tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-275598932024-03-14T06:53:29.124-04:00Hendo Bendo Blog BonanzaUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger462125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-68510734667556067092009-07-20T20:35:00.001-04:002009-07-20T20:43:28.389-04:00im a vampire babycheck out this video mashup of a pink mountaintops song with clips from the movie Let The Right One In. Weird movie, just watched it the other night. Nice song too....<div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; white-space: pre; "><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rwc62akalSQ&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rwc62akalSQ&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-2504286397360579542009-07-16T10:03:00.001-04:002009-07-16T10:32:22.826-04:00Jerry, Duane, and YaoI'm listening to the dead at the Fillmore in Feb. of 1970 so Dark Starand then the vocals on Lovelight sound different and I'm thinking tomyself is this Gregg Allman and brother Duane with the Dead? Look itup and it is! I am so proud of myself for noticing that this early.<br /><br />In other news, I have newfound respect for Yao Ming because while hisfoot may be a calamity (think Bill Walton, though Ming probably isntas good as Walton could have been - read Breaks of the Game to feelfor just how shitty BW's feet were) his fucking digestive tract mustbe amazing.No Namehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11058894765043073824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-38684171844366107422009-07-01T22:06:00.005-04:002009-07-01T22:18:55.406-04:00Free Agency<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/04Ln7kFbsT1z0/340x.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 340px; height: 526px;" src="http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/04Ln7kFbsT1z0/340x.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><div>almost 1 day over with of free agency, and nate and Dlee are still knickerbockers.</div><div>holla.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-68339474544807960552009-06-30T21:52:00.003-04:002009-06-30T22:07:26.374-04:00A few things1. Chuck Klosterman? i dont pay much attention to most things going on around me (one may argue that i dont pay attention to anything - coasting through life blissfully unawares aint a bad way to go...), so despite the fact that i had seen his books everywhere, i really never knew who he was, or what the yarn was with him. I found a used copy of his book Fargo rock city for really cheap so i picked it up. I got 34 pages into it, and came to the realization that i did not give a fuck what this guy had to say about anything. Anyone who is going to pass themselves off as a cool/intellectual rock critic (lester bangs??) who sites Def Leppard as one of the best bands ever needs a slap in the balls. i dont fault the guy for growing up in the rural heartland, thereby limiting his exposure to the much cooler shit that was going on when he was a teenager, but fuck. im not reading another page of that, unless someone can convince me that its worthwhile. its not so much that i disagree with his taste in music as much as he kind of shittalks anyone who disagrees with him. i dont like that kind of shit in any format (elitism is one thing i dont tolerate). <div><br /></div><div>2. which show should i go see this Thursday?</div><div>a) Jay Reatard, TV Smith (!), and Screaming Females at Music hall o' wlmsbrg</div><div><br /></div><div>or </div><div><br /></div><div>b) Thee Oh Sees, Golden Triangle, The Beets, and German Measles at glasslands</div><div><br /></div><div>3. i officially started diet # 137 of hendo's eating career today. hmmmm. we'll see. by my guess i need to lose 50 pounds before i can consider entering the contests that occur during the annual JO festival.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-81085459157893715542009-06-25T12:36:00.003-04:002009-06-25T12:52:12.594-04:00Top Ten Best things that could happen on draft day 2009<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.hooplog.com/images/johnson_910626_350.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 350px; height: 500px;" src="http://www.hooplog.com/images/johnson_910626_350.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />1. David Stern is replaced as the host of the draft by a tag team of Walt Clyde Frazier and Charles Barkley<br />2. The Suns trade Steve Nash to the knicks for 3 tacos<br />3. Charles Oakley comes out of retirement and declares his eligibility for the draft<br />4. The Clippers trade in the number one pick for a dannon frusion smoothie<br />5. Shaq gets traded to cleveland, and then LBJ demands a trade to either Milwaukee or NY<br />6. i get traded for anderson varejao (my contract expires next year...)