Mailbag #1

Dear Barely Legal MagaZine

I was looking at your magazine
and I would love to have
Marie panties and her bra I
love to dress like a girl I love
her bra and panties do you thank
you can help me with this
or Shelly panties and bra please
and Alexis panties and bra
They are beautiful
and Stacee panties and bra
I would love to have them
Thank you
Very much
please

I will put them
on

Jesse

On the up and up—

Coming soon:

-Poetry sent to porno mags
-Reviews of music and movies (and maybe a book, if I learn to read)
-Local focus on the Palms neighborhood of LA, plus LA vegetarian living, maps and reviews.

18-carat love affair

When I first heard the Associates about a year ago, I think that I dismissed them as Bowie-meets-The-Sparks. Maybe I've developed a taste for melodrama since then, but I love the operatic vocals, the "serious" strings, the post-punk dolor... Anyway, they're an underrated band from a murky point in music history, and God bless Associatestracks for the rare and unreleased bounty they're putting up.

I feel woozy

I'd like to commend BP on their new, bold, pro-huffing campaign:



I mean, the swirling green apparitions are classic hallmarks of an ether binge, the high-class huffer's drug, and the gentle indie rock should sooth those post-binge tremors. (Maybe I'm just feeling vindictive toward what I feel is a particularly vicious co-option of green iconography in order to sell more gas, which is, y'know, pretty fucking toxic shit. Or maybe I'm just bugged by the goddamned song stuck in my head.)

Send more braaaaaains...

The scary thing about zombies is their creeping inevitability, like the slow descent of old age or the metastasizing Starbucks invasion.

Deanimator emphasized the slow march of death by putting you behind the gun of a never-harried nebbish, standing off an endless army of newly risen silhouettes. The play is simple, with one upgrade (a shotgun) that's ultimately unsatisfying. A cruel mediation on the nature of living?

Boxhead slapped the player into a Lego-meets-Robotron endless killing spree. Unlike Deanimator, the upgrades are plentiful, but ultimately extend the game too far. After, what, the 100th level or so, killing the zombies just lacks any sort of sense of accomplishment. That, and frankly, the shotgun is the best weapon by far, making all the other upgrades largely irrelevant (aside from maybe the fake walls, which are handy for reshaping the field).

The Last Stand deals with the zombie hoard in a broad, "castle defense" sort of way, and largely overcomes the deficits of the other two games— it has enough upgrades that the gameplay is varied, and differing zombies keep the difficulty a bit more in line. It still ultimately becomes too easy (assuming that you get lucky— one complaint is that chance can make the game way too hard or way too easy, depending on how your scavenging runs go), but it has the good sense to end the game. Sure, that undermines the hard determinism that makes zombies thrilling, but it works in terms of fun.

I want my money back, give me my money back...

Fiber optics? What fiber optics?

Baby Bells ripped us off. Wonder what SBC's Michigan promises looked like. Maybe I'll get the book, now that I'm done with school and looking to read...

These are the breaks

Need a history of hip hop? Year by year breakdowns. Just did a paper on hip hop's concept of ownership being tied to its development as an oral culture, and these would have been priceless. It's fucking sweet, chiefs.
via ILX.

Popular Songs reimagined as Murder She Wrote episodes

Black Eyed Peas, My Humps.

Jessica Fletcher's nephew Will.I.Am (Robert Goulet) has become involved with Fergie (Dinah Shore), a materialistic woman; he buys her all these ices, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi and NaDonna. He is accused of killing her after she is found battered. Jessica discovers that Fergie had been faking cancer and defrauding Apl.de.ap, who bludgeoned her to death.

The Arcade Fire, Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).

The body of a local doctor is found in the Cabot Cove snow, and Win (Jerry Orbach) is suspected of the murder. He explains to Jessica that no one had seen him because he had been visiting Regine Cassagne (Lynnn Redgrave) by way of a tunnel dug through drifts. Jessica traps Cassagne by prompting her to sing a hymn that the doctor had hummed while performing her abortion, which she attempted to cover up.

Eric B and Rakim, Microphone Fiend.

A karaoke competition turns deadly when Jessica's old student Rakim (LeVar Burton) is forced out for rapping "Total Eclipse of the Heart." Accused of killing contest impresario (played by Don Ameche) by lacing the mic with Drano, Rakim is exonerated through the efforts of Eric B (Yaphet Koto), and the revelation that Big Daddy Kane's "Set It Off" was a declaration of murderous intent.

