw — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:57:19 GMT

So some of you Moggers know that the reason for my recent trip to England was a job interview at University of Leeds. I had barely stepped off the train in London after the interview that I was already called with an offer. After a week of hard thinking and a string of negotiations for a better offer, I decided to make the jump and accept a post as Senior Lecturer. So I took my chance to become a Yorkshirean Old Fart (call me YOF)! Because of the way academic titles work in UK, nominally I will no longer be a Professor, but the title is pretty much the only thing that changes in my job. In any case, so it is that this coming summer I'll be moving to a city that spawned Gang Of Four, The Mekons, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Chumbawamba, and The Wedding Present, goes down in history books as the Goth capital of UK because that's where The March Violets and Sisters of Mercy hail from, and is now the home to a string of upper-second-tier Brit-pop bands like Kaiser Chiefs, Pigeon Detectives, and The Music. I'm quite excited about this: After almost 11 years in the US I've been having a growing desire to return to Europe. I can now fulfill that desire by moving to a department that's on a strong upward trajectory and where I'll have dynamic, youthful, and just plain smart and fun colleagues. The music goodies of Leeds, Manchester, and Sheffield (and even London) will be within an easy reach. All this compensates handsomely for the lousy weather, but it makes me want all the more to participate in a Bay Area MOG meet before I leave! Here, to underscore my sentiments, is Red Lorry Yellow Lorry's "Temptation" from their 1989 album Blow:

Popular Shapes

1234chainsaw — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:44:25 GMT

Writing about We Are The Physics the other day, I noted that they sound a bit like the Popular Shapes -- and then realized that there are no MOG posts on Popular Shapes. . . . Must . . . rectify . . . For theirs is furious, angular art punk that flies by like a fighter jet. The now-defunct Seattle band left its mark on the world with their album Bikini Style (On/On Switch Records 2003). It's a stretch to call it a full-length, since its 9 songs don't overstay their welcome in their total duration of 21 minutes. But what 21 minutes they are. Left and right channels pitting slashed chords and spiky high-register riffs against one another (listen to the end of "Fluorescent Bikes Depressing" in the comments). Shrieking vocals. A winning focus and dynamism which only rarely, but then successfully, tames itself into a slower groove ("Flattered You're Terrified"). Bonus points for funny song titles ("Ads On Police Cars", "Elevator Friends" and "Outrageous Math Test" under the red button). This was so much better than all that electro-clash and dance-rock shit in 2003.

This is a Filling in the gaps post.

Dirty Backbeats/Hot Rocket/Sixtyones/Archangel

1234chainsaw — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 21:42:51 GMT

Dirty Backbeats/Hot Rocket/Sixtyones/Archangel
(The Metro Club, London, 01/15/08)

I made it from Leeds to London in time to receive a job offer from University of Leeds, see a photography exhibition, stop for some Thai dinner, and catch the 8pm show time at the Metro, a tiny basement venue on Oxford Street. On the bill are 4 bands, crammed into 3 hours, with which I'm previously unfamiliar. So one would expect a varied evening of live music - and yes, I mean "varied" both regarding style and quality.

You can count the audience with the fingers on one hand when The Sixtyones go on. All band members but the bassist look about 17 years old. One could cite a lot of influences in their music, much of it dating back to the British Invasion. An unfairly age-ist judgment would say they've listened to a lot of Strokes and Arctic Monkeys. But, originality aside, these kids write songs with an easy flow and very good '60s-pop type melodic sense, and they have the grace to thank audience members personally for the applause that echoes around the room. (Well, that doesn't really take all that much time either.)

The Dirty Backbeats, from Leicester, are the revelation of the night. Equal measures of The Sonics (and other Nuggets-style garage and psychedelic rock), The Birthday Party, Tom Waits, and Kurt Weill married with a robust bass groove and wild stage presence (especially the wild-eyed vocalist) come together into a shambolic but exhilarating combination that outplays everyone else this night. (They could even make the much-covered "Shakin' All Over" sound interesting.) I look forward to seeing their releases in the future. Here's some 2007 live footage of a song called "Sticks n Bones":

Next up, Hot Rocket serve Britpop that's thick on slogans but very thin on substance. Their audience pleaser appears to be a song called "Do Do Do" which enlightens us as follows: "It goes do do do do do do do do do do doo, woooh, come on let's go." (Or something along those lines. I may have missed a nuance or two there. But I don't mean to imply it's a bad song, not at all). The singer looks a little old already relative to the image he's trying to project, and the '80s new wave style leather gloves aren't helping. But they're tight and catchy and, really, if your run-of-the-mill indie band in London is even this good, you can't really complain.

The headliner Archangel are also the evening's biggest disappointment. Although the tightest of the bands on stage tonight, and with occasional nice piano and synth bass lines, the band suffers from fairly generic songwriting and a front man who tries to pull off a Morrissey while lacking even the charisma of Martin Rossiter (Gene). So it's quite inexplicable to me why they have the largest audience support tonight.

Summa summarum: Given that we started out with 4 unknowns and ended up with one band being very good, two pretty good, and only one rather mediocre, I declare the night a success.

We Are The Physics

1234chainsaw — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:27:06 GMT

We Are The Physics
(Barfly, Camden, London, 01/16/08)

Helen, Anna, and I went to see a very fun band in London on my birthday. We Are The Physics from Glasgow, that Scottish hotbed of neo-post-punk, are a science rock/art punk band much like (the now sadly defunct) Popular Shapes. Even abstracting from the lovely Glaswegian accent, you can't really tell what the lyrics are about. But the guitar riffs are shrieking and angular, the rhythms pleasantly jittery, the multi-part vocals are engaging (although they don't come anywhere near the Futureheads-type harmonizing), and the band's stage energy is contagious. I was massively entertained, and look forward to the album that apparently will be out later this spring. In the meantime, they have loads of songs on MySpace, and here's a live video of "Less Than Three" from 2007.

