MOG - hontzd's Posts

Back in the Mog and back with R.E.M.

hontzd — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:06:21 GMT

Cripes, I have no excuse for not writing. But now, after hearing a bunch of new music seeing a bunch of bands, I've got a Mog backlog. So now I'm going to make up for it.

I'll start with an easy, yet possibly provocative item:

Holy crap, I really like this new R.E.M. album!

I mean, I like it possibly more than -any- R.E.M. album, and it's definitely better than anything in at least 10 years. And it's largely because - as Stephen Colbert pointed out when the band visited his show - there's not a mandolin to be found on this recording. It's all big guitars, and it rocks.

R.E.M. had become one of those bands I wanted to still like, but their music just stopped hitting me in the gut. I gave up on them somewhere around Monster (and, in retrospect, the earlier "Shiny Happy People" and "Stand" make me queasy now too).

But Accelerate? It's great power pop, like stuff from the '90s. Totally compelling and honest. I can believe again.

A very painful interview with The Bravery's Sam Endicott

hontzd — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:56:41 GMT

Before this weekend, I'd never heard of "Red Eye" on Fox News, and now I hope I never have the occasion to watch it again. Who are these schmoes interviewing Sam Endicott?

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/2170094

(sorry, no embed code available)

A Place to Bury Strangers in LA

hontzd — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 03:29:24 GMT

You ever wonder how they work out who opens for whom on indie small-club tours? Saturday night in LA, A Place to Bury Strangers killed as an opening band for Holy Fuck.

Until the day of the show, I thought APTBS was the headliner. Don't get me wrong -- Holy Fuck was great, too. But APTBS seems to be getting more buzz, and they look like a band going somewhere.

On stage, APTBS lived up to that buzz -- in fact it felt like seeing Janes Addiction or Nirvana in a club right before they got big. It's clear that APTBS is more than just a Jesus and Mary Chain ripoff.

And yes, as rumored, A Place to Bury Stranger is clearly the loudest band on Earth.

Holy Crap! It's Holy Fuck!

hontzd — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:18:21 GMT

It's obvious that when a bunch of punks name their band "Holy Fuck" they're not too concerned about marketability. But the name also puts you off in a different way - like you're expecting to see a bunch of young Green Day wannabes come on stage overwrought with fake suburban angst.

And that's not Holy Fuck at all. The Torontonians layer electronica style keyboards on big analog bass and drum beats, creating a rock-out-and-dance groove that is - dare I say - more infectious than LCD Soundsystem.

Opening at LA's Echoplex for Super Furry Animals, HF proved that you don't need lyrics or a dominating frontman to make a show. Centered on the drummer a bassist, two keyboardists faced off, looking toward each other instead of the crowd, switching out equipment in mid-song while hammering through their all-instrumental set. And don't think this set was a jam band wandering ponderously through some old Dead riff; this was a rock show through-and-through.

Website: http://www.holyfuckholyfuckholyfuck.com/

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/holyfuck

There are a bunch of live clips on YouTube, but the sound ain't so hot in most of them. So here's this:

Musical Impatience, Part 2

hontzd — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:54:59 GMT

Next up in the cavalcade of bands that need to release something new just to make me happy is Tokyo Police Club.

Their last album, 2006's a Lesson In Crime, comes in at a scant 16 minutes and seven tracks -- just barely an album in my book. But it's a fun record, built around some amazing, angular drumming, with a layer of Interpol guitar stylings and retro keyboards tossed on top.

If that's not enough, TPC sings about robots taking over the world and making children into slaves to build spaceships in 2009.

I hope they come out with a new record before we meet that fate.

I imagine this was not his intent

hontzd — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:52:40 GMT

Most people, even people like me who don't have a lot of jazz knowledge, would say Miles Davis was brilliant. "Kind of Blue" is one of the most expressive albums you'll ever hear in any genre, and I think you could reach that conclusion even if you'd never heard a jazz record before.

Davis was also a bit of an ass. He wasn't known as the friendliest dude -- I've heard stories about how he would play whole shows with his back to the audience because he didn't respect his fans.

