1. “Sunday Morning” – A+ 2. “I’m Waiting For The Man” – A- 3. “Femme Fatale” – A+ 4. “Venus In Furs” – A+
5. “Run Run Run” – A 6. “All Tomorrow’s Parties” – A 7. “Heroin” – A+ 8. “There She Goes Again” – A+ 9. “I’ll Be Your Mirror” – A- 10. “The Black Angel’s Death Song” – A- 11. “European Son” – B
Comments: What can I say about this album that hasn’t already been said? Well, “I’m Waiting For The Man” is kind of lackluster compared to the crackly, but excellent 1969 Live version. A change-up comes with the noise classic “Run Run Run,” which has to have had a tremendous influence on many bands. I liken 3:37-on to Black Lips’ “Juvenile” with in terms of vocal structure and quick guitar progressions. “ATP” is an experimental-pop follow-up. It’s an awesome tune, no doubt, but not amongst the greatest on here. I like the noisy doo-wop of “There She Goes Again.” It’s fun. I’m not so impressed by the last three songs, but that’s okay.
Jim DeMint’s Website
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, announced this morning that he will oppose the nomination of Ben Bernanke to serve a second term as the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Senator DeMint made the announcement after Bernanke’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, and pledged to object to floor consideration of the nomination until the Senate votes on S. 604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009.
“Ben Bernanke is an intelligent and well-intended public servant, but the fact is the Fed has failed the American people during his tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and I cannot support his nomination for a second term,” said Senator DeMint. “Americans want a new Fed chairman who is willing to provide transparency into the Fed’s actions, who is willing to accept responsibility for the Fed’s mistakes, and who is willing to support true monetary reform that guarantees the soundness of our money.
Bernanke is constantly ignoring sound money. For that, he should not be get another term.
Since its founding in 2002, Nanosolar has raised a lot of money – half a billion dollars to date – and made a lot of noise about upending the solar industry, but the Silicon Valley start-up has been a bit vague on specifics about why it’s the next big green thing.
On Wednesday, Nanosolar pulled back the curtain on its thin-film photovoltaic cell technology — which it claims is more efficient and less expensive than that of industry leader First Solar — and announced that it has secured $4.1 billion in orders for its solar panels.
Martin Roscheisen, Nanosolar’s chief executive, said customers included solar power plant developers like NextLight, AES Solar and Beck Energy of Germany.
The typical Nanosolar farm will be between 2 and 20 megawatts in size, Mr. Roscheisen said in an e-mail message from Germany, where he was attending the opening of Nanosolar’s new factory near Berlin. “This is a sweet spot in terms of ease of permitting and distributed deployment without having to tax the transmission infrastructure.”
Yeah, so I don’t really know much about it, but it sounds interesting.
It’s fact. Hunx from Hunx and His Punx is the dude whose dick is being used as a microphone in the utterly homosexual NSFW Girls’ video for their hit song “Lust For Life” off Album.
Bands: Pixies, Jay Reatard Venue: Wang Theatre (Citi Performing Arts Center), Boston, MA Date: Friday, November 27, 2009
Act One: Jay Reatard
1. Blood Visions (BV)
2. It’s So Easy (BV)
3. Nightmares (BV)
4. Fading All Away (BV)
5. It Ain’t Gonna Save Me (WMF)
6. My Shadow (BV)
7. Oh It’s Such A Shame (BV)
8. I’m Watching You (WMF)
9. I Know A Place (S 06-07)
10. All Over Again (S 06-07)
11. See/Saw (MS ’08)
12. Hammer I Miss You (S 06-07)
13. Before I Was Caught (WMF)
14. Faking It (WMF)
15. There’s No Sun (WMF)
16. Waiting For Something (BV)
17. Trapped Here (MS ’08)
Jay and His Denmarkian cohorts (Cola Freaks), they robbed the painted nude ceiling women of their respective virginities with their twelve o’clock chunk, even though most of the crowd was settling in through their set. Their sound was great. I only wish that I was standing and bumping into my companions. As soon as they hit the stage, they blasted into the classic “Blood Visions.” Within just a few moments of mayhem, Jay Reatard aficionados, the few of us, could tell he sounded better than ever before. One fan in particular was so excited he stood up and wildly danced and humped the air! The songs were longer (well, by his standards lol) and resembled their studio counterparts a bit more, whilst retaining that noisy assault Jay prides himself on. Highlights were “See/Saw” (as always) and “I Know A Place,” although the entire set was exceptional. Without a doubt Jay Reatard goes down as my favorite opening act. Alas, the performance was underappreciated, since everyone came for the Pixies, but that’s okay because we’re all fucking creeps!
