Eat My Justice!

weezer!

2005-05-06T21:53:00.000-07:00

New Weezer album is streaming from http://myspace.com/weezer.

After first lesson: nothing sensational. It's good, but it doesn't seem to have the same depth, overall, as other albums. I'll let it sink in before forming an actual opinion.

expansion

2005-04-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

Along with the syndication/relocation to the Experience, I'm changing the focus of EMJ! a bit, broadening it to make it more of a culture thing than just music (I mean, maybe this will give me an excuse to update it more).

Also, there will be mammoth posts about things weekly to uh, provide more regular content. Since it hasn't quite been regular. This is always a work in progress, though and mind that myself and Tveite have lives.

Now uh, this new direction doesn't mean that all I'll do is talk about bullshit television shows or anything. It means that when I really like something outside of the realm of music, then it'll be noted and filed and the rest of you will have to put up with it. I also would like to take a pledge to be more entertaining coming up.

Whatever. I think I have all of one reader left anyway.

But getting onto more pressing matters, concert reports from the Pixies at Merriweather and Dylan at the Baysox Stadium will be coming after I attend them. Since I'm not going to Bonnarroo but have friends who are, I make have a report from them. I feel like a reporter, or something.

In the pipeline for this weekend: DualDisc, and is it any good? a look at the Rolling Stone article on Weezer; Psychonauts, one of the best video games you might never play; and I might even get around to renting Dig and offering up some opinions on that.

Eat My Justice! soon to be more fortified with vitamin I-RULE than ever.

soapbox derby

2005-04-23T00:27:00.000-07:00

I recently posted this in my other blog.

I want to be like Marcus Griel or Lester Bangs. I want rock journalism/music journalism to go back to being about more than "This album is good because it combines genres and is edgy-neato." or "This band spends lots of money on clothes to get a thrift store look instead of going to a thrift store. Buy their album!" That's what the longer post about Dylan and the Hawks was about. I want to return it to a discussion that reflects the quality of the art.

I believe in that wholeheartedly. Maybe Marcus Griel is a bit pretentious, but look- he's ramping up the discussion. He's making it more dangerous, more alive. In a way, this should be as artful as the music it's about. I don't like using italics to emphasize words, I believe the words should speak for themselves. But that "as" is important to me, the emphasis needs to be there. It's the point I'm trying to make. Look at the artists that have been focused on at EMJ: Dylan, The Band, ...And You Will Know Us by The Trail of Dead, I did a lot of pieces on Neil Young back when I was at Twisted Jungle and 411, Weezer, Wilco. These are artists with a lot to say, a lot on their minds. I want to get deep into it.

Just thought I'd say.

"I want everyone dead!"

2005-04-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

Ted Nugent is a retard. Click here to read about it!

"Remember the Alamo! Shoot 'em!" he screamed to applause. "To show you how radical I am, I want carjackers dead. I want rapists dead. I want burglars dead. I want child molesters dead. I want the bad guys dead. No court case. No parole. No early release. I want 'em dead. Get a gun and when they attack you, shoot 'em."

Wow. Maybe this is why Alice Cooper said musicians shouldn't get involved in politics. Basically, Ted Nugent loves the Constitution because it lets him keep guns (even though it clearly says that the right is there only for militias, but let's not get picky here), but he hates the Constitution and the United States because it ensures that everyone has rights, especially to things like due process of law. Let me bold that because it's true. Ted Nugent hates America. Actually, that's not good enough. Ted Nugent hates America.

See, this is the problem with gun nuts. They have no connection to, y'know, reality. Nugent thinks that not only would it be a good idea to shoot someone who may or may not be commiting a criminal act, but that it's a good idea to take justice into the hand of armed mobs. Hey, let's start lynching rapists, and carjackers and bad guys dead. Wow, hey, let's put another layer on this. Ted Nugent wants to return to lynch mob justice.

