All posts by G. Gordon Gritty

Choice Reatard Quotes

– “You fucking fags hated Blood Visions when it dropped ! so stop acting all “OG”! get the fuck over it!”
– “Hey dont bring me into this you fucking jar head”
– “Officer Brad I havent played epiphones in years you big dumb indian get your facts straight before you start mouthing off fat boy.. I got 4 gibson flying v’s and 3 epiphones which I retired years ago..I just get sick of you bragging about your shit gear  or how you where on the cover of MMR all the time  get over it man .. Your music sucks !!!”
– “I was making better punk rock than you guys when I was fucking 13”
– “Just leave me the fuck outta your nerd world and stop pretending to know shit..”
– “I got nothing against your wife dude I know about as much about her as you know about music (which is just about nothing)”
– “Im the fucking oprah of punk . Btw if Im fucking fat then what the fuck is Officer Brad x ? the fucking marshmallow man ?”
– “The whole idea that struggle makes you legit is bullshit keep lying  to yourself so you feel better about being lazy”
– “I have worked hard as hell playing music, touring endlessly and putting out more records than I can count but do I deserve the “hype”more than the next guy? I would say no.”
– “Comparing some dudes with apple garage band or a 4 track to flat out genius level innovators of recorded pop music  should be a crime.”
– “Man I never really knew I was singing in a British accent till someone pointed it out later ? I always seem to sing different from band to band don’t really know why it really just comes out that way and is for sure not premeditated.”

Mark Sultan – ‘Calloused Hands’ + News

Mark just posted a slew of things on his newly re-designed website:

1. His new song “Calloused Hands,” which is reminiscent of the greatness of $. Speaking of that…
2. $ should be out on vinyl in record stores sometime in September.
3. There’s a Vimeo video for “Status,” which keeps getting banned from YouTube.
4. An explanation about the last days of The King Khan & BBQ Show. A couple of months back, I posted what Mark briefly clarified, but he details what exactly transpired.
5. The Jumbo Lions. An evolution of The King Khan & BBQ Show, or in Mark’s words: “A new, hyper-surrealist, psychedelic, rock’n’roll mindfuck…”

And finally:

BBQ is playing October 17 in Boston at the Homegrown Fest. The huh? Exactly. Apparently it’s a 21+ festival that takes place at a venue called Church. It’s a one off a thing, I gather.

No Age Return To Boston!!!

It’s been a year and a half. It feels longer, but at the same time, it doesn’t feel that long.

At any rate, I haven’t seen No Age since April 2, 2009. That’s far too long. They’ve got a new album coming out September 28. Get at that. Everything In Between is the title.

Most importantly, Dean, Randy, and the other dude are in town on November 16. They’ll be at the Middle East Downstairs, a choice venue. It is my favorite place to see a show after all and has vegan goodies for the dudes. It’s all ages gig, too! It’s a Tuesday night.

Woo!

CD Review: Interpol S/T [2010]


Band: Interpol
Release: 9/2010
Label: Matador Records

1. “Success” – B+
2. “Memory Serves” – B
3. “Summer Well” – B
4. “Lights” – B+
5. “Barricade” – A-
6. “Always Malaise” – B-
7. “Safe Without” – C+
8. “Try It On” – B-
9. “All of the Ways” – B-
10. “The Undoing” – B

Comments: I started listening to Interpol a few short years ago, a few short years after their so called glory days. Paul Banks’ crazy voice was really great and the band basically shit out a bunch of excellent tracks over a two year span. Then they signed to Capitol and people accused them of sucking. The songs on their major label debut didn’t suck; they just weren’t as good. Now, the band is back on Matador. Last year Banks recorded a solo album Julian Plenti Is Skyscraper, which had a couple of really awesome songs. I think Interpol have had their day by now. They’ve already gotten to the outer reaches of their musical limit. If you can’t stand this band to begin with, good luck trying to like this! Fans will probably find a few songs particularly worthy of attention. It’s not as terrible as the online community is making it out to be. It’s exhausted and boring with a few somewhat catchy hooks here and there. It drags. I’ve always been able to tolerate Interpol at their weakest, which may be why I’m attempting to stick up for them here. “Lights” has a good build-up and becomes pretty solid. “Barricade” is the most memorable and most catchy tune on this album.

Grade: B- (83)

“Sinking” – Bobby Ubangi

Bobby Ubangi looked death in the eye for months. He was supposed to die in a timetable of six…he lasted nine. Somewhere in there, he recorded his last full length. It’s a cunning work, especially considering the circumstances. Even though death was forming for Ubangi, he never let its imminent approach eat away what he wanted to get done. That’s admirable and inspirational. After eleven straight dirty lo-fi gems, including my favorite “Another Girl Like You,” there’s “Sinking,” an introspective of what’s nearing. Here are the words:

Sinking.
Everybody knows that I’ve been sinking.
Everybody knows that I’ve been sinking.
Nobody can turn me down.

Sinking.
Everybody knows what I’ve been thinking.
Everybody knows what I’ve been thinking.
Everything’s been bringing me down.

Standing out and S.O.S is my last sign of distress.
Maybe there’s somebody near who can save me from this mess.

