The End's Not Near

Well Open House has returned after an unofficial break throughout the entire month of December. Unfortunately our hiatus was not by choice though, it was in fact due to "technical difficulties." To make a long story short, in October when the file hosting website that we paid for, EZ Archive, decided to "upgrade," it also decided to downgrade the quality of our mp3 files, making them muffled and slightly distorted. We did not realize this until the end of November, resulting in our month long break. When we inquired about the loss of clarity in our files they said that they "found in the past that allowing people to download files when shared was primarily being used to share copyrighted materials and that created infringement concerns, which was not the intention of the service." In spite of their obvious "concerns" about copyrighted materials, they for some reason still provide the same service that allows people to download files, but now it is the subscribers that are getting screwed. Everything that was posted prior to this post probably sounds like crap. Whatever.

At any rate, we are moving forward with a free service called Filexoom. In most cases you will probably still be able to simply right-click, and save-as. For some reason though, it will also occasionally make you click on the link and actually go to the Filexoom site. If that happens, just simply scroll to bottom and wait for about 15 seconds until it says you can download the file. This does seem like a hassle to me, but at least the sound quality will be up to snuff.

There is yet another change in the works for Open House, this one is less annoying, we have a new contributor named Drew. His first post will be on Tuesday.

For now, since there’s going to be a crapload of New Years Eve parties tonight, I’ve decided to return to the Sunday Singles format with a song by the New Year about a party.

Sinking Ship (mp3)

Bonus
The End’s Not Near (mp3)

Sorry about all the problems, please check back on Tuesday.
We hope everyone has a Happy New Year.

-Popkoff

Bahamadia

Bahamadia is synonymous with True School Hip Hop. From her beginnings as a protégé of Guru and DJ Premier to her affiliations with the Roots, Talib Kweli, Vikter Duplaix, Slum Village and countless others, she has consistently been involved in hip hop with a jazz and soulful vibe. Bahamadia is known for her subdued monotone delivery and her socially conscious lyrics. Her new album is set for release this year and from the previews at her Myspace, it looks like it is going to be a scorcher.

From the album B.B. Queen:
Common Wealth (Cheap Chicks) [mp3]
One-4-Teen (Funky for You) [mp3]

From the album Kollage:
UKNOWHOWWEDU [mp3]

As a bonus here are two tracks that include her as a guest:
Sylk 130 "The Reason" [Playa Duplaix Remix] [mp3]
Roni Size "New Forms" [mp3]

Buy Bahamadia’s records here.

---Mr. Mark

Sunday Singles: Champion Sounds, indeed!

Dance music is based on repetition and keeping a groove. Great dance music keeps a solid groove and still manages to make it sound interesting. I don’t like Fatboy Slim, but this remix is amazing. It is completely un-EQed, raw electro, and verges on falling apart before old school synth horn hits blast into the mix and it turns from just dance music into pure ear candy. This rawness and disregard for industry standards is uncommon among such big-named DJ’s and producers, in my opinion I think Switch is pushing the new electro scene forward-we are so lucky.
On a side note, Switch teamed up with Sinden to form A. Brucker and Sinden.



Fatboy Slim "Champion Sound" [Switch Remix] (mp3)

as an added bonus YOU NEED THIS:

Switch "A Bit Patchy" (mp3)

Buy his music here.

—Mr. Mark

For John: Daniel Francis Doyle (Live on KXLU)

Daniel Francis Doyle = drums, feedback, guitar loops, microphone headset. He is from Austin, TX. This performance was recorded for KXLU in LA, and contains a new track by DFD, "You're Nowhere."

This recording has been edited by Open House:

1) Intro (mp3)
2) Pitching Arm (mp3)
3) Strange Way of Speaking (mp3)
4) Ready to Develop (mp3)
5) Wrapped Up (mp3)
6) You’re Nowhere (mp3)
7) Official News (mp3)
8) Heads Up (mp3)
9) Outro (mp3)

We Love you Dan,

-Popkoff

A Day Like Tomorrow

Jazz. /jaz/ noun
1. music originating in New Orleans around the beginning of the 20th century and subsequently developing through various increasingly complex styles, generally marked by intricate, propulsive rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, improvisatory, virtuosic solos, melodic freedom, and a harmonic idiom ranging from simple diatonicism through chromaticism to atonality.
2. a style of dance music, popular esp. in the 1920s, arranged for a large band and marked by some of the features of jazz.
3. dancing or a dance performed to such music, as with violent bodily motions and gestures.
4. Slang. liveliness; spirit; excitement.
5. Slang. insincere, exaggerated, or pretentious talk: Don't give me any of that jazz about your great job!
6. Slang. similar or related but unspecified things, activities, etc.: He goes for fishing and all that jazz.
from Dictonary.com

Some of my jazz favorites:

Jose James "The Dreamer" (MP3) [Brownswood Recordings]
Carmen McCrae "How Long Has This Been Going On" (MP3) [Verve]
John Coltrane "Giant Steps" (MP3) [Atlantic Records]
Nuyorican Soul "Gotta New Life" (MP3) [Giant Step Records]
Jorge Ben "Comanche" (MP3) [Compost]

--Mr. Mark

Sunday Singles: Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

Friday night I found a single that I have been searching years for, and cheap no less. I was fortunate to come across Low’s rendition of the Smith’s "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Love Me," which of course, is not as good as the original version, but is still well worth a listen. As expected, it pretty much remains faithful to Low’s traditional shoegazer sound, but it is not in such obvious contradiction, as say, their beautiful cover of Joy Division’s "Transmission."