But Davis was a uniquely talented and unrelentingly individualistic person, and that's worth an awful lot. So, you can see why I found this ad on Amazon sort of obscene:

I mean really, wouldn't "Get Jesus ringtones!" be less offensive?

Musical Impatience, Part 1

hontzd — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:42:18 GMT

Back in his prime, Elvis Costello came out with a new record, oh, about every three weeks. The dude defined prolific: Check out his discography and you'll see he dropped a plater every year - and sometimes two in a single year.

Obviously not everyone can be this productive. But why does it seem that the groups I anticipate new music from most are the slowest to make it?

Let me answer myself: they're not slow, I'm just impatient.

In fact, this very post was going to bemoan the fact that Asobi Seksu hadn't come out with a new record in years. So I looked up when "Citrus" was released: 2006. That's not that long ago - I mean I have dog hair in my house that was released in 2006.

So, clearly this is just a matter my musically greedy self wanting more more more. And I've got a lot more groups on my impatience list.

Who's on yours?

Fakers!

hontzd — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 05:57:59 GMT

There's a fun and strangely dead-on trend going on at Flickr: Fake CD covers put together but three random elements from across the Internet.

1. The band name: Whatever article title you get at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random

2. The album title: the last four words form the last quote at http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3

3. Your CD cover art: the third picture on http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/

Fire up your Photoshop (or Gimp or whatever image editing thang you do) and make yourself a CD cover.

My first effort, sadly, seems vaguely New Age, but I like to think it might be the sophomore release from an ambient noise-pop band from Tucson.

Check out a lot more at http://flickr.com/groups/cdcovermeme/pool/

Radiohead's Scotch Mist

hontzd — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 17:09:18 GMT

Last night I dreamed that I had to sing in front of an audience at a park. This was problematic because a) I'd never sung in front of an audience, b) I didn't know what song I was to sing and c) I can't sing.

Thankfully I woke before I had to attempt a single note. Gulping coffee to wash away the fears of public performance, I watched some of "Scotch Mist," new videos of Radiohead playing songs from "In Rainbows" in their studio in Oxford.

The videos are shot with fixed cameras - no panning, no handheld shots - creating a very simple, stark record of the performance. Some of it almost seems like an instructional video for learning how to play in a band.

The starkness puts the Radiohead's music - and especially Thom Yorke's vocals - up front. No special effects, just all performance.

It's so good, I almost want to try to sing along. But not in public.

Bodysnatchers

Jigsaw Falling into Place

Anybody know what that interesting keyboard/guitar hybrid thing is?

You can download all the videos (for free) via iTunes as a podcast. (I'd give you the direct URL to the podcast, but I can't seem to find it, even on radiohead.com.)

#1 on the list of things I take back

hontzd — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 06:16:44 GMT

In my previous missive (don't you hate when I use anachronistic words?) I posted my Top 10 of 2007 even as I grumpily whined that end-o'-the-year list-making was a silly pursuit.

Clearly I'm a fool, because I've already found something I love while exploring the lists of others.

It's Maps' "We Can Create," which somehow I never plugged into despite the fact I frickin crave shoegazer vibe and dig smart electronic sounds. Kids today are calling this microgenre "stargazer" I guess.

Had I known, this would have been on my list. So much to learn ...

The Top 10 of 2007 for Me, Me, Me

hontzd — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:36:34 GMT

Why do we all like lists? It must be how they sum up everything nice and clean, making an easily digestible package of thought. It's sort of the sitcom of writing, but instead of everything being wrapped up nicely in the allotted 30 minutes, it's 10 bullet points.

I'm not complaining -- I'm going to make my list right here in this very post. Really, it's fun. But there is something sort of shallow about it. I mean, This year I learned about a lot of great stuff this year that wasn't made in 2007. And finding anything I love is just as big as enjoying the new Arctic Monkeys record.

All that said, I have one more, obvious, caveat about my list: What I liked in 2007 is a lot about me. And it was a weird year, with some extreme ups and downs: I filed for divorce, I rode my bike from San Francisco to LA, I got hit while riding to work, I got promoted. Someone in my family suddenly died. I went to SXSW with two great friends for one of the best music experiences of my life.

