DONT SWEAT THE STEREO

moving day.

2010-10-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

i've moved to: http://dontsweatthestereo.wordpress.com

big things happening soon.

Building an invisible station for my invisible hype train OR MORE BIG PLANS WITH SHITTY RESULTS.

2010-08-20T12:26:00.001-07:00

Here's the deal. I'm sick of lacking creativity. I'm really sick of not being able to "express" "myself" on the "internet". I mean really, how hard could it be?

The plan right now is to try & make some kind of playlist or something. Not exactly a mixtape or DJ mix, but something, something fun. Something bouncy & happy & obnoxious. Something for the people to play in the clubs when the nights about to peak. No not really. Honestly, I don't know what the hell I'm going to be doing. Mostly research for the time being.

If anyone wants to help, or submit any tracks or do anything awesome like that, then by all means, hook a nigga up. If not get the hell out of my way, it's time to make the homies say "Yeah."

OK GET OUT I'LL TRY & FILL YOU IN ON ALL THE DEETZ LATER GET THE FUCK OUT GO GO GO GO.

HARDCORE UNTIL I DIE.

2010-08-19T16:54:00.000-07:00

Forever ago I was introduced to these lovely mixes. Since then I've always had a soft spot for the headache inducing, hoover heavy, happier than a pig in shit genre of techno we all know as HAPPY HARDCORE.

So this entry will be all about that bullshit that makes anyone who's actually interested in techno look like a faggot & anyone who acts like they're too cool for school is about to get fucking taught. It all started in an IRC chat room several years ago. I was introduced to the Bonkers mixes by a friend & from there it was, well, all down hill. At the time I was a DDR player & music with such energy really appealed to me. Maybe it was the hoover-heavy hooks, or even just the constant drone of the kick drum. Whatever it was, I was fucking hooked.

Through the years my tastes have changed moderately; For example, from Hardcore I went to Breakcore by way of Venetian Snares. You've heard me go off about Snares several times now, so I'll keep it short: Snares was everything that hardcore was missing in my opinion. His music was dark, angry, sometimes violent, sometimes hilarious. It was all so wonderful back in these days. I'd spend hours in front of my computer getting high & listening to techno.

As the years progressed my musical influence did the same. I began drifting from the music I'd been listening to for more popular music that would make girls like me a bit more. Since I was a fat piece of shit, this didn't actually work & the only thing it really helped me with was to fill my hard drive with weekly new releases from varying pop punk bands. Who cares? I continued to expand my taste & eventually became the hipster you see before you today.

So why the fuck am I blogging about Hardcore Techno? Shouldn't I be discussing the many differences between Tobacco & Black Moth Super Rainbow? Maybe I could be reviewing a recent show, or even just a new record. Why am I writing about techno? Because I fucking love it.

Seriously. Techno is where the fuck it's at & I'm not fucking kidding you. The Bonkers mixes really are the pinnacle of hardcore, as far as I'm concerned. The synths, kicks, hooks & sampled lyrics just bring an energy about me that I'm not sure is healthy, but god damn if it doesn't make me a bit more productive. Maybe it's because I installed a pair of robot ears, or maybe it's just because I really am a cock-chugging sissy faggot. Whatever the reason, I fucking love this shit.

No really.

So, I kind of don't really know exactly where to go with this. I could go on & on about how hardcore DJ's put so much into their sets, or how almost every few months another Bonkers mix is released, or how I fucking LOVE HARDCORE. HARDCORE UNTIL I DIE. THE FUCKING END.

Here's a picture of my favorite hardcore DJ; Scott Brown!

File's done!

2010-08-05T15:15:00.000-07:00

Good morning internetterverses. Welcome to the Social Networking Revolution. As of right now, my twitter is linked to this blog. This blog, along with my twitter are also linked to my tumblr account [dsts.tumblr.com]. What that means for those of you reading this [I know, there are so many of you reading this that I should be posting about this] is that if you'd like to read a more robust version of my blog you can change your bookmark to HTTP://DSTS.TUMBLR.COM from there you can enjoy a much nicer looking blog, more blog posts & more importantly some much needed comedy.

Okay, so now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about something very near & dear to my heart; Headphones. I fucking love headphones. There's no question about it, headphones are the shit & that's that. However, I've noticed a disturbing trend that's been emerging somewhat lately. People are paying more than $25 on a pair of headphones because they're bright & colorful. Yes, Skullcandy: I'm looking at you. I don't care how you try to justify it, there's no reason for anyone to be paying that much for anything that's not professional quality (ie: Seinheisser, Sony, etc) & in my opinion the plastic pieces of shit that Skullcandy makes are not professional.

Realistically, if you're worrying about sound quality you really should be looking into high quality mp3s & a good sound card. For the most part people are getting the standard bitrate mp4s from iTunes & using their iPod/Phone/Pad to play them which is fine, but if you're going to be paying through the roof for a pair of headphones & legal mp4s wouldn't you at least want them to sound good? Honestly, the sad truth is kids are out there downloading sub-par mp3s & mp4s with shit ass bitrate & thinking they sound /great/ because of the headphones.

Who cares?
Not I.

SONY MDR-V150 SUPREMACY.

Oh you're going to think I'm real ungrateful.

2010-07-08T12:48:00.000-07:00

OKAY. I saw the Flaming Lips live in concert at my /least favorite place in the world/. Lupos Heartbreak Hotel, I'm talking at you & you specifically. You fucking suck. Your tickets are overpriced, your venue is a small death trap that's trying to pretend as if it's got any bit of class. You sell Bud Light in PLASTIC BOTTLES for almost $5 a bottle. I understand the idea of inflation for the sake of it being convenient for everyone, but still, nearly $5 for something I'm going to need to drink /several/ of to even feel anything? I'll just show up stoned instead I suppose.

I don't really care that the beer is overpriced, why the fuck would I, really? With the exception of going to shows I very rarely, if ever drink. It's not to say that I /need/ booze to enjoy a show, but it certainly makes being around tons of fucking people a hell of a lot easier to tolerate. The people at this show, however, I'd had to have been on heroin to even remotely tolerate the people around me. I don't hate hippies, ravers, hipsters, scenesters, or even metal dudes, but if there is one thing I do fucking hate, it's yuppies.

How many yuppies did I see at THE FLAMING LIPS? A metric fuck-ton.

I mean, I get it. They've been around for some time & obviously that means people of all ages are pretty much going to show up. I still don't care. Fuck fuck /FUCK/ the other side of 30-year-old assholes going to big shows, getting drunk, standing on chairs & couches, shouting obnoxiously to the performer on the stage. Hello, we're in the back, lady, he can't fucking hear you & I'll tell you a secret: anyone who /can/ hear you wishes they didn't. I'd tell these people to go kill themselves if it wasn't so frivolous. Seriously, I didn't think drunk driving was such a hip thing to do when you're a "responsible adult". Either way, I'm going off on yet another tangent.

For those of us who were there for the music & overall experience, it was very entertaining. My friend who took me said that they've pretty much played the same set, complete with visuals & etc the last few times he's seen them, but don't let that deter you. It was really freakin cool. Now, we're hip & everything so we like to show up /late/ to shows. We got there about 20 minutes before the Lips were about to play. Enough time to see where we could get on the floor, but it being Lupos has a GOD AWFUL layout.

Because Lupos also doubles as a dance club with DJ's & all that gay shit on the weekends they decided to spruce it up. The original Lupos might've been a pretty big shithole, but you know what, for the most part it worked as a venue. So where did they go wrong?

Well you see kids, when you used to go into lupos there was basically a line room & then the show room. The show room was pretty much just flat with an elevated stage to your right & a bar to your left. Now you enter into a large mezzanine area with couches, as well as merch booths or other stupid shit. I went to see Polysics there one time & since the show was sponsored by myspace they had computers pretty much only to go on & check your myspace. It was stupid.

The only good thing about Lupos can be accessed only from the Mezzanine. It's the Balcony area, aka the only place you will be able to see ANYTHING, if that's what you're there for. For larger shows Lupos likes to charge even /more/ money for Balcony seating almost as if they know that their venue is complete shit downstairs.

Okay, so lets go inside shall we. Alright, looks like we've got some bars in the back, three bars? okay.. Oh how cute one is a big circular bar in the MIDDLE OF THE VENUE. Okay lets just walk down a few stairs- Wait, stairs? What the hell, oh FUCK. Basicaly the way the floor goes is that there is one "dance floor" thats right in front of the stage. Before that theres just standing/sitting areas with two separate stairs onto the dancefloor. So, as you can imagine there are railings that prevent you from getting fucking anywhere.

Impossible design aside, it was still a really cool show.

Also, I wrote most of this a month ago & just never posted it. Better late than never, amirite?

look at this fucking crybaby

2010-06-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

whatever. i really should just have a twitter if i'm going to post one line of text after deleting the whole thing.

my grandmother passed yesterday. i hope her & richard dunn hang out in heaven together.

Day Whatever: Go to hell because I am a miserable being.

2010-06-22T21:42:00.000-07:00

Straight up wrote a whole post & then deleted it because I remembered nobody cares.

REAL TALK: I NEED TO DO SOMETHING WITH MY LIFE. HE;LP.

The past Three Days: An Apology.

2010-06-16T17:18:00.001-07:00

OH HI THERE I ACTUALLY HAVE A REAL LIFE?

No, probably not. Yesterday I took the day to clean the room & do laundry, so obviously relaxing was called for in there. There's never enough time. The day before that I'm sure at some point I could've done something creative, though would really would have rather murdered someone so I decided against it there. Thankfully I'm no longer an angsty teenager & I just got over it by hanging out with some friends.

Wait real life? no fuck that back to fake talk.

Today I'm going to tell those of you who are still using windows XP how to spruce up your taskbar. I'm sure most techy people already know this, & to an extent so did I but it didn't amaze me any less.

First step, right click on an empty area of the taskbar, if you've done this right a menu will load up with a few simple selections (properties, lock the taskbar, etc)

Next, mouse over the Toolbars selection, you should see a few more options (Quick Launch, Desktop, Windows Media Player), one of which might even be selected.

Click on new toolbar & select a folder you frequently use (maybe your music or video or gay pornography stash) & click ok.

Finally, if it looks all weird you can move them around by right clicking an empty area of the taskbar & unlocking the taskbar (assuming it's locked like it should be).

That's it! If you did it right it might look a little something like this.

xoxoxoxox

Day Four: Another Essay.

2010-06-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

Seriously? Another bunch of paragraphs about shit we don't care about? Awesome.

I hate Valve. They've always managed to piss me off, first it was the original Half Life not running on my PC past the intro of the game. Then it was the fact that the man who introduced me to Half Life died only a year before Half Life 2 was released. More recently I've been quite annoyed at how shafted us Half Life fans have been recently. The Orange Box was nice, especially for Portal & HL2 Episodes 1 & 2. Since then Valve developed a new game. They had this splendid idea to make a team-based multiplayer zombie survival shooter & by god they sure as hell did it. Left 4 Dead was released & suddenly Valve had one of the hottest sellers of the Xbox 360.

On PC you can play Valve games online with Steam for free, on 360 you've got to be an Xbox Live GOLD member. Not a big deal, until you realize just how much extra online content is left out. With a computer you can change the zombies voices to the voice of Pee Wee Herman yelling or laughing. You can turn the Tank into Johnny Bravo or change the Witch music to that of the Breakfast Machine in Pee Wees Big Adventure.

Okay so that's not much right, mostly modifications that don't really effect gameplay, right? Wrong. All L4D updates get put on Steam before L4D. All Downloadable Content is free on Steam whereas through Live you'll be spending anywhere from $10-20 for a new campaign. Oh, & you don't like that glitch? Well, it's fixed on PC, but the update for 360 is coming out in a month. So aside from shafting people that don't play the games on PC, what else is bad about this franchise?

I'm going to try & be as un-biased as possible here because I'm the type of person to turn coat really quickly on a subject. I really loved the first Left 4 Dead & Left 4 Dead 2 was indeed great, but it seems like any other Valve project (aside from an alternate ending to Portal that is only available on Steam) was immediately put on an indefinite hold. Now I understand that making money is the name of the game, but seriously? Is this shit going to turn out like the Madden games? Every year they'll release a new one with slightly better whatever? Count me the fuck out, Mr Newell. I mean really, I don't mind all that much that those of us who choose console over PC get a complete shaft when it comes to games from Valve but I mean, shit. At least give us the same freedoms as those on PC. If Valve says that Steam is free for all users, why not make their games compatible on Live with a free Silver Account? It's practically the same & a lot easier than another slightly feasible idea of porting Steam servers onto XBL. Though in reality that'd turn into something like Steam 360 & would only cater to those of us playing on Live & when you start to consider how little that is it's just not worth it.

But why not the other reason? I guess it's because Microsoft wants to make money & everything, but I mean shit. Nintendo Wii has a disc that they mailed out (for free) to Wii owners for free streaming Netflix capabilities. PS3 also has a free Netflix service, however on 360 you must be paying for a Gold Account in order to use Netflix.

But this isn't about 360 or Micro$oft or any of that crap. This is about why I'm not a huge fan of these games. For starters, people with %0.01 mental capacity for Half Life or Half Life 2 play L4D & act like jackasses. Many of my friends included are just not very good & if in real life there was a Zombie Apocalypse they'd be fucking dead.

Next up we've got getting incapped or pulled by a smoker. 9/10 people will immediately start bashing the controller like they're playing a 2-D fighter & have just been stunned. I'm sorry guys but that doesn't work in this game. Be patient & play with people who don't suck.

Another common problem is people not being able to see the screen while playing split screen so they sit right next to my 360, directly in front of the television. I have no problem with you sitting at home blowing cigarette smoke directly into your disc tray, but this isn't your home & it most certainly isn't your 360, show some fucking respect & wait until you're not in the middle of the game to light up. More importantly, get away from the expensive technology while you're doing it. I have no problems with people smoking in my room, but I do have a serious problem with people blowing smoke into my 360 & my external Hard Drive. This is more of a personal problem though & has less to do with the game.

Back to reasons why this game fails. Well: Let's see;

It seems to promote people yelling & talking a bunch of shit to a screen, which is totally fucking lame in my opinion. There's nothing wrong with yelling DAMMIT, or FUCK in agony after dying for the umpteenth time, but it is really fucking annoying when you shit talk each special infected you kill. On top of that when the game gets louder so do you & it really hurts my fucking ears. Chill the fuck out & just play.

Another good reason as to why this game is annoying, though this reason is quite specific to XBL. On Steam it is more than normal to go on & have a game with intelligent adults who know what they're doing & understand that staying in a group is probably a good idea. On XBL you run into a bunch of ignorant 14 year olds who shout nigger every other word & run through the map like their feet are on fire. Oh well, that shouldn't be a problem, at least the other two in the group are.. Oh wait, they ran off too. Well great, now I'm all alone & there's three separate hoardes coming since the other players decided to just high tail it through the map. Way to go dickweeds.

I hate 14 year olds & I hate Left 4 Dead.

xox

OH SHIT, TODAY I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING.

2010-06-12T19:50:00.000-07:00

OR: Day 3 how to make something from nothing.

Here's a quick tutorial on how to clean functional glass art (BONGS).

First you will need a few things, the major important ones are rock salt or sea salt & 91% isopropyl alcohol. The less important things are paper towels, a plastic baggie, & a rubber band.

First things first, Separate all the pieces & put a couple scoops of rock/sea salt into the bong. Next cover up the hole where the downstem goes [this can be achieved by either wrapping a baggy around it & tying it off with a rubber band, clogging it with paper towels, or by even just using your thumb] & pour in about half a cup of rubbing alcohol.

The next thing you're going to want to do is cover the top hole with something like paper towels or your hand & then shake vigorously for 30 seconds to a minute [or until that filthy thing looks new again]. Finally, you rinse it GOOD. I mean this, you do not want to inhale rubbing alcohol it is NOT GOOD FOR YOU & it tastes like ass on top of that so be sure to rinse, rinse, rinse & smell-test it before going to use it.

Next you're going to want to clean the downstem. Take a plastic bag & wrap the downstem up in it then pour salt & alcohol into it & you guessed it shake vigorously & rinse. If you want to clean your bowl as well you can put that in a bag, fill the bag with salt & alcohol & go from there, just make sure the salt will fit in the bowl first!

Okay that's it for today. More tomorrow. Bye.

Day Two: A Short Essay About Dickwaving.

2010-06-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

No seriously, this entry is to convey one thing. I love Beatmania IIDX.