Low:

Side A: Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me (mp3)
Side B: Because You Stood Still (mp3)

Bonus Tracks:

The Smiths – Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me (mp3)
Low – Transmission (mp3)
Joy Division – Transmission (mp3)

Come to think of it, this probably should of been a Themed Thursday, but whatever, Enjoy!

–Popkoff

THEMED THURSDAYS: JOHNNY THUNDERS

Several years ago I attended a creative writing class, in which a student wrote a short story about the ghost of Johnny Thunders. In the story, the notorious New York Doll’s guitarist haunted the New Orleans hotel that was the site of his death. At the time, I wasn’t aware of who Johnny Thunders was, and thus, I didn’t fully appreciate the story, but a part of me has always wished I could go back and re-read it now.

I’ve posted the Kinks song that, although I haven’t read anything that confirms it, probably gave Johnny Thunders his name, along with a classic Thunders track, and a fitting Murder City Devil’s tribute.

Johnny Thunder - The Kinks (mp3) 1968
You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory - Johnny Thunders (mp3) 1978
Johnny Thunders - Murder City Devils (mp3) 1998

–Popkoff

I TRIED TO PLAY YOU THE SADDEST SONG, BUT ALL I DID WAS MAKE YOU SMILE

Recently I purchased "The Richard Swift Collection: Volume One," a single disc that combines two of Swift’s albums into one, "The Novelist" and "Walking Without Effort." Richard Swift, a native of California, first came to my attention last March during South by Southwest, when two of my friends returned from his show at Emo’s, gloating about the amazing set that I had just missed. The only other thing I knew about Swift prior to my recent purchase was that he had played keyboards on a few Starflyer 59 albums (you can download songs by them here), a plus in my book.

Overall, the double-album, which was released by one of my favorite labels, Secretly Canadian, is a strong, but somewhat uneven release. Combined, the two albums clock in at around 45 minutes, which is pretty standard for a 17 track CD. The problem for me is that the first 8 tracks ("The Novelist") have a far warmer sound to them than the latter half of the disc. There is a richness to the keyboards, and a total lack of guitar throughout, that keeps it interesting from track to track. "Walking Without Effort" on the other hand, while nice, relies heavily on an acoustic guitar that causes the keyboards to play second fiddle, so to speak. Swift’s voice is different on "The Novelist" as well, he has a kind of slurred-form of singing that makes the whole album sound kind of like Rufus Wainwright doing "Franks Wild Years." That method gives way on the second album though to a more standardized form of annunciation.

From "The Novelist"
Lovely Night (mp3)
The Novelist (mp3)
Looking Back, I Should Have Been Home More (mp3)

I wanted to post mostly from "The Novelist," but also give you something I liked from "Walking Without Effort" for comparison. You can also download another song from that album from the Secretly Canadian site, here.

From "Walking Without Effort"
Beautifulheart (mp3)

Also, check out Swift’s Homepage (It’s a hoot!), and his Myspace profile.

–Popkoff

We Never Had Fancy When We Could’ve Had Plain

A week ago I went downtown to catch the Mountain Goats, featuring the nasally vocals of Indie’s hippest un-hip troubadour, John Darnielle. If you are not familiar with the prolific works of the Goats, they basically write little lo-fi narratives that usually have something to do with either unhealthy relationships, small towns, or bad decisions. Admittedly, I’m not the biggest Mountain Goats fan in the world, but the songs I do like, I really like a lot. Unfortunately, the show, while memorable in it own way, fell a bit short for me. I guess I thought that it was going to be more energetic and personal than it actually was. I imagined (based on live recordings) that it would be kind of like a guy sitting around a camp fire rambling tales over fiery acoustic strumming, but it was in fact, exactly like a guy making awkward facial expressions and doing, what amounted to, a poor impersonation of Mitch Hedberg during the in-between-song-banter. The music was fine, but for me, the performance was nothing special.

This really didn’t bother me until Friday night when I hiked 9 blocks to Emo’s Lounge to see Stiff Record alumnus and cult Pop-rocker, Wreckless Eric. Eric (born Eric Goulden) found success in the late 70's with his only big hit, "Whole Wide World," a song that I’ve always thought belonged in a film. It will finally be getting that chance later this month with the release of "Stranger Than Fiction." Though "Whole Wide World" was his only real hit, he still generated quite a reputation throughout the late 70's/early 80's, not only for his unusual Pop sensibilities, but also for his notoriety as a heavy drinker.

My first exposure to Wreckless Eric was through the 1993 Rhino Compilation Series, DIY. The song "Whole Wide World" was featured on the "Teenage Kicks: UK Pop (1976-79)" disc and it immediately struck me as having a rather timeless quality to it. I then read up on him and gained even more insight from a couple of pivotal (for me) blogs on Post-Punk Junk (which can be found, complete with downloadable mp3's, here & here).

When I found out that Wreckless Eric was playing Emo’s 2 months ago I didn’t even think he was alive, much less touring. I knew that this was probably going to be a once in a lifetime experience, so I made it my goal not to miss it. Knowing all of that, I still found myself hesitant to go out Friday night; it was cold, late, and I had to get up at 5:30 the next morning, but I knew I would regret not going, so I forced myself to go. I have to admit, I am soooooooo glad I did.