Rainy Friday, Not Funky

1234chainsaw — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:39:29 GMT

Northern California was hit by a heavy Pacific storm today. Extremely strong winds and several inches of rain, and with that, power outages, traffic disruptions, back alleys turned into streams of water. I was supposed to drive to San Francisco to see Midnight Movies tonight, but I probably won't take the trouble of a show-buzz-killing drive. So just the day for some NOLA soul, and Irma Thomas in particular. On happier days it's her "Break-A-Way" that brings a smile to my face and a skip in my step. But on days like this, it songs like "It's Raining" that soothe me. And soon enough, a time to open a bottle of sumptuous red Burgundy and kick back.

Sunday Under Covers: "Dignified And Old"

1234chainsaw — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 16:11:02 GMT

The initial American pressing of Sloan's One Chord to Another (1997) contained a bonus disc patterned after the Beach Boys' live-in-the-studio Party! Titled Recorded Live At A Sloan Party!, it features Sloan running through a few of its own songs plus a handful of covers, including Roxy Music's "Over You" and "I Can't Let Go" by The Hollies. In the comments, you'll find a, let's say, unorthodox medley of "On The Road Again" by Canned Heat and "Transona Five" by Stereolab, with a funny bathroom conversation interlude. As the main feature, I'll give you a cover of Modern Lovers' "Dignified And Old" - a song I always find touching.

Hey Look, It's Santa...

1234chainsaw — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 22:39:44 GMT

... and Santa turns out to be a depressed, staggering, whiskey-swigging Scot. Or so the official "festive" video for "We're All Going To Die" has it. The song leads off the ex-Arab Strap Malcolm Middleton's 2007 solo album A Brighter Beat. (The Santa in the video is not Middleton himself, but Kim Noble.) How fitting. I mean, If I'd had to venture out to shops and malls in the past couple of weeks, I'd be hitting the bottle as well. But I'm still sober enough to join in the bid to make "We're All Going To Die" the Christmas No. 1 in UK. Its odds have gone up from 1000/1 to just 12/1, making it #4 favorite.

A Brighter Beat is loaded with upbeat and catchy new wave indie ditties like this. But be warned: they come with some of the gloomiest lyrics that you'll be likely to encounter this year. Or any year, really. (How about the cycle of life captured by "Death Love Depression Love Death"?)

On Dec. 21st, the Scottish newspaper Daily Record made "We're All Going To Die" the Single Of The Week, writing: "There are homeless people, folk on their own and even the Africans, whose Christmas won't be happy. This song is for them." A worthy dedication. Now where's that bottle....

[Oh, what am I doing at the computer? Working.... You see, it's when the semester ends that academics have time to get some work done on their own research. It so happens that I have an absolutely firm Jan. 2nd article deadline hanging over my head. So I can pretty much guarantee you that I'll be needing A Brighter Beat in the next 10 days.]

2007 Albums :: My Top 30

1234chainsaw — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 20:49:59 GMT

After a slow start 2007 turned into a pretty good year in music. True, there were few true masterpieces. There certainly were disappointments: Arcade Fire, Interpol, New Pornographers, Nine Black Alps, Queens Of The Stone Age, Radiohead, Shins, and White Stripes all can do better than the records they released this year. (And please don't bring back the painful memory of the new Stooges record.) There certainly was a lot of Brit pop the only question concerning which is just how generic it is. (Arctic Monkeys surprised me pleasantly with a record much superior to their boring and laddish debut.) But on the whole there was a broad range of very good stuff, certainly enough for a music junkie to go from one new thrilling fix to another. And it was a spectacularly good year in noise pop, even if the pool was somewhat narrow.

I listened to about 130 albums that were released in 2007. I found roughly 30 of them to be worth singling out. My selection and ordering is some non-algorithmic function of: what appealed to me (even if I recognize that it's overdone, like the Editors record); what I listened to a lot; what I thought was original or interesting, or else noteworthy in some well-trodden genre; and what I judged to have high musical quality even if I myself couldn't really get into it (looking at you, Radiohead). What this kind of rag bag of criteria tells you is that the ordering might not be very stable, and some other week I might make different selections towards the bottom of the list. (Token selections of hip hop, electronica, freak folk, Americana, and a few other genres shine by their absence because including them would be just a fake diversity effort on my part.)

1. The National: Boxer 2. Ceremony: Disappear 2. A Place To Bury Strangers: S/T 4. Les Savy Favy: Let's Stay Friends 5. Red Dons: Death To Idealism 6. Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga 7. Editors: An End Has A Start 8. PJ Harvey: White Chalk 9. Grinderman: S/T 10. Arctic Monkeys: Favourite Worst Nightmare 11. Richard Hawley: Lady's Bridge 12. Field Music: Tones Of Town 13. Blonde Redhead: 23 14. Jesu: Conqueror 15. Dax Riggs: We Sing Of Only Blood Or Love 16. The Twilight Sad: Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters 17. Radiohead: In Rainbows 18. David Kilgour: The Far Now 19. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings: 100 Days, 100 Nights 20. Midnight Movies: Lion The Girl 21. Witchcraft: The Alchemist 22. The Ponys: Turn The Lights Out 23. Arcade Fire: Neon Bible 24. Sweatmaster: Animal 25. Electrelane: No Shouts, No Calls 26. Klaxons: Myths Of The Near Future 27. Interpol: Our Love To Admire 28. Maximo Park: Our Earthly Pleasures 29. My Teenage Stride: Ears Like Golden Bats 30. The Noisettes: What's The Time Mr. Wolf?

Witchcraft

1234chainsaw — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:44:01 GMT

Founded in 2000 in the small Swedish town of Örebro by the vocalist Magnus Pelander with the intent of recording a single in tribute of Roky Erickson and Pentagram's Bobby Liebling, Witchcraft lay down thick neo-psychedelic hard rock as if the '70s never ended. Witchcraft followed up on that single, "No Angel Or Demon," with the albums Witchcraft (2004) and Firewood (2005). In 2007, they released The Alchemist, which has made its way to my favorite heavy metal album of the year. (But what do I know; I don't listen to a lot of this stuff.) Reminiscent of their equally talented compatriots Dungen but veering more closely towards retro doom metal, Witchcraft create the sneaking suspicion that not much has registered in their musical universe after Black Sabbath - even though all band members were born after 1977. Wait for the three-minute mark in the live video for "Hey Doctor" from The Alchemist, and you'll get the point. The sound on their records has a pretty authentic '70s vibe thanks to a basement studio outfitted exclusively with vintage equipment. To me, this music is tremendous fun. \m/ \m/

This is a Filling in the gaps post.