OK, enough disclaimers already. Here's the list:

10 Eddie Vedder et al - Into The Wild soundtrack. Maybe you need to see the movie before listening to this soundtrack, but it's a haunting, beautiful accompaniment to the story. 9 The Cinematics - A Strange Education. This choice is based largely on the brilliant cover of Beck's Sunday Sun, as well as how great the band sounded live at SXSW. The album doesn't quite capture that live sound. 8 The National - Boxer. Mumbly, dark, personal and beautiful. 7 Radiohead - In Rainbows. Bold for the pay-what-you-want business model, the album is actually great, too. 6 Interpol - Our Love to Admire. I was disappointed when I first heard this release, but it, like almost every Interpol album, grows on you. And "The Heinrich Maneuver" ended up being the most irresistible song of the year. 5 Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare. I take it back - "Brianstorm" is the most irresistible song of the year. 4 UNKLE - War Stories. Dale, thank you for pointing me in the direction of this great record. The cathartic "Burn My Shadow" is exemplary of the whole album: guitars, beats and darkness with a brilliant choice of guest vocalists - Ian Astbury. 3 Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero. When the news broke that NIN was making a concept album, I feared a new "2112" or "Paradise Theater." But YZ continues what "With Teeth" started - extreme protest of a lot of what we live with today and really shouldn't. 2 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81. Melding the Jesus and Mary Chain-ness of their first two albums with the bluesy sidestep of "Howl," Baby 81 casts BRMC as the next respectable huge band. It doesn't sound like it, but this feels like U2 in the late '80s (minus the pretension). 1 LCD Soundsystem - The Sound of Silver. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was like this album this year. It was blippy ("Get Innocuous"), agro ("North American Scum") and melancholy ("Someone Great") and much more, and I couldn't stop playing it. It's hard to find something as original and captivating in any year, not just in 2007.

Update: Other lists I like!

Anna's
Dale's

From LA to Scottsdale via Hollis

hontzd — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 02:56:06 GMT

My holiday traveling took me across the desert between LA and Scottsdale yesterday, with my iPod and a bunch of Christmas music as my traveling companions in my trusty Honda.

I was somewhere in the middle of nowhere, AZ, digging a playlist of new indie music mixed in with a bunch of old holiday songs, when "Christmas in Hollis" spun up.

Now, I don't know if it's the bawaaaaaa ba bada baaamp horns, the bit about Santa losing his wallet or the fact that no Christmas song is like it, but CIH has become one of my favorite seasonal tunes. I dare you to think otherwise (and if you do, Santa's leaving you a chunk of coal in your stocking -- and this time it'll be on fire).

And here's a bit of holiday cheer I spotted by the side of the road during a long bike ride in North Scottsdale.

Happy Holidays, y'all!

Satan Claus is Coming to Town

hontzd — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:47:23 GMT

In the '80s when heavy metal was rearing it's poofy-haired head all over MTV, practically every band with umlauts or extra letters in its name (Motley Crue, Ratt, Rickk Astleyy) was rumored to be "satanic."

Clearly this was not true of Twisted Sister.

Happy holidays, Moggers!

I'm a cynical bastard, again

hontzd — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:02:26 GMT

Here's the problem with tribute albums: unless a band brings something really new and interesting to a song, the group they're paying tribute to did a better job when they first recorded the song. I mean if a band is great enough that it deserves a tribute record, well, you should know your band is bound suck in comparison.

Prime example: The latest Pixies tribute album (there have been a few), "Dig for Fire." I absolutely love the Pixies, but I find very little compelling in this tribute album. There's nothing inventive or interesting about these cover songs. All I can think about was how great it was to hear Doolittle or Trompe le Monde for the first time -- and how you'll never get that feeling from listening to a cover album of the ssme songs.