Wreckless Eric took the stage a short time after setting up his guitars. His physical appearance was far different than the many younger photos I had seen. It reminded me of how different Henry Winkler looks now when in comparison to the eternally young Arthur Fonzarelli. That thought was then followed by a slight awe at the fact that Eric’s unique voice, now 30 years along, sounded exactly the same now as it did then. He surveyed the crowd from atop the stage, commented on a young lady’s hair in the front row, and then remarked, "you’re all so young; when I was popular, you weren’t even born." He then started the set with what I recall as being a rollicking rendition of "Joe Meek." By the end of the second song, the emotionally cathartic rant "Same," I had a growing urge inside me to say aloud, "fuck the Mountain Goats!"



Wreckless Eric (1977)



Wreckless Eric (1991)

In front of me stood a man in his mid-50's, without a record contract or any prospect of conventional success. He stood there playing music in a small club half way around the world for people 30 years younger than himself. When he played, his acoustic guitar had a harshness and forcefulness that most guys playing electric guitars lack. He had a stomp and a yell and a lifetime of experiences John Darnielle could only invent. He had a pain in his face, an understated sense of humor, and a genuine oddness to him. There was no need to fake a vocal quirk when speaking either, since he was born with his a long time ago. Simply put, Wreckless Eric was putting the Mountain Goats to shame.

Midway through the third or forth song, the cell phone began ringing loudly, it belonged to the same young lady on the front row. Eric paused momentarily and looked down at her, smiled and said "honey you might want to answer it, it’s out of tune with my guitar." There was an effortless crowd interaction throughout the whole of the evening, he would relay stories about songs, stopping at one point to actually read a passage from his book. This action in some other context might seem pompous, but in this environment, it seemed only natural. Towards the end he asked if he had left anything out, anything anyone wanted to hear. One person asked to hear the song that they were supposedly conceived to, "Broken Doll." The idea that someone had sex listening to his music, and that their offspring then grew up to come to one of his shows, sparked Eric to remark, "wow, just imagine that."

Even a bored drunk woman shouting for the Elephant in the Room (in this case "Play Whole Wide World!!!") couldn’t halt the momentum of the show. After assuring the woman he would play the song once, and then being forced to confront her nagging again, Eric eventually gave the drunken embarrassment what she wanted. Before he did so though, he thanked the audience for being so nice, "even the ones who yell at me and tell me what to do." Staring down the awkwardness of the situation, he could of played the song in an obligatory manner, but he instead played with the same playful enthusiasm he had churned out during the previous hour and twenty minutes. When the song was over, he put down his guitar and took a look at the applauding audience, and said quietly "well, you made an old man happy."



Wreckless Eric (2006)

In retrospect there is no direct cause for a comparison between the Mountain Goats show and Wreckless Eric’s, I mean, they’re both from different times and perform different styles of music. As a friend of mine put it though when I tried to explain the way I felt after the show, "sometimes it takes experiencing something real to see how pretentious other things are."

Whole Wide World
Joe Meek

I found a neat live recording from a recent radio broadcast at WFMU, and I edited a couple of the songs down to individually mp3's. Both of them are very good, and characteristic of the show Friday night. "33's & 45's" starts off a bit slow, but stick with it.

Same (Live from WFMU)

33's & 45's (Live from WFMU)

I also encourage you to check out his website, particularly his "biography"

–Popkoff

Pull of You

Have you ever heard music that completely stumps you? Music that for some unknown reason is just not structured like other music; it does not fit the mold even though it uses the same palette of sounds that everyone else uses. Records like Philip Glass' "Einstein on the Beach", Aphex Twin's "On (D-Scape Mix)", Kit Clayton's "Repetition and Nonsense" all made profound advances for their respective genres. I believe this record will have the same effect.

Ricardo Villalobos, who has been well-known for his work within the minimal techno and microhouse genres for years, offers to the world, "Fizheuer Zieheuer," an album that goes completely over the top with a dub infused Latin house micro percussion synthesizer soundtrack that hints at minimal techno, but reaches well beyond that. There is not a catchy bassline, vocal, or any distinct sound that carries the track. It is literally the absence of the hook that makes this track so effective. It references Latin America, Eastern European, and Spaghetti Western music, but is subtle in it's excecution. This release in it's entirety is over 60 minutes long, and with it Villalobos proves his mastery of dance music. This is the 12" version.

Ricardo Villalobos "Fizheuer Zieheuer [part 1]"

Buy it from PLAYHOUSE

---Mr. Mark

Aimee's Mix

It is too easy to fall victim to your own record collection. Here are two tunes to get you out of your slump.

Kelley Stoltz "Ever thought of coming back" (Popkoff's choice)
Cornelius "Beep it" (Mr. Mark's choice)

---Open House

I Let Myself Fall In Love With You

I spent most of last Friday night at Emo’s with my hip pressed up against a giant speaker and a amused look on my face. I would occasionally remove my hands from my pockets to quietly snap a few photos, but for the most part I only removed them to applaud the genuine quirkiness of Rosie Thomas. Formerly of the Dreampop outfit Velour 100 (side project of His Name Is Alive), Thomas split the band and released her first solo album, “When We Were Small,” on Sub Pop in 2002. My first encounter with her came in March of 2001 when I paid $20 at the door to go to Sub Pop night at Emo’s during South by Southwest, which featured such diverse bands as the Go, Nebula, and the band I originally paid to see, Red House Painters.