Anyhow, for those of you who are new to the game there is a whole hell of a lot for you to learn & you will never learn all of it unless you've got aspies so why don't you just read up on it here & Here

Basically the idea of the game, if you're too lazy to click links is to make music with seven oversized keyboard keys & a turntable. The result is a shitstorm of grey, red & blue lines that will give you a seizure if you're prone to it. No rly. Turn your speed modifier up & crank that shit to eleven. Beatmania has got a slightly bad rep in the states as the only US release was the dreaded Beatmania for Playstation 2. Of the five decent songs there was another 30 or so terrible songs including but not limited to covers of Celebration, Toxic, & You Really Got Me Beatmania kind of failed to deliver. Not to mention G4 decided to not even research the game which resulted in Adam Sessler calling Beatmania a "Guitar Hero Ripoff". Dear Adam Sessler & G4 television as a whole: Beatmania IIDX 1st Style (the next generation version of the original 5-Key Beatmania) came out in 1999.

So with twelve years under their belt the game itself has overcome many changes. Starting with my least favorite change is the revamping of the level system of the game. In the beginning there were three modes of difficulty: Light 7 - 7 Keys - Another. The highest level of difficulty in the game as far as numbers go is a Flashing 7 which is (you guessed it) a Level 7 that flashes. At the release of 10th Style Konami introduced players to Level 8. Next came IIDX 11th Style, or more commonly known as IIDX RED. Flashing 8s were introduced things started getting really crazy difficult.

& then.. Just as everyone was getting settled in with the new IIDX Konami dropped IIDX 12th Style Gettin Some Slpash Beats HAPPY SKY! Oh, what's this? Light 7 is now Normal? Well, at least 7 Keys is.. Wait why does it say Hyper? Okay, whatever.. LEVEL 12?!?! What.

Now, I understand that the level system was in need of a revamp, but they didn't need to go as far as to call Light mode "Normal". The game originally was just a step up for 5 Key players, now it's the biggest Bemani game they have so it's natural they'd want to make it easier for newcomers. Thanks for that when I was playing 6th Style, only had Hi Speed 4 & the game was very unforgiving. I'm glad theres beginner mode & normal mode before you even get into actually playing the game. It's stupid, I really shouldn't hate on a game for making it easier for newcomers buuuuut... The newcomers that come in will occasionally ask an old timer for a song they should try, well, since level's 6-8 are all the fucking same to me I'm not really sure which song you should pick.

All ranting aside, most of the new changes are phenomenal. The new interface is much smoother & easier to read than the original that was chunky & flashy. Not that I don't love the original IIDX Styles, I just find that playing anything from 11th & up for an extended period of time & then switching to 5th or 6th Style it's going to be much more difficult because of the archaic software. Either way, they were beautiful once & the new look is a well deserved makeover in my opinion.

Unfortunately, console versions of the game only allow for so many songs. The console version of Beatmania IIDX 16th Style 'Empress' solved this problem by coming with two discs, the second disc consisting of nothing but revival songs from each IIDX Style. However, 16th Style CS is the last Style the Playstation 2 is going to see & currently I don't know where they're bringing it to next.

That shouldn't stop you from giving it a shot though, through eBay or Amazon you can get yourself the controller that was shipped with Beatmania US, the only good thing to actually come of that style. The buttons work much better than the original Konami of Japan model since they don't stick, nor do they need to be modded heavily to be used. The turntable on that controller is kind of tight though you can very easily open it up & loosen the screws for the turntable without causing any damage to your controller.

Getting the games themselves might run you a pretty penny which is kind of lame so you should go about using the power of the internet. Remember kids: most computers these days come stock with a DVD Burner...

Though I'm not advocating Piracy, I'm advocating a second chance for Beatmania in the states. If that means that people have to do things that aren't legal to play songs they like instead of stuff by Moby they should have that freedom. Not that the games in Japan aren't relatively cheap, I can only imagine that through the typical next gen systems debacle you can find the games used or even new in game stores for a decent price. But how would importers make a profit? So you're spending 60-70 bucks for a Playstation 2 Game that's going to rape you?

Alternatively you could get yourself that controller, one of these & this. You might be spending $70 bucks, but you now have access to Beatmania 1st through 16th Style so who cares right?

Either way, what I'm trying to say is that I love this game & felt like writing an essay about it. Fuck the corporate world, b'yatch.

DAY ONE SUBMISSION ONE.

2010-06-10T15:01:00.000-07:00

HELLO.

YOU JUST GOT TROLLED.

Your turn, world.

Fuck the date, let's start today.

2010-06-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

Screw it, let's build momentum. Let's do something creative everyday. Anything creative. Make a mix CD for someone & put effort into the theme or idea of it. Draw custom case art & do whatever the fuck you want to it. Christ, make videos of yourself doing something you excel in. Creativity is not limited, it's anything you want. Write a catchphrase or even just a line of text that you like more than anything.

How hard is it to get others inspired? Let's find the fuck out. Get this shit growing & make it global, let's see what people everywhere think is creative. Honestly, if you can do a handstand for a solid five minutes record that shit, do whatever you want. It's all a creative form of expression. My first project will be finished by the end of the day, what about yours?

Thanks for caring.
xox

An irrelevant idea that nobody will care about or follow through with because I'm not even entirely sure that anyone actually has read this thing ever

2010-06-08T14:43:00.000-07:00

K.

Basically I had a thought that was kind of stupid & I didn't really know how to form it. The idea would be to use blogs to go for an entire month of creativity. Every day you can do something new & each day you do not need to use the same media. For example, on day one you can go outside & take pictures or plant something. Anything creative at all, it doesn't have to be difficult or overdone it just has to be your personal self expression. If you want everyone to know that you're difficult & overdone well, then I don't want to know you.

For serious though, it can be anything you'd like; From writing or recording your own music to writing stand up comedy routines or even using video as a form of expression. The only limitations you really have are what you possess physically [ie: instruments, paint, cameras, etc] & your own imagination. You do this every day for a month & by the end of it imagine everything we could have created in that span. The average month is roughly 30 days long, if we get 20 people to participate by the end of that month we'll have 600 varying pieces of artistic self expression. Let's say half of the people choose to write & record songs, that's 300 songs, or roughly 16 CDs at 18 songs a piece.

Overall I believe it would be a very positive experience for everyone involved, artistic self expression is a very important part of what makes us human & we should use our noodle a whole hell of a lot more. If anyone is actually with me on this one please get in touch with me by leaving a comment here, tweeting at me, sending me an email or something just do it because if this could work it could turn into a really cool project. Ok holler at me later doggs pcce

Let's talk.

2010-06-04T17:39:00.000-07:00

I've always been terrible at keeping this thing current. Too much happens in such a short span of time that when it's time to write again I'm overwhelmed. This summer that's going to change. Armed with a netbook, wayfarers & a phone capable of jotting quick notes as refrence I fully intend on reviewing or at the very least writing about all the shows I'm going to from here on out.

Tomorrow night at Tazza is Kokomo whom I am very excited for. I love Cordey. His music is energetic & really dark most of the time. Similar to Venetian Snares although in my opinion Kokomo is definitely noisier. For sure that's a good thing. Excellent music to just jam out & rock out & hit people to. Not to mention Cordey has been my buddy since I first started going to underground shows in ProvvyDance. I can still remember the first time I set foot inside Narwhal Arms, Cordey's then home/my favorite venue ever. It wasn't anything special & I was quite early, so Cordey explained that when they say things like 9pm they end up meaning 10-10:30pm, though being the nice guy that he is he allowed me to take a seat inside & wait for everyone to get started. Since I'd already done my small tour-de-bars in downtown I figured I'd hang out.

The venue really wasnt much, just a large room as a performance space with random types of art all over the place, generally just really random. I could tell right then & there that this was my place. After a while I became a regular fixture there for the shows that I liked, until of course everyone left & it became what it is today: an empty shell of what once was fantastic parties.

But you can't call it a party, it's a show, but to most people it really is just another party. I guess that's what separates me from everyone else, I'm actually there for the music. Not to say most people don't show up for the music or anything, but it really seems to me that doing blow is just so much more exciting than being sober & actually watching the performers. I guess I'll never understand why the line for the bathroom in most of these places is longer than ever, but that could just be because I'm totally & completely against that shit.

Oh well, whatever it's not drugs I'm talking about, it's music.

During the time I knew of Narwhal Arms I saw many great bands, from EAR PWR, to Juiceboxxx, to Javelin to Future Islands. Every show was better than the next & even the last show ever performed there just left me wanting more. There's something really special about performances like that. Bands that have that kind of effect are really lasting, at least in my mind. I'll never forget the night we formed a mosh-pit to Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus immediately before Juiceboxxx tore the roof off that place. It really seems as if every show I go to is the best show I've been to & it's wonderful.

Keeping everything positive can be tough, but with the right music scene it's not at all hard. It's not about fitting in or being a part of anything it's just about music. Fuck anyone who believes you've got to dress, act & look the part in order to be a huge fan of that genre. Either way, it's always been music for me. For my entire life I've been interested in every aspect of music, from the bare essentials needed to perform & record music to watching my own tastes age & define themselves. I remember many years ago when I was into pop punk, or even earlier when I was into "Gangsta Rap". One could say I was quite a trendthumper, but I'd have to disagree. It's always been what I was exposed to that I enjoyed. Why else would I hate what's being played on the radio these days, even if it is trendy? I mean shit, Lady Gaga is fucking blowing up everywhere & I would pay an exorbitant amount of money to slice her throat, so I mean what's that say?

Oh right, it says that I'm one of those faggy ass indie fucks who only likes bands for the first few listens & then forgets all about it. I guess you'd be right, but overall you're wrong. All music old or new holds a place in my heart. I will always remember what I enjoy & what I used to enjoy. Ironically it's always been the same, really, it just had to come full circle for me to realize it.

Goodnight moon.
xox

MATH THE BAND POST ABOUT MATH THE BAND ABOUT MATH THE BAND ABOUT MATH THE BAND ABOUT MATH THE BAND ABOUT THE BAND CALLED MATH THE BAND.

2010-06-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,

Today we're going to take time out of our day to talk about Kevin & Justine, more formally known as Math the Band! One part Andrew WK the other Dope-Ass-Casio-Core-JAMS.

Truth be told, up until last year I had no real idea who these dudes were, other than the fact that they were casiocore awesomeness similar to Atom & His Package, though, having no way to hear their music I just kind of forgot about it, until Foo-Fest. They were one of the three or four bands I went to see during Foo Fest. Since they played an early show they were actually the first band of the day for me. It really was a great experience. I've seen plenty of bands with a large amount of energy perform, but theres something different about Math. Lots of dancing & jamming & having a blast. I was instantly hooked.

I'm not big on local music, mostly because what's local to me is straight up trash. West Warwick & Coventry really arent known for their electronic music culture & thus it ends up just being nothing but terrible pop-punk/screamo shit that I listened to when I was 16 & severely lacking positivity. Either way, the second Math's set was over I was ready for the next show. That's how it always happens, I guess. If a band is good enough to leave you wanting more you'd better believe you're going to their next show. I can't really remember when or where the next Math show was, but since the beginning of this year I've seen them as many times as possible. Each show better than the last.

The only problem I suppose with these shows is that in Providence it seems like people just don't start dancing until the headlining act... Maybe it's 'cause they're not drunk enough by the first set? How that's even possible is beyond me, it's not like shows in Providence ever start on time or anything...

Either way, this isnt about that, this is about how awesome MATH THE BAND is. Currently on Tour with MC Chris they're dealing with a certain level of criticism that really should never have applied to them. You'd think nerdcore rap & nerdy casio music would go hand in hand, but it seems like the MC Chris fans really dislike the fun that Math brings to the table. Fighting fire with marshmallows Math the Band on twitter re-tweets the messages of hate for people with actual taste [outside of what adult swim tells them to like] these nuggets of comedy are fucking hysterical. Either way, it makes me sad.

UMMMMMMMMMMMM I kind of lost the initiative to write so I'm going to end this there. I love you Math the Band.

Upcoming overhaul.

2010-06-03T22:35:00.000-07:00

Gonna be fucking with the layout of this thing, updating the sidebars & figuring out some sort of scrobbler, that way I don't have to type in all the artists I like. On top of that I'm going to be making a layout that's a bit easier on those of us with those cute little netbook things.

On top of that there will be much more content as I will be reviewing a few albums that are near & dear to my heart in the coming weeks. On top of that; KOKOMO is playing a show saturday night & I am all too excited for that, maybe I'll stay sober this time & remember to actually remember it all this time. I'm also considering opening this blog to more of a 'this is what I like' kind of thing since that's all this shit is anyway.

The [REAL] Problem with Music

2010-06-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

Okay so every now & again I feel compelled to express my opinion on certain genres of music. 9/10 times this turns into a bullshit argument amongst faggots who are total shut-ins. No really, it's actually a serious problem. People don't seem to understand that musical taste is definitely a form of one persons opinion. Hell, I barely understand this because I hate people who have no taste. But I guess theres a difference between actually listening to real music & listening to japanese garbage from video games. You don't speak japanese, don't try & act like you're so super cool by listening to the shit. I have no problem with Bemani music, when I'm playing Bemani games. That's the only time I want to hear it. I do not care to listen to this music when I'm not playing these games. Why? Because I actually have tastes that expand outside of my hobbies.

So who'd'a'thunk that saying that rap is good music & a valid form of expression would cause an argument? I mean really, rap is so popular these days, you'd think that most people might be sick of it but at least they wouldn't start bullshit arguments... Think again. You've got to imagine that people who can't even appreciate rap are definitely ignorant racist shut-ins & it's true. Music might be opinion, but it's definitely fact that those who hate rap are racist faggots.

I mean really, who else would look at a car pulled over by a cop & say (about the driver) "Oh, what a surprise he's black." Then again, these are the same people who believe smoking is bad for you but eating nothing but fast/junk food is A-OK. Sorry dudes, while my lungs are getting black your arteries are getting clogged the fuck up. That's okay right? Your arteries only allow blood to flow to the heart, right? I mean, sure you need your lungs to breathe, but you most definitely need your arteries for your entire body to work. So while I'm puffing on my cigarette I'll remember that all the junk food you idiots eat is killing you just as fast as my cigarette is killing me. We all have our vices, so nothing makes yours any better. It is terrible to think about how most people are so ignorant as to not even realize what they're eating IS BAD FOR THEM.

But that's what you get when you let the internet & video games educate you. That's not the point of this post though, the point of this post is that having any sort of conversation about music that doesn't begin with "I LOVE METAL & SUCK DICK" is going to end in an argument. & to me that's a huge problem. Why can't we have our own opinions anymore? Why is it that most people these days seem to think that while your opinion is invalid because it's an opinion theirs is bible fucking law. I don't get it, is the world really that full of ignorant scum? Fuck it though dude, these are the same people who went to see MC Chris with Math the Band opening & decided to hate on Math the Band. Hell, they wouldn't be at a rap show if it wasn't sponsored by Adult Swim anyway, so why in gods name should they like the opening band? Even if that very same opening band has more talent in their index finger than MC has in his entire body they're still gonna hate it because it's unfamiliar to them.

The familiarity thing really kind of bugs me, it's like if you haven't heard of it then it sucks. Honestly, I wouldn't believe it if it weren't the truth, but I was there. I saw Math the Band & left halfway though MC's set. I was upset, five people were dancing for Math, /everyone/ was dancing for MC. I get it though, but fuck, Math the Band is way easier to dance to. I guess it's because faggots will listen to their false idols even if they tell them to jump off a cliff. MC Hesh says "Dance, monkey, dance."

I'll put another example on the table, I have a friend who really likes Ronald Jenkees but absolutely hates rap. Uh... Dudes, Ronald Jenkees is a self proclaimed instrumental rap/hip-hop artist. His music is specifically designed for Rap. However, rap music is repetitive, but Jenkees isn't? I don't get it, hell, the few songs that he does rap on are more repetitive than most radio rap out there today.. There's nothing wrong with that, I mean the guy's autistic for fucks sake. But still, he's a white dude who actually has mad respect for rap & hip hop, that's a very rare trait these days. Countdown til someone states that you have to be autistic to enjoy rap.

