Just got the $2 tape deck up and running after my old one decided that everything needed to be pitch shifted down a step.
First mystery tape:
Side A:
The Clash—Jail Garage Doors
Not a bad start, and the totally muddy sound makes sense. The Clash sound a thousand times more punk rock coming from a degraded tape.
Cash Audio—Capitol City Blues
Gov't Mule—Monkey Hill
Both of these tracks were on an old CMJ sampler, and go well together (both about capitol cities). Cash Audio totally peaked too early for the grotty bluze duo wave that came after them.
Big Chief—Liquor Talkin'
I loved these guys as the biggest thing that ever came out of Ann Arbor in the modern era. Too bad that they aren't as good as I remembered and totally disappeared. I think even Sponge is more remembered.
DJ Food—Nocturn
These guys were Coldcut mates who put out a draggy, druggy trip-hop album that was actually pretty good (mostly because of the bass tone). Because of the tape's condition, about all that's coming through is the bass, and it's pretty nice.
Belle and Sebastian—Me and the Major
Oh, yeah, I loved these guys. Whatever happened to them? They put out a bunch of albums of dubious necessity and dabbled in smoov 70s easy listenin'? OK, sure.
Menthol—Ciphers
One of my favorite bands that never quite got it together. They put out an "electro" album when that was all flashy, except it sucked. Then they broke up and I forget what the main guy is up to now. La Scala? Maybe I should check them out.
Flying Saucer Attack—???
I can't tell what FSA track this is, but the muddy tape is perfect perfect perfect. I need to find them again.
Side B:
Blank? Ugh. I don't think I'll finish this one.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Lester Bangs Patti
Lester Bangs reviews Patti Smith's Easter.
I love how Lester Bangs could be great while being glib, though this is an instructive lesson on how to piss off your friends by reviewing their work (which is why I haven't really bothered with the new Crystal Antlers—it sounds half-baked, the band knows it's half-baked, that's pretty much happens when you're the LAST ALBUM EVAR for a label that oh by the way is going under RIGHT NOW).
I love how Lester Bangs could be great while being glib, though this is an instructive lesson on how to piss off your friends by reviewing their work (which is why I haven't really bothered with the new Crystal Antlers—it sounds half-baked, the band knows it's half-baked, that's pretty much happens when you're the LAST ALBUM EVAR for a label that oh by the way is going under RIGHT NOW).
Friday, April 03, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Vengence of the Lizard King
Oh no! Jim Morrison's time-traveling clone, The Lizard King, has returned to wipe out the monkey race that eventually spawns Bill and Ted! Will ? (of the Mysterions) and Sun Ra be able to convince Ray Manzarek to come out of retirement to stop him? ALL NEW ACTION!
Amy and Josh show dialogue (old)
Josh: Now everybody likes the Slits. If we had a band, we could be this good. We don't have a band, or instruments.
Amy: I don't like the Slits.
Josh: Well, then, we don't have to have a horn section.
Amy: I don't like the Slits.
Josh: Well, then, we don't have to have a horn section.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Ann Arbor Two!
Did you know: Some people call Ann Arbor "Ace Deuce" or just "The Deuce."
This is the full mp3 mix I made for Carson, which wouldn't fit on any of your mortal CD devices.
here. Forty songs of rock, noise, pop and folk, including The Rants, Saturday Looks Good To Me, Nomo, The High Strung, Cornish In a Turtleneck, Isaac Schankler, and more. In going through this, I'm already thinking about the music that I left off (I couldn't figure out a way to make Binary Star fit in the mix) and what would go on the next one.
This is the full mp3 mix I made for Carson, which wouldn't fit on any of your mortal CD devices.
here. Forty songs of rock, noise, pop and folk, including The Rants, Saturday Looks Good To Me, Nomo, The High Strung, Cornish In a Turtleneck, Isaac Schankler, and more. In going through this, I'm already thinking about the music that I left off (I couldn't figure out a way to make Binary Star fit in the mix) and what would go on the next one.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Places drunk guy told me to see in SF
More for my reference than yours:
Truly Med on Valencia between 16th and 17th.
Pancho Villas Tacos.
Aztecha 16th and Market (he swears by the mole)
Sparkies (24 hour "American" food)
Zeitgeist for the Bloody Marys.
Kan Zaman on Haight
Mejouls for tapas or top-off (he swears that if I take a girl there, she'll "let you fuck her in the ass, man, the food is that good.")
Truly Med on Valencia between 16th and 17th.
Pancho Villas Tacos.
Aztecha 16th and Market (he swears by the mole)
Sparkies (24 hour "American" food)
Zeitgeist for the Bloody Marys.
Kan Zaman on Haight
Mejouls for tapas or top-off (he swears that if I take a girl there, she'll "let you fuck her in the ass, man, the food is that good.")