I'm a cynical bastard

hontzd — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:20:06 GMT

I'm trying hard to like the new Foo Fighters album. And why shouldn't I? Dave Grohl was in Nirvana. Dude's a drummer (I was once) who plays guitar (I want to learn) and who sings (I can't). Then there's this thing about the record being a Grammy-nominated album of the year.

But I just want to hear the rocking songs, the ones with those hugely massive guitar hooks the Foos are really good at. I mean, these are the guys who created a hook that absolutely REQUIRED air guitaring: All My Life, the first track of One by One, at 3:26. Tell me that song doesn't make you want to slam some fake power chords on your steering wheel while stuck in rush hour traffic.

But on Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace, while I appreciate the nice piano-accompanied, well-sung pieces, in the end, I'm just eh, meh. Those songs may get critical acclaim, but to me they mean fewer guitar hooks on an album.

I want my loud guitar, even if you're really good at the other stuff. Sorry Dave.

I've been a bad, bad Mogger

hontzd — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 06:41:59 GMT

I've had all sorts of music stuff happen to me of late, and I haven't posted a chirp.

I suck.

So, in an attempt to make up for my slovenliness, I offer you an update in the a very businesslike bulletpointed list, suitable for integration into any soul-crushing PowerPoint presentation:

- Saw Interpol a few weeks back at the Forum in LA. Pretty awesome show, with more energy than you'd expect from a somewhat gloomy crew. Opening act the Liars sucked, and the Forum bizarrely hasn't changed from when Magic Johnson frequented the joint.

- I'm not much into the singer-songwriter genre, but really enjoyed seeing the Swell Season (basically the Frames + the movie "Once").

- Finally bought Editors' The Back Room. Amazing how I can spend months dancing around purchasing an album, then finally buying it and enjoying it. Why do I postpone joy?

- Holy crap the new Hives album rocks!

- "Holy crap" is my new favorite phrase.

Bobbing for Apples

hontzd — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:58:22 GMT

Way, way late to the party on this one, but I recently downloaded The Apples in Stereo's Velocity of Sound and absolutely love it. Their later stuff is more polished (pun intended, if you caught it - Apples, see), but this big thick guitar stuff just makes me smile. I like so many songs on this album, but Please has got that maxy catchy factor.

And please enjoy my ultra literal photographic interpretation of "Apples in Stereo."

Escape

hontzd — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 05:54:14 GMT

So I busted my dog via webcam opening doors using her teeth on doorknobs and that made me think of the Journey album Escape and that made me feel dirty so then I thought of the We Are Scientists song The Great Escape so I put that video on MOG then I posted the video of the Houdini-like dog.

More freaky clips

hontzd — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 03:39:05 GMT

Ugh, In my previous post, I screwed up the link to Bizarre Records. As payback to the karma bank, here's one of my favorite clips from BR.

Freaky clips

hontzd — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:08:00 GMT

This post was prompted by Anna's missive on the black art of ventriloquism. I found this mp3 over at Bizarre Records, which has a ton of these freaky little tidbits, suitable for dropping in between tracks on mix CDs.

What's "In Rainbows" Worth?

hontzd — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 17:23:12 GMT

Radiohead's new music business model - pay whatever price you think is right for their new download-only "In Rainbows" - is more than just an attempt at selling in a new way. For me, it seems to wrap up all the moral questions about mp3 sharing, CD burning and the music industry into one moment: typing in your price on the order form.

This isn't like eBay or Priceline or some other auction in which you're trying to beat others - you get the album no matter what you pay. It's purely about what you think the album is worth.

So, how do you figure that out?

Let's throw out the obvious first: you could pay the minimum one pence.

But that would make you a grand putz. Any band who puts the effort into creating an album deserves more than a pence for the effort, even if it's the worst slab of music the planet has ever seen. And if your justification for paying one pence is that you don't even like Radiohead, why are you bothering with to download the music? Don't be a putz.