Act Two: The Pixies
Speaking of creepiness, there’s nothing creepier than Salavdor Dali and his eye ball spinning and slicing, short film, Un Chien Andalou, which was displayed on a gigantic screen for the audience to see. As all Pixies devotees should know, the signature song, “Debaser,” was based on Dali’s spooky work of art. With this in mind, you would think they would open with that song. But, instead they opened with most of the Doolittle B Sides: “Dancing the Manta Ray,” “Weird In My School,” and “Manta Ray,” finishing the would be LP tracks later. This was only a minor qualm for me, because I (and everyone else) was so excited to see The Pixies! As Kim Deal noted, they were “crusin” through the B Sides and they cruised right into “Debaser,” continuing with the entire Doolittle album, as planned. While the band cranked out these classics the audience witnessed vairous, often bizarre, images on the big screen. These videos perefectly complemented the wonderfully horrific music of the Pixies. Horrific in the sense of unsettling. But, of course with their pop hooks and rock and roll chops, one couldn’t feel any emotion but sheer thrill and joy. Musically and technically they weren’t as proficient as Sonic Youth, pretty damn close though. Where they may have slightly (and I stress slightly) lacked in musical ability and sound quality they surely made up for in showmanship. The quartet kept the audience standing and bopping and shaking from the moment they hit the stage till the very end. When they finished their magnum opus, they briefly left the stage. Next, they returned to complete their B Sides. A nice little theatric came in the form of smoke, which engulfed the crowd as the band kicked “Into the White.” Then they played a rather familiar song AGAIN: “Wave of Mutilation UK Surf.” The second version of the classic, merrily malevelent number was more serene than it’s original counterpart, giving the eerie lyrics it’s eerie due a la Jay Reatarard- “Searching For You” perhaps. So, after these two tunes, The Pixies said good bye and hit the dustry trail….. for a bit. After highly energized crowd response, the group pulled a Sonic Youth and returned for Encore II. This time, there were no more Doolittle tracks or B Sides left. What would they play?! Well, they began with the endearing, “Where Is My Mind?” much to everyone’s delight. Next came “Caribou,” a solid performance for a solid track. The night concluded with “Vamos,” another Surfer Rosa classic (WIMM being the first).
Chris Overall: A + Yes, it did indeed beat out Sonic Youth, which was tough, tough competition. This concert is unique in that I recognized every song performed, including both opening act and main act. That has never happened before! So, what else is there to say; one of my favorite bands playing one of my favorite albums, what more can I ask for?
Glen Overall: I’d give this a fringe A+. Excellent sets by both bands. Some Pixies songs that really really caught my attention were “In The White,” “Money Gone To Heaven,” and “La La Love You.” I like Jay’s new direction and I sincerely hope that he will be able to find adequate replacements when the two Cola Freaks go back to being Cola Freaks full-time (provided they don’t go full Reatard). Obviously, I’d prefer a more interactive experience to just standing up in amazement. Motion is always a plus.
Chris
* POST SHOW UPDATE* It should be noted that this was one of Jay Reatard’s final performances, for he passed away nearly two months later. Long live Jay and long live the Pixies! It was an honor to see both legends on the same stage. RIP Jay.
