Being completely obsessed with new music, I sometimes miss years’ passed. It’s a shame really and makes my year end list look like a feeble attempt at some sort of 4th grader’s crush on a handful of favorites. Sad to say that type of shit happens, but what can you do? Well, make a lookback list, of course. Next couple of days I’ll be dripping some juicy song I.V. into your veins in the form of 2 albums per day. You can rip the tubes out of your arms at any time, but I feel I must give credit to some great releases from oooohh seven. Here we go:
David Vandervelde wants to be Bowie, or some sort of twisted reborn version of him… Or maybe, he just happens to sound like the guy…. a lot. No matter. The Moonstation House Band is a classic throwback triumph. Mixing new sounds with the old standbys is something that has to be dealt with delicately in order to come across as authentic. You wouldn’t want to take beats from Under Pressure and eventually get caught one beat dry…. David melds the two so well, and working with Yankee Wilco guitarist Jay Bennett, manages to put out something worth more than just a spin.
David Vandervelde – Murder In Michigan {From The Moonstation House Band}
I’m no techno geek. I too often imagine glow sticks and strobe lights. Call me stereotypical. Don’t give a shit. But what I do care about is Of Montreal’s career highlight. It’s one of the first techno/electronica albums to catch my taste buds and not spit them back out.
Of Montreal – Cato As A Pun {From Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?}
The term ‘Art Brut’ can be applied to certain self-taught or Naïve art makers who were never institutionalized and is often focused particularly on art by insane asylum inmates. A fitting name for this band. Eddie Argos has to be the funniest man in Rock right now. I was lucky enough to catch them opening for The Hold Steady, this winter at The Variety. I went to have a smoke, so I was unlucky enough to miss Eddie Argos running up 20 rows of seats to scream at Chase. I didn’t know what to think of them at first, but I’m really into them right now. Cool guitar work, and yes… that is his singing voice.
Art Brut – Formed A Band {From Bang Bang Rock And Roll LP}
The comparisons to The Kinks & Nick Lowe are gonna happen. Kelley Stoltz is steeped in 60’s psychedelia with British side effects (even if the guy is from Detroit). His new album Cirlular Sounds came out earlier this year, and it’s layers and layers of instruments & carefully placed ambiance that resonate within the walls of Stoltz’s lyrical mind.
RIYL: The Kinks, Nick Lowe, The Beatles, The Shins
Kelley Stoltz – Mother Nature {From Circular Sounds}
I know most of you have probably seen (or heard of at the very least) The Decline of Western Civilization and Decline II: The Metal Years, but hardly anyone has seen the third one except some film critics and a few lucky people at various film festivals in 1998 when it was released. The documentary is about the lives of a handful of homeless street punks/squatters living on the streets of Hollywood, CA from July 1996 to August 1997.
I first read about it in an issue of Rolling Stone around that time and have waited for 10 years to see the movie. I’ve searched every retail and auction website on the Internet as well as every illegal movie pirating site I could find over the last 10 years and have never found this movie. The film never was never distributed at all therefore there’s hardly any information or reviews on the film and no VHS/DVDs existed until recently. The official Decline website has said for a couple of years now that all 3 of the movies are “coming soon to DVD and video” but there had been no new news whenever I checked it out every couple of months until recently when I saw the note:
“Due to overwhelming response, we no longer have VHS copies of “The Decline III” to send out.
We hope that everyone who received one enjoys it and will show thier friends.
We’re still working on the DVDs. We just want them to be as good as they can be. Thank you for your patience.”
Basically it says “Fuck you, Josh Green. You didn’t visit our never updated website enough and missed the fucking boat, asshole. Ten years of searching down the drain. HA HA HA!”.
Well I got the last laugh, Penelope! No, I didn’t order a copy off eBay (STILL not on there!), but someone did chop the movie up into 9 10 minute long clips and post the entire thing on YouTube for everyone’s enjoyment. So, last night… instead of hanging out with everyone at Chase’s house… I finally got to watch The Decline of Western Civilization: Part III. Sorry guys, I found it at the last minute and have waited ten years to see it.
For those of you interested, here are the links to the 9 different parts. It’s worth checking out in my opinion.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIvIY3daYwQ
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzmLt6Y5Vtw
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTwDjjcZz1M
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxWxnwZ1ho8
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=993uQSzomKw
Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dku47xcB0v0
Part 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9_9xNqvxks
Part 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkb8O8XKRV8
Part 9: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El3X2FYbzAk
When George, Chase, Julie, and I went to see Joey Allcorn on Thursday night at SoHos, I think we were all delighted to hear how good the 2nd band was. I’ll save the review for Chase to do (if he decides to, I think he’s better at that than me). I just want to focus on one guy in the band, the banjo/dobro player. A man named Dan Mazer who calls himself BanjerDan. Not only was this guy a phenomenal banjo picker and great dobro player, he was also extremely nice and made a bee line straight for our table after their first set to thank us for coming out and supporting them. When I got home I decided to look him up on the Internet and he’s got a pretty impressive resume going back a couple of decades. Here’s a sample from his website of a song he recorded in 1985. You can read more about him and listen to more of his music on his website or his MySpace if you’d like. I can’t wait till they come back this way, I’m definitely excited about seeing those guys perform again and will be ordering their CD from CDBaby very soon.
BanjerDan – Mahoney’s Mumble (From Old Stuff)
Muxtape.com is a cool and simple little site that lets you create mixed tapes for the world to enjoy. I’ve been listening to peoples at random all day and enjoying it quite a bit.
As far as favorite bands go, Constantines would easily be found somewhere in the top three. Each musician an artist with their instruments. Conceptual ideas run rampant from the floodgate – their first record (Constantines) came as a fold up matchbox and a single match – the search for music is the search for fire.
Their new record, Kensington Heights is a more throttled Constantines. Being rabid fans of Neil Young (they sometimes play shows under the moniker Horsey Crazy, in which they do nothing but Neil Young covers), it seems to have rubbed off here than any other of their releases – expanding on a slow incline of working class anthems and self improvement. “Tomorrow’s no burden / Time can be overcome “, they sing to the masses of clock punchers – It’s just the type of thing people need to keep digging.
Stream the full album @ their MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/constantines
Found these guys on last.fm recently and can’t stop listening to their s/t release that came out earlier this year. RIYL: Bob Dylan, The Avett Brothers, Josh Ritter, The Band.
The Felice Brothers – Frankie’s Gun! {From The Felice Brothers}
It’s taken me a while to get the damn music widget in working order, but it’s all fixed. I set up a hosting account for free over at hotlinkfiles.com so we can post songs. I’ll hook everyone up with a password to that and a bit of info on how it works. Until that time comes, been listening to the new R.E.M. a lot lately and I keep playing this track over and over. Hopefully tickets will be going on sale for their tour with Modest Mouse and The National soon. I keep scouring REMHQ.com for ticket sale dates, and so far, I’ve gotten the shit end of the stick. We’ll see.
R.E.M. – Until the Day is Done {From Accelerate}