<br />7. the albany patroons got absorbed by the NBA<br />8. Bill russell drops a couple F bombs on live tv<br />9. the knicks draft a 7'5" 19 year old kid from Greenland who learned how to play basketball last month<br />10. The Clippers trade the #1 pick to the Nets for Yi, and declare their intentions to sign IversonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-61035137795834128612009-06-23T20:20:00.004-04:002009-06-23T20:28:18.706-04:00please donny dont do itSomeone tell donny walsh not to trade up to get the number 5 pick in the draft. As far as i'm concerned, as long as lee and nate still aren't signed, the knicks player i want to see go the least is wilson chandler. please, please don't trade him for the # 5 pick. there is no way that thabeet is gonna drop that far. unless someone wants curry, jeffries, or larry hughes, dont do it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-40975378422779128202009-06-23T12:18:00.003-04:002009-06-23T12:32:45.232-04:00Ali Akbar KhanAli Akbar Khan passed away last week. He was a master of the sarode, and played 18 + hours a day for many years (this apparently is nothing compared to what his father - who lived to be 110 yrs old - did - playing "sometimes 23 hours a day"). I enjoy the music because it is so mesmerizing, although I don't know enough about the form to tell very much of it apart. Kind of like a person hearing jazz for the first time. As crazy as it sounds, I can see how playing this music non-stop is possible.<br /><br /><br />He presided over <a href="http://www.aacm.org/school.html">this school</a> in California, which offers intensive 3 day beginner master classes...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-64160187887067893962009-06-23T10:16:00.003-04:002009-06-23T10:21:28.037-04:00Back from the grave<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Z54HS6Q7L._SL500_AA280_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 280px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Z54HS6Q7L._SL500_AA280_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I haven't posted in a while. I was just inspired by No Name after he sent me this email:<br /><br /><br />"I think i saw multiplicity in the theasters like 5 times. Andie<br />McDowell gets no credit for the work she has done on behalf of MILFs<br />everywhere. She could be in MILF HOF. Maybe it's because she's not in<br />movies really anymore. But the southern accent and shit? It's like<br />putting Albert Pujols on a shitty baseball team. A few times a game<br />their is a bright spot and every once in a while the game's outcome<br />will change. We should start a Andie fanclub."<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i.realone.com/assets/rn/img/0/9/6/7/18137690-18137691-medium.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 207px; height: 280px;" src="http://i.realone.com/assets/rn/img/0/9/6/7/18137690-18137691-medium.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I'll be back soon...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-72699386840750900352009-05-31T13:54:00.005-04:002009-05-31T14:21:09.334-04:00The Day AfterYou Can't Do These Things By Yourself. You Need Some Help - to kind of quote The Boss.<div><br /></div><div>I'm not going to pretend like I know what I'm writing about but the Cavs elimination shouldn't really come as a surprise. Sure, Cleveland was nasty this past season and throughout the first two rounds of the playoffs but winning a title with only one great player doesn't happen too often. <div><br /></div><div>Michael Jordan only won titles with Scottie Pippen (and Pippen with Jordan) and help from Dennis Rodman later on. Kobe had Shaq still in his prime. Duncan at first had Robinson, Ginobli, and Parker as well as the help to get the job done. The Celtics had Bird, Parish, McHale and a bunch of great supporting players and the Lakers of the 80's had Magic, Worthy and Kareem. </div><div><br /></div><div>Cleveland needs to acquire a true all star because LBJ can't do it all himself. Of course, the fact that they haven't done that yet makes it all the more likely that Cleveland loses its MVP when that contract expires.</div></div>No Namehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11058894765043073824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-52341028058122915032009-05-29T23:00:00.002-04:002009-05-29T23:16:13.097-04:00I Had A Hard Run...Recently I began listening to the Grateful Dead again. One of the quirks I got myself into was listening to a run whether it be a grouping of a week of shows or a multi engagement stay at a specific venue. My interest got sparked because the band via <a href="http://www.deadnetstore.com/Commerce/ProductCategory.aspx?CategoryGuid=a7b282e6-dfd4-42a2-b62b-d33057e65c42">Dead.net</a> have been releasing a series of sets, entitled Road Trips which are a best of of certain runs.<div><br /></div><div>Lately, with the NBA Playoffs going on, I've been reminiscing about playoff games from back in the day. Particularly the Knicks-Bulls games from the early to mid nineties. In light of all the foul calls and technicals the refs have been handing down this season, I got to thinking about how intense and muscular those 90's games were. Remember the Knicks were a bunch of heavy hitters. We had Oak, Ewing, X-man, Mason, and Starks to name a few. Not to mention Derek Harper who took no shit from no one. People talk about the Pistons as the Bad Boys but really the Knicks of the mid-90's would've made those guys cry. And Mase would've made Bill L shave the Knicks logo into both sides of his huge head. </div><div><br /></div><div>So I got to thinking about how great it would be to track down DVD's of those playoff games. Like with Road Trips, we'd get a Playoff run, or series, of those awesome games where the bodies were knocking and everything was on the line. As far as I can tell it's not possible to buy them from the NBA but how great would it be to settle down with those games and your boys and watch basketball as it was played by some of the all time greats with no referee interference?