Everything is everything

Through a handy slab of link hopping (ILX to Detroit Techno Militia to Detroit Radio Flashbacks), I'm diggin' the ancient station IDs of old Ohm 88.7 and Electrifying Mojo.

Revamp

I ran into a couple of people who complained that I hadn't updated this in, well, forever, frankly.

So, now I'm dicking around with the formatting, and that means that the old Haloscan comments are gone. They were a pain in the ass that was only instituted to provide some deterant to the massive amount of blogspam... Ugh.

Hopefully, I can get this up and going a little more smoothly. If anyone who IS a programmer (or can make CSS not stand for Consistently Shitty Screwups) wants to plane off the ugly edges, lemme know.

Now I just need to cajole the Cousins Vinyl guys to let me use their file hosting, so I can put music up quickly.

Anyway, I won't get too attached. Longterm plans include a dedicated domain, ideally administered by someone else, where I can stick up archives of writing and portfolio stuff. But who knows? Maybe by then I won't want to taint my professional prospects with this blog.

And now one of mine

Title: None. I don't title my mixes unless they're for someone else.
From: Me to me.
Circa: 2002

Side A:

Hey- Faux Jean
Cynicality- Superdrag
Gett off- Dandy Warhols
Once in a Lifetime- Talking Heads
Blues from a Gun- Jesus and Mary Chain
Watch that girl destroy me- Possum Dixon
At Home He is a Tourist- Gang of Four
Very Ape- Nirvana
Neat Neat Neat- The Damned
Holiday in Cambodia (live)- Dead Kennedys
Too Much to Dream- The Electric Prunes
Ruthie Lingle- 16 Horsepower
The Communication- Thinkin' Fellers Union

Side b:
The Flowers of Guatemala- REM
Kiss Life on the Lips- Faux Jean
Chartruese Skirt- Faux Jean
Look Inside America- Blur
I Feel Better than James Brown- Was (NOT WAS)
Coming Down Glass- Laika
Prison of the Rhythm- Golden Palominoes
Icelandic Round- Hector Zazu
She's the One- Beta Band
Help Me Somebody- David Byrne
Wave of Mutilation- Pixies

verdict:
Well, I can tell pretty much exactly when I made this by looking at the music, which is kind of nice and kind of a little bit sad. I like mixes that seem timeless, but I put a lot of Faux Jean on there because I had just seen them live and loved it. But since this was just a tape to listen to in the car while I drove in and out of work about half an hour), I don't sweat that too much. I can tell that it was a casual mix because there are a lot of sort of cotton candy picks on there (Pixies, Dead Kennedys, Talking Heads) that I try to stay away from when I make tapes for other people. Or at least include only a little bit of, as sort of palate cleansers. Though this has a Gang of Four track on it, that was before I bought the album (which makes me feel vaguely ashamed, even though it shouldn't) because I'd gotten it off of an Uncut sampler. I don't think I can over-emphasize the amount of influence that samplers had in my early (really, pre-internet) music life, something that I've largely given up. Especially now, as (I don't know if it's me or the music) they seem to have really fallen off in terms of quality and ecclecticism. Especially CMJ and Uncut, and who has the cash to get a subscription to Wire? (If anyone reading this would like to buy me one...)
On the whole, I think it holds up, though I'd only give it a c+/b- grade. Too much rock, and the dancier stuff is kinda all clumped together. I was in transition, adding more and more from outside of my indie rock comfort zone, but the non-rock stuff is still pretty tame.

Another mixology 101 coursepack

Title: 3 months are 2 long to make 1 mix tape
From: Jason, the former cinema editor at Current. He was cool, in a band (that kinda sucked), and was passionate about music. Once he was gone, the place kinda sucked. Well, I guess the next guy to hold that position, Chad Walsh, was pretty cool to. I had asked him to make me a mix tape that would get me into the Flaming Lips, and he did.