I remember watching his teevee show on VH1. One of the "challenges" was to play chicken with a truck. On foot. And the contestant kept running, because hey, they wouldn't actually run him over, would they? Well, they did. And Nugent had no remorse. Because you know, shit happens. Ted Nugent is scum.

whoa backslash lately

2005-04-16T19:49:00.000-07:00

So. It's been a while. David and I have these things (and boy, do I want to call him Travv), have these things called lives. They interfere sometimes. That's the main reason David writes less than me, but my life is creeping up on me too, what with graduating high school and all very soon. So what's been going on lately? Jitterbug Perfume, a marvellous novel by Tom Robbins, which means a heavy mind trip and a lot to digest. It's funny and it sings. It's about beets. Not like, y'know, Ginsberg, like, y'know, the vegetable.

I have found a great music magazine, one of the few I like. It is Uncut and from the UK. The thing that drew me to it? The cover story was The Band. So of course I had to pick it up. And the article, while having some great sidebars, didn't have anything other than what I've read at the phenemonal Band website, which has a rolling collection of articles about The Band, Dylan, and the individual members. In fact, it pilfered from many articles posted at the site, but didn't actually mention the site, which seemed very weird. Anyway, there's a box set due out soon that's supposed to have more rarities than the last box set, so check that out. Actually, the sidebar stuff was really cool, like how Eric Clapton not only broke up Cream because he was so taken with The Band's Music From Big Pink, but that he went to Woodstock to play with Dylan and The Band and asked to join them. He was turned down.

Finally got around to picking up Clinic's Winchester Cathedral. It has less "rock" songs than Internal Wrangler, but it's still a rocking album...a really nice vibe that you can't get anywhere else. It's a shame they haven't caught on in the U.S., even though bands that ape their sound, except do it more boring, like the Arcade Fire, are lauded and make indie kids cream their jeans. The texture, the instrumentation, the overall vibe of the music is just something that swallows you whole. I highly reccomend it.

Did more listening to the Unicorn's Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?. Well, lyrically, it has really great, light spots, such as the arguing, or the sheer delight of "I Was Born A Unicorn", but then you listen to it more, and it's a concept album...it's about a young man living life scared of death, forgeting about death, and then gettin' the cancer. It's something more than it appears, which really speaks to the album; the kitschy-but-dark artwork, the toy pianos and pan pipes betraying the great control of the different genres that are woven together (the rap beats, the funk keyboards, the garage rock guitars). Seriously. If you haven't bought it yet, you can get it at here from Amazon. Get it. Now.

Saw the new Weezer video. It's great cock rock. It's nerdy cock rock. It'll be a good album. I don't have my hopes up, but that'll just make it better, right?

Who Hires These Fucks?

2005-03-22T19:51:00.000-08:00

So I picked up the new Queens of the Stone Age today on the way home from my drum lesson (AWESOME CD by the way) and while I was ripping it onto my computer, I read the AMG review that always comes up on my media player when I put in a CD. It was really fucking long and bizarre, not saying much except how Nick Oliveri is, in fact, NOT in the band anymore and this album is apparently incredibly sexy.

Alright, let me point something out right now.

If you are reviewing ANYTHING, be it music, movies, soap, DO NOT just use the first adjectives that pop into your mind, regardless of how utterly useless they are to your reader. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT "SEXY" MUSIC SOUNDS LIKE. And it's not just this album either, a ton of AMG's reviews are at least a little bit 'off.' Check out this one for "Origin of Symmetry" by Muse.

"If you're going to pillage someone else's ideas, then go for broke. Because even if you find yourself crammed between the barriers of creative space, utterly at a loss for ideas, expression, or thought, you'd still have your self-respect buzzing in your ear like a mad angelic insect, putting down his newspaper and taking out his cigar to remind you that, hell, if want to sound like Radiohead when even Thom Yorke doesn't want to sound like Radiohead, you might as well take it to such preposterous, bombastic, over the top levels — church organs, mental electronics, riffs bouncing off each other like the monolithic screams in 2001 — that you'd finally be in position to crack skulls like coconuts and make the world's speakers ooze gooey blood."

CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT THE FUCK THAT MEANS?! The REALLY bizarre thing is that although that review doesn't make a damn bit of sense, nor does it sound positive, the CD got a four star rating from the same site. If you're going to write a review, the purpose is not to be as wordy as humanly possible while still saying nothing, the point is to educate the people who have not heard/seen/showered with the product you are discussing. Basically, all the above review tells me is "This CD is weird and I need to get laid."