</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's <a href="https://www.yousendit.com/download/MnFpcmxYQzNwM21Ga1E9PQ">Bertha</a> from June 9, 1977 - from the best run the Dead ever had which provided us with the penultimate Cornell show. This Bertha is super slow. It reminds me of those commercials they keep showing where two players are on the court and slowly the rest of the teams and arena fade in. Amazing</div>No Namehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11058894765043073824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-34134620939574294972009-04-24T12:23:00.000-04:002009-04-24T12:24:07.504-04:00superbadge<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rczcj-ZN0lY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rczcj-ZN0lY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-48171530271682207672009-04-22T14:23:00.002-04:002009-04-22T14:27:05.124-04:00Women Be ShoppingIn honor of the fact that im going to a benefit event thing at a comedy club (first time - omg).<br /><br />this one's for the docta.<br /><br /><br /><br /><object width="445" height="364"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZSwS9TsF9NE&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZSwS9TsF9NE&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><object width="445" height="364"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rrd1_VVXsLw&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rrd1_VVXsLw&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"></embed></object><br />.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-76110917149957702162009-04-19T15:03:00.004-04:002009-04-19T16:02:23.490-04:00The great Koonaklaster<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.bluesinlondon.com/features/feat_images/john_fahey.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 258px;" src="http://www.bluesinlondon.com/features/feat_images/john_fahey.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />The YSI group initiated a project where we're all supposed to make mixes, or greatest hits of different artists. I'm choosing Fahey. He was a gateway for me into a lot of great new discoveries, so I figured I'd give him his due. This isn't a greatest hits as much as it is a rough sketch of his career. I don't have everything he released, but I do have a fair amount, and I tried to find something to add from each of them. This mix is not in chronological order, instead I used the schedule of the tides. The Mix was too big to upload as one file with Mediafire, so its split into two zip files. Enjoy.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?oggji2zzmyd">John Fahey Mix First Half </a> (Mix split into 2 DL's)<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?jgtejnwdmnb">John Fahey Mix Second Half</a><br /><br />1. Fahey Blows His Nose ; The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick<br />2. Sunflower River Blues ; Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes<br />3. Jaya Shiva Shankarah ; Old Fashioned Love<br />4. Special Rider Blues ; America<br />5. Spanish Two-Step ; On Air<br />6. Red Cross, Disciple of Christ Today ; Red Cross<br />7. Requiem for Mississippi John Hurt ; The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick<br />8. Dance of the Inhabitants of the Invisible City of Blandensburg ; The Yellow Princess<br />9. Christ is Born On Christmas Day ; The John Fahey Christmas Album<br />10. Night Train to Valhalla ; Days Have Gone By, Vol. 6<br />11. Bean Vine Blues # 2 ; The Voice of the Turtle<br />12. Go, I Will Send Thee ; New Possibility<br />13. Fahey Established Rapport With The Tasmanians: A Dissertation on Obsucrity / The Return of the Tasmanian Tiger / Funeral Song For Mississippi John Hurt ; Live in Tasmania<br />14. March! for Martin Luther King ; The Yellow Princess<br />15. Jesus Is A Dying Bedmaker 2 ; America<br />16. Poor Boy ; Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death<br />17. Worried Blues ; On Air<br />18. Days Have Gone By ; Days Have Gone By, Vol. 6<br />19. Amazing Grace ; America<br />20. Uncloudy Day ; The Legend of Blind Joe Death<br />21. Wine and Roses ; The Dance of Death and Other Plantation Favorites<br />22. Requiem For Russell Cooper ; Requia<br />23. Ghosts ; The Mill Pond<br />.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-58557582319996860282009-04-12T21:27:00.004-04:002009-04-12T21:42:24.543-04:00What a week...I know i havent posted in a little while. I just havent really felt the motivation to do that much lately. Besides, ive been wasting a lot of time with the apartment search. ALTHOUGH, on Thursday, while waiting for the landlord to meet us at a place in park slope, I noticed this guy,<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_03X9mELaZ1U/SeKWtbewg_I/AAAAAAAAAIM/cOiUbHy2W9U/s1600-h/IMG_0400.