Never use a cruelty when a joke will do in its place

on CD:

Yann Tiersen & Shannon Wright - s/t: Yann Tiersen is the dude who did the music for Amelie, and Shannon Wright is just awesome. It's spooky and ambient but still rocks out in spots.

The Mooney Suzuki - Electric Sweat: Garage rock isn't usually my bag, but I've been listening to the Sonics a lot lately, and this CD was $4.00, so I figgered what the hell? Sure enough, it's pretty rockin'. From what I understand, the band teamed up with the folks behind Avril Lavigne's sonic drek, The Matrix, for their next record. Hrmph.

on cassette tape:

Quincy Jones - The Dude: It's soooo 1981. James Inghram raps. Abe Laboriel channels Larry Graham. A Dave Koz clone rips out some gross alto sax solos. You can practically hear the lleyo being snorted off the mixing board. I like it.

3 Mustaphas 3 - Heart Of Uncle: I've been aware of these guys since about 1989 when I read a review of one of their records in Spin and it sounded really cool. I'm sad that I never actually procured a record until now. They take a kitchen sink approach, throwing in Middle Eastern, Baltic, and Carribbean bits together with vocals in French, Italian, and Hindi, and it comes out sounding pretty sweet.

Orleans - Waking And Dreaming: You may recall that this album, which contained the 70s AM Gold hit "Still The One", also had one of the absolute worst album covers of all time*. Last night, veganguy and I were listening to it, trying to imagine the band in the studio making this record, and not being able to figure how they could take what they were doing seriously. Dude sounds just like Peter Cetera. The music sounds like post-good Chicago. You can hear the cocaine on this album even more clearly than on The Dude. Definitely worth the $0.50 I paid for it.


(* PS: I will pay good American dollars for a copy of Devastatin' Dave's Zip Zap Rap)

Friday-Saturday: didn't go.

Sunday: got there a little ways through Modest Mouse's set. From where I was standing, the Mice certainly lived up to their name; diminuitive little specks at the far end of the stadium. At the end of the set I waded my way through the crowds and clouds of pot smoke to find Ziggy and his pals (Mike, Jesse, Karl, and two girls who left right about then). Next up was Sonic Youth, who were freaking amazing. They played a goodly amount of tunes from Murray Street, and broke out some nuggets from older records as well. For me, the hightlight of the show came during "Kool Thing"; Kim Gordon's sarcastic anti-Mariah Carey rant was absolutely hilarious and she had however many thousands of people in the stadium cracking up.

From there, Mike and Jesse and I ventured to the apartment of some friends of theirs (there's something to be said for hanging out with people you've only known for an hour or so). Beer was quickly consumed, and then it was back to the 'Shoot...

After watching some impromptu breakdancing, it was off to the Rawk Arena to see Death Cab For Cutie. They played well, for the most part. They only fucked up one song severly, and I think that may be a record for them. Overall, they were pretty snazzy.

(An aside: Zig spotted Anna over his left shoulder, up in the stands. When we were leaving, I stopped by and told her to call me.)

Next: off to the Honeyhole, and Linda's, and eventually Mike's apartment. We picked up Kat along the way, and much beer was drank (by me) and much pot was smoked (by them). By 4 AM it was lights out.

Monday: Woke up late; missed Wilco by a mile. Because of that, I had some time to kill before Maceo Parker. Got in line for the film fest. After 45 minutes of waiting in line, and an hour of short films, I ended up missing most of Mr. Parker's set, so I went and got food instead. Later I caught up with imasage, and then lostone and rockstarbob, and we enjoyed front row standing room for Blonde Redhead (or "The Blonde Redheads", as they were referred to by the ground crewman who did the outro to the set).

Went home, drank hot chocolate, tried to play guitar, fell the fuck asleep.

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.