Fuck you, AMG.

how to kill time on a Sunday/Weezer rocks.

2005-03-20T20:04:00.000-08:00

Sunday nights never really bring anything too much in the way of excitement. Generally just waiting around for Monday. So, I was bored and watching vidclips on my computer when I came to Weezer on David Letterman many years back, playing "Say It Ain't So." In that four minute performance are all the reasons why I love Weezer, and why I'm looking forward to May 10.

Let's forget the fact that music is something more than good. The thing about Weezer is that it goes beyond the music, it's about the band too, the people. Fans hold Rivers Cuomo up as an idol, they monitor his every word and action, when he lets them (he is quite the private cat). It's a kind of bitchy, scary thing; the fans project themselves onto Rivers, and the rest of the band, in a huge way- even debates about whether or not he should shave. The band is a group of nerds, for the most part. That's the nice label that the Stone and Spin and all the other music magazines can put on them- nerd rock. There's even a song about it on their first album. That right there puts them on par with a hell of a lot of people who are looking for music they can relate to. They're goofy and funny and they did a video with the Muppets. An amiable bunch. The lyrics are full of self doubt and sadness and angst and the kind of emotions a teenager feels on a Sunday night. Not even a teenager, just anyone who doesn't have a good grasp on where they're at and where they're going. Even now, I feel like I can describe the group fairly well because I feel so close to them. Rivers has a gift with his words, that anyone can look at them and see themselves.

I remember reading an article in Spin when Maladroit came out. I don't remember the context, but I think it was in an airport. I generally don't like heavy fair when I'm on a plane, so Spin makes sense, really. And it pigeonholed Brian Bell as the fashion conscious member or something like that. And based on how they carry themselves, it's really easy to assign personalities to the members. Pat is goofy and amiable. Brian is the cool one. Scott is the one who can kick the shit out of you. Rivers is god.

So you see these guys on Letterman. This was when the Blue Album had come out, their debut. At this point it had sold two million copies, and Letterman introduces them by saying just that and then telling the audience that he's not scared of them. He was probably impressed though. Weezer had been together, now, I've probably got all the times and what not wrong and it seems really easy to look them up, but I'll wing it, for something like two years at that point. Within two years of playing together, they had not only gotten signed to a major record label, David Geffen Company, had something like two hit songs, and millions of sales. That's impressive, right.

So you see these guys on Letterman. And they play. And the singer doesn't move much, but he kinda sways back and forth. If you notice such things, there's a bulging underneath one of his pant legs; a leg brace. As it's been said, he was in a lot of pain that night and the other members were told to be more animated or something like that. So Matt is pure fucking energy, jumping around wearing Rivers's glasses. Pat makes drummer faces at the camera, a slightly spotchy green dye job on his head. Brian is quite easy to pigeonhole as the cool one even in this clip, as he's there and he's playing, and he's into it but he yeah, he's dressed in a more tradional rock-man garb (a great moment with Brian is on the Weezer DVD when they play "Pink Triangle" and he's stomping his feet and yelling. really, it defeats all this pigeonholing that's done. and has anybody actually thought of the pigeons?).

It's a good performance. It's a great performance. The music is spot on. Everyone is really into it. And there's this moment when the singer, this guy you relate with, you hear his albums and it's like hearing yourself, the singer who's in pain and in a leg brace and not really moving around, he's singing with his eyes closed.

Dear Daddy,
I write you in spite of years of silence.
You've cleaned up, found Jesus,
things are good or so I hear.
This bottle of Steven's
awakens ancient feelings.
Like father, stepfather, the son is drowning in the flood.

And in that moment this singer holds the note and opens his eyes wide and they gape back. He's not looking at the camera, his head is tilted up. Just like you can read into the lyrics and into the band's personalities, there is so much that could be taken from that simple movement. His eyes open and it's open to interpretation and you feel like you've just conquered something yourself. And because you have such a strong connection with this man Rivers Cuomo, but more like this rock star Rivers Cuomo, the man Rivers Cuomo calls his fanbase "annoying bitches." And our reaction? All the Weezer fans I know smiled at that because it's true.