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_03X9mELaZ1U/SeKWtbewg_I/AAAAAAAAAIM/cOiUbHy2W9U/s200/IMG_0400.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323983416720393202" border="0" /></a> walking down the street holding his young child. Mr. Jack Rabid of The Big Takeover fame is pretty much a celebrity sighting in my eyes.<br /><br /><br />I also went to a show where I wanted to see the last of 5 bands slated to play. I dont want to go into details (too annoying), but after 8 bands played, and it was already 2:30am, and the band i wanted to see still wasnt up next, i said fuck it and left. ugh. dont ask.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />ill resume some some shit this week. i promise.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-85788293156519776112009-04-06T21:24:00.003-04:002009-04-06T21:32:58.940-04:00Thee Oh Sees<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.intheredrecords.com/media/8x10%27s/itr171.theeohsees_helpWEB.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 274px; height: 274px;" src="http://www.intheredrecords.com/media/8x10%27s/itr171.theeohsees_helpWEB.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Thee Oh Sees played in Brooklyn this past Saturday night, and I was highly considering going to the show. I actually spent the afternoon in BK apartment hunting, but was too burnt to stick it out for the show. I kinda regret it, cause I've been really digging their new record on In The Red, Help. Every time Thee Oh Sees get mentioned, the laundry list of bands that front man John Dwyer has played in always get discussed. Since I'm only really familiar with his most famous one, Coachwhips, I'll leave that for the more legit reviewers/blogs.<br /><br />The whole album is pretty catchy, but I've had the first song stuck in my head the past few days, so we'll stick with that.<br /><br />Here it is:<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?dzqnymmmqlq">Thee Oh Sees - Enemy Destruct<br /></a><br /><br />P.S.<br />Is it just me, or has In The Red been on a fucking roll the past few months??<br />.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-63777800594359860082009-04-04T19:04:00.003-04:002009-04-04T19:10:40.043-04:00WOWHere's a clip from the Carson (fucking) Daly show that aired Friday night, April 3rd. The musical guests that evening were The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Wow. Fuck. Seriously. The show airs way past my bedtime (10pm....) so I didn't get to see it when it aired. This band's ascension has been craziness T's, straight up. Alex = Born to rock. Here's the clip:<br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://widgets.nbc.com/o/4727a250e66f9723/49d7e85317995312/4741e3c5156499a7/79e979/-cpid/5025fcb0a3340be2" id="W4727a250e66f972349d7e85317995312" width="384" height="283"><param name="movie" value="http://widgets.nbc.com/o/4727a250e66f9723/49d7e85317995312/4741e3c5156499a7/79e979/-cpid/5025fcb0a3340be2"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="allowNetworking" value="all"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></object><br />.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-69516711286462207452009-04-01T17:17:00.005-04:002009-04-01T17:42:25.847-04:00I have seen the future of ROCK<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_03X9mELaZ1U/SdPbrk4T7PI/AAAAAAAAAHk/bfCULNg-k8k/s1600-h/photo.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 279px; height: 209px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_03X9mELaZ1U/SdPbrk4T7PI/AAAAAAAAAHk/bfCULNg-k8k/s200/photo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319837126535408882" border="0" /></a><br /><br />and its name is DIEHARD.<br /><br />I got to see their first show ever last night at Union Hall in Brooklyn, and when they're rich and famous, I got the bragging rights sonnnn. Killer indie rock/pop reminiscent of the best bands from the early-mid '90s. Close your eyes, and your at a show in Chapel Hill circa 1994 (that is intended to be a compliment - hopefully it means what i think it means...). Loud, fast, nice guitar work by my man ezRock, and spot on male/female vocals.<br />I polled the audience completely at random, and asked someone else what they thought:<br />"<span dir="ltr" id=":264">The problem with starting is a new awesome band is you can't come back to say your old awesome band is alright" - Shrimp Cracker<br /><br />The whole set was filled with songs that get the official HBBB stamp of approval, but one stood out to me as totally awesome. Unfortunately, a full band recording of it doesn't exist yet, so I only have a VERY ROUGH DEMO. But either way, the song rocks. This demo sounds cool, but with the band it really kicked ass. They switched off vocals, and it really tied the room together.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?5w1i2ngj5zd">Cool Kids (DEMO)</a><br /><br />Check out their <a href="http://www.myspace.com/diehardnyc">myspace page</a> for a bunch of songs they've done together. These guys are going places (and im not talking about midnight runs to Scottys....), I think there must be something in the water in Teeneck, NJ (??????????)<br />.