Either way, all the excuses are the same; "It's repetitive" "I just hate the people who give it a bad name & try to act like that" "The image it portrays sucks" etcetc. I'm sorry, do you people have a problem with fun? I mean really, I don't even /drink/ & I enjoy songs about getting drunk in the club. Fuck man, I hate going to clubs too, how is it possible for me to even like these things? I mean, the music doesn't relate to me in the least bit but I can still enjoy the shit out of it. I still hate most of Lil Waynes music & I really hate Soulja Boy but shit, at least those dudes are out there living it. The american dream of being so in debt to the music industry that you pretty much have to be a dancing chimp pumping out the same repetitive songs after the other. Who cares? If you've ever read "The problem with music" by Steve Albini you'll know that the music industry is basically the biggest pyramid scheme ever, but really, without it what would we have? Everyone has to get paid, since money is the only real motivator in this country & I have no problem with that, but the reason for all this garbage 'rap' is because it's what the general public wants to hear. Not many people care to hear about living in poverty & selling crack, not to mention the Notorious B.I.G, Tupac & BIG L are all dead. Not to mention, they're still selling records even after their death, where the fuck is that money going other than the greedy ass music industries pockets. Whatever though, they're dead & there's not much anyone can do about that. Either way, if Big & Pac were still around do you think for a second that this club music that's disguised as rap would even exist? Fuck no, people would still be dying over what they listen to.. Is that really something worth getting fucking shot over? You prefer the east coast to the west coast therefor you're going to get fucking killed. Yeah dude, Rap definitely should have stayed the way it was in the 90's.

Oh well, I guess you're the same type of people who only played GTA to run people down & kill people with no consequence. & I suppose that's my whole problem with the thing, it's obnoxious. Everyone I know says that the golden age of rap was the mid to late 90's & I really don't see how they see it that way. Maybe it's because that's when rap was more dramatic & real, I mean shit, people were getting shot & killed then! God forbid rappers these days not want to get fucking shot, so they write songs about getting drunk with friends, having sex with women (something most people who just sit around inside all day & play video games & barely interact with others know nothing about) & smoking pot (another thing shut-ins believe is worse than what they're doing to their bodies with fast food).

SO FUCKING WHAT? It sells! That's what the industry wants, they want to move units & not have to worry that their latest investment is going to bomb & never be heard from again, I mean shit, they just signed him for 5 records after all. I guess people just don't want to be depressed anymore & they just want to listen to positive music about positive things. I mean shit, you're right, rap should totally be about robbing people, killing people, being poor, having to fight to survive & selling drugs. That's what the general public definitely wants to hear, right? They want to hear suffering & misery? I'm sorry, but I just don't believe that. People want to have fun & be positive. The only reason the industry has progressed this way is because it's what the general public wants. So fucking what if you don't want it? The industry doesn't give a fuck about you. No really, do you think they really care that one of the million trillion billion people who bought that album didn't care for it? Fuck no, they're too busy bathing in a bathtub full of money.

Fuck it though, you people suck. No really, if you lack appreciation for real music & then proclaim that the soundtrack to Silent Hill is the best thing ever you need to go get killed. Or alternatively you can move to Japan where you will live in complete misery. No really, the fact that most Japanese people really don't like Americans even if you can play IIDX on doubles or you can pass 40's on Pop'n you're still going to be hated in Japan. It's a fact! Japanese people just really don't like Americans. Sorry, you're going to have to get a new life goal, faggots. Or I mean, you could move there & be picked on until you're basically forced the fuck out.

Whatever though, grow up idiots.

I LOVE YOU BLOG FRIENDS. YOU'RE ALL TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Now open to the public OR how I am going to fuck with the layout of this thing OR o hay world out there.

2010-05-31T18:30:00.001-07:00

OKAY SO WE'RE JUST GONNA STOP FOR A SECOND HERE TO LET EVERYONE KNOW THIS.

Today is Quit Facebook day, okay, easy enough who needs a stupid social networking site that doesn't give a shit about you or your privacy? So we're just gonna click on deactivate your account here in the account settings page... Okay! We're done, great let's just x out... Oh wait a minute what's this? A new email! Yay! Oh, bummer it's from Facebook telling me I've deactivated my account.. Well, I suppose I should read it, maybe they want to do something cool like give me a million bucks to come back, or maybe even just allow me to post animated gifs & not have my privacy fucked with.. Let's see then.

Hi Michael,
You have deactivated your Facebook account. You can reactivate your account at any time by logging into Facebook using your old login email and password. You will be able to use the site like you used to.
Thanks,
The Facebook Team

Now is where it really rubs me the wrong way. Does Facebook keep everything or does it just keep your account & URL? The answer is everything. From your pictures, videos & notes down to your status & other wall posts (ie: youtube, etc). I don't understand this concept I guess, but when I say that I'm going to quit & deactivate my account I shouldn't have it so easy as to just log right back in like nothing happened.. Or, should I? It's a good feature but if that's the case the same thing can be done by just logging out & going away forever. My epiphany in the whole situation is that deactivating the account is silly, but not using the site anymore isn't.

But is it really that easy? Since Facebook integrates itself into all the major websites when you favorite or digg or whatever the hell you people on the internet do on those sites, your Facebook is going to be updated. So even after you've quit Facebook if you don't change the settings on those other sites your page will remain active. I just want to know how we're even people anymore at this point? Sure it's social networking, but if you don't want it anymore you've got two routes: Log out of Facebook but continue to post because other websites are still integrated with your Facebook OR you can "deactivate" your account which is the same thing as logging out except only Facebook the conglomerate corporation are the only people that can see it & since we've found out Mark Zuckerberg or whoever doesn't really give a fuck about our privacy what's going to happen to that information?

Oh, I don't know

Overall, I don't mind Facebook only knowing what youtube videos I happen to enjoy, it can be useful or even the least bit entertaining for anyone who doesn't have me hidden yet, but what's the point of saying we're going to quit Facebook then? Because we can simply log back in & be done with it, they have our information anyway so what the hell is going to happen when /everybody/ leaves? As is everyone who wants a Facebook needs to have a cellular telephone with a paid plan (prepaid phones dont work with it) so that means that through this they (being Facebook's x-many staff members) can pretty much pinpoint your location through that.

So what's going to happen if we eProtest? I mean really, if everyone leaves Facebook for something new what's going to happen? I'll tell you what, Facebook is just going to sell your pictures & information for affiliate marketing right before cashing out & abandoning their offices.

Whatever though, who needs it, the internet is the internet is the internet. Web 2.whatever needs to get fucked though, just because more people are on this place doesn't mean they deserve to have it so easy as to find everyone they know in one place & converse with them. I remember a time when the internet was a place to learn about music & generally just get away from reality & everyday life, not interact with it.

& on that note I promise I will start writing in here more because I want to because I can. Cha cha cha I love the internet. Oh & there's a really good mixtape for free right here & here

THANXOXOX
FOR
LISTENING

oh you mean this blog isnt abandoned?

2010-05-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

let's talk turkey bloggers. it's been something like two months since i last updated & fucking forever since i even said anything relevant up in this bitch. BUT i guess you can say i'm moderately inspired to try & start this thing back up. not having a job or vehicle offers so much artistic freedom like that.

ANYWAY I've seen & heard a ton of really bad ass things lately & let's go on a journey through what I like because fuck it it's my blog & I'll enjoy what I enjoy, you're just reading it.

Article one:
Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends 1 & 2

Some excellent audio/visual work from Black Moth Super Rainbow's Tom Fec, alternatively known as Tobacco as well as Beta Carnage & others. The videos consist of about 45 minutes or so of some slick jams from Fucked Up Friends as well as demo/early versions of songs off Tobacco's latest "Maniac Meat". In addition to the music is clips from several movies, telemercials, pornographic material involving aliens & workout videos. Tobacco has stated his music should have a sense of paranoia to it, but I think that he's a pretentious jerkoff & who cares what I think? The music, however is spot on & the visuals are entertaining as hell [what I'm trying to say is hallucinate to this shit.], I can only imagine that these videos would be really good to have if you were throwing a party or even just had some friends over for a night of drinking.

Where to Buy? to the best of my knowledge both of these DVDs were sold on various Tobacco tours & were limited to a certain number of copies. Check eBay or Craigslist if you're feeling lucky, but don't get suckered into paying an assload.

Article two: PROVIDENCE IS STILL AWESOME ALWAYS.

Load Records Presents [in 2004 lol] Pick A Winner!

Load Records is an independent eletronic/experimental/noise/what-have-you label based in Providence, RI. This dvd is a collection of videos from bands & artists on that label from Lightning Bolt to Paper Rad to White Mice. This really is a great video that can only be described as TV-Drugs, or drugs for your television. Certain videos stand out a bit more than others, I'm looking at you "My Favorite Homepage"

Unlike the previous audio/visual chicanery this DVD still is available from Load Records website. Use google because I'm lazy or work on finding a way to fix the internet so that everything obscure & awesome just comes direct to your desktop with no typing involved. kbye.

SIKE. More awesome shit about providence because providence is the best oh yes better than all the rest. LETS TALK LOCAL ACTS THAT /DONT/ SUCK.

Kokomo: Previously Ben Fino-Radin & Lyndon Cordero Lopez but more currently just Cordey & his gear. So yeah, kokomo is a one man shitstorm of dope jams all day. Dark, harsh, industrial beats so heavy they'll make you sick but so fun you'll start punching bitches in no time. Kokomo shows typically involve one of the following things happening; Destruction of perfectly good reading material, mosh pits, broken equipment & GOOD TIMES. KokoCordey really just loves to put pretty much everything he can into his performance running through the audience or moshing. I can't really call it moshing though, I'd rather call it interpretive flailing.

Math the Band: Since the start of this year it'd be safe to say I've seen math the band something like 5 or 6 times & I honestly can not wait for the next show. Currently on tour with MC Chris the Duo of Kevin & Justine rock the fuck out with casio jamz that would make Atom & his Package look tame [no I really mean this]. I've always had a love affair with the type of music they make. It's fun, it's poppy, driven by synths & guitars & lots of positivity, it's just what I want to hear. There really is something to these guys, because whenever & where ever they play I make damn sure to be there & rocking the fuck out hard enough for the whole crowd. Fuck, I can't even dance & I still manage to make that shit work when I'm hearing those tunes.

ARTICLE THREE BECAUSE SHIT I'VE BEEN WRITING FOR A WHILE.

THE FEELING

Juiceboxxx, AC Slater & Amy Douglas present one of the dopest jams I've heard in a long ass time.

No really, this shit is fucking excellent. It's like they were to take every cheesy-awesome-techno-dance-dance-revolution song & mash them together & they came out in 1993 with C&C Music Factory & Zombie Nation & everything amazing ever. No for real. Try to imagine a rave where not only is Mickey Mouse jammin' on top of a speaker, but Super Mario is macking it to bitches on the dancefloor. It's so generic that it's 100% perfect. The combination of early 90's rave music, the incendiary backing vocals of Amy Douglas & the one & only JUICEBOXXX really make this a party jam for the whole summer. Put the windows down, crank it up & bang it everywhere you can. One day when I'm a super fabulous fantastic DJ kind of guy I'm going to open a club where I play this song at least once a night every night because it's that good. DEAR 92 ETERNAL YOU GUYS SHOULD TOUR SO I CAN COME ROCK THE FUCK OUT.

Either way, seriously sick jams as well as some really awesome remixes by Luna-C, Udachi & Kastle each one holding it's own with the general feeling of the early 90's rave scene. Do yourself a favor & be on the lookout for this because you want it. Oh yes, you want it.

AND THAT'S IT GTFO WHOS TAKING ME ON TOUR WITH THEM NO ONE BECAUSE I'M NOT EVEN A ROADIE OR A GROUPIE OR ANYTHING WITH AN IE AT THE END OK LATER I'LL BE BACK AT THE END OF THE YEAR TO TELL YOU WHATS GOOD [NOT RLY]

eat your face off.

2010-03-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated here in a while, mostly due to lack of a good place to listen to music/lack of listening to music. I guess you could say I got bored with listening to music & needed to get adventurous & go to shows, you were right, but at the same time it made merely listening moderately tame. The most exciting things about certain songs are about how performers climbed on me or threw trash cans at the audience. Blah blah blah nobody cares, let's rage.

Oh & on another note, if you're reading this site from my twitter & work in the biz, get me a job.

Thanks.

xoxox

formspring.me

2010-03-20T22:25:00.001-07:00

ask me anything [about music] http://formspring.me/ohgodhowdidthis

Zoop 2 as seen through the eyes of my girlfriend

2010-02-09T23:52:00.001-08:00

This is my ZoopII experience.

I will admit I had never really listened to the Mountain Goats prior to meeting Michael/Juggatard. I had heard of them/him years ago but the few people who had suggested it were desperately trying to be indie and obsessed with bright eyes & similar, being a metalhead I had little interest in primarily acoustic music. Having grown out of my RAWR METAL ONLY phase, Michael's impressive collection of tMG appealed to me and changed my opinion. The month leading up to and the the drive to ZoopII, tMG was all we listened to. Having spent nearly every summer of my life in upstate New York and attended hundreds of shows/events/etc, I believed it would be an average trip. As it were, seemed more like an adventure when it was over.

The ride up was stressful, and our directions lead us there on obscure routes. We arrived later in the day after it had begun to lightly rain, and set up. Upon successfully setting up the ridiculous tent that hadn't been touched since last year's camping trip we began attempting to relax after being cooped up in a car with a smelly, flaky hippie for over 6 hours. We walked around the farm and Michael told me all about his experiences and memories of ZoopI. Forgive me, I'm terrible with names and from this point on, anyone I met will be referred to as I remember them. Which probably isn't their name.
After a trip to the local deliverance-like town store [where they sold beer, tires, old cigarettes and light bulbs] we started drinking and organizing our belongings. Around this time I met Colin and his girl, both of which were super awesome and some other people, including a very serious guy with a porno mustache, a blond dude with a camera who didn't seem to like Michael much and of course, John himself if only for a brief moment. By this point, nearly all of the beer we brought from RI is gone and we're drinking the Pabst we got in hickville. I've made friends with the farm cat.

I don't remember much of Samson's performance, other then noticing Michael was getting hyped and the creepy hippie was trying to hook up with random guys.
Peter Peter Hughes, whom I regret to admit I had not heard of before, preformed an excellent set of music in the same vein as several of my favorite musicians. This when I noticed boy with the awesome hat, who offered me some lovely whiskey. I hadn't noticed he had offered Michael the bottle as well, and would have objected had I known. Michael can drink a good amount of beer, but following it with strong whiskey was probably not the best choice. He of course, was too drunk to realize that. Michael is drunk and the stinky hippie is nowhere to be found.
Not that I minded the last part.
After the awesome Mr Hughes performed, I spoke to John who is far more charismatic and genuine then I could have imagined. He too noticed Michael was drunk, and encouraged him to hold off for a bit. This is probably around the time I starting handing over our Pabst to John, with the intention of running out before "I'm-not-drunk!" Michael could find them.
I loved the set and was thrilled by the performance as a whole, as well as hearing a few songs I really enjoyed. I chose to skip the last song, in favor of some fresh air and sat outside on the deck rail. Not too long after, Michael found his way to me. I had been drinking, so I don't really remember when boy with the hat, camera guy or the strange Russian girl who slept in our tent showed up, but John soon came to join us as well, and I continued to shove beer into his lap.

I believe this is when things went from being typical, to really strange.

I had already been sitting outside at the fire when everyone began to gather around the fire. I was freezing cold and pretty drunk by this point, and content to be in New York amongst other happy/drunk people. When Michael wandered over, Colin had begun to play thus sparking a sing-a-long. Not too soon after John came out to correct Colin and played "How to Embrace a Swamp Creature", a favorite of mine. Having seen the video I didn't know was recorded then, I find it mildly amusing that Michael & I are pretty much the only people visible besides John.

After John retired and the group began to die down, I wandered back to the tent to sleep off the drunk, leaving Michael behind. Upon returning to my tent, I found the random Russian girl sleeping and listening to the nutcracker on repeat. I crawled up in my flimsy sleeping bag and tried to ignore the nutcracker hell and snoring hippie outside. Maybe a half hour or so after I fell asleep, Michael found his way back to the tent and collapsed beside me.
I went back to sleep, and a half hour later awoke to him getting up. Or so I thought. Still drunk and practically sleeping, he tried to stand up and was prevented from doing so by the tent. Completely unaware, he decided his sleeping bag and pillow were as good of a place as any to relieve himself, and began pissing everywhere.
Still in nutcracking bliss, I think the Russian girl was oblivious. I started yelling and trying to find my glasses. Almost immediately after he decides to lay right back down, and despite being nearly blind I grab the wet stuff and throw it outside. Sober, wet and really annoyed I grabbed my backpack, glasses and left him my own sleeping bag then headed back to the hippie's car, wanting desperately to change and sleep. Instead I froze my ass off for 6 hours until the sun rose using a dirty beach towel and the dirty hippie's sweater as blankets. Giving up on even trying to sleep, I fixed my makeup, rested my head against the window and tried to ignore the fact that I had forgotten my cigarettes in the tent and did not want to go outside, no matter how badly I needed nicotine. Not even 15 minutes later Michael arrived, having searched the farm looking for me, with very little memory of the night before after leaving the fire. So with less then an hour of sleep, I began day two of ZoopII.