May 10 is when Weezer's new album, Make Believe, comes out. Pick it up. I know I will.

tech help

2005-03-18T18:23:00.000-08:00

If anyone knows a way that the Atom code for the blog or whatever it is can be imported into another site, that'd be much obliged. If you have any help to offer on syndication whatsoever, feel free to offer because I know fuck all.

The Unicorns are freaking amazing

2005-03-18T18:22:00.000-08:00

So I was at Best Buy last night, carousing and such, and I saw The Unicorns album Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? Being the adventurous type, I figured, mind as well check it out.

So I put it into my car's stereo, and was blown away. There are lots of ways to describe it. Like Weezer, the Pixies, and old NES game music getting it on and someone getting knocked up; like Ween junior; drugged out alterna-rock; lo-fi pop; but really, there's no clear cut way to accurately pin down the Unicorns without listening to them. The closest my friends and I have gotten is to compare them to their old band Magic Pony, but better. Far better.

And yeah, my friends are hooked on the Unicorns now too. Becuase I sprung it on them today when we were hangning out. In fact, this morning I pulled Sean into my car, and said, "You have to listen to this." I put it on "Sea Ghost", which starts off with a pennywhistle. He agreed that it was awesome, and after school we sprung it on Sam. Sam, normally, does not dig what I dig, musically. But he really dug the Unicorns. And after listening to them, you too will dig them, and possibly want to show them off to other people. Sean made plans to get a copy for himself tonight. Even Adele, who abhors my liking of good music, dug the Unicorns. I mean, she thinks that Simon and Garfunkel didn't butcher "Girl From the North Country." Which they did.

But the Unicorns are completely awesome, a duo with some help from different friends that have put together a wicked colleciton of songs with fascinating instrumentation (courtesey of tape, toy pianos and organs, glockenspiels and other oddball devices), clever lyrics, and fantastic images (the packaging- a softcase in a mylar bag instead of shrinkwrap, has the CD wrapped in an old school paper CD folder, and the cover art is amazing, nevermind their name and the title of the album). Just really great stuff, very worth checking out.So. Go for it.

on queens and things that rule

2005-03-12T20:33:00.000-08:00

Nick Oliveri wants to get back in with Queens of the Stone Age. Nick Oliveri rules. He helped make the Queens, and really, I have no idea what a Queens concert would be like without him. I'm reminded of the Magnet interview with Josh Homme from last summer, where he basically called Oliveri a teenager. And really, you can see that- he gets kicked out of the band, starts running his mouth about it, does a diss track, and then says, "Okay, I'm over being pissed, let's get back together."

This is no knock at Oliveri, mind. It's hope that this situation won't turn out how everyone would expect it to- like anytime an adult acts like a teenager and expects a relationship to just be mended and it's not that simple. Oliveri has said he's been talking with Homme recently, and hopefully he rejoins the band.

I mean, can you imagine a Queens concert without a forty foot tall shadow of the motherfucker screaming "cocaine"?

Bonaroooooooo

2005-03-07T20:29:00.000-08:00

So, my friends are doing something really cool the night they graduate- getting directly on the road and going to Bonaroo. Yes, the jam band festival that is little more than an excuse to eat a lot of drugs- they'll miss the first night getting there, but it's worth it. Right?

Well, the ticket costs jumped to shy of $200 right now. That's good though. Three full days of music, and camping. That's more than good, that's fair. But prices will probably jump again. And they're only paying for two days. After that, you have to look at who's playing. Of course, when most Bonaroo fans are asked who's playing, they ask you what does it matter, because it's not about who's playing, it's about all the drugs that will be ingested and feeling the magic, man.* My friends would ask "Does anyone else matter except the Mars Volta?"

And unfortunately for them, yes. The headliner for this year is the Dave Matthews Band. The Dave FUCKING Matthews Band. Excuse, me, but what the crap? Not only do they blow, but they're kind of like, the antithesis to Bonaroo. Bonaroo is all about the music, right. Look at who's played- Dylan, Neil Young, Ween, Phish...these are not commercial bands. These are acts, and I'd like to emphasize all the connotations of that word because these guys, well, except Ween, are all about the whole playing in front of an audience deal, these acts are guided by what they'd like to do with music.