When I walked through the doors that night I had no idea who Rosie Thomas was, but the concert experience that followed would stay stored away in my brain for long after. As anyone who knows me well enough will tell you, there is a part of me that really enjoys a good musical train wreck (that’s why I like to go see Mark Eitzel), and her performance was that and more. Sandwiched between 2 rock band, including the rude ‘n crude Black Halos, Thomas sat down in a chair with her acoustic guitar in hand and a pair of oversized black thick-rimmed glasses sliding off her nose. When she spoke her voice was meek, high-pitched, and child-like, but when she removed her glasses to sing it would morph into the soothingly strong, rich voice of an angel. At the end of every song she would punctuate it with quickly-spoken “thank you very much” reminiscent of Latka Gravas, she would then put her glasses back on and resume a nervous chit-chat with the restless audience. The real derailment occurred when Vancouver’s lame glam-punk-revivalist, the Black Halos (a band on the same label as Thomas mind you), began heckling her, she in turn took jabs at their punk rock credibility. All in all it was uncomfortable, beautiful, and slightly confrontational.

Friday night was a different story altogether, Rosie took the stage after local indie darlings, the Lovely Sparrows (celebrating the release of their new album), performed a well-received, but utterly unremarkable set, complete with the requisite, cookie-cutter cover of one of their contemporaries, in this case, the Magnetic Field’s “All My Little Words.” This time around she had her brother, Alex Thomas (on piano), and the crowd on her side. She played a confident set filled with gorgeous songs and hilarious discussions sprinkled in between them covering a wide range of topics including tabloid obsessions, knock-knock jokes, and Halloween costume suggestions (Steve “the Gutte” Guttenberg or The Fog!?!). The strength of her performance was striking and still surprising after all these years. When her set was over I checked out her merchandise stand where she sold among other things, self-designed hand-made purses and rather neat custom denim bracelets. Bottom line, I would marry Rosie Thomas.


The headlining act was the critically acclaimed (rightfully so) atmospheric country of Damien Jurado, a performer with a quiet simple demeanor similar to that of Karl from Sling Blade (minus the retardation and murderous tendencies obviously). This was the third time that I have seen Mr. Jurado, and it never ceases to amaze me how gentle and unassuming his persona appears to be, it’s as if he just finished riding a tractor for 3 hours, and now he wants to play me some songs. He seemed to play mostly stuff from 2003's “Where Shall You Take Me?” (including the beautiful “Abilene”) and the brand new “And Now That I’m Your Shadow,” out on Secretly Canadian. Towards the end he slipped in “December” from 2000's heartbreaking “Ghost of David” and closed with fan-favorite “Ohio.”

Rosie Thomas:
Farewell (from When We Were Small)
Let Myself Fall (from Only With Laughter Can You Win)
Sell All My Things (from Only With Laughter Can You Win)

Damien Jurado w/ Rosie Thomas:
Parking Lot (from Ghost of David)

Damien Jurado:
Medication (from Ghost of David)
December (from Ghost of David)
Ohio (from Rehearsals For Departure)

and just to prove that I don’t hate covers, here’s a Damien Jurado cover:
Ohio - CocoRosie

--Popkoff

It really is a cycle.

What can be said about music today that has not been said before? What is the importance of this genre or the next one to be unearthed? For me the value of a music review is the context in which the reviewer can relate to the music.
My tastes in music have almost all been derivative of disco and post punk.
Hearing reggae/lovers rock/ska for the first time, I was too young to appreciate the genres’ beauty. Almost 2 decades later the beauty reveals itself in a most curious way. I will spare you the onion/butterfly analogy and just say that by rediscovering and listening to songs from my childhood, I have found a wealth of music not new per se, but the appreciation and understanding is new.
How did I arrive back at the beginning again?
In the late eighties, I was knee deep in electro, synthesizer pop and pre-industrial music. A few years later that fandom was completely hypnotized by early Acid House and English/Belgian Techno records. The insistent and perfect rhythms providing a solid backbone to the warm bouncing bass lines.
At around the same time rock was very interesting to me as well; The Jesus and Mary Chain release "Automatic", a year later Sonic Youth stand up perfect with "Goo", and yet another year later My Bloody Valentine dumbfound the entire rock community with "Loveless". These three records would have a profound effect on my taste for the next few years.
Across the pond, what was being called Hardcore [which was a precursor to drum’n’bass and breakbeat] was sampling Northern Soul and American R&B to reconstruct techno into a new abstract shape that was quite refreshing to my ears. The beats were tough and at insane speeds, the bass was deep and bubbly. The vocals all sounded like helium was present in the studio when the engineer pressed record.
Then it happens, Joey Beltram’s "Mentasm", Acen’s "Close Your Eyes", and Human Resource’s "Dominator" all have the same hoover type synthesizer sound that forever changes how I will choose my records. The sounds fuels countless imitators and births that famous sound that will grow into drum’n’bass' trade mark.
Drum’n’bass [d’n’b] emerges and it is unlike anything before it. The genre is built around reggae, techno, hip hop, jazz, and the limitless possibilities of sampling. I become reacquainted with reggae around this time period. The vocals on most of the d’n’b tracks from around this time period 1993-1996 all feature Jamaican Patois and toasting atop the elastic rhythms and throbbing basslines. The music will change but this brief time period in the genre proves to be influential on my musical palette.
In other areas of my musical growth I discover, around this same time frame, the wonder of the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds", The Velvet Underground, and of course, the Beatles' "Rubber Soul". I begin to think that maybe there is something to looking back to the past for understanding sounds from today.
Immersed in nightlife, the music being played at various clubs I frequent during peak hours is cold and synthetic and exciting to hear. I notice however a sharp contrast to the music being played at the end of the night. After parties around this period take on a "low key" guise and the DJ’s all spin the same music to come down to: hip hop, IDM, soul, and roots reggae. Artists like Desmond Dekker, Gregory Isaacs, Horace Andy, and Dawn Penn all become instant favorites.
I start perusing record stores for more sounds like the artists being played and come across an amazing label Blood and Fire. I hear something in their catalog that I cannot place my finger on. It turns out to be Dub. King Tubby, Jah Stitch, the Congos, and Scientist all offer worlds filled with countless reverb, delay and endless echo chambers. The sounds took me back to my childhood. Hearing it imitated on the Grace Jones records played on my mom’s stereo. It all clicked.
Those sounds my mom played in her workshop, in her car, the records my older sister played on her turntable all just fell into place. I had not discovered anything new, but actully became reacquainted with the past.
The cyclic in my musical journey makes this post possible.