Sure, there’s the jock with the 8-foot thick Mohawk on his head, wearing some shitty Billabong shirt and head-butting a girl because he can’t get it up, and he’s looking in the mirror and hating himself because he’s secretly gay and all his friends hate him. Sure, that guy is there, and I hate him. He sucks. He’s the worst faker in the world. And he’s mouthing along to songs that we’re not even playing because he’s just trying to look like someone else that likes the music and he’s there for the wrong reasons. But that guy is going to disappear, because the music doesn’t mean anything to him. The people that do love the music will always come to the show, and it will always have a special place in their hearts.
If you are a fan of far out garage/noise/punk then you ought to head over to the blog Teenage Lobotomy and download their Mix Volume 2. Most of the songs on the Mix are by unknowns, at least to me anyway.
Acid Eater‘s “Top of Spot” is straight up noise-punk. Rat Traps‘ “Tennessee Rock ‘N Roll” is precisely the type of song that I am influenced by. It’s lo-fi garage pop to the max. AH Kraken‘s “Axe Vertical” shouldn’t claim to be anything except a really lo-fi cut of a repetitive psychedelic riff. Nice Face‘s extremely quick “Beater” reminds me of good old Thee Oh Sees and No Bunny. Watch out for FNU Ronnies‘ “Meat” because it’s crackly, noisy, and threatening to your personal security. Human Eye‘s “Rare Little Creature” is a manifestation of the band’s alien punk attitude, which doesn’t actually tell you too much about their sound, but that’s fine. It’s got keyboards like the Spooks do, but HE is more notorious. “Mental Shark Bite” by Final Solutions isn’t too awesome, but it gets the job done much like a band called Scouflaws does. The Spaceshits, yes Mark Sultan/King Khan Spaceshits, were hailed as one of the best garage bands north of the border and I can see that as fact even though the recording of “Bacon Grease” is exactly that. The Homosexual Police Officers (okay…Fag Cop… for short) sound like a Black Lips side project, but no no they aren’t. Their “Skull Splits” is a glass shattering, mumbling, noise tune that gives their mom a kiss, but fucks your sister too. Check out the evolving beats on the spoken word garage popper “The Nihilist” by TV Ghost, an In The Red groupie. Wolfdowners‘ “Tooshie Bagel” doesn’t really present anything new and exciting to the table, unfortunately. Francis Harold and the Holograms is a damn mouthful and so is their song “Glitter Girlz,” which is a bit too hardcore for me. Lamps “Rototiller” is buried so deep in the grave of garage punk that you’d be a hero to dig this Electric Eels-esque shit up. Homostupids (are they homo or what’s up?) “Beneath the Blackman” is a Circle Jerks B-Side or something. Well, it could have been. Monoshock is an acid trip gone bad, or at least that’s what they said about songs like “Mexican Dentistry” from these ’90s ‘cisco psych-punks.
Just listening to this Mix reminds me that I know near- nothing about the type of music I like.
Will 2010 be better than 2009 in terms of releases? It’s tough to say at this point, obviously. What I do know is that 2009 saw debut albums from many great bands (Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Uninhabitable Mansions, to name two), not to mention a wealth of awesome LPs from bands who’ve been around the circuit for a while (Black Lips and Arctic Monkeys, to name two). Here are some LP/EP that I will definitely get around to reviewing next year:
January [12] Vampire Weekend (Contra LP)
[18] Cold War Kids (Behave Yourself EP) [19] Spoon (Transference LP) [26] Moonface (Dreamland EP) [26] Magnetic Fields (Realism LP)
February [9] Yeasayer (Odd Blood LP)
May
[?] Arcade Fire (?)
[?] MGMT (Congratulations LP)
[?] Walkmen (?)
Q3-Q4 Release Date – Bon Iver
– Interpol
– Panda Bear
– Radiohead
– The Shins
– The Strokes
– Wolf Parade
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 