Sunday under covers: Trent Reznor & Peter Murphy do "Warm Leatherette"

1234chainsaw — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 17:59:48 GMT

Reznor and Murphy did a series of radio sessions together in 2006. (In one they covered four Joy Division songs!) Here they cover "Warm Leatherette" by The Normal. (You can also watch it on YouTube.) The Normal was the moniker used by music producer Daniel Miller, who initially founded Mute Records to release his punky electronica single "T.V.O.D./Warm Leatherette" in 1978. "Warm Leatherette" clearly has J. G. Ballard's novel Crash as an inspiration and "T.V.O.D." featured such lyrics as "I don't need no TV screen, I just stick the aerial into my skin and let the signal run through my veins." So it's fair to say that there's a futuristic vision going on here which mixes fascination and dystopia. (Of course, Mute became home to Depeche Mode, Cabaret Voltaire, Einstürzende Neubauten, Erasure, and, later, Moby, Nick Cave and even Richard Hawley.)

My 2007 Concerts

1234chainsaw — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 01:40:25 GMT

Looking back, 2007 was a good year for me, despite having been overworked for parts of it. Largely thanks to other moggers, I heard more new music than probably in any other year so far in my life. (My year-end list of albums is coming next week.) I managed to travel a fair bit. I was fortunate to meet several fantastic moggers in real life. (Something that I hope will happen again in 2008!) Despite periods of lacking inspiration or stumbling into obstacles in my research, I had some success in my work and the on-going tenure evaluation seems pretty much certain to end up with my getting tenure. I didn't catch all that many shows this year, only 20, partly because of schedule conflicts, partly out of laziness. I was especially bad about keeping in touch with the pretty diverse and vibrant local scene here in Sacramento. But among the shows I did catch, there were some extremely good ones. Surprisingly, my favorite musical experience this year was at an outdoors festival, where music usually suffers. Here's the list in a rough and not-so-firm order of preference (with links to reviews in cases where I wrote one):

1. Editors, PJ Harvey, Arcade Fire + (Summercase 2007 Madrid, July 14)

2. Grinderman (Slim's, San Francisco, July 27)

3. Roky Erickson & The Explosives (Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, March 1)

4. A Place To Bury Strangers (The Mezzanine, San Francisco, December 5)

5. Richard Hawley (Cafe du Nord, San Francisco, December 12)

6. The Hold Steady (Slim's, San Francisco, May 30)

7. The Jesus & Mary Chain, Jarvis Cocker, Soulsavers feat. Mark Lanegan + (Summercase 2007 Madrid, July 13)

8. The Avengers (Old Ironsides, Sacramento, June 10)

9. Dinosaur Jr. (Slim's, San Francisco, May 15)

10. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists (Slim's, San Francisco, April 14)

11. Interpol, Bloc Party, Silversun Pickups + (BFD 07 Live 105, Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, June 9)

12. T.S.O.L. (The Distillery, Sacramento, October 20)

13. White Stripes, Queens Of The Stone Age + (O2 Wireless, London, June 14)

14. Art Brut (Astoria, London, June 13)

15. Black Lips, Th' Losin Streaks (Blue Lamp, Sacramento, January 16)

16. Detroit Cobras (Slim's, San Francisco, August 17)

17. Califone, Eric Johnson (Old Ironsides, Sacramento, May 6)

18. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Entrance (Harlow's, Sacramento, January 14)

19. Jon Auer (Acoustic solo, Belly, Helsinki, October 10)

20. This Charming Band (Smiths tribute, Blue Lamp, Sacramento, March 23)

Richard Hawley @ Cafe du Nord

1234chainsaw — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:46:30 GMT

Richard Hawley (w/ Ferraby Lionheart)
(Cafe du Nord, San Francisco CA, 12/12/07)

Just. So. Beautiful.

I could easily believe Nicki that seeing Richard Hawley is, in a word, lovely. As I'm more verbose, I need three words.

Even though it means that Richard Hawley isn't exactly a star in the US, I was glad that his show was scheduled for Cafe du Nord, a 250-capacity (?) low-ceilinged basement venue best characterized as "intimate" (at least if you get close to the stage, since the room is long and narrow; the snap below is four layers out). I arrive in time for the opening set of the Los Angeleno Ferraby Lionheart backed by a three-man band whom I note especially for some lovely pedal steel guitar parts. Lionheart's really very nice voice makes you look past the obvious Elliot Smith and Jon Brion comparisons and his light indie folk fare is a good appetizer.

The voice of the night is of course Richard Hawley. His gorgeously deep and velvety baritone is in obviously fine form from the start. The musicianship of his band (four old mates who also record with him) is first-rate, the arrangements convincing despite the fact that the strings come from a synthesizer, and the overall mood unabashedly retro and free of hipster wankery. The ghost of Roy Orbison is presiding over the room. In a set list drawn entirely (with the sole exception of "Something Is...!") from Coles Corner and Lady's Bridge, we get the soft lullabies, we get the tender rockabilly, we get some mean guitaring that makes evident why Hawley was much in demand as a session guitarist throughout the 90's, we get some dryly witty stage banter, and we get gorgeous versions especially of "Born Under A Bad Sign," "I'm Looking For Someone To Find Me," and "Dark Road." The upshot of all this is concrete evidence for the graffiti captured in a photo you can find in the sleeve insert to Lady's Bridge: "Macho music is stupid." It warms my heart that the audience is extremely appreciative of the fine performance - so much so that when the band climb back on stage for the encore, Hawley reports that they were just agreeing on backstage that this is their favorite of their US gigs. The encore comprises a superb rendition of "Hotel Room" and an extended and turned-up version of "The Ocean." Having felt transported through most of the set, I leave Cafe du Nord a happy and smiling man. Like I said:

Just. So. Beautiful.