For your listening pleasure:

Paulette Williams - My Island
Judy Mowatt - She Kept Talking
Marcia Griffiths - Don’t Let Me Down
Lloyd Parks - Little Better
Jennifer Lara - Ain’t No Love
The Soulettes - Bring It up

---Mr. Mark

Honing the Drones

This morning I awoke to the sound of rain outside my window. Since it was going to be a dreary afternoon I decided to rev up Pacific UV’s self-titled debut for my lunchtime car ride. There are some places where Dreampop, Slowcore, & Space-rock cross paths (I guess in this case, it’s Athens, GA), but rarely do the bands birthed from these intersections produce such satisfying and encompassing albums as Pacific UV. Their record was released in 2003 on Warm Records (a dreamy electronic label also based out of Athens), and it is a gorgeous collection of heavenly vocals, dense drones, & echoing jangles.

The (slide?) guitar wooziness of "Out in the Blue" recalls everything from Pink Floyd’s "Great Big Gig in the Sky" to Big Star’s "Big Black Car" to all of Mojave 3's "Ask Me Tomorrow." On the flip-side of the coin, the surging opening guitars of "Blind" sound like Sigur Ros rewrote the theme to Top Gun in an surprisingly good way, and when the unavoidable "explosion" of rawk detonates at about the 6 minute mark, it is welcomed thick swirl of reverb.

Out in the Blue
Maryanne
Blind

Buy It!

-Popkoff

The Lolls Harm Indie Rock Image (in a Good Way)

Simplicity works, but then again so does advertising. In many ways it is a miracle that I have ever heard anything from Extra Small Records given their limited exposure throughout this virtual universe known as the internet. It is truly surprising to me that the San Francisco based label, which from what I’ve heard seems to excel at delivering familiar, yet uniquely simple and catchy pop music, has provided potential listeners with so little to grasp onto. After searching for an hour or so on the internet for any information about the label and specifically the Lolls, all I was able to come up with was a barely interactive homepage, a Myspace profile with 2 friends (one of them being Tom, the other a band that’s not even on their label), and two album reviews (one positive, one negative). That being said, it should come as no surprise that I did not hear about them from the internet, but rather from the real world. When local record store 33 Degrees closed down several years, they had a sale on everything, so as a result I bought a lot of interesting looking albums, sound unheard.


The Lolls debut album, Come On, was one of the CDs I took a chance on. The duo of Gail Conway & Jordan Rode won’t blow your mind with their instrumental expertise, nor will they win you over with their innovative ideas about song writing, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have some things going their way. To me, the obvious draw are the female vocals which are decidedly unpretty, and certainly not the kind you hear everyday. They have a little Kim Gordon apathy to them, but for the most part they have an individuality all their own. The music is very straight-forward low-fi garage, but it’s the vocals that really sell the songs. On a track like "Jesus," where the lyrics are not only cheesy ("Save the drama for your momma, Get your groove on,"etc), but, for lack of a better description, dumb, Conway’s over-exuberant vocals illustrate yet again that in music, it doesn’t matter so much what say as how you say it. The same can be said for a track like "I Don’t Care," that breaks zero ground in the originality of it hopeless lyrics, but is nonetheless effective in it’s delivery.

Jesus
Girlfriend
I Don’t Care

I swiped the title for this blog from the negative review of the Lolls album because I found it funny that the author actually thought that this modest duo could ever "harm indie rock’s image", whatever that means. Indie rock is more than some sort of minor league where potential major label talent gets an opportunity to "shine," or at least it should be. If anything, I think a band like the Lolls represent an essential aspect of what indie rock should be, a place for anyone. Not everybody can play guitar with the technical precision of Stevie Ray Vaughn, but his music bores the shit out of me, and sure Minor Threat’s songs sound like they could of been made by anyone, but to quote myself, "they weren’t, they were made by Ian fuckin’ MacKaye!" The bottom line is that you might not like the Lolls, but it won’t be because they sound like everything else in your collection.

Extra Small Record’s last release appears to have been in 2003, but there is still a mailing address and e-mail address here if you are interested in purchasing anything from them.

–Popkoff

Well at Least We’re Not a Cult

Last night I joined 19 other people (25 if you included the band) at Emo’s for what felt more like a private performance by widely acclaimed New York singer-songwriter Nina Nastasia, but what was in fact the tail end of her nationwide tour. The music was at times sparsely orchestrated with cling-clangy piano pieces and symbol scratches, but it always consisted of Nastasia’s delicate strumming. The set was so quiet that I took very few pictures because the digital camera I was using makes an annoying "snapshot" sound whenever you take a photo, and I didn’t want to disturb the band (on that note, the front door of Emo’s could probably use some WD-40). At any rate, the audience was attentive, in fact, they were more than attentive, they were uproarious, exploding with applause and uncharacteristic hoots and hollers at the end of every fading song. Perhaps it was over-compensation for the small turn out, or maybe just undying admiration, but the audience response was said to be the best of the entire tour.