Another possible strategy: pay the same price you do for other downloadable music, say $9.99 (about 5 pounds). But that price is based upon a model where the vast majority of that money goes to record labels - the band may not see one cent of that sale. Jon Healey (a fellow MOGger and LA Times opinion writer) penned an excellent explanation of these economics and how Radiohead's offering is turning them upside-down. So, although you may think it's fair to the band to pay the $9.99, understand there's no logic behind that argument -- you're not paying for the same things. And, while Radiohead now gets most of your money, you could argue that Thom and crew aren't a struggling band who could use more cash. Maybe some of your $9.99 should go to buying that homemade CD for sale on the back table at your hometown hole-in-the-wall music venue.

What does that leave us with? Well, there's the quality argument. In an ideal world, you may be inclined to pay more for good music than not-so-good music. Of course, this would require your listening to the whole album, and if you have access to the whole album already, why would you buy it? And how many times would you have to listen to it before you were sure you knew its value anyway?

Although flawed, that quality/value idea leads me my best guess of how much to pay: pricing by critics. After all, a price is just another way of rating a record, and that's what critics do. Of course, if this becomes the way records are sold, there would need to set up some sort of common scale that puts us all on the same economic terms - so that we don't have, for example, richer critics inflating prices. And to make the pricing as "true" as possible, we'd want a whole bunch of critics pricing the album and average things out.

Hey, that sounds like a job for MOG!

OK, let me start. I've played the record twice and really like it so far. It's listenable (not too experimental) and I can see it growing on me more and more.

Rating: $6 (3.45 pounds)

Band spotting in one of the world's most depressing airports

hontzd — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 04:07:35 GMT

So after a particularly difficult and sad couple of days in Phoenix, tonight I made my way to Sky Harbor Airport to head home to LA. Walking into Barry M. Goldwater Terminal 4, I was instantly enveloped in its glum brown-on-darker-brown, kokopelli-laden stylings.

The whole place was deserted. It felt as if everyone else had already fled the city.

As I walked up to the ticket counter, I saw a huge luggage cart - more like the kind of cart you use to carry bags of cement out of Home Depot - piled high with a those armored boxes real musicians use to carry their instruments while on tour.

"The Bravery" was stenciled on the sides of those cases.

I spotted frontman Sam Endicott, and mentioned that I saw his band at SXSW and really enjoyed their music.

"Oh cool, thanks," he said walking by, clearly not really wanting to deal with a fan tonight. I can't blame him; I don't really want to deal with anyone when I'm in Sky Harbor, either.

Regardless, it was a good moment. I've been thinking a lot this week about how music is a huge part of my life, how there's always something to get from it when your sad or happy or confused or lonely or with someone you love. It can rejuvenate and inspire you.

And running into The Bravery at one of the least inspiring places I can think of somehow makes the world right tonight.

Things I almost know something about

hontzd — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:11:18 GMT

OK, after being pretty disappointed by my last purchase (the Chemical Brother's We Are the Night - eh), I need to take a leap. As in to something I don't yet own, but have heard some things about.

Right now, that means The Editors, Fujiya and Miyagi, and Ratatat. It might also mean Datarock or CSR.

Or it might be something you absolutely love and I don't know diddly about.

So help me try to decide what I should listen to next. MOG, Last FM and iTunes have given me ideas, but I'd rather hear what you peeps think.

Am I the Only One...

hontzd — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 04:50:21 GMT

... who likes Flight of the Conchords?

Musidatageekery: A love it or hate it sort of thing

hontzd — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 04:23:14 GMT

Dale's continuing the interesting track-based playlist fun over on his MOG, which reminded me of how having a big music collection loaded into jukebox software can lead to all sorts of swell things.

I use iTunes, which lets you make "smart playlists," a nifty tool for selecting songs by various attributes (name, date added to your library, genre, track number, etc.). So, for example, I made a smart playlist of songs that contain either "love" or "hate" in their titles.

Only 139 of my 4,611 songs contain "love" or "hate." Numbers geeks out there will notice that means about 3 percent of my tracks contain these emotional extremes in their titles. For some reason, I thought it'd be higher.

Of those 139, 132 are "love" songs; only seven are haters. That gives me a 94 percent love-over-hate rating! And one track in my library goes both ways: "Love vs. Hate" by Gus Gus.

What comes up in your library? How much of a lover or a hater are you?