The flaky hippie tells me it is imperative that we leave after the show, for some ridiculous reason he hadn't disclosed previously. I have to tell strange Russian girl [who won't make eye contact with me anymore, probably was awake] that we can't stay again, like we originally had said we would and should we have to find someone else to crash with. I'm pretty sure at this point, she hates us. She said something in Russian, walked away and I never saw her again.
Hippie is being flaky and complains of a headache all morning. I tell him to sleep all damn day if it means he'll be ready to drive all night. At this point I'm slightly irritable, and the vegan jerky which I consumed pounds of in my drunken haze was tearing my stomach apart. So, I had the breakfast of champions. Warm, flat beer and a cigarette.
We relax near the tent for a bit and clean up, packing up whatever we wouldn't need. Hippie continues to be an annoying drag and I decide not to drink again.
An epic adventure lasting us a few hours resulted from wandering in the woods stoned and following a stream wanting to find a river/lake to swim in. By this point I'm mildly hallucinating from dehydration, exhaustion and lack of sleep/food [& am convinced something in the forest wants to eat me]. By the time we get back to the farm, the hippie has gone from annoying to risking a fist sandwich and we ditch him. Wanting to swim even more, we go into the Watkin's Glenn town with the intention of exploring the local "gorge" with Colin and his girl.
Having been upstate countless times, I had been looking forward to a river, dam, or lake and was highly disappointed to find a man-made hiking trail of stacked stale rocks which resembled a sewer drain more then a swimming area. At some point Colin went off to get a tattoo. I'm further into my exhausted haze and the people working in the tattoo shop make me nervous, having more fingers then teeth, overalls and a thick hick slang [they too may want to eat me]. By this time I'm out of cigarettes and smoking potent pure tobacco, which gives me a head rush every time.
I convince Michael to get ice cream, and we sat in the creepy town while Silent Hill-like alarms went off on seemingly 15 minute intervals, driving into my head like a rusty nail.
At some point we found Colin and headed back to the farm. With the hippie nowhere in sight, we sat in on the Q&A, where I discovered John was a metalhead and gained new admiration for him.

Before John began the request set, the hippie was passed out in his tent with his feet protruding. I then proceeded to dump all my empty cans from the night before into his tent. I'm not sure why, probably because he was "That guy" who wasn't enjoying Zoop and generally being a jackass to us the entire time [partly because I was pretty delusional at this point]. The entire show was excellent, and I loved every second of it. After California Song, Michael and I said our thank yous and good byes to everyone.
An hour or so later we were on the road headed home. Michael had already passed out in the backseat, and I faded in and out in the passenger seat. The stinky, lame hippie was driving.
I'm going to stop here and briefly explain that I had lost my license almost 6 months prior to ZoopII, and hadn't driven since then. It was intended that Michael would trade off with the hippie half way.
45 minutes into the drive, I felt the car drift off the road and vibrate loudly on the grooved embankment. For a brief second I felt the headlight brush the guardrail and immediately woke up and demanded he stop the car. I love Michael dearly, but you couldn't wake him if the car was on fire and upside down. Once he's asleep, he's dead to the world.
So I got behind the wheel and attempted to ignore an oncoming anxiety attack. In order to prevent myself from falling asleep in my extreme state of delusion and exhaustion, I blasted the only cd we had, a 20+ song burn mix of old, rare or live tMGs songs. I had not eaten, slept or drank anything besides beer in two days, and had run out of cigarettes/tobacco before we left. Unable to locate our directions or map, I drove 6 hours in the dark by memory alone, convinced I was driving a spaceship down the Mass turnpike.

All in all, ZoopII was probably the most metal experience of my life.

Located on my blog: a sappy lovestory about me & the Mountain Goats

2010-02-03T07:11:00.000-08:00

I sat down to write something about how I'm a sappy useless tool piece of shit who talks shit on the internet & then blogs about musicians who he really loves, but would like to stop having dreams about on a nearly nightly basis.

For serious, I'm sick to death of hearing [in dreams] that I am to be presented a complete recording of both Zoop concerts. For those of you who dont know, Zoop is an event held by John Darnielle & Farm Sanctuary East in Watkins Glen, New York. It's a wonderful two night event in which you get to camp out on a farm sanctuary & take in the scenic NY landscape & learn about the animals on the farm by day & by night be rocking out to the Mountain Goats. John has stated somewhere that he plans on doing Zoop every other year, so that means the next Zoop is in 2011[but heres to hoping.]

Okay, so here's some zoop history.
The first Zoop was held June 16th & 17th of 2007. Zoop II was June 13th & 14th of 2009. There is a recording out there that exists of both nights of Zoop 1, however it has yet to surface. On the internet archive [archive.org] there is a recording of the entire set from the second night & 1/3rd of the set from the first night. Why this is personally sad to me is because well, when I went to Zoop I got drunk the first night & while it made me have a more social & fun time it did make me forget what was played that first night. Thankfully the internet is there with the setlist & it legit makes me cringe to think I forgot about that. But that's that, it's been almost three years now, I feel like I'll never get to hear the songs played on the first night of the first Zoop again, unless I listen to other recordings of them. But I dont want to. I want to listen to them. I want to hear what I personally experienced, I suppose.

On the first night of the first Zoop the lineup was
Perry Owen Wright
Peter Peter Hughes
the Mountain Goats [John Darnielle solo for the most part, Peter Hughes on vocal bass.]

On the first night of the second Zoop the lineup was
John K Samson
Peter Peter Hughes [Note: I'm going to go off about this set later in the entry.]
the Mountain Goats [again, Solo.]

Night two of Zoop has always been a solo all request set. The first year John set up an email address people could mail in their requests to. Basically the idea was you'd pay a certain amount for a certain song era & you'd have that to pick from, the proceeds all going directly to Farm Sanctuary. Since they're letting you stay there, this is most definitely one of the best ways to donate if you're not someone who's all about the cause. The second time around John didnt have time to set up an email address so he brought a large pad of paper out during day 2. basically you wrote down what song you wanted to hear & how much you'd pay for the song. I'm pretty sure golden boy went for something unbelievable, I really would like to know that total, as the initial price on it was something like $100 & people kept just throwing money up there when they heard something they liked. It was really a very excellent experience.

Lets talk about Zoop II night 1 for a second shall we: I was so fucking hammered that I made Zoop look like House Party 2, this was Zoop II & I was belligerent! Excellent. & now, in true Zoop fashion, I'm just going to forget to tell you about this part for a while.

I will tell you that once we finally got there we started drinking & listening to music inside our tent, as the night went on & everyone got ready I was about 12 beers deep & feeling great. Eventually I had a discussion with John that I dont even really remember anything about despite the picture we took together, in which you can tell I am already that drunk. My girlfriend has an excellent story I've been kicking her to write about Zoop II as she came with me this time around. It really was a nightmare to be around me, I suppose. I'm sorry.

Either way, John K played & it hit home for me as the first song he played, "I hate Winnipeg" was a song that was introduced to me by a late friend, who coincidentally died a month after the first Zoop. It kind of went from being one of those nights where all is right with the world to one of those nights where coincidence hits hard & you're hammered. I stayed seated for that one song, mostly because I was drunk & I felt the urge to just keep moving, I guess it was because my mood went from mindbendingly positive & happy to depressing nostalgic mess. I thankfully battled this, I'm actually kind of sure that's when I ended up talking to John, but since I'm just now piecing it together & writing about it it's going to be a little disjointed.

I fought my way out of thoughts that werent meant for Zoop & managed to have a good time, I decided to stop drinking until John went on, at the behest of John & my girlfriend. That plan went well, until the fateful moment in which Drunk Will handed me his bottle of 100 Proof Ol' Grandad because I was one of the only other people dancing during Peter Peter Hughes' set. Now, I'm just going to outright say that while I do long for the complete Zoop bootleg, I would die happy just hearing Peters set again. I mean that, for real. Either way, I drank a lot of that whiskey, because I was drunk to the point of not tasting a damn thing. Which can also account for the mass amount of vegan jerky I ate despite the terrfying aftertaste. Sorry guys, I know vegan food can rule, but keep jerky to the carnivores, pleez.

John played a great set. He always does. He's amazing, the true messiah. Oh, yeah. I was really drunk too so you can imagine I not only missed out on remembering the rarities he played, but managed to consistently try to harmonize [poorly] with the songs while dancing & generally being that guy. Apparently there was an accapella No Children somewhere in there, which definitely sounds awesome in my book. Anyhow, after the set, like always there was a bonfire & John came out to tell Colin Pound he was playing a song of his completely wrong. Theres a youtube video for this moment, it's very dark, but you can still see me & my girlfriend directly on the right of John.

I managed to stay up for a bit longer, singing & dancing & being drunk, then I went to the bathroom a nearly shitpissed myself. I'm pretty sure I missed the toilet, but hey I TRIED TO CLEAN IT UP. I aint no Tucker Max shitting all the way across a hotel lobby & shit. Immediately following this debacle I exit the toilet, having cleaned myself up to an extent I ran into PPH who I ended up talking to in the bathroom, belligerent ass blacked out drunk about how his set was amazing & how my best friend had died the same year as Zoop but since Zoop was so awesome it kept my memories positive & a bunch of dumb drunk asshole bullshit. I then proceeded to pass out in the tent.

I'm leaving the rest of the story to my girlfriend. Let's hope she writes it sometime soon.

2010-01-02T07:01:00.000-08:00

2009-12-18T04:58:00.000-08:00

My top five whatevers of the year because blah blah fucking blah.

Okay no seriously.

Top Five Singles of this year

5. Juiceboxxx - 100mph
4. Tobacco - Hairy Candy
3. Future Islands - Flicker & Flutter (Javelin Remix)
2. Future Islands remixed by Pictureplane - Old Dreamer
1. Future Islands - the Happiness of Being Twice.

Top five albums I heard this year [no, this doesnt mean it came out this year, it means i heard it this year.]
5. Math the Band & the Secret of Mystery Island
4. E-603 - Torn Up
3. Stuntrock & REGRET instruction manual Issue #3
2. Math the Band - Don't Worry
1. Dan Deacon - BROMST

Top Five Movies of the Year [because why not]
5. Funny People
4. The Room
3. the Hangover
2. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
1. Watchmen

Top Five Shows I Went to This Year
5. Juiceboxxx [All 3 times: AS220, Matthewson, Taproom]
4. Math the Band at AS220
3. FUTURE FUCKING ISLANDS
2. Dan Deacon [Every time]
1. ZOOP II with the Mountain Goats [because Watkins Glen > Providence.

EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN 3000

2009-11-24T22:12:00.000-08:00

OKAY, SO HERES THE SITUATION KIDS.

I kind of abandoned this place for whatever reason. Mostly due to the fact that I dont spend hours behind a computer anymore. This is going to change when I have a laptop, but for now all 0 of you readers can just deal with me being lazy.

So I guess we'll start relatively close to where we left off with ZOOP II with the Mountain Goats.

ZOOP has always been very close to my heart, ever since I made the drive with a couple of random strangers three years ago I have always cherished the memories of this great event. Unfortunately, the second time around I managed to get so drunk that I pretty much ruined any/all chances of remembering things like setlists & banter & etc. I do remember that John kept telling me to slow down, even when it's my idol telling me something I cant seem to listen.

I'm not going to go off at length about this show because anyone who knows me has heard me go off about this & frankly, knowing that a recording exists & will probably never be heard by anyone but George makes me quite sad.

OKAY, SKIP THAT. There was Foo Fest which was really good, even if I did just stay for Math the Band & Lightning Bolt. Both bands put on extremely energetic, fun shows. Sun-Ra was also a really nice treat, especially for 5 bucks. The whole fest was well put together & it was awesome to see a whole block of providence practically covered in artistic expression. Not to mention, hearing the music while walking throughout downtown was absolutely fantastic. I've got a soft spot for outdoor shows, I guess.

THEN MINPINZ DIED.
Yup, that's right kids. My favorite venue in Providence is under new ownership & is no longer a venue. However, the farewell show was a memorable one at that. Mark Brown, Narwhalz, Juiceboxxx, Chris Paddock & more. Was a really great show, despite the general doom & gloom feeling, knowing that most of us were practically losing a friend that night. However, there was a moshpit to a Miley Cirus song so... Damn hipsters & their drugs...

With the loss of my favorite venue I had to seek out new venues to catch bands in, thankfully, Firehouse 13 is practically in cranston & hosts plenty of bands that I enjoy watching.. Like Math the Band, who I got the pleasure of seeing in October. It was a halloween show, but the band didnt really make much information that costumes would be cool available, so most people just showed up. It doesnt help that a lot of kids there just werent super into it like the band was, & they definitely werent very happy. Well, the girl wasnt.. Oh well, you should know if you're going to play a show in Providence it's probably going to start late. Whatever. At the end of one song the singer dropped his microphone & it landed at my feet. After I handed it back to him he said he was going to "play it where it lies" so he played a cover of She is Beautiful by Andrew WK at my feet. Yus, excellent.

Next up was Dan Deacon & Nuclear Power Pants at MWM in Pawtucket. I love seeing Dan perform almost solely on the fact that I always get in for free & at this point it's almost like he knows me or something. I'm the early guy with the oil. Both bands played killer sets & JACOB BERENDES was there with his new band & they played a bunch of songs I really liked so that was awesome. White Mice also played about 3/4ths of a song before the fire dept showed up after they had an electrical fire. What can you do? Well, those there to mosh to White Mice just picked NPP to mosh to instead. It was the only Dan Deacon show I've been to with a moshpit & it was great. I also got to watch my girlfriend throw this dumb bitches who pushed us around during a song. Dans set was fantastic & he played some newer material, seems a bit darker than his current stuff, but that's good because dark is good.

I was supposed to be seeing the Mountain Goats at the end of this month, but since I am poor & prefer going to shows that say in the $6-10 range, I'm not.

HOWEVER, Juiceboxxx did play at the RISD tap room the other night with MNDR & Kokomo [CORDEYYYYYY] & that was a great set. During "Sweat" Juiceboxxx decided since he couldnt get on the speaker that was next to me [I was blocking it] that he was just going to climb up on my shoulders. My back & heart hasnt been the same since. Then he threw a trashcan at the crowd & they crowd-surfed it. Tons of energy in his performance, so happy he did three tours that hit Rhode Island this year.

I dont really have much more to say, actually. I'm trying to find another job, but that's obviously a joke. Oh well, this isnt a personal blog, so let's keep it about music, shall we?

xox

okay seriously.

2009-11-12T08:13:00.000-08:00

i'm going to start writing in here again because i feel i need to creatively express myself once more. however, i've got to run off to work so i'll have to work on this later.

basically going to go with a recap of where we left off & a few more shows i attended etcetcetcetcetc.

ok bye.

ps: fuck twitter in the facebook.
get off the internet, social butterflies.

DEAR WORLD

2009-05-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

I can't even begin to describe what the fuck happened in Provvy Dance last night.

I mean, I know for certain that there was an all girl rap group called Wide On who sung mostly songs about sex & STDs, i'm actually almost possible that they're the girls rapping on STD Fury by Javelin so that's pretty cool.

There were other acts, a dance troupe & fiinally, EARPWR. I really really really really really really really really really really reaallylylllyyyy love these guys. They're really cool & friendly people & when the show start's it's all about high-fives & dancing. Prior to their set I had a chance to sit down & smoke a joint with them & their tour manager [ALAN JACKSON SHIRT LOL]. I really would have liked to had stayed after Ear Pwr but my friends were getting tired which was annoying, so I didnt even get to see the rest of the acts.

Either way, it was a really good time over all & Ear Pwr is awesome & a fun time & THEY BETTER COME BACK TO PROVIDENCE SOON KTHXLUVYABAI

seriously ya'll it's been too long.

2009-05-19T04:54:00.000-07:00

it's so hot in provvy dance that it rains boiling water

5/14
What Cheer?
Dan Deacon Ensemble
Teeth Mountain
Special Super Secret Guests JAVELIN
FUTURE FUCKING ISLANDS
& etc

Located in various parts of the wonderful city of Providence, Rhode Island, this two show extravaganza was just off the fucking hook. I took notes & also managed to interview Samuel of Future Islands fame. This isnt going to be one of those articles about how the music was precise & blah blah blah nono, this is going to be about how these musicians & this scene is what keeps me interested in music, art, & this fucking state. Keeping it alive & well is something we must do. Too often performance spaces are being shut down or even destroyed & it's just not worth it to me. seriously, i'd choose fort thunder over shaws supermarkets any day.

but this isnt that article either.

this is stuff i wrote into my phone that day
"okay guys its that time again, dan deacon & his loveable cast of baltimore bad boys are back. first there was the show at risd, scheduled to be outside but moved into an auditorium due to rain. the rain did not stop the what cheer? brigade from doing their thing all over market square. excellent energetic performance from these guys, A++ would see again.

the brigade led us inside where dan warmed us up & then we were off. I missed the last few songs due to being in a 2 hour parking zone & not wanting to get a ticket, turns out I was in a loading zone & got a ticket anyway. right on! either way he played get older, baltihorse, paddling ghost & I managed to catch the end of woof woof & most of of the mountains during a soundcheck.