She played a lot of stuff from "On Leaving," her new album from her new label, FatCat Records. The label is based out of London, and has kindly put up several songs from the new album you can listen to here. The album comes out today, and I encourage everyone to at least give it a listen if this sort of thing interests you.

She closed with a solo encore which featured a song I was not expecting to hear at all, an acoustic version of "The Matter (of Our Discussion)," an electronic track by the artist known as Boom Bip for which she provided vocals for last year. She closed with the requested "That’s All There Is."


When she hopped off stage to a chorus of applause, she walked passed my friends and I who were just smiling and clapping at her. As she walked by she reached out and touched my arm and said "Thank you." When I told my friend about it, he responded, "well, she’s a real woman." Exactly!

Stormy Weather (from "Dogs")
All Your Life (from "Dogs")
That’s All There Is (from "The Blackened Air")

Bonus Track:
The Matter (of Our Discussion) - Boom Bip (feat. Nina Nastasia)
(from Blue Eyed In The Red Room)

–Popkoff

Shining...

Chromatics are from Portland. Their sound is filled with atmosphere, insistent synths, and a detached coolness. The sound in itself is a contradiction, it is both effortless and intense, a fey darkenss if you will. I first heard their track "Healer" a few months back and knew that it was different; slow dance rock with just a hint of humans pushing buttons and strumming guitars. Yes! A new album is in the works and for now we have these. Enjoy!

In the City
Baby
Animal Nitrate [Suede cover]

Visit Chromatics.
Buy Chromatics.

---Mr. Mark

Little Bowie in a Ziggy Wig

Recently while digging through a clearance bin in Chicago, I came across an album that was buried in the back of my mind for years. When "Listen to the Night" by the strangely named Team USA first came out in March of 2002, I remember reading several positive things about it, but back then when I stood at the listening station with the case in my hand, I wasn’t too impressed. Several years later though, being well aware of how much my tastes have changed over time (and with it only being $0.99), I decided to give it another go round.

The album is uneven, but nonetheless energetic and catchy fun. There is no irony (despite their album cover wardrobe) to the retro vibes either, which is always nice. The funny thing about indie-pop (especially of the retro variety) is that it’s very easy for a band, any band, to get lost in the mix. Hell, for a band like Team USA, it’s even easier to get lost in the sea of pop bands on your own label. In their case, StarTime International (French Kicks, Dios Malo, The Futureheads, etc.) has seemingly given up on them after just an album and an e.p. It’s their loss I guess, although they were nice enough to do a news update on the bands current output. Essentially the band has recorded, designed, and is self releasing a new 8 song album entitled "8."


You can e-mail band leader Johnny Mathias here, and order a copy for only $5.

Give these tracks a listen, and tell us what you think. Personally, I’m currently in love with the song "Hey."

Hey
The Postcard
Too Young
Halloween

Buy It! Cheap!

–Popkoff

The One Man Beatles?

The wonder of Emitt Rhodes is quite new to me. At first listen, his sugary 70's golden pop sheen was an immediate draw. However, after many listens a darkness surfaces from beneath the gloss and sunny production. His sound is often compared to the Beatles and while that was obviously an influence, traces of Burt Bachrach, PET SOUNDS era Beach Boys, Phil Spector, and even Serge Gainsbourg all make appearences.

His intricate pop craft was sadly a victim of the record industry's corporate greed. The great American catalog of music he should have left never came into fruition, but we do have four albums worth of material to ponder what could have been.

With my face on the floor
Somebody made for me
Promises I made
Pardon me
Holly Park
Til the day after
Bad man
Warm self sacrifice



These sounds seem tailor made for headphones, listen for yourself.

---Mr. Mark

All the photos in this blog were taking by John Newberry.

Friday morning Austin drove Mr. Mark & I to the airport. I was nervous but not too much. As we sat in the Terminal I noticed this comic in the Statesmen:

Chris Mosley thought that perhaps his friend Brittany was going to be on the same flight as Mark & I, and sure enough she was. She was even coincidently on the row right behind us. There were only 3 seats on our row, Mark & I occupied two of them, and a little boy wearing a Longhorns shirt had the window seat. We eventually agreed to have him switch with Brittany so she could sit with us and he could sit with his brothers, but before any of that happened he looked out the window at the engine right next to us and said to me "If this window breaks, we'll probably fly into this thing and die." All I said in response was "probably."

The flight was sort of nerve-racking, but not nearly as bad as a rollercoaster. The fact that there was a window to look out of made it seem like it was something that was happening on tv. We flew into Chicago around 12:15 and as we descended we had to fly out over Lake Michigan and circle back towards the runway, that part was a little scary. We picked up our bags and then Mr. Mark abandoned me less than 5 minutes after arriving, he had to leave to go stay with his friend Troy. Before he left, I had commented to him that when we arrived in Chicago (my birthplace), it would have been funny if everyone there talked like me (since I have always been told that I talk funny). Later on during the trip, Chris Mosley would compare this idea to "a baby Sasquatch returning to the woods to an entire civilization of Sasquatchs he didn't know existed."

Brittany & I killed time walking around waiting for Mosley, DFD, and John to arrive. Before they showed up we met up with Mosley's friend Mary. Her and her boyfriend Alex are two of the nicest most generous people I have ever met, if it wasn't for them I don't know how much time I would have wasted trying to navigate the city. I don't know how Mosley does it, but he's been blessed with the friendship of some amazing people.