Here's a playlist of some of the love and hate songs that I found:

- All the Love in the World, Nine Inch Nails - Bizarre Love Triangle, New Order - Do You Love Me Now?, The Breeders - Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've), The Buzzcocks - Have Love, Will Travel, The Black Keys - Hate and War, The Clash - I Fall In Love Too Easily, Chet Baker - Just Another Love Song, The Dead 60s - Loud Love, Soundgarden - Love Will Tear Us Apart, Joy Division, Fall Out Boy and SWANS (three versions!) - New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down, LCD Soundsystem - Tattooed Love Boys, The Pretenders - We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful, Morrissey

Good starts

hontzd — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 06:53:20 GMT

Dale is espousing the strength of Track 2. It's a really interesting post, and it got me thinking about the best opening tracks of all time.

I'm not sure I can think of anything better to kick off a record than "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from "Nevermind." "Debaser" from the Pixies' "Doolittle" is pretty strong, too, and more recent contenders are LCD Soundsystem's "Get Innocuous" and Silversun Pickups' "Melatonin."

But I'm sure you may beg to differ. So toss me your thoughts in the comments...

Iconic Youth

hontzd — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 19:29:20 GMT

I bought a guitar a month or so ago, not knowing how to play and not really sure why, at 41, I wanted to learn. I mean, it's not like I'm a teen-ager sneaking beer into my parent's garage for band practice, dreaming of becoming the next Eddie Van Halen or Alex Lifeson.

But I think I got my reason in last night's Sonic Youth show. If you can see SY live and still not want to learn how to bang on a guitar (and possibly tune it weird and make walls of distortion), well, you just ain't got a soul.

Playing, in sequence, all of 1988's Daydream Nation, SY didn't sound as if they'd been hitting these same chords for nearly 20 years; they weren't just going through the motions. It reminded me of the Pixies show at the Greek a couple years earlier, when Frank Black and the Other Cool Kim Who Plays Bass reminded you that late '80s / early '90s "alternative" music had some real meat to it. I'm not sure we've got that yet in today's indie rock scene.

So if bands who put out landmark records 20 years ago can still tear it up on stage, starting to learn guitar at 41 seems absolutely justifiable - even if I'll never do a five minute distortion/noise solo in front of thousands of aging fans.

Here's a SY clip from back in the day (Saturday Night Live, it looks like):

How are things on the West Coast?

hontzd — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 08:39:00 GMT

I like Interpol unlike I like any other band.

That's not to say I like them more than I like any other band. What I mean is how I grow to appreciate a new Interpol record.

With each of their albums, including the latest Our Love to Admire, my initial impressions have pretty much amounted to "oh, a couple good songs, but it's not great."

Then somewhere around the third or fourth play I get entirely frustrated with the record, thinking every song sounds the same.

But after about six or seven spins, it all comes together. You slip into the record's mood, the whole Joy Division brooding hooked up with lyrics that land somewhere between the R.E.M.'s artiness and the Pixies creepiness.

Rest My Chemistry is a damn sad song about fucking up (at least that's what I get from it), even if the beginning sounds a lot like Where is My Mind.

The Heinrich Maneuver has a great hook - the biggest on the record - but still keeps a snottiness in tact. I could sing "How Are Things on the West Coast?" a million times.

I'm still not crazy about Wrecking Ball and a couple other songs on the album. But I may come around.

Beastie Grooviness

hontzd — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 05:33:00 GMT

It's not Kind of Blue, but the Beastie Boy's instrumental "The Mix-Up" has got enough chill funkiness for me to put it in mass byte recalling (that's me trying to modernize the term "high rotation").

The instrumental-only path can be fraught with disaster (see: Massive Attack's Danny the Dog / Unleashed soundtrack), but "Mix-Up" stands strong, evoking memories of the awesome "Check Your Head" and, to a lesser extent, "Paul's Boutique." If you like the vibe found on "In 3's" or "Groove Holmes" from "Head," this new Beasties is for you.