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-18267740699445605532009-03-29T20:29:00.003-04:002009-03-29T20:49:38.399-04:00Hendo Bendo Podcast # 11<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://weblogs.variety.com/thesetlist/images/2007/07/26/ggh.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 198px;" src="http://weblogs.variety.com/thesetlist/images/2007/07/26/ggh.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Despite the fact that I was listening to John Fahey for a while this afternoon, I was inspired by Shrimp Cracker to make a podcast featuring some catchy loud fast rocknroll/punk/garage/power pop.<br />Enjoy<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?0mmwxcmgkml">Hendo Bendo Podcast # 11</a><br />Tracklist:<br />Scared of Chaka - Why are you Weird?<br />Cheap Time - Falling Down<br />The Shitty Limits - Leave Me Alone<br />Mind Controls - Trap Door<br />Reruns - So Alone<br />The Jet Boys - High Tension Love<br />Carbonas - Journey to the End<br />The Marked Men - Ditch<br />The Bananas - Peanut Butter Cups<br />Nobunny - Boneyard<br />The Fliptops - Beat You Up<br />Hunx and his Punx - You Don't Like Rock n Roll<br />Nodzzz - Is She There<br />Supercharger - Gum Flappin' Baby<br />The Fallouts - Here I Come<br />The Pets - No Way<br />.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-24325700265955843102009-03-26T13:56:00.001-04:002009-03-26T13:58:21.758-04:00Little StevenSorry for the long post, but here is the speech made by Little Steven at a convention center during SXSW last week. I thought it was worthwhile.<br /><br />*Steven Van Zandt, Austin Convention Center<br />SXSW. March 20, 2009.<br />*<br />Good morning how are we? I see all my people.<br /><br />Interesting time in our business, is it not?<br />Now you wish you listened to your parents and went to college, huh?<br />We are experiencing the biggest changes in 40 years as the main<br />revenue-producing medium switches from the album to, we don' t know what<br />yet.<br />Keep in mind that until the Beatles and the rest of the British Invasion<br />landed in 1964, the vinyl single ruled what was called the business. it<br />wasn't exactly the business in truth, it was more like the Wild West with a<br />bunch of freaks, misfits, outcasts, outlaws, entrepreneurs, renegades and<br />hooligans running around making it all up as they went along.<br /><br />Finally in 1967 the Beatles made an album called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts<br />Club Band -- you can ask your grandfather to borrow his copy -- and with<br />that record the album became undeniably king. The difference between 79<br />cents for a single and $4.95 for an album created a music business.<br /><br />As I'm sure you've noticed we've now come full circle back to singles and if<br />you're wondering what 1962 was like, well you're looking at it. And if that<br />wasn't enough to deal with, just to make it interesting, let's throw in a<br />little worldwide economic holocaust, shall we?<br /><br />You thought you were having problems a year ago? Heh, those were the good<br />old days.<br /><br />The truth is it might take a year or two but those things will literally<br />sort themselves out. There will be some revenue model, be it the 360 thing,<br />subscriptions or whatever, and frankly there have been enough boring<br />discussions about the mechanics of our business, already enough to last a<br />lifetime. And as far as the economy, well, Obama's gonna fix the economy so<br />don't worry about that.<br /><br />It's the third topic I want to look at today. All we ever talk about is the<br />delivery systems for the product, the mechanics, the technology, the<br />infrastructure. I wanna spend just a minute on the topic that never gets<br />discussed in the music business, and that's the music.<br /><br />The reason why nobody wants to talk about it, it's understandable because<br />it mostly sucks. I mean it blows, it's terrible. It's sucking major moose<br />cock. Who are we kidding here? Nobody's buying records. No shit, they suck.<br /><br />And I know why. Nobody wants to deal with this but, we have to.<br />Yeah we are expriencing big changes in the business but more impotrantly,<br />over the last 60 years or so, we have been witnesses to a crisis of craft.<br /><br />I started to notice this crisis right around the time MTV appeared, not that<br />it's their fault. One must assume the video was as inevitable as the<br />combustion engine, food preservative, the digital format and all those other<br />horrors of commerce disguised as progress. You could fight it, but you're<br />better off just adjusting and dealing with it. Save your energy because<br />you're gonna need it.<br />And MTV may come back around and save us yet. But more about them later.<br />Rock n roll is the working class art form. Real rock n roll, traditional<br />rock n roll. The music you hear every week on the Underground Garage and<br />every day on Sirius 25 and XM 59, is equal opportunity, regardless of race,<br />education or how much money you got, since the working class don't think too<br />much about what is art and what is not. Mostly because they're too busy<br />working. They spend their time on their craft, the practical useful stuff.<br />So let's get back to basics for a moment, what is our craft?