Set list:

Valentine
Roll River Roll
Just Like The Rain
Lady's Bridge
Serious
Dark Road
Coles Corner
Tonight The Streets Are Ours
Born Under A Bad Sign
Our Darkness
Something Is...!
I'm Looking For Someone To Find Me

Encore:

Hotel Room
The Ocean

Previously uploaded mp3s :: a bug or real functionality loss?

1234chainsaw — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:40:34 GMT

I'm not into brown or orange, so MOG's new look is fine with me, and I like the speed and the fact that long-ass posts are cut off and continued over the fold. But I was scrolling through some of my own posts from the past month to see how they looked now. And here I have a couple of complaints.

One, since the embedded mp3 player is now gone, the layout of past posts is accordingly screwed. Now there's just blank space where you used to have a song after a carefully deliberated introduction to the song. I care about aesthetics, so I care about this. I'm anal, deal with it.

Two, I count at least three posts of mine from the past few weeks where the uploaded song is no longer available. (Examples here and here; in one case a song in the post isn't available but a song uploaded into the comments is.) Now, why is this? Is it a bug? Or is it because these songs aren't in the relevant database? If the latter, then the purpose of some of these posts is kind of defeated. Some of them aim to introduce moggers to music that's available only on import in the US.

My concert double-whammy failed -- but I saw A Place To Bury Strangers

1234chainsaw — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 18:02:16 GMT

A Place To Bury Strangers, Film School
(The Mezzanine, San Francisco CA, 12/05/07)

The Thermals, The Big Sleep, Scandells
(Slim's, San Francisco CA, 12/05/07)

San Francisco was a land of concert plenty on December 5th. A couple of months back I'd already had to decide between Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and The Thermals. Having loved The Thermals' debut album in 2003 but not having managed to see them live yet, I opted for a ticket to their show - but with a heavy heart over missing the tight-as-hell Dap-Kings. Then on the cusp of Thanksgiving one of my new pet bands, A Place To Bury Strangers, were scheduled to support Film School the same night. Since I had heard only awesome things about APTBS shows, I bought a ticket without hesitation, leaving the worries about how to resolve the conflict for later.

The plan I cooked up was to see APTBS but skip Film School (whom I certainly like OK on record) and hurry from the Mezzanine to Slim's, which are only about a mile apart, to catch The Thermals. But obviously the plan was going to be wrought with the contingencies of stage times at the two venues.

Arriving in the city after replenishing my red Rhone stocks at one of my favorite wine importers in Berkeley, the box office at Slim's wasn't open yet when I drove by so I couldn't find out about their stage schedule yet. After some dinner, I went over to the Mezzanine at 8pm when the doors were opening and found out that APTBS would be playing 10:15-11:00 and Film School 11:30-12:30. Having a plenty of time, I made my way back to Slim's, only to be told by the box office lady that The Thermals would go on around 10pm. Bad luck 1, my plan 0. But I had resolved not to miss APTBS. Sorry, Thermals.

Luckily I had time to see the two opening bands at Slim's, which were both pretty good. Scandells are an all-girl poppy garage punk trio from Riverside. The Big Sleep are a muscular trio from Brooklyn. The guitarist and the female bassist/keyboardist share duties on droning the vocals, but really the band is all about big angular guitar riffs. I liked them a lot and in retrospect I should've bought their record. Then back over to Mezzanine, a converted warehouse type venue (exposed ventilation shafts, etc.) with a lot of San Francisco hipster types in the audience.

Apart from their woefully short 45-minute supporting slot, APTBS made all of the bad luck and running around worth it. Their being less loud than I expected (I didn't even wear ear plugs, which I usually do) didn't diminish Oliver Ackermann's shredding one iota. All those sounds from one man! There were a bassist and a drummer on stage. Some songs were played, mostly originals, possibly a cover or two. None of that really mattered. I felt like a fortunate onlooker to one man's very personal quest for a guitar sound like no other.

The dramatic culmination of the APTBS set was when, in the middle of the driving "I've Lived My Life To Stand In The Shadow Of Your Heart," Ackermann ripped the thick E string loose from his Fender Jaguar, wound it around his hands like Jack the Ripper, and set out to strangle the guitar which by that point was lying akimbo on the stage floor. Some sonic awesomeness ensued until Ackermann calmly picked up another guitar, plugged it in, and the band finished the song. (Release it in some format, guys!) This was, in the full British sense of the expression, something very special indeed.

Film School were fine apart from the booming drum sound and the singer's thin voice. But there was just no comparison. I felt like leaving halfway through their set, but stuck with it through to the end although I'd much rather have been watching another set from APTBS. Dispersing into the night at 12:25, I had a tiring drive back to Sacramento but woke up with warm fuzzy feelings about APTBS. Theirs was, without a doubt, one of the best shows I saw this year. And I saw many very good ones.

More diagram humor

1234chainsaw — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 19:18:11 GMT

Jonh already made an excellent start on diagram humor today. (This one was the funniest IMHO.) You can also let your inner geek free over at a blog called indexed that's devoted wholly to diagram humor. Finally, there's a T-shirt for music snobs:

(Sold here. Their other T-shirts have texts like "Remixing a song is like admitting you were wrong" :D I have no affiliation whatsoever with the merchant.)

Sunday Under Covers 2: Creeping Coastline Of Lights

1234chainsaw — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 23:28:39 GMT

I'm doing a second cover post today only because no one's posted anything from Mark Lanegan's wonderful covers album I'll Take Care Of You (1999). This oversight must be rectified. The choice is difficult, as Lanegan's sources on the album are varied and his renditions range from excellent to sublime: undervalued folk artists (Tim Hardin and Fred Neil), cult indie bands (the Gun Club and the Leaving Trains), country superstars (Buck Owens), and traditional folk songs ("Shanty Man's Life" is particularly strong). I'm selecting, more or less at random, "Creeping Coastline Of Lights" by the Leaving Trains:

(Posting the song was also a way to prevent myself from posting this and adding "How cool!"...)

