Monthly Archives: January 2010

CD Review, Entertainment, Music

CD Review: Stroke [2009]

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Band: Various Artists
Release: 2009

***DISC ONE***
1. “Pull Down The Shades” – Jay Reatard – A+
2. “Rebel” – The Checks – A
3. “Ain’t It Nice” – The Bleeding Allstars – A+
4. “Don’t Catch Fire” – Peter Gutteridge – B+
5. “Luck or Loveliness” – The Chills – C
6. “Nothing’s Going to Happen” – David Kilgour – B-
7. “All My Hollowless to You” – The Crying Wolfs” – B+
8. “Beauty” – Stephin Merritt – B
9. “Nostalgia’s No Excuse” – Portastatic – B+
10. “Crush” – The Mint Chicks – B-
11. “I’ve Left Memories Behind” – Jay and Sam Clarkson – B-
12. “Burning Blue” – Sky Green Leopards – A
13. “The Slide” – Shayne Carter – B
14. “Grand Mal” -Pumice – C-
15. “Knoxed Out” – Hamish Kilgour – D+

***DISC TWO***
1. “Not Given Lightly” – Boh Runga – B+
2. “Bodies” – Bill Doss – C+
3. “Sign the Dotted Line” – Jeff Magnum – B-
4. “Lapse” – Bill Callahan – B+
5. “Growth Spurt” – Genghis Smith – B+
6. “Coloured” – Yo La Tengo – B
7. “Dunno Much About Life but I Know How to Breathe” – AC Newman – C+
8. “Glide” – Alec Bathgate – B+
9. “Inside Story” – Don McGlashan – B
10. “The Outer Skin” – Sean Donnelly – B+
11. “What Goes Up” – Lambchop – C
12. “Brave” – The Mountain Goats – B
13. “Round These Walls” – The Tokey Tones & Friends – A-
14. “Just Do It” – The Bats – A-
15. “My Only Friend” – Will Oldham – B+
16. “It’s Love” – The Pyjama Party – B+
17. “Becoming Something Other” – Jordan Luck – B-
18. “Driftwood” – The Verlaines – B+
19. “Song of the Tall Poppy” – Lou Barlow – B-
20. “Nappin’ In Lapland” – The Nothing – C-
21. “Sunday Song” – Tall Dwarfs – B

Comments: Jay starts off this cover tribute album to Chris Knox, a highly inspirational rock musician from New Zealand, with “Pull,” originally more of a punk sharp shooter. Jay managed (talking about him in the past tense is depressing) to make it really sound like his own with a softer combination of acoustic and electric. It’s awesome to listen to Jay’s faux Brit accent come out when he chants “pool down the shaydes” haha if you know what I mean. Fun bubblegum rock comes on “Rebel” which reminds me of “Buddy Holly” by Weezer. I had to double check that JR didn’t sing “Ain’t” because it sounds literally like something he’d do. I’m going to say he definitely stole (or playfully borrowed) elements of this song and incorporated them on various releases, namely “It Ain’t Gonna Save Me” but others as well. “Don’t Catch Fire” is a slow erotic shoe-gazer, I guess. “I watch your strip tease till I have to go.” That’s an intense line. “Burning Blue” is comparable to softer Jay stuff so obviously it’s awesome! And check out that song title…look familiar?

Final Evaluation: Very Positive (Disc 1>Disc 2)

Entertainment, interviews, Music, Quotes, Random, rant

Great Bradford Cox Quote

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Talking about album leaks:

When Lotus Plaza came out I was like a mom or something. Keeping up. The way that it went from anticipation anticipation anticipation anticipation…it’s such a sexual thing. You know what I mean it’s like they really wanted to see him with his clothes off. The album leaks like a fucking homemade sex video or something. Once the real album comes out it’s almost like yeah, I fucked her. I fucked him. I fucked that person already. When they first start getting it on they’re like “oh my God Atlas Sound is shit compared to this! Deerhunter is shit! Lotus Plaza is Deerhunter! Lotus Plaza is the essential essence of good music! Lotus Plaza is the transcendental…” The first two weeks it’s always the same. Then a week later they’re is a backlash. I’m tired of hearing about how good this is. The album isn’t even out yet! Think about In Utero: it took a year of 92/93/94 for that cycle to fully happen. There was an important day like Election Day. There’s not that anymore. People have destroyed a format of art. I have too. I’m not being Mr. Highhorse. I’m sorry for the tirade.”

Entertainment, humor, Random, rant

Black Lips Funny

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What do you do when your sixteen and in deep shit? You’re looking out at the world from the strip-mall and the detention hall, from the basement and the cul-de-sac and it just looks like there is a wall around you. Everybody tells you and your friends that you’re going nowhere, that your lives are already ruined. What the fuck do you do?

You hang around and smash stuff and get high and try to be a bad-ass, that’s what you do. You steal and drink and smash up the car your mom gave you and pull your pee-pee out in public. You work at sandwich shops and fast-food joints and try to screw private school girls because they think your tough and the girls at your school think your gay because you pretended to give your friend a blowjob at the junior prom. You fuck it all up as ugly and as dirty as you can because, why the fuck not?

Your parents and teachers and sandwich-shop supervisors look at you and think, “What happened to the kid? He has all the advantages in the world and he has chucked it all in the shitter. Doesn’t he believe in the inherent goodness of our enlightened society? Doesn’t he believe in any thing at all?”

Articles, Politics, reviews

Zinn’s Last Work

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I believe this was Howard Zinn’s final written piece; it was written for
The Nation and it regards his usual cynical outlook on our leaders, of course now, Obama.

I’ve been searching hard for a highlight. The only thing that comes close is some of Obama’s rhetoric; I don’t see any kind of a highlight in his actions and policies.

As far as disappointments, I wasn’t terribly disappointed because I didn’t expect that much. I expected him to be a traditional Democratic president. On foreign policy, that’s hardly any different from a Republican–as nationalist, expansionist, imperial and warlike. So in that sense, there’s no expectation and no disappointment. On domestic policy, traditionally Democratic presidents are more reformist, closer to the labor movement, more willing to pass legislation on behalf of ordinary people–and that’s been true of Obama. But Democratic reforms have also been limited, cautious. Obama’s no exception. On healthcare, for example, he starts out with a compromise, and when you start out with a compromise, you end with a compromise of a compromise, which is where we are now.

I thought that in the area of constitutional rights he would be better than he has been. That’s the greatest disappointment, because Obama went to Harvard Law School and is presumably dedicated to constitutional rights. But he becomes president, and he’s not making any significant step away from Bush policies. Sure, he keeps talking about closing Guantánamo, but he still treats the prisoners there as “suspected terrorists.” They have not been tried and have not been found guilty. So when Obama proposes taking people out of Guantánamo and putting them into other prisons, he’s not advancing the cause of constitutional rights very far. And then he’s gone into court arguing for preventive detention, and he’s continued the policy of sending suspects to countries where they very well may be tortured.

I think people are dazzled by Obama’s rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president–which means, in our time, a dangerous president–unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction.

– http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100201/forum/6

Chris