<br /><br />Rock n roll had always been a two-part craft, performance and record-making,<br />and that turned into a three-part craft for bands, when songwriting was<br />added after the Beatles changed the world.<br />That self-contained archetype may have been a temporary blip in the big<br />picture. Recent history started to suggest that the Beatles in that short<br />little period may turn out to be the exception, rather than the new rule.<br /><br />It was, after all, our renaissance. That approximate 20-year era, from 1951<br />to 1971, will be studied for hundreds of years to come and still informs<br />everything that today is popular music.<br /><br />So as to our craft -- performance, record-making, songwriting -- what<br />happened exactly?<br /><br />The crisis in performance is, I believe, based on one simple fact. When it<br />started, rock n roll was dance music. One day we stopped dancing to it and<br />started listening to it and it's been downhill ever since.<br /><br />We had a purpose, had a specific goal, an intention, a mandate, we made<br />people dance or we did not work, we didn't not get paid, we were fired, we<br />were homeless. That requires a very different energy. To compel people to<br />get out of their chairs and dance, it's a working-class energy, not an<br />artistic, intellectual, waiting-around-for-inspiration energy. It's a<br />get-up, go-to-work-and-kill energy.<br />Rip it up, or die trying.<br /><br />The advent of the video was just the final nail in the performance coffin, a<br />coffin that had already been constructed by years of excessive immersion in<br />ganja, hashish and all forms of water-cooled bong therapy. You didn't have<br />to make people dance anymore, they were too stoned to dance.<br />Now you didn't even have to play your instrument anymore. All you had to do<br />was act like a rock star and bada-bing you were a rock star.<br /><br />Well now, there's a new trend that's even more dangerous, and this affects<br />songwriting as well as performance. Bands are starting to skip the bar-band<br />phase of their development<br />and I'm seeing it all over the world. The club stage, where ideally you're<br />still a dance band.<br />But equally important, you get the opportunity to play other people's songs,<br />your favorite songs. Analyze them, understand them. All of a sudden, I'm<br />hearing it's not cool to play other people's songs. That's for the less<br />gifted, you know, the losers. That thinking has been extended now to include<br />anybody's songs, you know any songs that didn't come from your personal<br />musical genius.<br /><br />This is a major problem. Performance-wise, the energy you discover,<br />manufacture and harness as a dance band stays with you for the rest of your<br />life. You never lose that. And the analysis you must do while learning to<br />play classic songs is how you learn how to write. The melody, this melody<br />with that chord change, produces this effect. It's how you learn to arrange.<br />The verses go here, the bridge there, it's how you learn the specific job of<br />each instrument.<br /><br />You learn greatness from greatness. Nobody is a born great performer, nobody<br />is born a great songwriter. The Beatles were a club and bar band for five<br />years, and then continued playing covers for five albums, the Stones did<br />about three years and their first five albums. All of a sudden, we think<br />we're better than them?<br /><br />Another nefarious infection regarding modern songwriting is the auteur<br />theory, which means the person singing has to be the person writing or else<br />it's irrelevant. This became dominant as rock n roll became the art form of<br />rock. Beginning in 1965, it was the year the Beatles, the Stones, the Byrds<br />and Bob Dylan influenced each other right into a new art form. Suddenly rock<br />was personal.<br /><br />It was important, and an industry of journalists sprang up to explain it to<br />us. And that was, and is, great, except an inaccurate balance was created<br />between the post-art-form rock and the pre-art-form rock, keeping in mind<br />that the art-form rock was only the last quarter of the renaissance.<br /><br />It was born in the folk-rock era, continued through psychedelic,<br />country-rock, and into hard rock and the singer-songwriter era, where an<br />inaccurate emphasis on the importance of the self-contained artist has led<br />to the ocean of mediocrity we're drowning in today.<br /><br />Journalists work in words, they love words, they are words, so it's<br />perfectly understandable they labor under the misconception that lyrics are<br />the most important part of the song. They are not and let's keep in mind,<br />there are of course, major journalist exceptions. The two best rock n roll<br />books are after all Nick Tosches' "Hellfire," the Jerry Lee Lewis story, and<br />Dave Marsh's "Louie Louie," both about pre-art-form rock and, don't get me<br />wrong, great lyrics make a song better. I made five political albums and<br />spent months on the lyrics. Just don't think that's why people are coming to<br />see your band. Because that is not enough reason. Bob Dylan is the greatest<br />lyric writer that will ever live, but if he wasn't a great singer and wasn't<br />able to write, or in the early days steal, great melodies, he'd still be in<br />the Village at Cafe Wha.