With everyone there, we rode the train into the city (I bought a 3 day pass for $12 and I used it for my entire trip, not a bad deal), and then we went to Mary's place.

Danny Doyle on the Subway

Mary & Brittany on the Subway

Over the weekend I really became accustomed to riding the subway, I wish we had on here. We grabbed a slice of pizza on our way to the Hideout for the first night of the Touch & Go Festival.

When we arrived there, they made us show our ID's if we were drinking. As we were waiting to enter, the gentlemen checking ID's (he was probably in his mid-forties) was having trouble explaining to a young Italian guy what he was needing for him to do. Frustrated the guy checking ID's turned to Danny Doyle (I guess thinking that they were both Italian) and asked him to explain to the Italian guy what was going on. Danny, caught off guard and feeling like he needed to help in someway, began translating English to English. Mosley later remarked that the guy just realized that Danny spoke "human."

Once inside we checked out the area and went to watch the Shipping News play. I had never really heard them before outside of a couple comps, and they weren't bad at all.

Shipping News

Afterwards we went and sat down at a table while some band called Supersystem (poppy dancey electro stuff) played. None of us really had any interest in them, although I kind of did when I had them confused with this band called Supersilent. During this time Mosley's friend Natalie showed up, and I got to hear DFD hunger for something to eat from the Timeout Chicken stand which was actually the Timeout Chicago (a local Magazine) stand, I don't think I'll ever let him live that one down. Danny also ran into his friend Nate during the down time, Nate was doing behind the scenes work driving the bands around and thus relaying stories to Danny about some of his favorite bands). Some of us went to go watch Girl Against Boys play, they preformed the album "Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby" in it's entirety for the first time ever. They weren't bad, but I couldn't really get into them, although I sometimes I think actually knowing some music by a band can make all the difference. Some of us watched Ted Leo & the Pharmacists (I didn't), while some of us hung out. During this time I ate a Pizza Pretzel from Wholefoods and an Orange while also learning that Chris Mosley has a somewhat prevalent fear of broken glass. We took the train/bus back to Mary's place, talked, and crashed pretty early around 11:00.

The next morning we woke up early determined to get to the festival by noon for the first band, The New Year, but first we yearned for pancakes, except Danny who opted for a sandwich from 7/11. Alex and Mary took us to this place called the Melrose for breakfast. It was really delicious although as Danny commented "everyone's plate looks amazing, but Popkoff's eating shit (pancakes & scrambled eggs)." My only defense was to tell him that he bought a sandwich from 7/11. John bought everyone's breakfast (bless him) and running late we all rushed to try and make The New Year's set (Danny & I literally ran). When we got there they were performing Danny favorite song "Disease".

..>

Disease (thank God for YouTube)

We saw 4 songs and they closed with my favorite New Year song "18" The New Year, in typical Slowcore fashion, are a difficult band to appreciate from an audience perspective since they basically just stand there hardly moving, but fortunately for them, their songs are wonderful. Their set also played really well with the dreary weather conditions, there was rain predicted, but fortunately it didn't come that day.

Without a doubt the most startling performance from the festival for me was from a band called Uzeda which features the guitarist and vocalist from the present day band known as Bellini, as Danny Doyle put it: they sound like Shellac if Shellac was fronted by a mid 40's (ultra intense) Italian woman. If you're having a hard time imaging what that sounds like, how about Shellac if they were fronted by "Rid of Me" era PJ Harvey. Still don't have it? Here, download this!

They were unbelievably raw and effective, and I certainly wasn't expecting such an amazing performance. I bought an album by them afterwards and I also bought an XL (only size they had left) Big Black t-shirt (when I went back later to buy Daniel one, they were sold out) and Shellac's "1000 Hurts" (which I got Todd Trainer to sign). I didn't watch Pegboy, but I kind of heard them from a distance (sort of standard early 90's punk rock).

Afterwards Tim & Andy from Silkworm played a one song set.

If you are not familiar with Silkworm tragedy that occurred last year, you can read about it here. The performance was very touching, and Tim was said to have broken down in tears as soon as he walked off stage. Here is a clip of the actual performance someone posted on YouTube (the sound is not that great, but since it's a quiet song, it's not that noticeable)...>

Next up was The Ex, a noteworthy punk band that has managed to remain relevant since the late 70's. The guitarist by himself would probably make a pretty mind-blowing band, his guitar was probably the nastiest looking guitar I've ever seen, and he played with a rather fidgety intensity. Maybe by the second song or so, it had became quite apparent that he had cut his playing hand while strumming and had begun bleeding all of his guitar. It was very unsettling to look at and to a degree, disturbing, but punk is not pretty.

Playing Harmonica into his guitar.

When they played the song "State of Shock" Mosley claimed that he cried during the song, but I didn't see it, although I did hear him shout "Fuck Yeah!!!!" at the end.