Sunday Under Covers: Bubblegum

1234chainsaw — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 18:00:50 GMT

For a windy but sunny Sunday, here's Sonic Youth's cover of "Bubblegum" by Kim Fowley. (Fowley, mainly a record producer, has quite a story himself: he did probably the first rock song about LSD, called "The Trip," recorded the 1972-73 sessions by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, founded The Runaways after having met the teenaged Joan Jett and Sandy West, and much more. He's also said of himself: "I never wanted to be a mainstream rock star! I did succeed.") Sonic Youth have made some good cover choices over the years (often displaying their punk influences, such as "Hot Wire My Heart" by Crime, "Nic Fit" by The Untouchables, and some Ramones and The Fall covers), but "Bubblegum" is probably the most fun SY cover I've heard.

Just The Way You Are

1234chainsaw — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:43:25 GMT

It's not funk, but close enough. It's a song I've listened to very many times this week, as a glance at my widget will tell you. It's a near-perfect encapsulation of the way most of us want to feel about someone, and the lucky ones among us do. It was tragically buried for years as a forgotten B-side to "I Miss You Baby (How I Miss You)" until its inclusion on The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 6: 1966. It's a gem, I think. It's "Just The Way You Are" by Marv Johnson:

(Yes, I still remember what my personality test says. But I really need a tender moment before I tackle a frightening stack of job applications for a faculty position here.)

My Midnight Creeps

1234chainsaw — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:42:23 GMT

Scandinavian garage rock rarely fails as a Monday morning pick-me-up. My Midnight Creeps was a Norwegian band fronted by Robert Burås (with Alex Kloster-Jensen from Ricochets) as a side project from his main gig since 1995 as the guitarist and composer in the urban noir rock band Madrugada. (Madrugada are virtually unknown in US but popular in many parts of Europe.) Influenced by the psychedelic and bluesy sides of the likes of The Stooges and The Animals and filled out with organs and saxophone, their intense rock cascade is not unlike that of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. My Midnight Creeps released the albums My Midnight Creeps (2005) and Histamin (2007). The band's arc came to a premature end when Burås passed away suddenly at the age of 31 on July 12th, 2007. Three more songs on Myspace, here is "Violet" from Histamin and a video for "I Fell Into A Hole" from the band's debut album:

Sunday Under Covers: "Nous Ne Sommes Pas Des Anges"

1234chainsaw — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:33:36 GMT

Heavenly's cover of the sublime "Nous Ne Sommes Pas Des Anges" as released on Operation Heavenly (K Records 1996). The title means "we aren't angels" in English and yes, it's about boys tempting girls. Originally written by Serge Gainsbourg for France Gall and released on Baby Pop (Polygram 1966). See Gall's version here.

Why compression is bad

1234chainsaw — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:16:43 GMT

I occasionally complain when a piece of good music has been spoiled by production. Compression is one technique that's primed to irk me. Its most recent victim to reach my ears was Springsteen's Magic - a record that was, for the most part, well-written and tightly played, but sounded like shit.

Let a recording pro explain to you what compression is and why its ever more widespread use is leading to a steady demise of recording quality. The article here. I know it's a lengthy piece, but hey, you've got the whole weekend. And you'll learn a lot from it.

Skywriter

1234chainsaw — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 18:48:54 GMT

Being a bloody foreigner here in the US, Thanksgiving isn't much of a tradition for me. But that's not to say I don't welcome a couple of quiet days and an excuse to cook well and drink better wine than usual. So in a few hours I'll go off and cook and hang out with a couple of friends. (My vegetarian contributions will be a pumpkin risotto and fancy mac & cheese.) I hope your day will be as enjoyable.

But first let me introduce you to the somber sounds of Skywriter, a four-piece formed in Copenhagen in 2001 by the vocalist and chief songwriter Jakob Dahn. Audibly influenced by Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, and Echo & The Bunnymen (check out "Where Both Worlds Never Meet" in comments), at some moments they remind me of The Czars ("This Thing Never Sleeps" below). I like their self-description as "urban rock noir."

Skywriter's debut album Where Both Worlds Never Meet was released in 2006. I found it recently in the ample Scandinavian rock selection over at the wonderful Parasol, and it's been sitting tight in my CD player for the past week. The band has a woefully inactive MOG page, but the two songs posted there, and especially the Interpol-tinged "New York," are well worth your time. Another song in the comments and more on MySpace, here are "This Thing Never Sleeps" off of Where Both Worlds Never Meet and a video for the new single "Craving Utopia" from an upcoming album:

Skywave

1234chainsaw — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 00:05:56 GMT

To complete the triumvirate of my most exciting music finds this month, here's a bit about Skywave.

Formed in Fredericksburg, VA, the band was active 1995-2003. When they split up, Oliver Ackermann formed A Place To Bury Strangers and Paul Baker and John Fedowitz went on to become Ceremony.

Skywave must be paying pretty high interest on their debt to The Jesus & Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine. But they're so shamelessly derivative that I've got no problem. Especially since Skywave take the sound of their influences to a more explosive, hyper-distorted direction and offer up formidably written material that contains snazzy melodies under all the noise. As the band put it: "Huge soundscapes, crystallizing guitars, driving beats and heartbroken voices." Or, as I put it, a cascade of pulverizing but tuneful fuzz honey.

Or so I say on the basis of their 2003 album Synthstatic. Apart from a cassette-only (!) comp of b-sides and rarities called Interference, all other Skywave material (a couple of albums and numerous EPs) is long out of print and is turning out to be incredibly hard to find (a partial discography here). If you have any of their other material, I would absolutely love to hear from you.

My reaction to Skywave is by no means universally shared. Apparently they used to do sound check at half volume and surprise the sound guy by cranking their gear to the max only when climbing on stage. Ackermann reports (on the Death By Audio web site that sells guitar pedals that he builds) some choice quotes from venue owners, like "I am going to kill you" and "I've only had to wear earplugs twice in my entire life and both times were tonight." :D

Here's a detached but upbeat track from Synthstatic (which I've put up here) called "Don't Say Slow" (a more melodic tune "Over And Over" in comments) plus a video for a very J&MC-like EP track called "Got That Feeling":

This is a Filling in the gaps post.