<br /><br />The problem with this imbalance is that singers who don't write or write<br />about the correct subjects,<br />aren't taken seriously. And it's true, in spite of Elvis and Sinatra.<br /><br />The 15 years of pre-art-form lyrics may not seem as important or meaningful<br />in a social and political way, but as a 13-year-old hearing the super sexy<br />Judy Craig and the Chiffons sing Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry's "I Have a<br />Boyfriend," don't tell me that wasn't important. More than anything else in<br />the world, I wanted to be that boyfriend. I still do. That was my "Blowing<br />in the Wind," my "Day in the Life," or "Sympathy for the Devil," absolutely.<br />If you wanna write, then learn how to do it.<br /><br />As one of the great song publishers, like Lance Freed, who were always<br />encouraging young songwriters to co-write with older ones, said, just like<br />it's important to perform with a purpose, it is equally important to write<br />with a purpose. Whether that purpose is to express your most personal<br />anguish or to simply have a hit record, if you're gonna do it, do it right.<br /><br />The third part of our craft is record-making and that discipline has almost<br />completely disappeared.<br />A record is four things: composition, arrangement, performance and sound.<br />Four different crafts, overseen by a producer, who understands, to some<br />degree, all four elements, plus the big picture of the industry, plus the<br />psychological stuff, being the artist's psychiatrist, plus the liaison with<br />the business people etc., etc.<br /><br />Where are they? Where are the real producers, the arrangers, the point<br />being, once upon a time it took an army of very talented people to make<br />records: writers, singers, musicians producers, arrangers, engineers. Now<br />you have to do it all yourself? No wonder everything sucks.<br /><br />Well, when the major record companies abandoned development, DIY was born,<br />do it yourself. And the auteur theory works well with DIY anyway, so why<br />not?<br /><br />Well there is one reason why not. Everybody isn't a star. Everybody isn't a<br />songwriter, isn't a singer, isn't a performer, isn't a record producer. But<br />who is there to tell them these days, who's there to help, who's there to<br />suggest a different direction, to teach, to impose discipline?<br /><br />Even the majors are starting to adjust, and I hope they succeed because<br />right now in this new paradigm they are useless to us as banks. There's<br />nowhere to spend their money anymore.<br />It's very encouraging and impressive that they stuck with MGMT for 18 months<br />for instance, before it broke. Maybe they look back and learn from Steve<br />Popovich, who stuck with Meat Loaf for over a year, when no one was<br />interested. You know a little bit of this long-term patience is nice to see.<br />But mostly the majors have passed the creative stuff off to the production<br />companies. There's nobody home artistically. You know, they can still find a<br />record, and occasionally break one, but they're gonna have trouble with the<br />second one, because nobody in the company knows how they made the first one.<br /><br />There's no development, there's no long-term thinking, so, as usual, it's up<br />to the indies, right?<br />But indies, whoever it is, better establish a new work ethic, better find<br />some new patience, better get back to the basics, and better be qualified to<br />go the distance.<br /><br />Standards have been set. The standards have been set by Sam Phillips,<br />Leonard Chess, Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler, Berry Gordy. You wanna be in the<br />record business, those are the standards we must live up to. We must<br />introduce, re-introduce, a new dedication to the craft. And worry about the<br />new technology and the art later.<br /><br />Thank you.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-15661959323018193972009-03-26T08:56:00.003-04:002009-03-26T09:06:21.184-04:00Song of the Day - The Beets<a href="http://www.myspace.com/thebeetsbeat">The Beets</a> (not Doug's fave band...) bring new meaning to lo-fi. Their album from last year, Spit on the Face of People Who Don't Want to be Cool, may be one of the lowest quality recordings I've heard in a long time, but it makes up for it with the tunes. They write very catchy mid tempo rocknroll/trash kinda songs that put a smile on your face. The gang-shout vocals are always a plus for me, and they do it well. All this, and I only heard them for the first time 24 hours ago.<br /><br />Here's a song:<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?m2djjz0zhze">The Beets - What Did I Do</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-30332697147527934962009-03-24T08:24:00.000-04:002009-03-24T08:25:38.673-04:00The Strange Boys<object width="445" height="364"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mTAd23xotAY&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mTAd23xotAY&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"></embed></object><br />.