*I guess I'm not obliged to do a Bumbershoot post really, but ya know...

reminds you of an ex-lover: "Brenda" - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion*
reminds you of an ex-friend: "Walk This Way" - Run D.M.C.
makes you cry: "Time (The Revelator)" - Gillian Welch
makes you laugh: "Mom I Gave The Cat Some Acid" - Happy Flowers**
makes you wanna dance: "Good Times" - Chic
reminds you of the one you want: "I Think I Need A New Heart" - The Magnetic Fields
reminds you of the one you love: "Needle Up My Cock" - G.G. Allin***
you wish you wrote: "BBFIII" - Godspeed You Black Emperor
you never want to hear again: anything currently being played on a Clear Channel or Entercom station
you want to get married to: "Suspicious Minds" - Elvis Presley
makes you want to mosh/bang your head: "4:33" - John Cage****
sums up your teenage years: The Cure's entire Wish album
you like to wake up to: "A Love Supreme" - John Coltrane
you like out of your parents record collection: "Mars, The Bringer of War" from Holst's The Planets
you love that you wouldn't know about if it wasn't for a friend: the whole cLOUDDEAD record (thanks mobley)
you love the video more than the tune: "Bastards Of Young" - The Replacements*****
reminds you of your first crush: I don't remember that far back. I'm going to guess "Rio" by Duran Duran
you love which is from your favorite movie: the music from my favorite movie kinda sucks.
makes you think of the moon: no song has yet to make me think of the moon, I'm afraid.
makes you think of stars: this happens every quiz I take
makes you think of the sun: they start off ok, and then degenerate into a seemingly endless stream of daft queries
makes you think of sex: "Hope's Hit" - Joel RL Phelps & The Downer Trio
makes you think of being alone: "I'm So Tired Of Being Alone" - Al Green
you love to hear at clubs: "Microphone Fiend" - Eric B. & Rakim




*no, her name wasn't Brenda.
**well, I laughed the first time I heard it. It doesn't really stand up to repeated listenings.
***not really.
****that's a music dork joke.
*****not to suggest that "Bastards of Young" is by any means a bad song. I suppose I should have put something like Christina Aguilera or something.

Mr. Kalthoff (husband of the lovely anmei) and I did our damndest tonight to make a nature documentary, starring some rats, some peanut butter, and a lot of beer.

And no, by "documentary", I don't mean "porn" or "crush flick".

Snuff film, maybe.

This has been a creative period - moviemaking tonight, and veganguy and my resurrection of our band (AMQA) last night.

Beer+a roomful of musical instruments makes for some interesting experiments.

Gotdamn my head itches.

Gene Simmons' current media assault needs to come to an end.

I went digging through the box that I keep my "second string" CDs in - my current CD racks top out at holding 750 or something, so until I get another 500-capacity rack, I have to keep some in a box off to the side. I hadn't really looked at any of these CDs since I moved in to my apartment a year and a half ago. Here are some of the gems I extracted:

Einstürzende Neubauten - Die Hamletmaschine
The Walkabouts - Dead Man Rise (I bought this solely to hear the original version of "Hangman", which Silkworm covered)
Michael Manring - Thonk (The biggest bass-player dork record I own)
Tom Tom Club - s/t (Hey, this sounds an awful lot like that one Mariah Carey song...)
Mr. Bungle - s/t
Lush - Lushlife (I never particularly liked this record, but dammit if "Ladykillers" wasn't the catchiest song of 1996)
AmRep - Peel Sessions (It's got Helmet, Surgery, Tar, and best of all, The Cows doing really fucked up versions of "You Are So Beautiful" and "How Dry I Am".)
The Wipers - The Best of Wipers and Greg Sage
The Crow soundtrack
Living Colour - Biscuits EP
Cardinal - s/t (this is so twee it makes me want to vomit.)
fIREHOSE - Live Totem Pole EP (they cover Public Enemy, the Butthole Surfers, Blüë Öÿstër Cült, Superchunk, and Wire)

There's a couple hundred more CD in that box that I won't bother to mention - chances are, ya wouldn't have heard of 'em anyway :)

I just had a nice conversation with one Mr. John Richards, also known as John In The Morning, disk jockey extrodinaire on your favorite radio station and mine, KEXP. John is subbing for Don, the program director while he's on vacation. We spoke mainly of bands, bad bands that send their bad CDs to the station, bad goth bands that have their friends constantly harass DJs to get said bad goth band's CD played, and holier-than-thou local papers that publish poorly written and researched articles on the station. I also recommended some CDs to him to be considered for airplay (see my last post).

Anyhow, John is a very nice guy. I'm hoping to get to talk to him again next week, and maybe pick his brain about more stuff.

Got some new CDs from the station, including Trust No One by Dave Navarro.
Yep, that Dave Navarro - his first solo effort (I think). Interesting that both he and Perry Ferell have new records out...hmmmm...