I guess overall I was pissed because while one of the members of the crew, geoff, said we could park in the lot where the show was being held, & while he watched me battle the jeep into the spot as soon as I got out of the car he walked over & told me I had to leave. thanks dickbag. fuck providence cops. here's hoping that the late show doesn't get busted or something stupid."

lol foreshadowing. arrived at secret hipster warehouse with the posse in effect cold rippin up the set, talked with geoff about the oil situation & eventually met up with sam to do my interview. what follows next is what i wrote into my phone because i suck & dont have any serious recording equipment currently.

first & most importantly i'd like to let you all know that typically samuel smokes his own rolled bali shag cigarettes however on that night he was smoking a different type of tobacco that was not as good, either way his first statement was that smoking during an interview is cool. so there you have it.

what was the inspiration for the song old friend?
its a song about me talking to myself, finding yourself as an old friend when you have time to yourself.
it was inspired by a lot of different things such as leaving greenville & getting better, getting out of that scene & getting clean. starting over.

growing up what kind of music did you listen you & what influenced you today as a musician?
underground early 90s hiphop & roots. krs one, erik b rakim. in high school, hip hop & jazz. radiohead & spoon, neutral milk hotel end of high school. really into elton john as a kid, danzig & primus at 10 & 11. hip hop is really what influenced me.

how do you feel about providence & personally what's your favorite venue in this area?
I fucking love providence, but in the beginning it was really different. last years show got us to more spaces in providence but before that we didn't really play here too often. though, i really love narwhal arms but it's not called that anymore.

the kids are very artsy & dirty & i love that vibe.

what's next for you guys?
after the tour we're touring europe for 10 days & then writing the rest of our upcoming album. we've got 5 songs that are to be for the album, we're gonna have about a week to record the album. recording in the first week of july, totally stoked. we wrote a lot of new songs on tours last year in the us & europe & we've been playing the new songs ever since. they're already getting kinda old but I can't wait to hear how they turn out in the end

so if smoking is cool then you're going to love what happened next.
after the interview was over Sam gave me a beer & we hung out on the bus for a little while longer just generally bullshitting. over all it was really cool & eventually some pretty cool people made their way to the bus, not to name drop or anything but I know that I smoked pot with BennyAdventure & Andrew Burt [OF TEETH MOUNTAIN] as well as my cold chillin krew & a bunch of other people on the bus.

eventually the show started & i heard teeth mountain, they're actually really really good but quite undescribable, i'll just leave it at the fact that Andrew OF TEETH MOUNTAIN is a pretty cool guy & everything about the whole show was just extremely chill & awesome, as andrew said "STAY CHILL"

Future Islands came on & it was just awesome, Manny was rocking face there again & I was totally pumped to see him & his crew just because he's at all the Future Islands shows, just like me & we always bump into each other. Dancing all over the place & generally just having a great time, Future Islands always puts on a fantastic show, & while I know the new record will be worth it, it's going to be sad to not be seeing them as much.

Javelin played & it was pretty cool but they didnt play soda popinski [or i missed it due to being on the bus smoking weed] HOWEVER, I did get to hear a completely fantastic live remix with vocals by Sam of Flicker & Flutter. Honestly, it was one of the musical highlights of the night, I think they should consider recording it.

CLIP CLOP UP THE STREET FEEL THE RAIN FEEL THE HEAT
YEAH.

Around 12:30 I guess Dan Deacon started to play & I was there to get pictures & video, though I dont really know how to upload any of that [other than the pictures which i'll see what i can do because lol cameraphone] so we'll just talk. Started the performance all warmed up since the early show & we were off, he played Get Older again & Red F. I cant remember much else but I do remember that right as he was going to play Silent Like The Wind the police had entered the parking lot & were trying to clear it out because a lot of people were trying to get in or something.

See, the show wasnt really supposed to be public, I dont think either way the building filled up & the bouncers if you could call them that were basically like "well, it's full right now so you cant come in without a stamp but if people leave...", so theres a bunch of people just standing outside pretty much & the Police show up & are trying to get kids to leave so we're trying to be really quiet & it's sort of working so Dan decides to lead the group in a rendition of feliz navidad which went over well until the drummers started to play, despite stopping a minute later the cops were on their way upstairs. A friend of mine from the back watched the police officer go from stone faced cool guy to HOLY FUCKING GOD HOW ARE THERE THIS MANY FUCKING OH MY GOD.

Either way, we all got kicked out & went home for the night. Dan gave me a hug for the bad luck I'd been having with his shows that day, but over all it was one of the better concerts this year. But they're all the better concerts this year. Everything is beautiful here & I love it.

Dont go changing.

I know what you're saying.. ILLEGAL...

2009-02-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

OKAY HERES THE DEAL GUYS

i happened to have gotten my dirty little hands on something reeeeally sweet yesterday. oh yes, the long awaited BROMST by Dan Deacon.

i'm really at a loss for words here
when i say this could quite possibly be the best record
i have ever heard.

everything about it is just perfect. i dont know what to say. the xylophones on Padded Ghost to the maniacal melodies intertwined with each other on songs like Woof Woof & Red F. i really just dont know what to say. sure, it's an attempt at a more serious album, but it's just too fucking fun! it drops in march, so go buy it as soon as you can.

oh & the instrumentation on the record is spot on & amazing.

WAY TO GO DAN, A+++++++++++++++++++++++++

BEEN TOO LONG NIGGAS.

2009-02-10T19:20:00.000-08:00

OKAY

JUICEBOXXX IS COMING BACK TO PROVIDENCE.
as220 feb 23rd

WITH JAVELIN.

Obviously you can read about the antics of both these musical acts if you go back to september/august, but here's the first thing i ever wrote about javelin.

"okay, javelin.. i guess they were pretty, okay really interesting. but really good & pretty fun to jam out & dance to as a warm up. some friends of mine werent digging them, but i had no problem."

then i wrote

"javelin finally came on with a little delay & fucked up false starts, they finally have shit ready, so they're jamming & its great. they played soda popinski & i lost my shit, spinning my shirt over my head & dancing in front of their 3 and a half foot stack of hyphy as fuck, spraypainted boomboxes. at one point tom from javelin was on top of a bass drum dancing & singing while george did his thing on the floor. they played susie cues & oh centra then they ended, but it still wasn't over. everyone was having a wonderful time, why make it stop so soon[lol 2am]? after checking the police situation they were granted another song, they played STD fury which is a great song to get stupid to. they ended the set with vibrationz & everyone made their way to the door."

when i got back to my friends house [thanks for missing out pal] i told him, since he'd asked earlier when i played some javelin for him "how does one perform this?" i finally had a really good answer "very energetically on top of a bass drum in a loft."

& heres my first whatever about juiceboxxxxxxxxx

"next up we had JUICEBOXXX who'd already drank 4 pre mixed kaluha white russians so he was self admitted sick to his stomach & we were all going to be disappointed as fuck. after warming himself up to Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen he kicked the show into full fucking effect & jammed the night away. running & rapping & dancing through the crowd you could just tell he was having an absolute blast, not to mention he was obviously wasted. the wasted definitely came into play at the very end of his set when he decided it'd be a great idea to remove both my hat & my glasses in a spiralling motion from my face."

I GUESS WHAT I'M SAYING IS
COME OUT & FUCKING DANCE

2008-12-25T21:26:00.000-08:00

I'M TELLIN YA'LL THIS RIGHT NOW BCUZ I LUV U
this man right here is going to do big things in 2009

CHARLES FUCKING HAMILTON DROPPING MAD KNOWLEDGE ON YOUR ASS

first & foremost this 21 year old punk has released through various blogs something like 7 different mixtapes. the samples & beats he manages to create/use remain entirely fresh & i'm just saying this right now, this guy right here is honestly going to be one of the biggest rappers ever. i mean this with all my heart, the kids got serious potential. let's just hope he never releases a record of fluff, like oh so many rappers have done recently.

okay so i dont know if i'm going to be able to do this or not

2008-12-23T08:09:00.000-08:00

DONTSWEATTHESTEREO
presents
THE TOP TEN BEST ALBUMS OF 2008
because honestly guys i dont know if i can even think of more than that.

but fiiiiiiirst...

HERES THREE ALBUMS THAT WERE ABSOLUTE TRASH
BURN IMMEDIATELY

3. The Faint - Fasciinatiion
honestly, guys you were doing okay what happened? it's like heres a whole bunch of retro-active 80's sounding new wavey punk that's actually good & then.. this album.
fuck you guys. gtfo

2. Islands - Arms Way
i've seen so many people give this record a good review & i'm like why? it's absolutely terrible. pretentious epic pop garbage that is almost a polar opposite of their first, good album.

1. [HI H8AZ]Kanye West - 808's & Heartbreak
the ONLY WAY this record can even be considered as anything that isnt horrible is to say that Kanye West trolled a nation of fans by putting out by far the absolute worst album he's ever managed to produce. i mean SERIOUSLY, the entire record is like dubstep lite with that god awful robot voice modulator that has NEVER been cool.

fuck you Kanye West, because you're a faggot & that means you suck a lot of dick.

OKAY THEN LETS START THE SHOW.

10. Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends
one of the more original releases of the year. the smooth greasy feeling of most of these tracks is something that hip hop & 'techno' [god how i loathe that term] have been missing for a while. i'm not here to go on about etcetc genregenre i'm here to say that this album is very great for kicking back with your friends, smoking a blunt & letting the night go wherever.

09. The Hood Internet vs Chicago
if you're not aware of it, the hood internet seems to be a group of dudes all interested in the same thing: making mash-ups using an indie rock/pop song & a more popular mainstream rap song. this record is pretty much exactly that but instead of being just single songs it plays as one long mix the whole way through. definitely good for a party as the raps are familiar enough but the instrumentals are a bit more interesting. fun to watch people when they figure out whats going on.

08. Ratatat - LP3
so i dont reeeallly listen to these guys but brian hogan does & i've heard their music in various mash-ups so i like them & this record is no exception. i like it, so does brian. we rock out to the electro-funk goodness of ratatat.

07. Charles Hamilton - The Hamiltonization Process
8 mixtapes of some of the greatest hip hop ever made? yes please. a song made entirely out of windows sounds? very yes. get on this guy, world because he's definitely going to be soaring to popularity in 2009.

06. the Mountain Goats - Satantic Messiah EP
you didnt actually think that i was going to go this whole list without some Mountain Goats did you? tMG is great, John Darnielle is the best non hip hop lyricist of the past two decades, nobody can front on that.

05. E-603 - Something for Everyone
yeah yeah, this was released last year, but i heard it this year. it's awesome. theres a full review of it on this blog so go read that if you want more information on this dude.

04. Chumbawamba - The Boy Bands Have Won
an unbelievably long title by my favorite anarchist pop stars. this record is very mellow but all the songs are just wonderful. go track this down & find out why Chumbwamba is anything but one hit wonders.

03. Diplo x Santogold - TOP RANKING
what a wonderful mix. everything from cutty ranks to aretha franklin to devo. great beats & excellent remixes by Diplo. great party music for those who like to get down & dirty on the dance floor.

02. Future Islands - Wave Like Home
what a wonderful album, what a wonderful band. one of my favorite acts to come out of baltimore since dan deacon. i'm sure seeing them with dan deacon definitely helped turn me into a fan, but it was really the shows at narwhal arms [i wrote about these shows on this blog] that made me actually really love this band. on the album their music is just great, but in concert, well it's just another thing entirely. maybe i'm biased because every member of the band is really damn cool & i've seen them 4 times this year. either way, great record.

01. the Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
obviously this is my number one album of the year. maybe it's because when the drums in Michael Meyers Resplendent kick in it's like theres a giant storm brewing underneath the recording studio. or maybe it's because theres an excellent video for Sax Rhomer #1, whatever the reason, this has been & will remain the best album to come out of this year. definitely not as good as the early angry mountain goats, but as far as their post 4AD recordings goes it goes like this

1. We Shall All Be Healed
2. Heretic Pride
3. Tallahassee

SO I THINK THATS PRETTY GOOD, OK

OKAY SHOWS OVER GTFO

this is it guys my final draft of the girl talk article*

2008-12-07T08:12:00.000-08:00

*interview coming soon because gregg showed up late leaving no time for me to interview him. also submit any grammatical errors or anything else you might notice if you'd like to me. thank you.

Okay dear friends. Girl Talk. If you havent heard this man yet, where have to been living? Seriously, touring & flying to almost superstar status without any sort of commercial marketing. Girl Talk, or Gregg Gillis if you want to get technical is a brilliant mind. An ex-biomedical engineer from Pittsburg PA, Gregg got his start making glitchy abominations of pop & rap music. You probably didnt hear this record. He was playing mostly art galleries & other art/music collectives throughout various cities. Hidden throughout Providence & other cities in the country & wonderful gems disguised as loft apartments & warehouses are where some of the hottest & sweatiest dance parties can be found. But that's not what we're talking about, Girl Talk has climbed his way through the ranks & managed to land larger shows in larger venues. I'll be the first to admit, I never got to see any of his earlier, smaller shows & that my friends, is a damn shame. It's not a shame that Gregg is getting popular, it's quite amazing & great for him. Though, without this undergroud (for lack of a better word) art/music scene Gregg would've never gotten his start & these places are going quite unrecognized & even destroyed in many areas. Not quite destroyed, but renovated & turned into loft apartments & condos, overpriced ones at that. But again, I digress.

Gregg's second CD "Unstoppable" is where you really start to notice just how capable he is of mixing music together. Unlike "Night Ripper" & "Feed the Animals" "Unstoppable" is not one long track to be played in order, it's just a fun ride through a whole ton of great music. Still glitchy, but using that to his advantage to create unbelievable beats using lyricists vocals, plenty of drums & a good amount of bass, all the while keeping it glitchy & fun.

"Night Ripper" I guess is where you could say Girl Talk really came into his own. I can still remember the night I heard it & how wonderful it was. Being quite the musical snob, I am generally very picky about what I'm listening to. Girl Talk didnt give me time to be picky. He was going everywhere. Boston, Ludachris, Biggy, Neutral Milk Hotel, Elton John & that's just naming a few. It was an entirely amazing mix of everything under the sun & to top it all off, it was fun as hell to dance to. I went to my first Girl Talk show shortly thereafter, it was at the now defunct Living Room which is a mostly punk venue from my experience, definitely not the smallest I've been to in Providence. The show was great, somehow I managed to walk into the backstage area & end up drinking Jack Daniels with Gregg & Dan Deacon. When he went on, so many fans rushed the stage the power went out. After that was all settled it was just a great dance party for the rest of the night, most of which I spent on stage dancing & generally having a blast.

"Feed the Animals" is the Fourth & most recent record made by Girl Talk. Just like Night Ripper it's to be played as one long dope as ever track. Seriously, if you can't dance to this music just get out. How do you explain it? I mean, we got the Unicorns, Lil Wayne, Twisted Sister, Faith No More, Wu Tang Clan, & an incredible mash of "Roc Boys" by Jay-Z with "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead as the underlying beat. Mind you, that's only half of the first half of the record. Not to mention this is FREE. You can pay whatever you want for it, just like Radiohead did earlier this year. If you pay a certain amount you get the actual CD as well as high quality mp3s, though in all honesty if you're using .flac files to play your music, either you have an epic system or you just love wasting your harddrive space.

That being said, lets go back to what I said about no commercial success. Outside of a recent "I'm a PC" advertisement for Microsoft, Girl Talk isnt getting played on any radio stations or music television channels. But, how can this be? Why, 95.5 WBRU are the ones holding this concert at Lupos, how does that make sense? To be completely honest, it doesn't. I'm not trying to disrespect BRU, it is one of the better local stations in Rhode Island, however, they dont play the music I enjoy. Though, they're holding a concert for Girl Talk even though they cant really play his music on their station. It's blatent copyright infringement. Though in the same sense, it really isnt. He's making music his own by meticulously mixing each & every sample at the right moment with the right sample, the end result being that of a masterfully produced consistant flow of brilliant party jams guaranteed to make even the most elitist music snob's happy to be there & jamming out.

His technique is not a terribly new thing, the "mash-up" genre of music has been around for decades with groups such as Negativland, the Tape Beatles & the Evolution Control Committee but never before has any artist managed to let every sample flow flawlessly with each & every sample. The trick here being the drums, keeping the tempo & beat of the songs are countless drum samples strategically placed to keep the songs flowing, the end results being a downright club-banging-party-jam that anyone can enjoy.

