Reviews This Time: 800beloved; JDSY; Casino Versus Japan

SOAPBOX DEPT. - Why doesn't every release feature 'liner notes' aka 'digital booklets'? Furthermore, why doesn't Amazon ever offer such graphics even when they do exist on iTunes? As for the first issue, it would be interesting to find whose more at fault: iTunes, or lazy, cheapskate, bands? Do bands really hate graphic designers so much that they thwart any effort they make to contribute, or are the designers asking for too much money up front. It seems that back in the stone age of albums and CDs, musicians somehow found a way to festoon their packaging with various art and information. So I really don't get it, one would think it would be cheaper and easier to provide notes and graphics to iTunes. As for Amazon, they rolled out new software a while back with the strong suggestion that graphics would be appearing for downloading in the very near future. I'm still waiting... Could it be that the bullies at iTunes are strong-arming this situation somehow? There's some really tasty journalistic possibilities goin' on here... All we need is testimony from bands who tried and then somehow failed to provide graphics; then someone from Amazon would chime in with their situation; and the coup, of course, would be when an iTunes insider spills the beans... Pulitzer Prize anyone? I'm too sick to follow through on any of this, so I reckon that you, dear reader, will have to seize the day and get the art put back in our music. As it stands, its almost enough to force me back to the record store, do they still have those?

REVIEWS

Staying with American labels, the reviews this time are from recording artists signed to Moodgadget from Brooklyn by way of Michigan. This label has a bazillion obscure releases, but this time we'll stay with 3 of their top artists...

800beloved - Everything Purple - Something akin to the 'anti-sophomore jinx', as this disc is a strong improvement over this Michigan outfit's 'difficult' debut Bouquet. The title track is an instant classic pop song that jingles and jangles in all the right places. When these guys cite their influences as New Order, (check '1992'), and The Cure, (check 'Tidal'), they should clarify that they are riffing off the quality early material of those bands, and not the drivel that has characterized much of their recent efforts. The only problem I can find with this effort is that it's too short...

JDSY - Understander EP - Another Michigan maven of the new electro-pop a la Deastro. Lots of complexity happening, but the beats are there to tie it all together when need be. Nothing earthshaking here, but 'Gold Manuever' and 'Jeepers Creepers' do push the envelope a bit.

Casino Versus Japan - (Self-titled) - This Kentucky outfit takes things to the limit of how much avant-garde noodling I can stand. Most of this release features spacy atmospherics that are okay for what they are, but not something you'd be in a hurry to hear again. Ah, but all is not lost, because on the rare instances when the drummer kicks in, the results are indeed splendiferous...

PLAYLIST DEPT.

P/L 29 Summer Smoothies XVI - Make It Stop! Out now, offbeat as ever...

P/L 30 Summer Smoothies XVII - Time to Get a New Theme... Any ideas? BTW, I still have no current listeners whatsoever, I guess I'm just too much of an uber-nerd, musically speaking, for my fellow moggers to handle...

P/L 31 Summer Smoothies XVIII - The Misses Just Keep On Comin' - Guess the themes, win absolutely nothing...

P/L 32 Danger! Do Not Listen To This Playlist! Out now...

Speaking of uber-nerds, you kinda have to be one to enjoy this new feature on the blog, namely...

X-WORDS CORNER - Think your x-word puzzles have absurdly obscure, inexcusably 'punny' clues? Try these brain twisters on for size... Cover the answer with paper if you want to play along... be patient, if the answer doesn't pop into your head almost immediately, it usually takes quite a while to overcome the intentional obfuscation of the 'clever' (read: cruel) clues... Sometimes I have to look at these types of clues over a period of days before the annoying answer finally dawns on me--but I will always swear that I did somehow manage to personally solve all of the inexcusable puns listed below. Of course, I had the puzzle's grid and letters from other clues to help me, you don't! Ha! Ha! Ha! GOOD LUCK KIDZ!