The Afghan Whigs - What Jail Is Like import single...shorter than the US version, doesn't have the live tracks, but has 2 different studio tracks

Deltron 3030 - s/t: This is sooo sick...Del, Dan the Automator, Prince Paul, MC Paul Barman, Damon Albarn, and a shizload of other folks in a sci-fi hip-hop concept album. Dope.

Tricky - Maxinquaye: never owned this record before. This is maybe the first time I've seen it used. So now I have it.

Jay-Z - Vol. 3...The Life And Times Of S. Carter: It was worth the $5.00 I paid for this, just so I could listen to "Big Pimpin'" whenever I want.

Uzeda - Out Of Colours: Italian punk band...this record was from '91 on First Warning; they're on Touch & Go now. And they're good, too!

Apes of Wrath - can't remember the title: Saw these folks with Bloodhag and Swarming Hordes. Loud, fast, and out of control. Word.

OK. That's it.

Saturday: A I posted before, i woke up at the ungodly (for a Saturday) hour of 7:45. Went and had breakfast, surfdeded the net at Aurafice, walked up to Broadway, went back home, and much later, went to the Other Ed's home for his party/moving sale. I came away with a little wooden drum, a caller ID box, and a tape recorder. I should have gotten there earlier - he had a sampler for $35.00 and a baby Casio keyboard for $5.00. And an Elvis magnet. Damn. Anyway, a fun time was had by all in attendance (I assume), and much booze was consumed. Everyone had left by about 2 AM, 'cept for moi, as Ed & I were having a fantastic conversation about music, women, New York, and......ZZZZzzzzzZZZzzz

That's about when I fell dead asleep.

Sunday:Woke up in the morning with a stiff back and a blanket over me. My shoes were still on. Ooops. I gathered my purchases together and began my trek home, stopping for a moment at North Seattle's crown jewel, the awe-inspiring Northgate Mall to get some cawffee. (FYI: pear cider & a liberal dose of Jim Beam makes for an interesting hangover.) Made it home and lounged for a while. Tried to get the Mac working. (Grrrr...) Did the whole freshening up routine before leaving the house to get food. I ran into Sordid History Emily outside of Bauhaus, which began an afternoon full of fun and frolick. And beer.

First, we went to the Six Arms for beer and grilled cheese sammiches. We were going to try to go see Baraka at the Egyptian, but it was very sold out. Back-up plan: we decided to try to go see Streetwise at the Little Theatre. That didn't work either, but I'll get into that in a bit. Anyhow, after Six Arms, there was a stop at Bauhaus for iced coffee and a chat with some of the other patrons, including (funny enough) the Other Ed, who I had never seen in this establishment ever before. Wacky. Also making a brief appearance were Tasha and Steven. They were off to partake in some musica Cubano. Hope y'all had fun 'n' stuff.

We walked up to the Little Theatre on Harvard, where we ran into Jen (one of my favoritest waitresses from The Cyclops) and her girlfriend Bella. They had just gotten done with a performance of the play they're in. I asked Jen if she knew anything about a movie playing there. She took that opportunity to inform me that there are actually two "Little Theatres" - that one, and one on 19th & Union. So we were off again. We traipsed up Pine St until we got to Madison, and then down to 19th & Union. There was nothing there except some cute little houses. Hrm.

Emily and I figured that we were most definitely not in the right place, so we ventured further into the Central District just to see what there was to see. I observed that there are a lot of churches in the area - more so than in most neighborhoods. It was a goregeous afternoon, too - ominous clouds to the east, bright sunlight from the west, lighting up trees and buildings against a dark background. Killer.

Our further adventures took us to the playground at the TT Minor school, where I found myself the victim of an assault from Emily with a dirty red balloon. I popped it. End of story.

Next: We returned to the safe confines of Capitol Hill. As we were walking by the Comet Tavern, a friend of Em's popped out and beckoned us inside. Next thing you know, the four of us (there was another of her friends there as well) were drinking brewskis, talking philosophy, and reading excerpts out of a McSweeney's book. ( I also looked in the Weekly and discovered that the Little Theatre we were looking for was on 19th & Mercer - the other end of the freakin' hill. D'oh.)

The night wound down after that. We stopped and got a burrito, and then I dropped her off back at Bauhaus. Went home, did laundry, watched a little bit of the X-Files, and nursed my sore feet.

Shucka-pow.

I've got spirit, yes I do. I've got spirit, how 'bout you?