Reliving the Daydream

hontzd — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 05:21:00 GMT

Daydream Nation was one of the last albums I bought on vinyl, and I played that sucker into the ground. I probably played "Silver Rocket" a few thousand times, and I'm sure I was air-guitaring for a few hundred of those.

A new "deluxe" version of Daydream Nation was released today (at least on iTunes). In addition to the original tracks, this version includes 15 live versions of the tracks, as well as some songs from SY other albums.

Add-ons aside, it's amazing how this album still sounds special, like nothing else you've heard. It's not even like other Sonic Youth albums -- it's in this space between records like Sister and the more commercial Dirty and Goo. It's accessible, but not simple. Daydream Nation captures the perfect moment in what's now a long SY history.

Things I don't know about but love

hontzd — Fri, 25 May 2007 06:10:10 GMT

I'm so out of touch with anything reggae, but I find Bob Marley incredibly gratifying (yes, I know I'm about 30 years late to this realization). Buffalo Soldier just came up at 11 p.m. Thursday on a shuffle across all the thousands of songs in my iTunes library, and it was amazingly wonderful.

Four in a row!

hontzd — Fri, 04 May 2007 01:46:34 GMT

I'm on a roll! Well not really me -- it's more like the artists releasing new records the past couple of months.

It started with that LCD Soundsystem's unpredictable "Sound of Silver." Then the new Nine Inch Nails didn't disappoint -- and I usually fear anything labeled a "concept album."

The next week brought new and still addictive Arctic Monkeys, and just this week Black Rebel Motorcycle Club returned to the glory of the post-Jesus and Mary Chain sound of their first two albums.

It's all left me a speechless. But eventually I'll get around to some reviews.

Why didn't I get this record sooner?

hontzd — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 01:40:38 GMT

I kept running into LCD Soundsystem on Idolator and other music blogs and podcasts, but never really paid much attention. Man, I wish I did.

Sound of Silver is great in so many unexpected ways - a mix of quirky electro with some barebones rock and wicked beats throughout.

Lyrically, SoS is intriguing in its simplicity. Why does "Read all the pamphlets and watch the tapes" make me feel uncomfortable? It feels like I'm being recruited into a cult or going through some mindnumbing job safety training. There's this odd vibe of giddy anger on a lot of tracks -- it's really compelling. Not sure what that says about my current state of mind, but hey, I like it.

In some ways, LCD reminds me of Air, an Air that was wide awake instead of lost in dreamland -- and pissed at you for waking them up.

Going through the SXSW CDs

hontzd — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 04:56:19 GMT

...hmm, who are these Young Knives? Must learn more..

Review of The Blakes: The Blakes

hontzd — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 04:49:09 GMT

I think one reason I've had a hard time of coming up with a review for this record is that it's kind of hard to define. The lead track, "Two Times," is a screaming hunk of anger, while two songs later we've got a pop piece called "Commit" that's everything you'd hoped the Strokes would be but aren't. "Vampire" goes even farther down that poppy road, but it works, even if it sounds like you've shuffled over to someone else's CD.

There is one uniting theme across all the songs: The Blakes are into it. It's sincere, and you know they just wanted to make a great rock record.

It's on iTunes ( http://tinyurl.com/35y5gm ); dunno about Rhapsody and those other places.

The Blakes on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/theblakes

Blakes at SXSW

hontzd — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 04:38:34 GMT

I'll write up a little something on the album in the next couple days ... in the meantime, here's live video of them at SXSW (not the show we saw, but still good)!

Let the Mogging begin

hontzd — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 03:15:53 GMT

OK, time to get my Mog on. Gotta get my status from "toasty" up to "blazing" or maybe even the elusive "hellaciously tasty inferno," which I think was actually the name of a very fine Judas Priest album.

So here we go:

My latest obsession is The Blakes, whom Bill, Jon and I saw at SXSW a few weeks ago. I can't stop playing their self-titled album, even as I try really hard to work my way through all those freebie demo CDs from SXSW. I guess the limp tones of songs like "Fish Stare" (found on the Eenie Meenie demo) keep me running back to the big guitars and nearing-laryngitis vocals of The Blakes.