Side A:
This is Music— The Verve
Kim's Watermelon Gun— Flaming Lips
The Slider— T. Rex
Electricc Phase— Spiritualized
All of my Tears— "
Endlessly— Mercury Rev
Inner Meet Me— Beta Band
Mother Sky— Can
Something Goes Wrong— Medicine
September Gurls— Big Star
Benefits of Lying— Apples in Stereo
Dark Globe— Syd Barrett
Satan Gave me a Taco— Beck
Slow Nerve Action— Flaming Lips
No Money No Honey— Beck

side b:
The Pink— Medicine
From a Motel 6— Yo La Tengo
Coney Island Cyclone— Mercury Rev
Unconsciously Screaming— Flaming Lips
Sister Ray (edit)— Velvet Underground
Gimme Danger— Stooges
Come Together— Spiritualized
The Sun, The Sea— The Verve
Slide Away— The Verve
What's Going Ahn— Big Star
I Am the Cosmos— Chris Bell
Beer Can— Beck
Round the Bend— Beta Band
A Pert Cyclic Omen— Electric Company

Verdict— Well, it breaks a lot of "rules," but seeings as how I asked him to, that hardly counts. It DID get me into the Flaming Lips, something that I can thank him for re: my current girlfriend (a Lips fan when we met). It also cemented my love of Spiritualized, T. Rex, The Beta Band, Can, Big Star and Chris Bell. I even took the name for my weekly column from it. All that from a tape that broke "the rules" as propounded by the Nick Hornsby gooners of the world. And beyond that, it's still great to listen to. The tone and the segues are immaculate, and the Beck bits help leaven what's otherwise a pretty portentuous mix. I kinda wonder what Jason's up to now (I guess I could find him on friendster...) but this is a mix I still love.

More from the wayback mix machine

Title: Josh Mix
From: The intern Trevor. He worked for us for a while before going off to New York. He was one of the first folks outside my family that I thought had great taste, and I still like this mix a lot. Too bad I played it so much that it snapped. It's around here somewhere, waiting for the splice tape.
Circa: 2001

Side A
Uncle Tupelo— We've Been Had
Aloha— Roanoake Born
Moby— Run On
Stevie Wonder— Lookin' For Another Girl
Ted Leo— The Nice People Argument
De La Soul— Ego Trippin' Part 2
Pedro The Lion— Promise
Roots with Most Def— Double Trouble
The Clash— 48 Hours
Young Pioneers— Fuck This Labor Pool
Eric B and Rakim— Know the Ledge
Thelonious Monk— Blue Monk

Side B
Parka Kings— Shocks
Fifteen— The Middle
Slick Rick with Outkast— Street Talkin'
The Holy Childhood— Fat Tuesday Everyday
Handsome Boy Modelling School— The Projects
Avail— McCarthy
Louis Armstrong— St. James Infirmary
The Jam— I Changed My Address
Redmond Shooting Stars— Just Like You
Mos Def— Habitat
Pogues— Dirty Old Town
Crimpshrine— Rearranged
Stevie Wonder— Living for the City

Verdict: One of the most skillful multigenre mixes I've gotten. Introduced me to a whole buncha people, including Ted Leo (though I didn't remember this by the time Hearts of Oak came out), Aloha, Louis Armstrong and Uncle Tupelo. On the one hand, I felt kinda slighted once I went out and investigated more of these artists, since I hated pretty much the rest of Play (from Moby), Pedro the Lion, and Aloha. But that really speaks to the skill of this mix— I love the songs from them here, and they work perfectly. Extra points for songs like Ego Trippin', which I still put on an inordinate amount of tapes.
And something to note is that both this tape and the one before it broke that oft-cited rule about not putting more than one song by an artist on there. It's kinda like being told not to start your sentences with "and." It's one of those things that you can get away with once you can write well enough to know when it's appropriate. Fucking killer mix.

What makes a good mix

To the poor soul of this AskMe question: There are a lot of things that make a good mix. But most MeFi/MeCha/MoFi folks don't know 'em. I stopped participating in the swaps because I got sick of getting a bunch of different Coldplay soundalikes and feeling cheated. So, the first rule of the mix is only swap with people you know, because if you don't you tend to get a lot of crap from people more interested in promoting their taste than putting together a solid mix (or maybe they all just have shitty taste).

To further the art, I went and grabbed about six tapes that I love love love, from different periods in my life. I may upload some of the mixes I've made too, though those are all more recent that these.

Here they are, in rough chronological order—

Title: Lots of random music!! Woo hoo!! chock full of good stuff
From: Chiann Tsui, a pal from high school. She made my girlfriend jealous during the early stages of our relationship. I think Chiann's in China now, and she was always too smart for me anyway.
circa— '98? '99?