Dave Matthews Band is what would result if you wanted to make jam band type music sell well. First off, you have to put them behind a bunch of hippie movements. Then they play at colleges, and market their music specifically to upper class white college kids in Abercrombie who think their four year experience is about going to the best parties, smoking the best grass, and you know...stuff. And then, their sound. You take a bit of laid back groove type music. Then you add in shitty lyrics and throw in some moderately neat sounding guitar riffing. Sprinkle on some generic sounding rhythm section, and bam! Dave Matthews Band.

Seriously? Do they want another Woodstock 99 on their hands?

All the more reason for me not to go, far as I'm concerned.

*Fuck you hippies!

You Asked for It

2005-03-01T22:02:00.000-08:00

Alright, now you've called down the thunder, you son of a bitch. Don't trash Jimmy Eat World until you've listened to Clarity. I haven't heard it yet, but I've heard it's the most profound and mature of all their work.

Seriously though, the fucking Grateful Dead? Look man, I know what you look like and all, but I'm going to go out on a limb right now and say that you're actually an aging hippie who is using the internet access in his dad's basement to pretend to be a hip (you're not really hip, you're a giant dork, but you're what an aging hippie might find hip) teenager who just happens to listen to aging hippie music. Just because you have the musical taste of a 49-year old man who runs an unsuccessful vinyl record store and wears the same soiled headband every single day doesn't give you the right to ignore the awesome power of Robert Randolph's guitarist.

Fuck the Dead. I would rather shit in a bag, then put it in my CD player for an hour than listen to them or any other shitty jam band. THEY CAN'T EVEN SPELL FISH RIGHT!

On another note, Bret Easton Ellis is a self-indulgent faggot, and everyone on IMDB except me is a total jackass.

damage control

2005-03-01T21:56:00.000-08:00

When I brought David on, it was for the entertainment value. I didn't know he'd go out and just...oy.

Rupert Randolph fucking blows. I'm tired of running into that overrated name. Look, Rupert Randolph and the Family Band are okay. They're a throwback. They aren' mightily awesome, nor are they mightily original, or mighty anything, except mighty bland! That's right! Mighty. Fucking. Bland.

Oooh, slide guitar! No one's used that in funky ways, or in rock and roll! Wowee! Yes, he does play it pleasantly. No, he shouldn't get lauded for playing his instrument servicably- Jesus, he played Bonaroo, he better know how to be good at his instrument.

To my mind, he's just another Dave Matthews- yeah, it's okay, and I guess it's kinda got its own neat vibe, but it's been done before, and better, so why waste your time on that shit?

And don't even get me started on Jimmy Eat World- how old are those guys? The singer looks like a 35 year old having a mid-life crisis. All they sing about are bullshit high school relationships. Grow the fuck up assholes.

Okay, David, remember when I brought you into EMJ! the first time, to yell at Mettalica fans? Go back to being angry, it was much more entertaining that way.

Yes, It's Me Again

2005-02-28T21:35:00.000-08:00

Hey kiddies, Nick's been bugging me to get something up here for the past week or so, so here I am. But I don't have to be happy about it. In fact, fuck all of you.

Weird as it is, I've been on kind of an emo music trip lately. I just busted out my "War All the Time" CD for the first time since early last summer and I've been rockin' a lot of Thursday, My Chemical Romance, and Jimmy Eat World in the '96 Lumina as of late. JEW's (hehehe) latest, "Futures" is a VERY solid release from a band that I didn't expect an awful lot. It's one of the few CDs in recent memory that has successfully run the gamut from fast-paced, driving punk rock style beats ("Pain," "Nothingwrong") and slower, mellower acoustic and ballad-style tracks ("Drugs or Me," "Night Drive"), all while maintaining a strong sense of coherence, and without any noticeable throwaway tracks.