1. Clue: Help wanted notice? Answer: 'SOS' ; Puzzler/Punster: Sue de Nimes
2. Clue: Impressionist? Answer: 'Etcher' ; Puzzler/Punster: Joy M. Andrews
3. Clue: Bath suds? Answer: 'Ale' ; ditto
4. Clue: Tend to a beehive? Answer: 'Tease' ; Puzzler/Punster: Seth A. Abel
5. Clue: Rabbit's close relatives? Answer: 'Golf' ; ditto
6. Clue: Starbuck's manager? Answer: 'Ahab' ; ditto
7. Clue: Ring up? Answer: 'Enhalo' ; Puzzler/Punster: Byron Walden
8. Clue: Stinky place? Answer: 'HighHeaven' ; ditto
9. Clue: Walk all over? Answer: 'Retrace' ; ditto
10. Clue: Groundbreaking discoveries? Answer: 'Ores' ; Puzzler/Punster: Randall J. Hartman
11. Clue: Cow hand? Answer: 'Hoof' ; ditto

STORY TIME VIGNETTES

• It is a given that the humor of high school students is legendary for its lack of sophistication, but sometimes they surprise you. For example, my current school (I'm still clinging to the belief that I will someday return to work...) had a serious problem a while back with stray cats living under our vintage portables in the east parking lot. After a failed campaign to get the cats neutered, and another to get our cat-loving neighbors to stop feeding them--rumor had it that the next step was to have them exterminated. In response a student hoaxster put up posters advertising a 'Save the Cats' Club. Which was fine and dandy except for the fact that the supposed Friday lunchtime get-togethers featured ficticious free pizza and were to be held in MY classroom. Of course, the students immediately got the ruse and thus knew it was a joke at the expense of cat lovers. The joke paid off when the school's dweebiest teacher showed up wondering when the pro-kitty-cat meeting was going to start. It was all I could do to keep a straight face as I informed her that she'd been hoodwinked by a hoaxster. A few months later came the posters for 'The Communist Club', whose meetings were again advertised to be held on Fridays at lunch, and again, of course, in my classroom. The difference this time was, instead of free pizza it was gratis Chicken Kiev... Har... Har... Har... There were no takers this time, apparently the poster's images of Che, Mao, and Stalin failed to inspire anyone to possible comradeship. What? No death to the facsist insects??? I bet it would have flown at Berkeley High, but only among members of the PTA... Har... Har...

• Much more subtle, was the last Senior prank done in honor of yours truly at my previous high school (I've worked at 3 so far...). Everyone knew that the car always parked in front of my classroom was in fact my car (one that my rice rocketeers always insisted that I didn't deserve...). They also knew that the area was designated a 'no parking' zone. Aha, but that was based on when my chemistry lab, classroom, and stockroom (I had a palace...) were all part of the old Auto Shop. What was now a glass partition and an expensive lab fume hood, was then the roll-top door to the grease pit area. Now the nerds knew that this act of 'rebellion' on my part was not entirely sitting well in my craw, they knew that I knew that all it would take would be an overzealous member of the SFPD (an oxymoron...) to ticket and/or tow me. So, when I drove up on my last day at school (I had resigned ealier...) I encountered a single parking stall, marked off by very pronounced white striping with very obtuse angles so as to simulate that I did it myself in a drunken stupor. Within the newly minted space was the warning: Meyers Parking Only! Violators Will Be Towed! Needless to say it looked as if it were scrawled in crayon, and the 's's' were backwards, of course. I thought it was very well thought out and expertly executed, misspelling my name was a clever finishing touch to make sure I was still pissed off more than amused... Much better than the typical pranks we see, i.e., eggs, barrages of obscene graffitti, glue in the doorlocks, furniture on the roof, etc.

• The most cruel of the pranks played on me happened a couple years before the 'parking space', but it was also predicated on students knowing the car parked in front of my class was mine. This story deserves its own blog though, so some other time... I can say that it involved excruciating pain on my part--but that was due to extenuating circumstances, not some grand plan by the pranksters...

Kancer Korner - Just now emerging from my latest chemo coma, slept 14 hours yesterday... Wow, I usually sleep about four or five at most. Better living through chemistry... I really love the tinnitus side effects, now my ears can ring without the expense and hassle of going to a loud concert. This week they've got me on a blood thinner (my left arm clotted up like cottage cheese from the poison running through it) that's so new that the insurance company has never heard of it... uh... oh... What will be really fun is my CT scan on the 15th, if 'Timmy the Tumor' has spread despite all the chemo bombs, then this blogger will officially be toast. At least I won't have to endure losing my bladder and my prostate, they don't operate when your cancer's stage four--harsh but true. At some point, you officially become a 'lost cause' like the ERA in the 70s... Well maybe not that lost... Har... Har...

J Myers

PS - Somehow I've gone from having 200 or 300 readers to 20, was it something I said? (Or did I piss off MOG yet again...)