Tracklist: Side A

I Hate Rock and Roll— Jesus and Mary Chain
Universal Dawn— Eric's Trip
If I Only Had a Brain— MC 900ft Jesus
Alright— Whirling Road
Lion's Mouth— Big Chief
Party With the Gods— Borax
Teenage Riot— Sonic Youth
Landing— The Gandharvas
Kiss Off— Violent Femmes
Explain— Jeremy Enigk
Physically Unaddictive Mind Change— Elevator to Hell
Stood Up— Sloan

Side B

Bad Time— Getaway Cruiser
Poppy Song— Mollys Reach
Sunday Morning— Velvet Underground
Quarter— Tightrope
The Land of Where Lost Dreams Go— Tara S'Appart
Sign Up Maybe For Being— Richard Davies
Cut Your Hair— Pavement
What Are Your Coordinates— Snailhouse
Demons— Yo La Tengo
Kings— Magnetic Fields
Theme— Soft Blanket
Puzzle Pieces— Tiget Trap
One Day— The Super Friendz
I Often Dream of Trains— Eric's Trip

Verdict: Fantastic mix of indie pop back from when that wasn't just the first thing that college students learned to listen to. Introduced me to Magnetic Fields and The Gandharvas. A good selection of popular and obscure stuff, and an excellent job done repping local artists.

Albums they missed

From the MeFi thread. Someone asked for brief descriptions about each of these "influential" albums.

Suicide— s/t

This, along with the Silver Apples, was one of the first "synthesizer" albums, and definitely the first "New York" synthesizer albums. Urban, dark, decadent and, well, dancy. Without this, no Joy Division.

Lou Reed— Metal Machine Music

Noise kills record contracts dead. The first noise album on a major label, and a huge influence for people constructing cacophonics. Without this, no Einsturzende Neubauten.

Christian Marclay— Record Without Grooves

Vinyl played wrong. Without this, many people wouldn't see the turntable as an instrument all unto itself.

Miles Davis— Bitches Brew

People like to talk about the studio as instrument and laud The Beatles and Beach Boys. This is where you could take it if you weren't trying to accomodate a bunch of music hall bullshit.

John Coltrane— A Love Supreme

Coltrane's influence in saxophone players is a hard thing to quantify, in that a lot of people would love to play like him but can't (me, especially). This album is both accessible and mindblowing, and solidified a lot of the ideas of modern/free jazz while not being Om (which is great, but is not for passive listening).

La Monte Young— Well Tuned Piano

Young's drone work was an important influence on Krautrock and all minimal avant garde, including Phillip Glass.

John Cage— 4'33"



Karlheinz Stockhausen— Kontakt

One of the first compositions to combine live performers with electronics and tape loops, Stockhausen laid some of the foundation for things like DAT triggering. It's also good to listen to.

Edgard Varese— Poem Electronique

More avant electronics. Le Corbusier commissioned this tape piece from Varese as part of an architectural multimedia installation, and it pushed the conceptual boundaries of electronic composition. Varese was aided by Le Corbusier's assistant Iannis Xenakis, who became one of the most famous of the electro-minimal composers.

Raymond Scott— Powerstation

Raymond Scott's Looney Tunes work permeated the dreams of a generation. Maybe not as influential in terms of, well, being an album, but his use of odd instrumentation and experimental effects can be traced down to bands as diverse as the Mothers of Invention to Lighting Bolt.
Charles Mingus— New Tijuana Moods

The American middle ground between Modern jazz and Latin jazz.

Thelonius Monk— Brilliant Corners

I said s/t when I was running through things from the top of my head, but I should have said this one. Syncopated, abrupt, jarring, nimble, quick. Art Blakey's the sax and this 1956 disc is another that changed how composition was considered.

The Raspberries— Fresh

Power pop started around here somewhere, and the 1972 Rasberries wanted to be the 1969 Nazz (or maybe Badfinger). Either way, they got close enough.

Big Star— #1 Record

This album is probably the biggest omission. Without it, no REM, no Cheap Trick, no power pop as we know it.

Minor Threat— Minor Threat

xxstraightedgexx! Hardcore punk's best and most influential album.

Rites of Spring— End on End

I don't really like emo, but this is where it comes from.

Fugazi— Repeater

Once upon a time, emo was really more "post-hardcore." This is post-hardcore at its finest. Another one of those "without them, no Lightning Bolt" sort of bands.