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Multiple topographies
Greg Afinogenov talks about "topographies" versus "biographies" in this blog post, including the following line:
"Though there may be several ways to understand this or that historical figure, the topographer must commit to choosing one interpretation."
In topographer, he's talking about people who write histories of place (at least, I think he is), and Greg's relying on a post-modern (instability of facts) framework to pose his assumption.
But must this be true? Certainly, given an apatite for abstraction, where each option for transience can be met: the author commits to a single interpretation even if that interpretation includes multiple nested interpretations; no matter the depth a deconstructed text is still a text. Even if that text changes, there's a limit to what can be perceived by the audience, etc.
There is, however, no need to restrict this to topographers (a term I like regarding with expansiveness perhaps because I am not a topographer). Those same restrictions are necessary for biographers—even an imagined biographer who tells the story of a life by reliving that life would be necessarily tied to any one given interpretation at any one given time, especially if meta counts.
Which brings me to a challenge: I would like to see stories of place that encompass multiple sets of facts, as much as is possible. I would assume that this is best handled by multimedia, as different media necessarily imply different perspectives due to material constraints. I would assume that this would be parallel and dynamic, making the restrictions on sets of facts more incumbent upon the practical realities of the audience rather than the work itself—it should be impossible to see all of it at once (tangent: unfair art?). To ideally detach itself as much as possible from a single set of facts, it should invite interaction and mutation.
Perhaps selfishly, I'd think this would be best set in Los Angeles, both because I'm here and because it is a city diffidently aware of the difference between portrayal and reality, and one that (even as it exports them) eschews easy narrativization.
"Though there may be several ways to understand this or that historical figure, the topographer must commit to choosing one interpretation."
In topographer, he's talking about people who write histories of place (at least, I think he is), and Greg's relying on a post-modern (instability of facts) framework to pose his assumption.
But must this be true? Certainly, given an apatite for abstraction, where each option for transience can be met: the author commits to a single interpretation even if that interpretation includes multiple nested interpretations; no matter the depth a deconstructed text is still a text. Even if that text changes, there's a limit to what can be perceived by the audience, etc.
There is, however, no need to restrict this to topographers (a term I like regarding with expansiveness perhaps because I am not a topographer). Those same restrictions are necessary for biographers—even an imagined biographer who tells the story of a life by reliving that life would be necessarily tied to any one given interpretation at any one given time, especially if meta counts.
Which brings me to a challenge: I would like to see stories of place that encompass multiple sets of facts, as much as is possible. I would assume that this is best handled by multimedia, as different media necessarily imply different perspectives due to material constraints. I would assume that this would be parallel and dynamic, making the restrictions on sets of facts more incumbent upon the practical realities of the audience rather than the work itself—it should be impossible to see all of it at once (tangent: unfair art?). To ideally detach itself as much as possible from a single set of facts, it should invite interaction and mutation.
Perhaps selfishly, I'd think this would be best set in Los Angeles, both because I'm here and because it is a city diffidently aware of the difference between portrayal and reality, and one that (even as it exports them) eschews easy narrativization.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Ann Arbor in sound
A pal asked me about a song from the great Ypsi punk band The Submarines, which I put on a recent mix (which I'll upload here pretty soon). Did I have any more stuff?
Well, yeah, I used to write about local music. I had plenty. So I started putting together this mix, and fussin' with it and fussin' with it… Basically, it's the best music that I found while I was working at Current, writing my column, and that I had digitized. Which means that some of it is actually from before I took over, some of it is from later (because I'm a goddamn cheater), and some stuff just isn't on there (Tadd Mullenix, for example, I had a tape with a fantastic version of Hyped Up Plus Tax… And I'm just not set up to rip my 7"s).
For some folks, though I can't imagine that there's actually a very significant overlap, a lot of these songs were on a CD I gave away for a contest when I was at Current.
And as soon as I get done uploading it, there'll be a longer version, which has a lot more weird stuff on it that just didn't fit on a CD.
Here's the link to the music.
And here is where I swiped the image from.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Funemployed?
I've been out of work a week now, and I'm at the musing point, where jobs like this still seem plausible.
An elderly man needs a caregiver; also he believes he's being persecuted by aliens? Sign me up, jack, even though my bullshit detector's clicking like a Geiger counter at Chernobyl.
An elderly man needs a caregiver; also he believes he's being persecuted by aliens? Sign me up, jack, even though my bullshit detector's clicking like a Geiger counter at Chernobyl.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Packzi day!
Through the magic of this Chowhound thread, Amy and I found paczkis in some weird retirement home on Adams. They were prune, and the best damn paczkis I've had, since they had a much better balance of tart and sweet than the usual gloopy ones from Detroit. I've still got one left, which I will eat with gusto tonight! GUSTO!