11/29/08
I hate to sound like a prick, or an elitist, or anything terrible, but honestly tonight's show was a giant letdown. Lupos isnt a big venue, but it's certainly bigger than places like the (now defunct) Living Room or Narwhal Arms. Everyone there was basically inspired by youtube to be a fucking retard. Getting on stage was basically the worst move ever & I'm pretty sure a fight broke out. I also didnt have a chance to interview Gregg due to hassles with Lupos security. Anyway, if you were on the stage you might have been one of the four to five people who fell around me & couldnt get up. It was a legitimate blur of people, no longer a party but a combat zone as one guy stated. To top it all off, the further back on the stage you are the less you're hearing. Great job everyone at Lupos, seriously. You knew what was going to happen, why not let him play on the floor? Either way it would have been ridiculous just due to the fact that the set was less than an hour long. Thats right kids, a Girl Talk show got out before 10pm on a Saturday.

Nothing Gregg did tonight made me less of a fan of his music. What the unbelievably large crowd did made me less of a fan of his performances. I certainly appreciate his music & what he's doing for music as a whole, but lets face it, being tossed around, falling down, or getting injured in any way isnt really what the show should be. How the hell are you going to dance if you're getting crushed & pushed around all night? It would have been just a little bit better if people could have gotten their shit together & generally not act retarded, but still, there were xteen year old girls puking before Gregg even hit the stage, so obviously it was going to be a trainwreck.

A big problem I noticed was security holding down/moving Greggs table from side to side. This caused people to get pushed back creating almost a wave of people falling down. Girl Talk is a great musician & his music is fun for everybody ever, I highly suggest you listen to him, but dear god stop going to shows. In 2004 Gregg was playing in peoples apartments & lofts, now he's playing larger much nicer venues but it's harder for him to really perform I think.

If you take a second to search youtube for girl talk stuff you'll eventually come across footage of shows from the early days. The best example I can give is the video for Touch 2 Feel as it's basically all footage from before unstoppable came out. Though, I believe that Gregg is almost as ironic as a musician as his mixes are, what I mean by that is that while he can never be played on any radio station, BRU is not only holding him a concert but it's sold out & shit gets super out of control. He's bringing the underground to the mainstream & it's cool, but it's getting out of hand. I spent most of the night up on the balcony watching as a sea of people couldnt even move for themselves. It looked like they were all tied together & could only move together, think the Mighty Ducks.

12/6/08
For comparison I went back to Lupos a week later, security wasn't very much fun, the show however, was. Starting on a bad note, I went in with tensions rising, to say the very least I was upset. I would just like to say that Lupos is an awful venue with awful staff. Maybe it was just the night, because of the band that was playing, or maybe they're just all douchebags. Whatever the reason I managed to get hassled by a bouncer (including but not limited to an extended pat down & things of mine pocketed by the bouncer.), I got to listen to the lady outside in control of the smoking section talk about how she likes to kick people out & a bouncer/security guard elbowed me out of the way after the show was over so he could put a trash can down behind where I was standing, at least he said excuse me while he was doing this.

The Girl Talk show was very lax on security because I'm thinking they thought, "Hey, these acts arent going to bring any violence let's overbook the venue & not care, woo-hoo!" which, I guess is a great way to run a Girl Talk show, but it was a free for all, all night. Another major issue was sound in the venue, if you got pushed to the back of the stage you weren't hearing a god damned thing. So everyone is getting pushed & shoved & I guess trying to "dance" but it's all a blur. It was too crowded, understaffed & just not what a Girl Talk show should be. I hate to say it, but Lupos as a venue is too nice.

Final thoughts on the matter, if you're going to see Girl Talk try for either a Festival or a small venue. I hate saying it because I've said it about almost every last one of my favorite musical acts. I dont even know why I dont like larger or more posh venues, I prefer more intimate shows I guess. Maybe I'm just a snob, whatever the case I think the problem here is that Girl Talk is getting mainstream, which is great for him with no commercial help what so ever but it just means that the shows are going to get bigger & bigger. Still, it's all good for him, I just doubt I'd want to see him anywhere that fits more than 300 people.

***

yeah yeah yeah

2008-11-24T22:32:00.000-08:00

i've not updated in a while.

the dudes who made wonder showzen & xavier apparently put out a record. it's interesting, but nothing to write home about.

it's really obnoxious & noisy, but still a decent time. there's not a terrible amount of noise or glitch so it's not painful to listen to. however, kanye west's new cd is painful to listen to. practically none of the songs are any good at all & pretty much none of them are any bit up beat or even fun to listen to. i feel as if listening to it i gained nothing, nor did i hear any good rhymes or anything even the least bit clever. hell, one song really didnt even sound like it belonged on a so called rappers cd, it was some bizarre almost indie ballad of sorts called robocop.

i guess i'm not a big fan of the whole computer microphone thing because it's played like fuck.

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

the decemberists are doing a singles series. the first in the series "always the bridesmaid" isnt half bad. i'm looking forward to the rest of the series. theres also a bitchin cover of "i'm sticking with you" on the cd, while it is great, i think i might have heard too much of the song this year.

big dumb face is a band that doesnt get enough credit ever. duke lion fights the terror is one of the best albums with no definitive genre i've heard in a good long time.

oh, this is what i've got written for the girl talk show that's saturday. if you think of a question you'd like me to ask him please let me know about it.

Okay dear friends. Girl Talk. If you havent heard this man yet, where have to been living? Seriously, touring & flying to almost superstar status without any sort of commercial marketing. Girl Talk, or Gregg Gillis if you want to get technical is a brilliant mind. An ex-biomedical engineer from Pittsburg PA, Gregg got his start making glitchy abominations of pop & rap music. You probably didnt hear this record. He was playing mostly art galleries & other art/music collectives throughout various cities. Hidden throughout Providence & other cities in the country & wonderful gems disguised as loft apartments & warehouses are where some of the hottest & sweatiest dance parties can be found. But that's not what we're talking about, Girl Talk has climbed his way through the ranks & managed to land larger shows in larger venues. I'll be the first to admit, I never got to see any of his earlier, smaller shows & that my friends, is a damn shame. It's not a shame that Gregg is getting popular, it's quite amazing & great for him. Though, without this undergroud (for lack of a better word) art/music scene is going quite unrecognized & even destroyed in many areas. Not quite destroyed, but renovated & turned into loft apartments & condos, overpriced ones at that. But again, I digress.

Gregg's second CD "Unstoppable" is where you really start to notice just how capable he is of mixing music together. Unlike "Night Ripper" & "Feed the Animals" "Unstoppable" is not one long track to be played in order, it's just a fun ride through a whole ton of great music. Still glitchy, but using that to his advantage to create unbelievable beats using lyricists vocals, plenty of drums & a good amount of bass, all the while keeping it glitchy & fun.

"Night Ripper" I guess is where you could say Girl Talk really came into his own. I can still remember the night I heard it & how wonderful it was. Being quite the musical snob, I am generally very picky about what I'm listening to. Girl Talk didnt give me time to be picky. He was going everywhere. Boston, Ludachris, Biggy, Neutral Milk Hotel, Elton John & that's just naming a few. It was an entirely amazing mix of everything under the sun & to top it all off, it was fun as hell to dance to. I went to my first Girl Talk show shortly thereafter, it was at the now defunct Living Room which is a mostly punk venue from my experience, definitely not the smallest I've been to in Providence. The show was great, somehow I managed to walk into the backstage area & end up drinking Jack Daniels with him. When he went on, so many fans rushed the stage the power went out. After that was all settled it was just a great dance party for the rest of the night, most of which I spent on stage dancing & generally having a blast.

"Feed the Animals" is the Fourth & most recent record made by Girl Talk. Just like Night Ripper it's to be played as one long dope as ever track. Seriously, if you can't dance to this music just get out. How do you explain it? I mean, we got the Unicorns, Lil Wayne, Twisted Sister, Faith No More, Wu Tang Clan, & an incredible mash of "Roc Boys" by Jay-Z with "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead as the underlying beat. Mind you, that's only half of the first half of the record. Not to mention this is FREE. You can pay whatever you want for it, just like Radiohead did earlier this year. If you pay a certain amount you get the actual CD as well as high quality mp3s, though in all honesty if you're using .flac files to play your music, either you have an epic system or you just love wasting your harddrive space.

That being said, lets go back to what I said about no commercial success. Outside of a recent "I'm a PC" advertisement for Microsoft, Girl Talk isnt getting played on any radio stations or music television channels. But, how can this be? Why, 95.5 WBRU are the ones holding this concert at Lupos, how does that make sense? To be completely honest, it doesn't. I'm not trying to disrespect BRU, it is one of the better local stations in Rhode Island, however, they dont play the music I enjoy. Though, they're holding a concert for Girl Talk even though they cant really play his music on their station. It's blatent copyright infringement. Though in the same sense, it really isnt. He's making music his own by meticulously mixing each & every sample at the right moment with the right sample, the end result being that of a masterfully produced consistant flow of brilliant party jams guaranteed to make even the most elitist music snob's happy to be there & jamming out.

His technique is not a terribly new thing, the "mash-up" genre of music has been around for decades with groups such as Negativland, the Tape Beatles & the Evolution Control Committee but never before has any artist managed to let every sample flow flawlessly with each & every sample. The trick here being the drums, keeping the tempo & beat of the songs are countless drum samples strategically placed to keep the songs flowing, the end results being a downright club-banging-party-jam that anyone can enjoy.

i feel like i've almost got to apologize to baltimore

2008-10-05T20:22:00.000-07:00

ROUND ROBIN, MASS ART. OCTOBER THIRD TWO THOUSAND EIGHT.

okay so we got like

height
future islands
videohippos
dj dog dick
nuclear power pants
dan deacon
height
blood baby
double dagger
lizz king
adventure
& i'm sure i've forgotten more than a few.

i cant tell you what everyone played, or what the fuck happened. but i'm basically in love with lizz king. her videos were absolutely amazing & magic. keep an eye out for her stuff, she's got serious talent. future islands was great. i remember they were playing & i was walking to the bathroom when i saw manny of the last future islands show in providence fame. so i chased him down to the front row of where future islands was playing. he recognized me & we danced with sammy for the duration of the song.

if you dont know, the bands were all set up around the perimeter of the room & when their light came on they played a song. there was a specific rotation, but it was not clockwise or counterclockwise. thankfully, i learned when dan would be playing early, so i was up front for every song i saw him perform. this took a toll on my back, but it was worth it. i danced like a mad man & sung along with dan & the crowd. he played wham city last & we all rocked out. i'm actually in a few photos i found on flickr. i hope more people post their pictures & videos i saw being recorded.

when i showed up i was confused cause i didnt know who was going to be waiting for me to help us carry the veggie oil from the car a few blocks over. sammy from future islands saw me almost immediately & came over to hug me. we talked for a minute & he told me & chris where to store the oil so we trekked back to the car & smoked a joint on the walk. 10 minutes later our arms were tired & we were dropping the oil off. another 10 minutes & we're checked off on the guest list & walking into the venue. we had a chance to check everything out before being kicked out because they werent supposed to be letting people in. we respectfully leave & re-enter when its safe.

all 55~ musicians/artists circled around the crowd & did some neat prayer-esque things as well as connected hands & walked circles around the crowd.

then there was loud music, adventure, dan deacon, future islands, AMAZING. everything was lovely. eventually my pals from boston showed up & we took a walk to the fenway river to smoke some herb. got back to the show, danced a bit. dan deacon played more. dog dick played a song with a very strange looking toy/circuit bent instrument type thing & rocked the place. i held shit down for dan deacon, heres some pictures thanks to dreamsofboston on flickr. i fucked with the lighting a bit just because well, lets face it. i'm kind of a photoshop/myspace whore.

&

i also took some pictures with my crappy camera on my phone, so i guess i'll go ahead & post them here.

dog dick

sammy from future islands is basically my best friend.

dan deacon getting ready for wham city.

okay that's really all. the show was basically too amazing that my words would honestly would not be able to even come close to explaining how awesome it was.

OK GOOD NIGHT THANK YOU COME AGAIN.

ps hi everyone on the round robin tour, come back to new england [more specifically providence]

um holy shit?

2008-09-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

so this isnt a review or anything special, but uh. 1. i'm going to see girl talk in november for free since i'll be on the guest list. 2. i'm getting fucking published.

FUCK YEAH.

PROVIDENCE RIPS MY FACE OFF. LITERALLY.

2008-09-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

okay! it's that time once again! i'm back from a super sick amazing awesome incredible show & i'm here to tell you about it!

NINETWENTYFOURNARWHALARMSPROVIDANCE
the lineup was as follows
RAINBRO
NARWHALZ [of sound]
DJ DOG DICK
JUICEBOXXX
ADVENTURE
FUTURE ISLANDS

Rainbro's set was probably the most chillout noise thing i've ever heard. i dont know exactly how to describe it, it looked like he was using an old computer keyboard or something to make the music he was playing. his set started early so not many people got to witness it, either way, he was a pretty neat dude. i really liked when he started glitching windchimes & other powerful wall of sound noises together.

after Rainbro, Narwhalz went on. i can only describe them by asking you to do me one favor. picture this: noisecore made with gameboys. yes, i am serious. this was one of the cooler things i've seen all year. i've always been fascinated with how people make music/noise with gameboys. it all started a long ass time ago when i discovered nullsleep. this is not anything like nullsleep. this is almost as if venetian snares & stuntrock had a kid but he came out as a yellow gameboy color. when Narwhalz dropped the beat the dancing just came through. it was a really great time. at the end of his set he started talking & joking, eventually saying that he smoked too much weed. since i appreciate that i pumped my fist in the air & he started to just insult me until he stopped talking. so obviously after his set i had to walk up & shake his hand. it was lovely, we all laughed & lost hearing in our ears & danced a little when he stopped giving a fuck & dropped the fucking beat.

from Narwhalz to DJ DOG DICK i was hanging out in the back & eventually Michael [see my last post about a future islands show at narwhal arms] & his buddies were sparking a blunt to some biggie, so i popped down on a couch next to the bass player from future islands & blazed up with those dudes. "gotta love a good rotation" seriously, it was like a figure threven. so DJ DOG DICK comes on & one of the dudes i was smoking with was like JOHN CUSACK! which was hysterical because at a glance he did look very similar to him.

i guess DJ DOG DICK did some noisy stuff, but at the same time he started to rap & sing & dance a little bit. over all it was pretty cool & i would see him again given the chance.

next up we had JUICEBOXXX who'd already drank 4 pre mixed kaluha white russians so he was self admitted sick to his stomach & we were all going to be disappointed as fuck. after warming himself up to Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen he kicked the show into full fucking effect & jammed the night away. running & rapping & dancing through the crowd you could just tell he was having an absolute blast, not to mention he was obviously wasted. the wasted definitely came into play at the very end of his set when he decided it'd be a great idea to remove both my hat & my glasses in a spiralling motion from my face.

Adventure was up next & boy oh boy was it neat. he played a bunch of songs with a keyboard & a mac & it was very dancy & fun & i had a great time. i'm pretty sure he finished his set with a cover of the neverending story theme song which basically just made me flip my shit. prior to his set he actually came out to the hallway where i'd walked to get a little air & have a smoke & apologized for Juice's behavior, which made me laugh only because i didnt really care as it entertained me & everyone else was also having a good time & the vibes were amazing.

finally Future Islands played. before the set i smoked a blunt & a clear joint with some new friends named mark & manny, two brothers from mass who brought out a ton of people & had just seen Future Islands the night before. sammy of future islands is also really damn good at rolling cigarettes cause i didnt even see him roll one right before they went on. they played beach foam followed by old friend which was great. they played pinnochio & told a story about 3 years ago in providence with dan deacon & 10 to 15 unenthusiastic kids who danced for dan. everything was positive & fun & wonderful & we were all dancing & having a wonderful time. they played nu autobahn & i was excited to hear that providence should be considered for the nu autobahn that connects all the great party cities. finally they played little dreamer to slow the set down to a stop. it's a song that obviously connects to most people, obviously myself. we all have someone we dream about & thats what the song is all about. oh yeah, heart grows old was in there somewhere as well, another great song about that one person who you love but you hate & can not stand. they might of played another song, but you know all that fun dance adrenaline, pot, & booze & well, you've got a short term memory issue.

over all it was a really great show & a lot of really great stuff happened. hopefully some pictures will surface. either way, a wonderfully memorable event with many mental pictures & notes that i will remember for a long time.

hay guiyzes heres some more mash up stuff that you cant get enough of.