The Crowd at The Ex (Mosley front & center)

I missed out on Killdozer, but saw the short set played by Jon & Kat (of the Mekons & The Ex respectively). I really wish the Mekons would of played the festival, although Danny Doyle really seems to hate that Jon Langford guy. I pretty much ignored the Didjits and P.W. Long. I wanted to see Negative Approach, but since they were playing on the opposite stage of Scratch Acid I opted to stay there instead. Poor Sally Timms was issued the unflattering task of playing a 15 minute electro-folk set prior to the long awaited Scratch Acid reunion. Danny thought that she should of not giving a shit what the audience thought and just played without constantly referencing the awkwardness of the situation, but I thought she recognized the unfortunate scheduling and was just trying to make things go along as smoothly as possible. ..>

The Scratch Acid set was one of the more anticipated performances of the festival and you could certainly tell by how packed in everyone was for it. Danny was a couple of people in front of me before they came on, but not too long after their set began, so too did the pushing and shoving (I pretty much lost sight of him after the 3^rd or 4^th song). I started off in the middle of the crowd, and the sound seemed really muffled, but by mid-set I had moved towards the left side of the stage (where I met up with Mosley, Brittany, Mary, & Alex) and it sounded much better.

David Yow is a hell of a front man (duh), and John caught one of his beer cans that he kicked into the audience, and he had me take it back to Austin in my suitcase to give to Danny (I think he wanted to save it because it had his DNA on it, so we could clone him in the future and make an army of David Yows like they did with Hitler in the "Boys from Brazil").

Next up was Man...or Astroman?, who were playing on the opposite stage of the reuniting Big Black, so as expected, I didn't watch them. When Big Black came on there was a strange energy in the air ( I wouldn't call it magic exactly, but I certainly felt like I was part of something). Steve Albini lit some tiny firecrackers and tossed them across the stage, they burst and popped in a brief flurry that you could have easily missed if (for some reason) you weren't paying attention. As promised, they only played 4 songs, but thanks once again to the glory of YouTube, you can watch all of them (with pretty decent audio in fact).

..>

Dead Billy

..>

Pigeon Kill

..>

Cables (this is probably the worst quality of anything I found)

..>

Racer X

Musically for me, the whole weekend peaked with the Shellac performance. After seeing them again, I'm convinced that they are one of the best (if not the best) live bands in the world.

Their Q&A section was hilarious as usual, but even more so thanks to their drummer Todd Trainer's rant about not wanted to be bothered ("Autographs? I love 'em. Photos? I'm a poser. Wanna make out? Fine, just don't fuckin' bother me"). He also gave a heartfelt thanks to Corey, founder of Touch & Go. ..>

Afterwards we all went to a 24 hour diner called The Pick Me Up, it sort of had the ambiance of Star Seeds, but with much much better food.

The next morning we woke up prepared to get more pancakes, which we did once again from The Melrose, this time Alex paid (bless him). It was drizzling, and somehow even though the first band we wanted to see, The Monorchid, wasn't playing until 2:00, we found ourselves running late again. Group Indecisiveness led to Mosley paying $16 dollars for a cab to the festival when there was really no way of us seeing The Monorchid. After we got there we heard that their set was cut short because they blew out 2 speakers. Sunday was filled with a lot of lackluster, interesting but not really that interesting bands. A lot of them were the kind of bands you can see anytime (Quasi, Enon, Pinback etc.) So not having that much interest in the bands coupled with wanting to see some of the city resulted in us detouring from the festival for a few hours and hitting up a bookstore (Myopic Books) and a record store (Reckless Records). When we got back to the festival, there was a rather hilarious interaction that involved Mary insulting Mosley and him responded by throwing his umbrella over his shoulder and saying "I'm Out!" He then walked away leaving us somewhat bewildered. When we went looking for him, Mary, Brittany & I were spinning around in circles trying to spot him when one of them pointed behind me and said "there he is." When I turned around and saw him, for some reason, maybe it was the way he looked at us and sped away coupled with the fact that he was tiptoeing to avoid puddles, or maybe it was his Baby Sasquatch comment earlier in the trip, but I was reminded of this image:

..>

We eventually watched Brick Layer Cake (Todd Trainer's one man band). Afterwards DFD and Mosley managed to get backstage for an hour or so while the rest of us wandered around. Danny & I (maybe John as well, but I'm not sure) were the only ones to watch CocoRosie (Dan watched from backstage). Their set was neat, but I still don't know what I think of them overall.

..>

K-Hole

That night Mosley, Mary, Brittany, & went back to the Pick Me Up and they had milk shakes while I had something called a pizzadilla. While there Mosley got a call from Danny Doyle who informed him of some truly bizarre events that transpired after we left them at the festival. At the end of the festival all the bands got to gather and sang Happy Birthday to the founder of Touch & Go, Corey, and then they all had Birthday cake. Somehow, with Danny and John being backstage (maybe Danny's waiting experience factored in, I don't know), the two of them ending up serving cake to some of their favorite bands.

Here's One of several staged group photos (check out Nick on the end rockin' the 2 beer cans and a cigarette, who does he think he is?)

The next morning Mosley and everyone left before I did. I walked to an IHOP around the corner and met up with Mr. Mark for...pancakes. It was raining and 7:30 in the morning, and our flight wasn't until 1:40. We walked around and slipped into a tea house, read Optic Nerve, and waited for the other Reckless Records to open at 10:00. We spent an hour there and got some good stuff before catching the bus/train to the airport. Our flight got delayed so Mark and I ate at the airport McDonald's. Before that though, I had a strange encounter with one of the guys from the band Calexico, who approached me at the Terminal when he noticed by Touch & Go bag. It was a lengthy and awkward conversation mostly due to the fact that I was trying to avoid the subject of his band.

The flight back was way less stressful, although the final descent seemed to take forever (ear-popping pain) and most of it was spent in the white haze of the clouds. It reminded me of that scene in the movie The Others where Nicole Kidman is walking through the woods and she becomes surrounded by fog and silence.

Well, I guess that's it.