A Place To Bury Strangers

1234chainsaw — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:30:59 GMT

A Place To Bury Strangers is one of the two bands to come out of the dreampop band Skywave (1995-2003), the other being Ceremony. Since the first and only MOG post about APTBS so far (from June 2006, huge props to aytch!), the band have had various recordings that have been sold on CD-Rs at shows or circulated in the Internet professionally mixed, mastered, and released as an album by Killer Pimp Records. Here's a way to describe it. During his Skywave period, the APTBS frontman Oliver Ackermann started building his own guitar pedals, later making it a business under the Death By Audio recording studio and music collective moniker. The pedals have names like Total Sonic Annihilation, Supersonic Fuzzgun, Interstellar Overdriver, and Soundwave Breakdown. Well, that's what APTBS sound like. The album isn't particularly loud by the standards of modern rock production, but it's a relentless piece of static distortion and trebly feedback. The reverbed sound, including vocals, evoke The Jesus & Mary Chain, but surely these guys have spent time with New Order and Ministry as well (check out, respectively, the bass-driven "I Know I'll See You" and the interplay of live drums and ticking drum machine on "To Fix the Gash in Your Head"). It would be amiss of me not to mention that the album has moments of vaporous melodic beauty as well (on "The Falling Sun" and parts of "Don't Think Lover"). Glorious noise-pop. More songs over at MySpace, here's the record's opening track "Missing You":

I want to see these guys live! Here's a song not on the record. You can't hear the vocals but it's still pretty impressive. (You can hear vocals on a proper video of the song, viewable in QuickTime at Troublemaker Videos along with a bunch of other fine noise-pop and shoegaze videos). The song is called "I've Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart" and it's off the hook:

Speaking of new pet bands: Ceremony

1234chainsaw — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:27:45 GMT

I don't do a lot of impulse posting. Here's an exception. (The title follows in the footsteps of Anna's post today on a new "pet band" of hers, a term due to Stefan aka SA.)

Consisting of ex-Skywave members Paul Baker and John Fedowitz, Ceremony is one of the two bands (the other being A Place To Bury Strangers) to grow out of Skywave's ashes. They've just released a new album called Disappear, following up on their 2006 debut. Soon after a song of theirs hit my ears about 15 minutes ago, the drool escaping my mouth almost ruined my credit card as I was running ahead of myself to order the record. Chilly vocals, ample guitar distortion, and good use of drum machine - Ceremony promise to offer very fine bliss-fuzzed-out noise-pop. I wonder how many copies of Psychocandy they've worn through in their lives.

Songs on MySpace, plenty of über-cheap videos on YouTube. I'm putting up a song called "Dull Life" and a video of a non-album track called "Stars Fall":

The Diodes

1234chainsaw — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:06:45 GMT

The Diodes, formed in Toronto in 1976, started out as a power-poppy punk band and were moving in the direction of new wave at the time of their demise in 1982. They released the albums Diodes (1977), Released (1978), and Action-Reaction (1980). An album of new material recorded in London in 1981 with a new rhythm section remains unreleased, and Survivors (1982) is a collection of out-takes and demos from 1977-81. All this stuff is unrereleased, so the compilation Tired of Waking Up Tired: The Best of The Diodes (1998) remains by far the most easily available Diodes release. In their time, the band shared the bill or toured with Dead Boys, Ramones, U2, and Split Enz, among others. They also helped to foster the Toronto scene, being perhaps the first punk band in the city and opening a (short-lived) club called Crash'n'Burn for punk bands to play at. (The opening night was a double bill of The Diodes with The Nerves from LA, who are best known as the original performer of "Hanging On The Telephone" which Blondie were to cover later.) You can sample a few songs over at MySpace, I'll put one more song in the comments. Here's their best-known tune, from 1977:

This is a Filling in the gaps post.

Sunday Under Covers: Handyman

1234chainsaw — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 20:05:35 GMT

Let this put some beat in your Sunday socks. Cover of Otis Blackwell's "Handyman" by Frank Black & Teenage Fanclub, from their 1994 joint Peel Session. (In that same session they also covered "Sister Isabel" by Del Shannon, who himself does a nice version of "Handyman".)

Ann Peebles

1234chainsaw — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 21:52:03 GMT

No better time to listen to some sweet soul music and fill another MOG gap than sitting at home on antibiotics, down with bronchitis and flu. That there is no previous post on the Memphis soul vocalist Ann Peebles borders on criminal negligence. Peebles began her recording career in 1969 with the single "Walk Away" on Hi Records (later a home also to Al Green). In the next twelve years, she would release 6 albums and 24 singles for the label. Peebles co-wrote a generous share of her material with the Hi Records staff songwriter Don Bryant, whom she married in 1974. Among these stands out her biggest hit "I Can't Stand The Rain" for its adventurous melody line and gripping lyrics. Not consigned solely to love songs, much of the rest of her material displays impressive grit and resilience that fits her strong attitude and powerful voice. (A couple of nice exemplars in the comments.) After a hiatus spent concentrating on her family, Peebles released another 4 albums between 1989 and 2006, but these don't achieve the quality of her Hi Records material. Much of that material is terrific but, I fear, under-appreciated. Here's "I Can't Stand The Rain":

This is a Filling in the gaps post.

The Homosexuals

1234chainsaw — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:38:15 GMT

The Homosexuals, sometimes called "the best punk band that no one heard," lived and played in London in the late '70s and early '80s. It's no surprise if you've never ever heard of them. In their lifetime, they played very few gigs and only released two singles, one sleeveless EP, and some pseudonymous releases and side projects. The Homosexuals LP, released posthumously in 1984, collects a set of gloriously ramshackle session tapes that turn shitty production into an art form. (The material was mostly slammed out live around 1977-78 in studio where a friend worked during scraps of studio time left over after sessions by Police.) I found the band when this record was re-released (with some additional tracks) as Homosexuals' CD in 2004. Somehow I doubt that the comprehensive 3CD box Astral Glamour, also released in 2004, has sold in spades.