2008-09-11T05:04:00.001-07:00

it seems like the whole ADD-mash thing has been a pretty popular trend in music as of late.

this is speaky. he's also from PA & he also makes mash up musics. wow! he's a super neat guy with his vespas & antlers. i guess he's just trying to make fun music for himself, really. i dont think he really cares what he's doing, but he's pretty decent at doing that. it's not like he'll be doing any shows [maybe he'll play his friends house parties & have the fun girl talk did.] but this shit is still fun as fuck. a lot of very recognizable samples taken & re-fixed to sound different. stealing single notes from sweet child of mine to make your own glitched up beat, only to seconds later kick in the original solo. i dont know what to say really other than this is music for jumping around in your boxers on a tennis court at night. honest.

now this is the joint. what i mean is, this is what people thought was feed the animals earlier this year. well at least one of the fake leaks. i remember at the time i never heard any fake leaks, just knew that they existed. a week or so before feed the animals was slated for web release i was in a friends car & heard "feed the animals" & these people honestly believed that the songs were girl talk. i'm not saying that it wasnt an honest mistake, or easily mixed up or anything, but everyone should know by now that girl talk is the only mash up producer guy who can actually make the shit sound ultra professional. almost as if everyone ever is in the studio with him, except it's just him & a laptop anywhere.

i'm getting off topic. mashcore v2 was feed the animals & i'm still not sure why. i dont think mr speaky had anything to do with it & instead i think someone was just trying to prank anyone who's a fan of girl talk. but i mean it all comes down to the simple fact that i am absolutely in love with variety. bite sized music is the best thing for me because i can hear a plethora of new & old music in a 3 minute period. & 90% of the time the mashup version is much better than the original [this goes for all rap any mashup guy uses. i mean this.]

okay so lets break it down for you. there are good alternatives to girl talk, these alternatives are................

http://www.worshipludachrist.com - ludachrist - BANGFEST v1 [which means theres a v2 on the way?]
http://www.e-603.com - e-603 really nerdy white hipster type dude interested in mostly indie music, some really good combinations here.
http://www.myspace.com/speakymusic - what i wrote about today, both records fo free here.

OKAY I AM DONE GOODBYE NEXT TIME I PROMISE I WONT WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT MASHUPS CAUSE ALL YOU ZERO READERS ARE SO BORED OF IT.

the obligitory i havent written anything lately

2008-09-06T20:28:00.001-07:00

well here we are, september. i've heard some decent musics & you should already know about it.

ear pwr - i like tacos & beach is most definitely the most fun record i've heard all summer [yes, more fun than girl talk, tyvvm].

a clip from bangfest that i've been trying to identify forever was finally ID'd for me by a sw8 buddy of mine & now i have a new jam

does it offend you, yeah?
definitely a hipster dance paradise. loud noisy elctro jamz.

i dont have anything else really to say. theres a new mountain goats song on pitchfork thats pretty good. i dont typically like pitchfork, but who the fuck am i to judge internet critics. especially the ones who get paid to do what they're doing.

oh yes. something i realized recently, my year in concerts [if all works out]

dan deacon [bunch of bands i dont remember]
girl talk [passion pit, pretty neat doods from boston]
dan deacon [javelin & future islands & notendo & another band i forgot]
future islands [javelin & EAR PWR & killer whales & lycaon pictus & that taaiga]
future islands [adventure, september 23rd?]
dan deacon [BALTIMORE ROUND ROBIN, hey hey future islands AGAIN october 3rd]
girl talk

what a lovely time to be me.

PROVIDENCE SPITS HOT FIRE

2008-08-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

for once in my life i can finally say i've seen a completely awesome dance party rager best concert ever overjoyed with happiness & fun, positivity everywhere. dont get me wrong, i've seen some wonderful shows. the mountain goats have yet to disappoint me in concert, especially with zoop being one of the best times of my life. dan deacon has never disappointed me either & the only disappointment girl talk has given me is girl talk for the simple fact that he doesnt come around often enough.

last time i went to see dan deacon [may something at building 16 in olneyville] i was pretty pumped for the show & i managed to hear 3 bands that i really enjoyed, two of which were completely new to me. those two bands were javelin & future islands. javelin is a tropical calypso fun time dance yr ass off & enjoy yourself duo from providence & future islands is an epic rock & roll with synthesizers trio [although when i saw them in may i coulda sworn they had a drummer.. coulda just been my cloudy imagination.]

i've wanted to see javelin all summer & when i finally noticed they'd be playing at "the corner of matthewson & washington" in providence it was an opportunity i just couldnt pass up. i got into town a little earlier than planned so i made a quick stop at trinity for a beer, getting lost in the process. eventually i took off & got some pizza then had a few more beers at a bar preeeeetty close to the space. finally i made my way up to the space the wrong way but no one seemed to mind & let me walk up through the wrong way basically [lol newfags].

i wrote a little bit about the show during & the morning after, the bands that played were:

killer whales
taaiga [sic?]
lycaon pictus
ear pwr [oh what a good time, i love you guys. come back soon please!]
future islands
javelin

killer whales was first & boy were they full of pep. it was quite wonderful, in the middle of their set someone had sparked a blunt closish to me, i noticed it & eventually was handed it by a crossdresser who ironically shares my name. also not so ironically he runs a vintage clothing shop in providence ["we sell mens clothes, too"] i might have to check out. it's unfortunate i couldnt tell you what this band was playing, because it was lovely dance punk fun, just like i wanted. a great warmup for what was to come.

the next band was taaiga, power pop with dope buildups. eventually some of the owners of the space provided a horns section for some songs which was really cool because i love horns to death. dancing my ass off i eventually find blunt #2 mikey & his boys once more. i'm really starting to feel the burn now. i'm sweating like a motherfucker, but it's all good, a few days ago at work i stole a pair of cotton gloves & cut the fingers off of em the equivalent of towel palms/backhands. not only is it a fashion statement, but it's practical.

lycaon pictus was pretty good, most of the band had pretty excellent facial hair. unfortunately it was around this time someone pulled the fire alarm thing & basically a strobing light, complete with rhythmic ringing sound began. UH OH THE PROVIDENCE FIRE DEPARTMENT IS COMING. so lycaon pictus starts fooling around with the rhythm from the ringing & their regular instruments, eventually telling us we had to leave so they were gonna play a song for us to exit to. the whole crowd was okay with it, everyone kind of just took off & made it look like there wasnt a party happening somewhere. it was excellent walking out of the place hearing the sirens coming. kinda like we're all escaping or something.

so maybe a half hour later, after some more pizza me & many others began to make their way back in. i actually happened to be in the right place at the right time in hearing "well we're gonna start letting people back in" before most everyone. lycaon pictus played a few more songs & we all had fun.

"oh man, providence... cant even put it into words."
-dvn pwr of ear pwr

ear power was really cool. raving everywhere having an absolute blast. i really love you guys & just like you couldnt put providence into words & do it justice, that's how i feel about your preformance. the megaphone was honestly a lovely touch. honestly, you guys just brought the party so much that i had to take my shirt off & act like a buffoon with two other complete strangers. it was a pretty dope time, but boy was i sweaty. who cares, i must've lost fifty pounds.

future islands was incredible.. they'll be back in a month & a half [WITH DAN DEACON]? GO. i couldnt really tell you the names of what they played, but it was still one of the best preformances i've seen from them so far, they did however open up with "old friend" so i obviously did the dancing equivalent of pouring a fourty out for my dead homiez/gone friends.

javelin finally came on with a little delay & fucked up false starts, they finally have shit ready, so they're jamming & its great. they played soda popinski & i lost my shit, spinning my shirt over my head & dancing in front of their 3 and a half foot stack of hyphy as fuck, spraypainted boomboxes. at one point tom from javelin was on top of a bass drum dancing & singing while george did his thing on the floor. they played susie cues & oh centra then they ended, but it still wasn't over. everyone was having a wonderful time, why make it stop so soon[lol 2am]? after checking the police situation they were granted another song, they played STD fury which is a great song to get stupid to. they ended the set with vibrationz & everyone made their way to the door.

when i got back to my friends house [thanks for missing out pal] i told him, since he'd asked earlier when i played some javelin for him "how does one perform this?" i finally had a really good answer "very energetically on top of a bass drum in a loft."

it's a real shame walking around providence sometimes, you can almost always find a place where there was probably art going on & yet, it's being renovated into condos & high priced apartments. there's already an article about this so i'm not going to go on forever, i just want to say KEEP PROVIDENCE FRESH.

final thought: a++++++++++++ would jam a million times over iheartuprovidence

ps: if my friends from ear pwr happen to see this page, yall'z need to get yo film developed & digitally available sometime soon plz :)

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES NOW LEAVE <#33#########3 jkheartuall

HOO HA, GOTCHU ALL IN CHECK

2008-07-31T20:00:00.000-07:00

not rly.

um, this came out of nowhere & everything, as i really dont listen to this garbage, i mean GABBA anymore. for some reason it barely interests me, even if it's probably the most punk of all electronic genres [unless we're talking breakcore, but then again...*]. a whole lot of gabba is dancefloor compatible however at the same time it's really tough to dance to. it's loud, noisy, hoovers in your fucking ear, glitches everywhere but somehow you're still raving. this record isnt really like that at all. it's very breakcore, but at the same time the guy's throwing everything in there, certain parts are downtempo hip hop jamz that are perfect for horror movies. eventually it picks up, the jungle drums [amen breaks like it isnt anyones business] pop in & you're just jamming. that's when the bass kicks in & you're somewhere else, vibrating faster & harder than your mothers dildo.

top it all off with some samples of MCs or ironic pop music & you have this record in a nutshell. so i guess if you're looking for some really decent gabba/breakcore/jungle shit then hit up archive.org & look for Broken Beats by Gammenni Amenassi.

in other news, the human highways cd is really good for relaxing but not for playing GTA4.

THANKYOUGOODNIGHT.

*semi-useless tangent about how breakcore & gabba have learned to love each other & are now borrowing certain elements from either genre

YEAR OF THE DISAPPOINTMENT

2008-07-30T10:09:00.000-07:00

the new The Faint cd is absolute garbage. i ended up listening to two tracks from it & then deleting it, it was that bad. at least the Islands cd had a couple good songs on it & i managed to get nearly all the way through before deleting it from my computer. the faint's new cd is just fucking unbearable. what the fuck happened? seriously? wet from birth was like one of my favorite indietronica records for the longest time, i didnt think they could go down in flames like they did. oh well, if you like shitty music then you'll LOVE the new faint cd. it's so bad i dont even remember what it's called. seriously, it's garbage. it'd be more entertaining if it were used as a frisbee or firewood.

in other news, i peeped The Sounds of Science by the Beastie Boys & it brought back quite a few fun memories of when i was a youth. truth be told, this was probably one of the first albums i ever bought. i still remember walking into strawberrys [later turned into an FYE], seeing it, buying it & immediately jamming the fuck out. i remember when i was a 'kid' there were a few songs i really didnt like at all, but going back to the album now i cant really find any of those songs, i like just about everything on this record. the beasties were/are still some of the best rappers alive. it's not like they're unbelievably fast or anything, but god damn they're clever. it's funny to think they started out as a hardcore band way back when, especially considering they're possibly the ONLY rap pioneers who are still recording/touring/alive.

some of my 'new' favorite songs on this album are songs i used to skip over just about every time they came on, funny to think about stuff like that. how musical taste progresses & changes with age. the beasties are some of the only musicians who've held up to my test of time. there's never been a time when i didnt like them & honestly, theres only a couple artists that i can say that for, most of which i've only known about for two or three years now, i've been listening to the beasties since i was like 12. it kinda makes me think about what the original beasties fans think, you know? like the people who were there from the beginning when they were a punk band & played short, fast & loud music, rather than their brand of punk-rap. either way, if you havent yet, get your hands on the sounds of science as i am convinced it will turn anyone who isnt a fan/hasnt heard them before into a fan.

on the other side of the globe we've got those wacky anarchists Chumbawamba with the Boy Bands have Won. first we'll talk about the title of this record. the full title is: The Boy Bands Have Won, And All The Copyists And The Tribute Bands And The TV Talent Show Producers Have Won, If We Allow Our Culture To Be Shaped By Mimicry, Whether From Lack Of Ideas Or From Exaggerated Respect. You Should Never Try To Freeze Culture. Take Your Older Brother's Hand-Me-Down Jacket And Re-Style It, Re-Fashion It To The Point Where It Becomes Your Own. But Don't Just Regurgitate Creative History, Or Hold Art And Music And Literature As Fixed, Untouchable And Kept Under Glass. The People Who Try To 'Guard' Any Particular Form Of Music Are, Like The Copyists And Manufactured Bands, Doing It The Worst Disservice, Because The Only Thing That You Can Do To Music That Will Damage It Is Not To Change It, Not Make It Your Own. Because Then It Dies, Then It's Over, Then It's Done, And The Boy Bands Have Won.

yes, that's the full title of the new chumbawamba record. kinda makes you think a little now doesnt it? really now, when you hear chumbawamba mentioned most anyone will instantly think "I GET KNOCKED DOWN..etcetc ad nauseum" & be turned off to the idea of even trying to listen to anything else they've ever done. when i first heard tubthumper i remember thinking "wow, everything other than tubthumping has serious meaning behind it, these people are legit musicians" the truth is, that even tubthumping had meaning behind it, but due to certain laws or something the liner notes of the record were severely censored so to speak & so most of that meaning i was talking about ended up getting lost in translation & chumbawamba was written off as a one hit wonder, never to be heard from again.

i mean, i dont really blame america for not really believing in chumbawamba & i most certainly dont blame chumbawamba for giving up on america. after touring here & seeing what it's like chumbawamba released another record called WYSIWYG [or, what you see is what you get], it was an accurate portrayal of life in america. the first track "i'm with stupid" really hit the nail on the head as to why chumbawamba hates america & is never coming back. it's quite unfortunate when i think about this, because i would really love to see these guys play. but either, you know about chumbawamba & the way they are OR you know they get knocked down but get up again & again & again.

anyway, that's got fuck all to do with the new cd. i'm only half way through or so, but they've been hating on everything. the second track "Add Me" is an anti-myspace song, the chorus singing "i dont like people but i like to pretend, would you like to add me as a friend?" just proves that while they may not be the dead set anarchists they were when they released "pictures of starving children sell records" after Live Aid, when they were still a punk band, they're still thinking about it. they still believe in everything they believed in & the new songs are just more elaboration on that.

the instrumentation on the record is also quite amazing, reaching back into their catalog to revisit styles from un & WYSIWYG all the while still making it sound new & fresh. so far there hasnt been one song on this record that i dont like. but then again, i've got a thing for guitars, accordians, & horns, as well as the sweet female vocals that appear on nearly every track. oh yeah, i forgot to mention this: the new faint cd is 10 songs long, the new chumbawamba joint? 25 tracks. yeah, suck on that, the faint. so yeah, basically track this shit down because it's really good if youre into that sort of thing & if not, then i dont know, go download the new faint cd because you probably like sucking dick & that record does a whole lot of that.*

*& that right there folks is why i'm never going to be writing for any music magazines.

lets hope we're done talking about girl talk-esque music for a little while

2008-07-23T09:03:00.000-07:00

or at least until august when e-603's new joint drops.

let's talk about other music though. we'll kick it off today with "Arms Way" by Islands.

seriously islands, what the FUCK happened? you used to be awesome & amazing & now you're garbage. i dont even think i listened to this whole cd before i deleted it from my computer. the first half was all right, but the end just started sucking way too much for me to even care about the record. i dont even know how to describe it, i mean, i guess it sounds like an islands record without any of the good influences of the first islands record.

theres a bunch of dramarama surrounding this band & the members. first the unicorns break up & jaime & mark go off to form islands, shortly after islands first cd is released mark leave islands & they get a new drummer & practically fall off the face of the earth [seriously, this record leaked in like april or something & i just found out about it a couple weeks back].

so yeah, if you like absolute garbage run out & get Arms Way by Islands because it's probably the shittiest ever thing that's flown through my ears recently, with the exception of Night by the Gerogerigegege, but that only wins by default because it's a legitimate recording of a man taking a dump... & IT SOUNDS BETTER THAN ISLANDS NEW CD.

next up we've got Diplo & Santogold with "Top Ranking: A Diplo Dub".
basically, this mix is kind of like what Diplo did for MIA way back when [Piracy Funds Terrorism, for those of you not in the know]. Diplo has to be one of the more eclectic DJs of our time [people like girl talk & e-603 are out for obvious reasons], this mix is no different, diplo manages to jam pack a whole bunch of santogold, some cutty ranks, DEVO, aretha franklin, desmond dekker & THE FUCKING B-52S into an hour & fifteen minutes, all the while keeping it hippin' & a hoppin' all the way through.

i dont typically listen to DJ's or mixtapes or anything, but diplo is a legit exception, his hollertronix style of mixing & his eclectic choices constantly have your head turning in awe, this mix is no different & in fact, is much better than some of his other recent mixes. still, it's no Florida

finally, we'll end with what nick diamonds from the unicorns is doing lately; Human Highway presents "Moody Motorcycle". this record is kind of like what would happen if the unicorns tried to do a folk kind of record. i'm still not all the way through it, as i did just happen to find a new diplo mix maybe an hour after grabbing the human highway cd, so i cant be a total critic on it, but i'll say this about that: the human highway cd is ten and a half times better than arms way by islands by the FOURTH TRACK. so SUCK ON THAT JAIME.

i think i'll have to give it another good listen later on to give a better review, but yes, seek this record out as it is very nice to listen to. then again, every record i wrote about today is nice to listen to EXCEPT arms way by islands.