Sinking.
Everybody knows that I’ve been sinking.
Everybody knows that I’ve been sinking.
Everybody’s watching me drown.
Everybody’s watching me drown.
Everybody’s watching me drown.

How Popular Are The Bands?

This by no means is an official indication of popularity…that’s something that can only roughly be estimated. This looks at number of last.fm listeners around the world.

Radiohead: 2,872,982
Bob Dylan: 1,511,558
Pixies: 1,336,206
Arctic Monkeys: 1,717,157
Editors: 1,062,559
Sonic Youth: 1,000,586
Spoon: 924,767
Morrissey: 746,011
Animal Collective: 725,900
Hot Hot Heat: 714,748
Elvis Costello: 633,258
Built to Spill: 538,664
Dinosaur Jr: 459,611
The Walkmen: 451,744
Head Automatica: 299,834
Deerhunter: 299,689
Psychedelic Furs: 295,214
Paul Weller: 294,751
Louis XIV: 273,512
The Rifles: 239,431
Meat Puppets: 224,973
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: 215,931
Sunset Rubdown: 206,829
Girls: 202,386
Black Lips: 190,777
No Age: 152,179
Mission of Burma: 152,216
High Places: 117,942
Handsome Furs: 102,755
Wavves: 102,375
Cymbals Eat Guitars: 94,518
Real Estate: 81,680
Jay Reatard: 80,453
Here We Go Magic: 70,184
The Feelies: 63,382
The Warlocks: 63,041
Harlem: 53,371
Trevor Hall: 47,675
Kurt Vile: 44,522
King Khan and the Shrines: 42,623
Dum Dum Girls: 42,483
Strange Boys: 30,882
King Khan & BBQ Show: 29,590
The War on Drugs: 19,583
Mark Sultan: 11,798
Nobunny: 6,413
Hunx and His Punx: 5,185
Box Elders: 4,334
TV Smith: 4,106
Uninhabitable Mansions: 3,334
The Dig: 2,561
Faces on Film: 1,080
The Big Big Bucks: 598
The Maine Coons: 67

Classic Review: Is This It? [2001]

Band: The Strokes
Label: RCA

1. “Is This It?” A+
2. “The Modern Age” – A+
3. “Soma” – A
4. “Barely Legal” – A+
5. “Someday” – A+
6. “Alone, Together” – A+
7. “Last Nite” – A+
8. “Hard to Explain” – A++
9. “When It Started” – A+ / “New York City Cops” – A+
10. “Trying To Your Luck” – A+
11. “Take It Or Leave It” – A+

Comments: The best of the bunch of so-called revivalists that spawned in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, The Strokes weren’t really revivalists at all. What were they reviving? These guys weren’t punks, either. This album is vintage pop-rock gold. Pop-rock gold that completely triumphs the dumb, uninspiring, and utterly boring, pop-rock of bands of today like…The Script. Despite widespread media coverage of this record and The Strokes legacy in general, it’s a shame they’ve never really crossed over into mainstream pop radio’s heart. Just a few years ago I was informed of this band, so I’m not going to try to pretend these guys were a favorite when I was eleven. I’d heard odds and ends off this album…most amazing to me, initially, were “Someday” and “The Modern Age”…but this was my first time listening to in its entirety. There’s hardly any bands that have produced a better start-to-finish(er). The little bursts of distortion and Casablancas’ distinctive voice are awesome moments on so many of these tunes. Even the songs that I’ve heard only a few times vs. hundreds of times for the others are immediately likable.

Grade: A+ (97)

Classic Review: Weezer [1994]

1. “My Name Is Jonas” – A
2. “No One Else” – A
3. “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here” – A
4. “Buddy Holly” – A++
5. “Undone (The Sweater Song)” – A+
6. “Surf Wax America” – A
7. “Say It Ain’t So” – A+
8. “In The Garage” – A
9. “Holiday” – A
10. “Only In Dreams” – A-

Comments: Before a bunch of shitty bands entered the “alternative rock” or “power-pop” fray, there was Weezer. Before Weezer was Pixies and Pavement…their distinct musical styles come through on a lot of these songs. The thing about Blue Weezer is that Blue Weezer is pure mid-tempo heavy fun. Do debuts get better than this in terms of quantity/quality of hooks? “Buddy Holly,” maybe because I’ve known it for years and years, is just pure pop genius. From start to finish, it’s a listening experience that’s really one of a kind. “Undone” follows a groundbreaking “talk-verse-chorus-talk-verse-chorus” format that makes it extremely hard not to like. Also, the ending’s awesome. “Say It Ain’t So” is one of those songs that doesn’t really hit you until the chorus hits. And then it’s all fine and dandy from there. I’ve realized I’ve only brought up the hit singles in this little comment space, but every song on here is a winner.

Grade: A (95)

Walkmen POV Videos

Everyday now and then the Bitchdork Media machine comes out with a worthwhile feature. That’s the case today with their POV Concert Series. The Walkmen perform four songs off their new great record Lisbon in some vacant studio. The thing that makes this awesome is that you get to see the band from six points of view…hence the title. So if you want a rough (or pretty good) idea of how to drum like Matt Barrick does on “Angela Surf City,” you can go to the POV (#4) that mainly focuses in on him.

Check it out: http://pitchfork.com/tv/pov/the-walkmen/#5-angela-surf-city