It's a pity that The Homosexuals were and remain about as obscure as you can get while having had your material re-released on CD. They would have been a great match with Rough Trade. Exploring, with equal vision, the same territory as Wire, Gang Of Four, and Pere Ubu, the band moves between off-kilter experimentation with tilting rhythms, freaky singing, and unfinished song fragments strung together with frayed rubber bands, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, tight, trashy, exuberant post-punk that sparkles with wit and energy. Ambitious pushing of boundaries and tinny but textured guitars are about the only things that remain constant. One of the band's own song titles sums it up best: "Vociferous Slam".

Here's "Technique Street" in all of its 100-second melodic glory (two more songs in the comments):

Video footage isn't easy to come by, but here's the front man Bruno Wizard (real last name McQuillan) and a band performing as Homosexuals at Cake Shop NYC in July 2007. The cut is "You're Not Moving The Way You Are Supposed To" and it has an enormous chorus:

This is a Filling in the gaps post.

Pretty funny, I'd have to say

1234chainsaw — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:53:09 GMT

I'm one of those who think that the first New Pornographers album was quite good but each subsequent one has been successively worse. But my hat goes off to the band's recent "challenge to the YouTube nation" (their wording) which is part of the promo campaign for their most recent album Challengers. The challenge (see it here) was: "Sing a New Pornographers song in the style of Michael McDonald and video yourself doing it." (Michael McDonald is a white R&B singer who's also served as the lead vocalist for the Doobie Brothers.) The contest winner has just been announced and I have to say it's pretty awesome:

Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)

1234chainsaw — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:01:47 GMT

This is really more like Cody B's or soulrocket's territory, but following on the heels of Cody's shop therapy post, I want to bring out another goody from The Complete Motown Singles project.

Frank Wilson recorded his debut single "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)" for the Motown subsidiary Soul Records in 1965. The story (well-known but worth repeating) goes that soon afterwards Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, offered Wilson the job of heading Motown's West Coast operation in LA on the condition that he ditch his recording career in favor of his back room duties. Wilson agreed, though reluctantly, and went on to write and produce hits for Brenda Holloway, The Supremes, The Four Tops, and more.

The twist in the story is that promos of Wilson's single had already been pressed. Gordy ordered them all recalled and pulped. Except, it seems, two copies. In 1977 one surviving copy was found. Becoming a hit item among Northern soul DJs who went big for rarity, the copy changed hands for increasingly high prices. A second copy was discovered in 1990. In late '90s one of them was sold for £15,000. (That's roughly $30,000 at the current exchange rate.)

Luckily for us, the song has also been included on a few Northern soul compilations, and most recently on the 1965 volume of The Complete Motown Singles. Luckily, because this is one classic track! (Clearly superior to the 1966 version by Chris Clark.) The pounding Motown beat and call-and-response chorus exude sheer joy that can, I think, substitute for Prozac in curing ailing souls. Hit it!

Tribute to Crash

1234chainsaw — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 02:15:12 GMT

(I was unable to log on to http://mog.com/Remembering_Crashpryor, so here I go instead.)

The way I tend to react to a tragedy like we've been processing in the past days is that words feel to me like empty chatter. (To others, they are indispensable; we differ in our ways.) So I've been quiet. Likewise, I pay my respects to Chris in the form of instrumental jazz. This one starts from a familiar place but goes off and develops into something distinctive and insightful. Chris's writing and personal interaction were, in my limited experience, like that kind of jazz. The interesting, surprising, and immensely rewarding kind. (Sometimes a bit lengthy, too, but that's a sin I'm glad to have shared with Chris.)

Chris, you are sorely missed. You, Micki, and your family are in our thoughts.

A fitting verse from the Nick Drake original:

When the game's been fought
You speed the ball across the court.
Lost much sooner than you would have thought
Now the game's been fought.

Swervedriver Plan 2008 World Tour

1234chainsaw — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:14:07 GMT

This is just too delicious to pass up, so I'll make one of my rare exceptions to not posting news culled directly from other music blogs.

U.K. rock act Swervedriver will reunite for a worldwide 2008 tour after a nearly decade-long hiatus. Dates and other details have yet to be announced. [Source: Kingblind.]

Dale will go nuts. Me, I'm double-drooling.

Here's "Maelstrom" (a band with B-sides this strong just can't be bad):

Tranzmitors

1234chainsaw — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 20:45:30 GMT

Tranzmitors: Tranzmitors
[Deranged Records 2007]

If, like me, you found the new Hives record uninspired and dull, I've got a Plan B for you: the self-titled debut album by Tranzmitors from Vancouver. (The line-up includes personnel from The Smugglers and The Parallels.) These guys look like they could have starred in Quadrophenia! Tranzmitors, following on the heels of a few singles, is a 32-minute blast of punchy power pop with infectious sing-alongs, sharp guitar riffs, a Scientists cover ("Last Night"), some rhythm bounce à la XTC, and a dose of punk à la The Undertones, The Boys, Buzzcocks, The Jam, Pointed Sticks, and really the whole Stiff Records back catalog. (Stiff is their UK label, as it happens.) If that's not enough to perk your ears up, let's add that the band can write some great songs. As Razorcake said of an earlier Tranzmitors single: "This is that kind of bubble gum that's so good it's poisonous." Highly recommended.

This is also a Filling in the gaps post.

New EP from The Brother Kite (nu-gaze)

1234chainsaw — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:44:07 GMT

The Brother Kite, your one-stop shop for Brian Wilson meets dreampop from Providence, have released an EP called Moonlight Race which features unreleased tracks, alternative versions, and live cuts. It leads off with "Get On, Me" from the band's sophomore album Waiting For The Time To Be Right, which was among my favorite albums of 2006. Here's that song:

The EP is released on Clairecords and most reliably available through Tonevendor. (The two are run by the same people and both specialize in dreampop and shoegaze.)