Husker Du— Zen Arcade

More post-hardcore. But seriously, without them, no My Chemical Romance or any of the other soft post-emo bands. (Don't let that count against Husker Du...)

Wire— Pink Flag

Post-punk at its tightest. These guys were huge influences on REM and most of indie rock.

Wire— Chairs Missing

And they kept changing. The indie-meets-electronic stuff they're doing here (which had been preceded by Suicide above) is just now starting to crest. No Franz Ferdinand, no Futureheards, no Bloc Party without this album.

Gang of Four— Entertainment

The funky side of post-punk. No TV on the Radio, no Franz Ferdinand, no Bloc Party.

I'll get to the rest of them later...

For the AskMes

These take a little bit of self-assembly, in that I haven't found a good Mac (free) program to make .m3u files with.
As such, here's the "correct" order:

"Another Offload*FIXED* (hopefully)

Esp Black Mass
Cars Kool G Rap & DJ Polo
Punk Under Pressure Kadie Red
I Need A Freak Sexual Harrassment
Closet Freak Cee-Lo
Don't Lose Control Material
(Just Like We) Breakdown Hot Chip
Do Ya Electric Light Orchestra
Affentanz Abwärts
a1-limited entertainment Glaxo Babies
I Bet You Funkadelic
Dark Skin Girls Del Tha Funky Homosapien
Needy Girl (Bloc Party Remix) Chromeo
Heavy Rotation Cobra Killer
Where You Headed? DJ Jubilee
Game Over (Feat Jay Dee And Phat Kat) Dabrye

"Jazzbo Wrong"

04 1 Baroque Jazz Trio
01 Merry-Go-Round TERUMASA HINO
My Very Own Sweetheart Heavy Balloon
Track 10 Embermen Five
Minikillers I Johnny Teupen
A Hidden Trap Cosmos Factory
What's The Name Of Your School? DJ Jubilee
Corn Fish Dub Lee "Scratch" Perry
Dom (Electricity Elects The Rain 39 Clocks
Happy Girl Who Made Who
Program Me Bruce Haack With Ed Harvey
Killer Man Jaro Dillinger
Don`t Take Another Man`s Life Ranking Dellinger
Deshominisation (I) Alain Goraguer

Memorial Day Party.

gigantor
Her_story Flying Lizards
Saturday Night Langley Schools Music Project
Bored [1978] Destroy All Monsters
Skin Tight Skin Suzi Quatro
Bad Reputation The dB'S
Hearts In Exile Homosexuals, The
Dub It (Nice and Easy) Upsetters
Cool Stroker Prince Buster & The All Stars
Handa Wanda Bo Dollis & The Wild Magnolia Mardi Gras Indian Band
50 Ways Kool Moe Dee
Neck, the Kent And The Candidates
Dance This Mess Around B-52's, The
Back Seat Love Nikki and the Corvettes
Hey Girls The Avatars
11 59 Blondie
I Know You Love My Synthesizers Charlie Slick
Eric B. Is President Eric B & Rakim
Poney Part 1 Vitalic
Are Friends Electric Gary Numan

OH NO ITS BEEN A MONF!

Hey y'all, both of ya.
I'm working for cousinsvinyl now. Not a whole lot up there, but at least a little. Boom!

Prop shop!

Amy and I are doing Prop Shop tonight on 88.3 WCBN (.org).

Listen live on teh intarweb for Old Skool Hip Hop.

Long time, no see...

I'll be back to regular blogging soon.
In the meantime, maybe you could enjoy this leak of Thom Yorke's Eraser.

I'll talk about it in some, I'm still listening to it. And the nice thing about Radiohead fans is that they can be trusted to buy the album after they've downloaded it...

I've been lax.

Have a job at a record store now, but an online one. Creating a website. Should be interesting. Rare vinyl stuff.

I've got a new computer that I need to fix, and decide what to do with the computer that I have... Probably semi-cannibalize it. Maybe put it on the network as a purely storage computer.

Interesting discussion at Metafilter about Sasha Frere-Jones and Stephin Merritt.

I started thinking about the discussion in terms of the arguments about pornographic taste. I mean, that's one of those things that's assumed to have root causes, yet has a very powerful sensory reaction. Does your taste in music stem from exposure, disturbances, whatever?