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-12795093455920048642009-03-23T22:45:00.004-04:002009-03-23T23:00:17.473-04:00In India You<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi2zJL6AwFINi6jyQzKgKbRfHkkquU_FKdfOEqqU5C247srCu3dF8rR8JOBqEq6P4Wi8aY8Y9AWW-0uwaWPpbYny0IuPM2YhiPBn7xrDsA6dLD9Fgan4By10fbWd63ab1Lm0lw/s400/cdweb.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi2zJL6AwFINi6jyQzKgKbRfHkkquU_FKdfOEqqU5C247srCu3dF8rR8JOBqEq6P4Wi8aY8Y9AWW-0uwaWPpbYny0IuPM2YhiPBn7xrDsA6dLD9Fgan4By10fbWd63ab1Lm0lw/s400/cdweb.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />The other night, I was having trouble falling asleep. This is worth noting because despite the fact that I never get a good night's sleep, and rarely feel rested in the morning, I fall asleep within 10 minutes of lying down, every night, without fail. After a while, I got out of bed and went to go listen to music on the computer. I decided on the Brian Jonestown Massacre (who incidentally, are playing in NY in like a week) album, Their Satanic Majesties Second Request, and turned on the itunes visualizer. When the lights are off, and that is all you can see, it is pretty easy to get mesmerized. When track 4 came on, something really clicked, and I was bobbing my head to the beat while staring intently at the computer screen. When it ended, I played it again, then again, then a fourth time. The whole time, just sitting there with my eyes fixed on the swirls and shifting shapes and colors. No drugs were involved, just boredom. But its rare these days that I want to listen to an almost 4 minute song over and over and over again.<br /><br />Here's that song, and turn on the visualizer....<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?nzdl2z2u3jw">The Brian Jonestown Massacre - In India You</a><br />.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-977747447157075962009-03-21T21:13:00.003-04:002009-03-21T21:32:23.832-04:00Song of the Day - Sun Araw<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.demoniazed.com/phynx.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 376px; height: 375px;" src="http://www.demoniazed.com/phynx.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I'm getting ready to go out for the night, so I needed some good shoe tying music. I found it with Sun Araw, which is a side project for one of the guys in Magic Lantern. The album I was listening to, The Phynx, has two 16 minute drone/noise tracks, and two shorter ones that are more song oriented.<br />Here is one of them. It's a keeper:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?omf2gd4w0md">Sun Araw - Harken Sawshine</a><br />.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-24467361303890531032009-03-19T23:39:00.003-04:002009-03-19T23:55:57.634-04:00Lovvers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.sxsw.com/bands/85147.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 432px;" src="http://img.sxsw.com/bands/85147.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I find it astonishing that almost every day recently, I'm finding out about bands that are new to me that are just kicking my ass. In a good way that is. Today, that band is Lovvers. These guys are British (!) and play lofi rocknroll/punk thats just off kilter enough that it still makes me wanna stomp the ground like the DC5. Even the more straight forward catchy as hell punk songs have kinda crazy "middle 8's" if you will.<br />Such as: <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?myibwniqt4y">Talk Cheap</a><br /><br />Go punch the wall to this one: <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?anjd2k5kwny">No Romantics</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27559893.post-60962674338422427012009-03-18T23:13:00.003-04:002009-03-18T23:24:20.729-04:00Song of the Day - The Greenhornes<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2000/10/29/greenhornes.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 464px; height: 342px;" src="http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2000/10/29/greenhornes.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I hate my current musical set up. I have most of my CDs in my bedroom at my parents' house (a lot of good that does me here...), and have to rely on my computer, hard drive, and the assortment of CDs i've picked up the past few months. a HUGE downside to this situation is that I don't have immediate access to some of my favorite albums. Among my personal favorites are the first two Greenhornes albums. Fucking perfect in practically every way. They are both the kind of albums that make you feel like an ass for not listening to more often. I've been listening to them the past few days for the first time in what feels like 6 months - Way too long. Its too bad that Jack White hijacked the rhythm section for unbridled wankery. And even though I still dig Dual Mono, the first two are where its at. Crank that organ.<br /><br />Here's a cover of the Spencer Davis Group from the self titled album:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?1zmmzydmlyj">The Greenhornes - High Time Baby</a><br />.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0