As The Brother Kite videos are in short supply, here's the album cut "I'm Not The Only One" (not on the EP):

Red Dons: Death To Idealism [The punk record of 2007?]

1234chainsaw — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:25:57 GMT

Red Dons: Death To Idealism
[Deranged Records 2007]

World-class punk rock is again brewing in PDX. The Observers (responsible for So What's Left Now, one of the best punk records of the millennium so far) are sadly no more, but more or less the same personnel continue as Red Dons. Their debut album Death To Idealism is sonically much like The Observers. Telecasters pump trebly chords on top of pummeling drums and limber and driving, almost Rezillos-like bass lines. The lead singer and primary songwriter Douglas Burns again delivers chanty, T.S.O.L.-like vocals. This all is done with the passion of Stiff Little Fingers. The song craft isn't quite as amazing as on So What's Left Now, but it's still good enough to count as top-notch. The record conveys its dominant theme, social alienation, not only through lyrics that lament mass consumerism, religious fundamentalism, the current political direction of the United States, and the difficulty of finding one's place in the world. It conveys alienation also by its sound: the vocals are mixed to sound distant, and as if echoing in an empty space, and the overall tone is quite cold and clinical. No doubt this is due partly to the cheap production, but it's there nonetheless. A perfect soundtrack to feelings of rootlessness.

The bottom line: If you like punk rock but are tired of revivalist punk bands, check out Red Dons. Death To Idealism is the best punk record I've heard this year.

More songs in the comments and on MySpace.

More nu-gaze: Sunsplit

1234chainsaw — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:45:21 GMT

A couple of years ago, I was fast becoming a shoegeezer (that'd be a shoegaze fan who grew old or just simply grew up). (EDIT: Credit for coining the word 'shoegeezer' goes out to Colin AKA FluxCapacitor.) I was rescued from my nostalgic stupor by nu-gaze bands like Serena-Maneesh, Sennen, Asobi Seksu, The Radio Dept., The Sleepover Disaster, The Brother Kite, and She, Sir.

My new addition to that roster of bands is Sunsplit from Philadelphia. Big guitars that buzz like bees, a synthesis of shoegaze and bluesy psychedelia. As their most direct influences, I hear late J&MC, Ride, Spiritualized, Pale Saints, and a light sprinkle of Phil Spector and Mazzy Star vibes. Quite lovely.

You can stream Sunsplit's new album Sing For Sunday through a Flash application over at their record label ApolloAudio.

I'm betting that many of you other shoegeezers can tell pretty quickly which MBV song "Running After You" pays homage to.

This is a Filling in the gaps post.

MOGging on the run...

1234chainsaw — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 07:45:46 GMT

After relaxing week-long vacation, I've been running from one place to another for the past week (and about to make my way from Helsinki to Stockholm to give a talk at the University there). But, coming on MOG for the first time in two weeks, I notice that it's my first MOG anniversary!

So, just quickly: what a year it's been! I've found tons of new music and like-minded individuals to talk music and joke with, and I've made some good friends. (MOGging was also my substitute for cigarette breaks when I quit smoking last fall!) My heartfelt thanks to you all for all this.

Since I'm on the road for most of the week, it sucks that this is also the week of the annual Rakkautta & Anarkiaa (Love & Anarchy) film festival in Helsinki. I have to miss, or couldn't get tickets to, many movies that I wanted to see (e.g. Closer, Eastern Promises, Persepolis, This Is England, and London To Brighton). I also couldn't get tickets to an acoustic show by Sigur Ros that will accompany the screening of a documentary about the band. Yesterday I did manage to squeeze in Breath (by Ki-Duk) and Atonement (based on the novel by Ian McEwan, one of the best English-writing novelists today). Both are recommended, Breath especially so. I hope to be able to see also I'm A Cyborg But That's OK (by Chan-wook Park of the Oldboy fame) over the weekend.

Just to show that Finns can do not only garage rock and love metal but also electro pop (and to keep my tongue firmly in cheek, hehe), here's "Cheaters" by I Was a Teenage Satan Worshipper (self-description: "24h bunny people"!):

Another MOG hiatus...

1234chainsaw — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 04:49:59 GMT

It'll again be my loss that in the next six weeks I can only intermittently get turned on to new music by my fellow moggers or read their gushing praises and incisive analyses. I'm leaving for a conference in Madison, WI, in the morning. I'll be back home for just a day before I head out to Europe until mid-October for a combination of business and pleasure. For a lot of that time I'll have no Internet access. But I'll drop in when I can to see what's going on around here. I've got no new music to give you, having been busy finishing up two long research papers and finalizing my tenure portfolio. But I've been listening to a fair bit of Robyn Hitchcock; his whimsicality gives a good counterbalance when life gets stressful. Here's "Brenda's Iron Sledge" as performed with The Egyptians on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1985 (sweet suit!):

My Bloody Valentine to reunite in 2008?

1234chainsaw — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:16:06 GMT

The Daily Swarm reports/speculates/guesses:

"According to sources in the United States and the United Kingdom who are familiar with the negotiations, the band is close to signing a deal that will see a reunited My Bloody Valentine headline Coachella, scheduled for April 25–27, before embarking on a world tour sometime later in 2008."

Dale, I hope you didn't get a heart attack! I won't cut-and-paste more than that. Some of our less interactive fellow moggers are likely to do that shortly anyway. See the whole piece over here.

Worst Joy Division Cover Ever? [Rated R]

1234chainsaw — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:28:30 GMT

I hesitate to unleash this onto the many dear co-moggers for whom Joy Division means a lot. But it seems that the impending release of the film Control and the reissues of Joy Division albums with extra discs of live material (known quantity to JD fans for some time now) is also gathering all kinds of shit at its heels. The grossest offense that I've run into is seeing that one chubby and sniveling dipshit from Fall Out Boy vandalize "Love Will Tear Us Apart". You may throw up in your mouth a bit, but you should watch at least a little bit of it. It really is more terrible than you can possibly imagine. Then you can go and seek outside help for the ensuing post-traumatic stress disorder. Or you can just let it rip in the comments.