It was easy, too, all I had to do was go through the giant metal gate, tell the overall-wearing guy who looked like a bouncer that "I read on the internet that you can get paczkis here," and he grunted and motioned me inside. There, a bunch of families in total church finery were drinking coffee in a room that my grandmother would have loved (curio cabinets full of porcelain dolls and lace). We waited for the woman behind the counter to get done chatting with some woman wearing a plum business dress (with shoulderpads), and bought eight. The plum woman lamented the fact that they're now $1.50, telling us conspiratorially that they used to be a dollar. She then tried to get us to go to the mass that was just starting, but luckily I was able to brush her off because I wasn't "dressed for church."
Slobbery saves the day!
Amy and I later learned that Isaac and Amanda apparently don't have the same crazy memories of ZOMG PACZKIS, but dutifully ate theirs in front of us (we thought about bein' total grubbers and asking for the other ones back, but it seemed beneath me, someone so recently mistaken for church-going).
It was easy, too, all I had to do was go through the giant metal gate, tell the overall-wearing guy who looked like a bouncer that "I read on the internet that you can get paczkis here," and he grunted and motioned me inside. There, a bunch of families in total church finery were drinking coffee in a room that my grandmother would have loved (curio cabinets full of porcelain dolls and lace). We waited for the woman behind the counter to get done chatting with some woman wearing a plum business dress (with shoulderpads), and bought eight. The plum woman lamented the fact that they're now $1.50, telling us conspiratorially that they used to be a dollar. She then tried to get us to go to the mass that was just starting, but luckily I was able to brush her off because I wasn't "dressed for church."
Slobbery saves the day!
Amy and I later learned that Isaac and Amanda apparently don't have the same crazy memories of ZOMG PACZKIS, but dutifully ate theirs in front of us (we thought about bein' total grubbers and asking for the other ones back, but it seemed beneath me, someone so recently mistaken for church-going).
Friday, February 13, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Weird Detroit music
My pal Geoff runs the Cousin's Vinyl record store and blog, and a couple days ago, he sent me a link to Our Lord's Space Ship, a bit of crazy Christiania masquerading as a country tune. While it's OK, it's a bit novelty for my tastes (I have a similar complaint about The Story of Suzie, a country ditty about a girl who ruins her life with marijuana cigarettes (who hasn't?).
But it did get me over there to listen to O Yes My Lord by the Voices of Conquest. Those drums are fucking killer, and that's exactly the sort of Gospel that I'd love to own if I had $150 bucks (damn!). I know that the Cousin's Vinyl guys are ripping the records so they can put them up on the blog (and, I hope, give buyers a copy on mp3, so they don't wear out their vinyl), so I hope I can get a copy of that track from them.
But it did get me over there to listen to O Yes My Lord by the Voices of Conquest. Those drums are fucking killer, and that's exactly the sort of Gospel that I'd love to own if I had $150 bucks (damn!). I know that the Cousin's Vinyl guys are ripping the records so they can put them up on the blog (and, I hope, give buyers a copy on mp3, so they don't wear out their vinyl), so I hope I can get a copy of that track from them.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
What I'm listening to today
Apollo Heights. Last Of Montreal album + fuzzy shoegaze Working For A Nuclear Free City. Potential, but not there yet. Too much mid-tempo, mid-range earnest lyrics. Plus their song about disco isn't fun so much as trying to be funny. Still, easy to listen to in the background at work.
Red Mass. Ugly garage-psych rock. Dirtbombs plus echoes, some Stooges. Fun. Oh, wait, they also get noisey and weirder! Nice.
Voyager. Prog instrumentals, from Minnesota or something. More space probe than French traders.
Thunderbolt Pagoda. I started to write "Magma" for the text of the anchor tag there. Add Amon Duul II too.
Red Mass. Ugly garage-psych rock. Dirtbombs plus echoes, some Stooges. Fun. Oh, wait, they also get noisey and weirder! Nice.
Voyager. Prog instrumentals, from Minnesota or something. More space probe than French traders.
Thunderbolt Pagoda. I started to write "Magma" for the text of the anchor tag there. Add Amon Duul II too.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Monday, December 01, 2008
Slumdog Millionaire
Was pretty good, though "Just So." Still, geographically fitting. Worried about fetishizing the other a bit, but a fun love story well paced and well shot.
I wanted a lot more dancing though.
I wanted a lot more dancing though.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
I go yugo
Rust in peace.
As a eulogy, let's all take a moment to listen to that great paean to the $3000 new car: The Left Wing Fascists' "I Drive A Yugo."
If things keep going the way they seem to be, I may be posting LWF's "K-Mart Shopper" before too long.
As a eulogy, let's all take a moment to listen to that great paean to the $3000 new car: The Left Wing Fascists' "I Drive A Yugo."
If things keep going the way they seem to be, I may be posting LWF's "K-Mart Shopper" before too long.
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