Take notice Yahoo! that a response from Jens to an e-mail I sent two months ago is not spam! Jeeze. I love this guy!
My E-Mail:
I think you’re beautiful, but it’s impossible to make you understand that if you don’t take my hand I will lose my mind completely.
That’s not to you, but to a future girlfriend, hopefully. BUT I hope you are feeling much better my friend, you make great music. And when you are fully recovered I hope you make a stop by Boston Massachusetts for a show! You have some big fans out here buddy.
glen,
i hope that future girlfriend will not leave you over misheard words. be sure to art-i-cu-late the words heavily.
see you in boston, hope to make it there as soon as possible.
Band: The Thermals Label: Kill Rockstars Release: 2009
1. “When I Died” – 8.7 2. “We Were Sick” – 8.9 3. “I Let It Go” – 8.2 4. “Now We Can See” – 9.1 5. “At the Bottom of the Sea” – 8.5 6. “When We Were Alive” – 8.4 7. “I Called Out Your Name” – 8.1 8. “When I Was Afraid” – 8.3 9. “Liquid In, Liquid Out” – 7.1 10. “How We Fade” – 8.0 11. “You Dissolve” – 8.3
Comments: The Thermals is a band that I really really wanted to see when they came to the Middle East Downstairs on May 7th. I had to weigh my priorities…King Khan and the Shrines or The Thermals? I chose KK and the Shrines without much hesitation. My acquaintance with the The Thermals is from their song “Passing Feeling” featured on the video game MLB 2k7. Just a side note: the MLB 2k7 soundtrack was instrumental in forming my current day music tastes. In addition to The Thermals, other great songs came from the likes of Editors, Walkmen, Bishop Allen, Tapes N’ Tapes, The Stooges, and Death From Above 1979. Back to this album…it’s safe. Less post-punk than what I’ve heard in the past from them and more pop-punk. I’ve never had a problem with decent pop-punk and for the majority of the album, it is exactly that! In the end I’m not sure if the change in sound has anything to do with their switch from Sub Pop to Kill Rock Star.
Comments: Pretty good shit from Sultan here. Nothing too exciting, yet nothing too depressing. The music is vintage, as expected. “Hold On” has the pace of an above average 50s/60s rock & roll piece. The B-side, “I Hear A New World,” is experimentally satisfying, sounding at times a bit like a mixture of a Christmas tune and a freak folk campfire classic. That said, it won’t knock you off your ass. No one said it should.
Grades: “Hold On” (8.0); “I Hear A New World” (8.6)
Yahoo!
BOSTON – Mary Travers, one-third of the popular 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary who were perhaps best known for their hit “Puff (The Magic Dragon),” died in a Connecticut hospital after battling leukemia for several years. She was 72.
The band’s publicist, Heather Lylis, said Travers died Wednesday at Danbury Hospital.
Bandmate Peter Yarrow said that in her final months, Travers handled her declining health with bravery and generosity, showing her love to friends and family “with great dignity and without restraint.”
“It was, as Mary always was, honest and completely authentic,” he said. “That’s the way she sang, too; honestly and with complete authenticity.”
Comments: Here is a case of a band that I’ve heard a shit load about, but never really sat down and gave a meaningful listen. LB’s “noise rock” tag is appealing, but for me that “noise rock” must make some kind of sense in order to be listenable. LB has a two man set-up: a drummer and bass guitarist. Formerly in the band was a man now called Soft Circle. Yes, that guy. These days he plays loopy experimental stuff by himself (drums, guitar, vocals). Believe it or not the only things he did in Lightning Bolt (which he lasted in for all of three days…kidding) was sing and play guitar. Anyway…let me not side track too much. Getting into this album, my thoughts are kind of scattered. I conjure up a lot of elements upon listening: heavy metal, screamo, extreme noise-punk (there Brian Gibson that’s three words not two)…just to name a few. Maybe I’m just not ready for this kind of stuff. Or maybe it’s LB perfecting their image of being “loud and aggressive.” I see a lot of great bass guitar riffs and random drum beats, but I don’t see a lot of structure. Is that what we call “art rock” nowadays? Even the best sounding tracks just barely squeak by as decent. Am I listening to noise or music? Is there a difference at all? I can tolerate noise, which is why I give some of these tracks higher grades than they probably deserve — at least from a critical perspective.
There’s a few of my songs in Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut “Whip it”. Drew was really nice, she flew me out to LA, we had a cup of coffee and she showed me some clips from the movie. Usually I say no to film synchs because you just get a short synopsis from someone’s agent’s agent, and I always feel awkward my song will end up in the wrong context. You know, I write my songs for specific people, I find it hard to find them applied to someone elses story. But Drew listened to my concerns and we discussed the scenes she had in mind.
At some point our conversation drifted away and I think we were talking about monkeys, and it just struck me right there and then how surreal my life has become. And how absurd it is when anyone expects any kind of real compensation in this business. Compensation for what ? I’ve been touring on and off like crazy, I’ve put so much work into recording and writing. And in the end what I make my money from is talking to Drew Barrymore about monkeys…
The soundtrack is compiled by Randall Poster, who put together the soundtracks for the Wes Andersson movies among others. His soundtracks are like amazing little jukeboxes of random goodies. I haven’t seen the movie but it seems to be falling smoothly into the category of American movies about teenage love and alternative sports. From Breaking Away to Bring It On.
1. “Switched On” – 9.0 2. “No You Don’t” – 8.8 3. “Vapours” – 9.4 4. “Devout” – 8.3 5. “Disarming the Car Bomb” – 8.9 6. “Tender Torture” – 8.5 7. “Shining” – 8.2 8. “On Foreigner” – 8.5 9. “Heartbeat” – 7.9 10. “The Drums” – 7.3 11. “EOL” – 7.6 12. “Everything Is Under Control” – 8.0
Comments: Technically Islands are sell outs because they signed to ANTI-, a sister label of Epitaph, after they released their first album Return to the Sea in 2006 on Equator (the record label of Lovely Feathers). Anyway, I’m not too familiar with Islands besides their song “Rough Gem,” which is truly a gem! The “indie-pop” world has been buzzing over it for the past couple of years. I looked at this album with only that one song in mind. This album screams Vampire Weekend in the sense that there is some extra musical ingredient that turns away mainstream pop listeners YET draws in hordes of so called “indie” listeners. There are a few songs that are a combination of Handsome Furs and Backstreet Boys…the result being something average as fuck. The middle/end of the album contain great examples of the album mentioned.
me and kk wanna do some kids shows on our next US tour at elementary/special needs schools/classes during the afternoon. if you have an idea, hit me up.
Band: The Thermals
Name: Lightning Bolt
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 