OKAY THATS IT GET THE FUCK OUT.

this is what'd happen basically if the hood internet had a child with girl talk

2008-07-16T07:05:00.000-07:00

so we should all know who the hood internet is & if you dont, well may god have mercy on your soul. basically their musical shtick consists of using one really super indie track with another super popular rap song, in the end creating something nice, but not always perfect. the hood internet vs chicago is [i'm going there] their best work to date. the hood also did a dan deacon mashup & i wasnt amused or impressed.

click dis for good music.

what more can i say about this guy? i mean look at him! he's possibly a visual example as much as he is an audio example of what'd happen if the hood & girl talk got together. looks aside, he does manage to put your ears through a mash-up rollercoaster of indie, pop, rap & electronic music. where girl talk uses the obscure old stuff, my man E is using obscure new stuff & making it work almost as flawlessly as girl talk. all girl talk cocksucking aside, this album is really smooth, a little too short for my liking [somewhere around 37 minutes] but that's okay, he should be releasing another joint before the summer is over.

either way, the man samples rough gem by islands which has got to be my favorite islands song ever. he also samples the crystal cat by dan deacon which you know, dan deacon & all can pretty much have me swooning over anything. he also manages to mash E-Pro by Beck with Runnin' by Biggie [quite possibly my favorite BIG rap] absolutely flawless, better sounding then bangfest.

stuntin is a habit.

lately i could consist a top 3 musicians & they'd all be people with laptops
1. girl talk
2. e-603
3. ludachrist

that being said, i dont want to get pigeon-holed into writing about the same genre over & over again, then again, it's not really the same genre over & over again. i mean each one of these records happen to have a very large selection of music in a short period of time, maybe that's why i like it so much. rap, r&b, jazz, pop, oldies [which lately is considered 60's/70's era music], indie, 80's music, & etcetcetcetc they're all there in full effect & the best part is that if you dont like a single one of those genres it doesnt even matter, because you can just focus your attention on something else happening in the song.

in short, you've already heard most of this shit if you happen to like girl talk, diplo, ludachrist, or the hood internet, but you've never heard it arranged this way!

I DONT NEED ANY HELP, GOT MY OWN CIGARETTES.

---xoxmm

i'm still using this thing guys

2008-07-14T19:54:00.000-07:00

no one reads this shit, who gives a fuck.

so i've been listening to stuff that isnt girl talk lately. let's review:

also

&

but i dont even want to talk about these records [for the record the second one is arms way by islands, which is barely even that good, the first record was much, much better [but still not nearly as great as the unicorns].

lately i've been listening to mountain goats bootlegs as i got some "new" ones, very happy about that, friends are important.

okay, since i cant really talk much more about that [go see the mountain goats live & even if you didnt like a record or certain songs you will have a new appreciation for them] i guess i'll go ahead & write something about this bike is a pipe bomb.

it's funny considering the bands name that they're folk punk, with an almost swing/dance hall kind of vibe. lyrically they're fun & upbeat, positive music for sure, i mean, just take a listen to "Depression". most of the songs are barely 2 and a half minutes & the last song is a mere 55 seconds long, but in every song they manage to pack a whole lot of great music & still leave you wanting to hear the next track.

this furry on a message board somewhere in outer space gave some people his breakcore-beat-to-fuck-toss in a toilet homage to happy hardcore & it was pretty excellent, short tracks, dancy as fuck, & loud. tracks like "am i the only person to notice goths listen to happy hardcore?" & "trapped under a hoover" are just really excellent in an hey check it out it's like breakcore decided to not only rape gabba, but skullfuck the shit out of happy hardcore.

OKAY I'M DONE YOU CAN ALL GO HOME SHOWS FUCKING OVER.

this is how you make them like you

2008-06-23T17:54:00.000-07:00

okay kids, it's time.

time for...
my review of FEED THE ANIMALS

ayo this beat is bananas.

girl talk has done it again, children. this time offering up a strange take on "variety". the samples are all fresh, but a giant portion of them are rap samples. this isnt a bad thing, as the songs typically work better "girl-talk-ized" than they do regularly. the record itself is absolutely epic. i guess you could say he's following a formula he started on night ripper, but this record is different than night ripper in different ways. he goes back to certain roots on this record that were virtually nonexistent on night ripper [ie: "i wish that i had jessies girl/but i'd rather get some head" is very reminiscent of secret diary & 'what ifff': "what if god was a hood rat chick?"]. Glitchboxing also came back in this one very "unstoppable" of him.

obviously it's one big clusterfuck of pop-culture & dance music, though there are plenty of surprising samples that will have you going "huh...?"

i havent stopped listening to this one pretty much since thursday & it's just awesome, the end.

time for me to come through & shut the club down

xx

i'm one with my lip gloss

2008-06-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

that's probably the reason all these boys got crushes.

this is for lannik

girl talk - feed the animals review

2008-06-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

last.fm recently played tracks:

that big gap of time indicates time i was out & about listening to it, as well as working & unfortunately not listening to it.

A++++++++ would listen a million times as it just gets better.

shut the club down OR nothing compares to you OR FEED THE ANIMALS

2008-06-19T06:28:00.001-07:00

whats up bitches? 8D

oh that's right, new girl talk joint in this bitch. i've yet to listen to the whole thing yet, but it's basically the most amazing thing i've ever heard. obviously trumping the fuck out of night ripper & any other girl talk-esque mashups of late [bangfest, fake girl talk leaks, etc]. the first track has a little of everything: walk it out, we're not gonna take it, nothing compares to you. it's basically a giant party inside my computer.

illegal art has it fo' free [or if you'd like you can pay whatever the hell you want] right heeeere: http://www.illegalart.com

also, if it's more convenient, you can hit up http://www.myspace.com/girltalkmusic & stream it there.

some lovely people have already started to pick out the samples he's using, you can give that a look-see if you dont mind spoilers right hereee: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_The_Animals (fyi, i added a sample in there :D)

okay i'm going to listen to this a million time & eventually i'll have a full reviewish for y'alls.

clever title for a 'heavy' entry or lol this music weighs a ton.

2008-06-16T05:44:00.000-07:00

first i'd just like to go completely off topic & say that starbucks has released a sonic youth greatest hits [picked by people like mike d, flea, beck, cathrine keener * chloe sevigny] album & basically its the best introduction to sonic youth out there.

okay on with the show. it's 8:48 in the morning & i figured i'd go ahead & listen to & write about some heavy "wake the fuck up" music. we'll start with my boy venetian snares & his latest effort. as far as snares go, it's been a while since we've gotten anything really new as far as long players go. thats not to say that stuff like hospitality & pink+green arent that great or anything [i am saying cavalcade was kind of a waste], its just that the hungarian titled record & my downfall are two human years apart from each other & while they are both completely awesome records, they sound pretty similar, almost predictable if you will.

detrimentalist is nothing like that. this is venetian snares completely displaying his range. this is a dance record, but when i say dance you have to realize what i mean is mosh to fuck & hit everyone around you. the only track that even remotely follows funks new trend of break-scoring is the 9 & a half minute epic "miss balaton" which is more reminiscent of "martys tardis" than anything on rossz or my downfall. that being said "circle pit" is more of what i thought cavalcade was going to be. extremely heavy jungle beats & amen breaks with the typical hoovers & other screechy synths & instead of the high pitched chipmunk singing some silly love song we've got MCs telling you almost how to react to the song. in lamens terms, if snares ever decided to make happy hardcore/rave music.

something interesting & never really defined by snares is the intros or build ups to his songs. on rossz & my downfall those were all pretty apparent, but for the most part a lot of his work sometimes will just start & rip your face off & other times you'll have to wait for it. this record is more or less venetian snares making that waiting enjoyable instead of tense & dark [think find candace]. a lot of the breaks on this record are completely generic to the jungle sound, but snares will still manage to throw in some surprises, which is why i liked mr funk in the first place.

all in all it's a pretty solid record, definitely the best snares i've heard all year, but then again this is only his first release this year. tonight in new york mr aaron funk[adelic] will be preforming at the knitting factory in nyc, this is the first time he's come within a couple hundred miles, if that, of me in the entire time i've listened to him & there is no way in hell i will be able to make the show. sadness. maybe this will open him up to playing more shows/venues in the future, but who knows. instead of just giving you niggas this album samples can be found on his myspace.

next up we've got hell songs by daughters.

woooo daughters yeah providence hardcore woooooooooooooo! hey bitches, do you like the locust? yeah i didnt think so. you'll love daughters! daughters is almost like the locust with the kook factor turned down. experimental spaz hardcore, good to see they're really coming into their own. mind you seeing them at the living room with the piss drunk lead singer making fun of the crowd & generally being a total toolbox isnt really the best introduction to daughters. this record however is a very excellent introduction to daughters. completely heavy & aggressive but with some serious emotion put into it. the lead singer makes it a little hard to understand the lyrics at all times but not nearly as bad as the blood brothers... so... take that as you will.

heavy as fuck music, my friends. some standout tracks are "recorded inside a pyramid" & "providence by gas light" but for the most part the entire album pretty much stands out from each individual track, this album manages to have a good amount of diversity in the 23 minutes it plays for. & once more, samples can be found on myspace.

AND THATS ALL SH'WROTE

*CRASH*

xoxx

the hype train & what you should know about it.

2008-06-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

Girl Talk has a new "jam" on his 'space as of yesterday. that might mean i'm not the first to blog about this, which in turn might mean i am jumping on a hype train or bandwagon. either way, girl talks new song is like if he got together with merzbow & just lounged the fuck out.

someone described it as sounding something like secret diary, if it were smoother, but i'm failing to see the connection. i fully believe & endorse the fact that girl talk is the savior of music the world has been waiting for all these years, so whatever it is he's going to do it's going to be okay.

i've got to go ahead & assume that this is some sort of intro to the record, as near the end you hear a very slowed down [think of chopped & screwed remixes] line repeating over & over "girl talk, girl talk, girl talk" this means christ is rising again & he's taking us all to the disco to dance like assholes... or, is girl talk going back to his roots? is he sick of the giant fanbase he's grown in the small amount of time that night ripper has been rocking colleges, cars, parties, bedrooms & headphones for the past few years now.

granted, girl talk was pretty bandwagon for me, i ended up hearing of him when i went to visit a friend at school & it was all him & his roommates were listening to. not long after that i attended my first girl talk show & man oh man was it awesome. i also heard dan deacon that night & my life changed. 4realzies.

but i'm straying away from the topic at hand... why is girl talk getting noisy? maybe it's some kind of storm before the party effect he's going for? maybe he just wants to be an asshole & release a free cd that wont appeal to the masses like night ripper did [seriously if he's doing this it makes me just want to give him a big hug]. maybe this is all a joke & the new cd will sound exactly like night ripper & while it'll be nice to have something new, it will still get old & wither & die as far as enjoyment goes.

that's because to really appreciate & enjoy girl talk you need to make it a point to see him in concert. oh, the sweat. think about the biggest party you'll ever go to, you & oh i dont know, a couple hundred strangers, crammed on to the stage of whatever venue girl talk happens to be murdering that night, dancing around & generally having the time of your life, while in the front girl talk is hunched over his laptop, a swarm of people dancing around him, mixing & matching live in concert, taking dance breaks to engage the crowd, this is how girl talk is meant to be heard.

with that in mind good weather for airstrikes, another music blogish place happens to have, free for download, a very outstanding girl talk live mix.

i wont say much about this mix as i believe that the only words for it are absolutely incredible. i will however say this about the new "song", girl talk, if you're thinking about diving into the glitch/noise world, you might want to consider letting your 40,000+ fans know, otherwise you're definitely going to piss some people off. if thats what you're going for, then sir, i applaud you. the idea i've had forever has to been get this one really catchy poppy single & get famous for it. then release the rest of the album as some sort of accapella grindcore shiz.

& if this really is the apocalypse & girl talk is going to delve into the seedy underbelly of electronic music that is known as noise, there are still musicians out there making similar music, obviously. mashups, as i said are immensely popular these days & everyone seems to be doing them. as far as mashup mixtapes go here are two amazing ones.

first up, we have bangfest by ludachrist. BEFORE YOU ALL GET UPPITY & START TO TELL ME HOW GIRL TALK IS SUPERIOR please please please just listen to this the whole way through. ludachrist somehow manages to mash anything with anything with almost the same ease & smooth transitioning as girl talk. lots of glitchy beatboxing during the course of this mix, which if you've ever heard "unstoppable" by girl talk you'll know is one of the cooler forms of sampling others.

lots of wu-tang, lil jon, daft punk, & some other artists. 50 cent + the legend of zelda, three 6 mafia + the power of love + the rocky theme. busta rhymes + ghostbusters. seriously, need i say more? download this & the next 42 minutes of your life will be the hottest party ever.

download this & SELL IT FOR CA$HHH

& finally, we have diplo. diplo diplo diplo. i've got nothing to say about this man, or his latest mix "fuzzy peach" other than its absolutely wonderful & you should download it right now

thats all for now, ttysoon
xoxx

obligitory introductory post about something

2008-06-13T07:09:00.000-07:00

i've kept an online journal of my personal life for far too long now.

now is the time to actually give something new a shot. this blog as you will refer to it is here to serve a few purposes, but the main one is to turn you, the reader, onto some great new [or old] music. the only problem here is that defining genres was never really my thing, so i wont really be doing that. everything i listen to is indie, emo, hip hop, gangster rap, dance, eurobeat, glitch, breakcore, two step, pop, pop, pop, house, garbage, awesome.

since this is the first post here & i'm dying for some content here is my first review:

stuntrock presents:
regret instruction manual volume 1:
questions & answers for the insecure youth.

if you know anything about william flegal, aka stuntrock you know one thing, he's a fan of movies & obscurity. this record is him taking that to the next level. harsh, noisy beats creating a soundtrack to a world in which a man falls apart through samples from movies & television. 90% of the time you can barely tell where he's getting these clips, but they all work towards setting the mood & details of this pseudo story he's telling with others words.

regret instruction manual was to be a zine like thing in which stuntrock could do pretty much whatever he wanted [as well as release some dope ass music] the first volume came with a book & some stickers. volumes 2 & 3 also came with similar things of better quality. some would say the music is of better quality as well, but i'd beg to differ. regret volume one is raw. it's the closest thing you're going to get to the metal/screamo stuff in electronic form. it's as if stuntrock decided one day, i'm going to make this record, it's going to be breakcore & everything, but it will appeal to the indie/emo scene. if this had taken off, he really would have accomplished those goals. either way, the music is quite possibly some of the most undefinable music in the free world. i'm not going to spoil the tracklist & post it here, with that said i am going to tell you of some breakthrough tracks of the album. "we'll see what's so fucking funny when i'm fucking dead" is the opener on this musical car-crashing-rollercoaster-trainwreck of a mood setter. opening to domestic violence a light piano tune kicks in, moments later the song breaks into heavy world & you're all over this horrible relationship with this terrible man. for almost the entire song the piano is a present part of the music which mostly consists of harsh & noisy drum samples. "afraid of everything & so on (including the future & knowledge of self)" starts off very strange, but as long as you can take the time to let it set in you will hear the symphony of this song. this record is a bad times record & is meant to be listened to during those bad times, but this song here is where it's at, dope ass stuntrock beats all over the place.

you wont REGRET it.

next up, lets get happy.
mashups are incredibly popular lately, even though it's a technique thats been used for so many years now. i understand the whole girl talk phenomenon because i'm pretty sure girl talk is the new musical savior, here to save music for everyone. so where am i going with this? well i guess what do you suppose would happen if someone decided to do a mashup mixtape featuring indie-pitchfork type stuff & obviously gangster rap?

150mb / 320cbr
SUPER MEGA TRACKLIST

okay, that's all i've got for now.
i'll try & keep this place fresh every couple of days or so.