Robert Randolph and the Family Band is still hitting on all cylinders with me after a few weeks' worth of listens. As a big fan of old-school motown funk music, Robert Randolph is a fantastic throwback and the new elements (keyboards, slide guitar) are a very welcome addition to the formula. Not to mention what a great soloist the guitarist is. Muthafuckas got rhythm.

On another note, I saw "The Grudge" for the second time on Saturday night. The first time I saw that movie, it was one of the stupidest things I've ever seen in my entire life, and this time, the plot was still balls, but for some reason, this time I was legitimately scared (probably because of the speaker right behind my head that kept croaking in my ear the entire movie, along with the fact that my Fire and Ice date damn near pulled my arm out of the socket during that last scene in the house). The only thing that's really been bothering me is that the ghost of Kayako in "The Grudge" bears an uncanny resemblance to Violet from "The Incredibles." Someone find decent pictures of both of them and I'll prove it to you. Also, make note that I'm talking about Violet at the beginning of the movie, before she becomes a superhero. She looks gothtastic at that part.

Festival Express

2005-02-28T20:49:00.000-08:00

Comcast's OnDemand service is pretty cool, including offering up this little known gym. In 1970, a bunch of festival promoters got the idea to do a Woodstock in Canada, except to make it a travelling show. Then they decided to put it on a train, going from Toronto to Winnipeg to Calgary, and to set up the train with cameras and microphone to capture all of the music. The lineup- The Band, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Buddy Guy, Ian & Sylvia & Great Speckled Bird, the Flying Burrito Brothers. And those are the standouts. Unfortunately, the concert film that was to be made from all the footage of the four concerts- the three Festival Express shows and then a free Grateful Dead show in Toronto- never was to be, until a studio bought some of the footage and secured some of the rights. The concert film was then mixed with documentary style interviews with some of the people involved looking back on the experience, and a great concert film becomes better- there's a hell of a lot more going on than a lot of good bands doing what they do interspersed with shots of hippies freaking out.

And the actual story of the Festival Express is interesting- a bunch of kids sitting outside of the first show in Tornto demanding to be let in for free and causing trouble with cops leading to the Grateful Dead playing a free concert in a park to satisfy the broke ass hippies; the fact that, as Bob Weir of the Dead said, drinking was new to a lot of the crowd, who were mainly used to pot and acid, which lead to the train being drunk dry and an uscheduled stop in Saskatoon; the promotors losing money and the free ticket sensation spreading to the other locations. What's really interesting is that the tickets were about $15- some guy says 16 at one point, Ian Tyson says 14 at some point, so let's go with the mean- for an all day concert featuring huge acts. Fucking hippies- how could they not be happy with that? Sure, concerts are really expensive now, but even then, that was a good price. This is like hearing stories about how people complained The Last Waltz was too expensive when they got a five hour concert featuring not only a really awesome band, but great guests, ballroom dancing, a poetry reading by some of LA's finest, and a turkey dinner. A turkey fucking dinner! How expensive were those tickets? Twenty-five bucks. In fact, this is what I really hate about being so young- all you old ex-hippies were spoiled! Great prices, great bands, and you fucking protested that shit? I hate you! What the fuck!

But right. So when the tour got 'round to Calgary, the mayor of Calgary told promotor Ken Walker that "the children of Calgary" will get in for free. Ken Walker basically said "Well fuck that" and punched the mayor of Calgary in the mouth. How badass is that?

But the film is still a concert film. A really, really good concert film. Well, maybe okay. There's a lot of Grateful Dead. A lot. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just that Sha Na Na, who looked like a bunch of rockabilly greasers, and sounded like a bunch of rockabilly greasers, only got in one song, Mashmakhan only got in one song which was awesome and the only time I've ever heard of them, too. Ian & Sylvia & Great Speckled Bird got in one song, and it was a revelation to me, hearing "C.C. Rider" done with a psychedellic backing band (though Jerry Garcia was on-stage playing with them). The Band turned in three really short songs. Buddy Guy had one song. Janis Joplin had two very long songs.

And then there was the train. The train, the train, oh the train. Nearly every jam that's shown on film involves either Rick Danko or Jerry Garcia, not that it's a bad thing. Sylvia Tyson and Jerry go through a Gospel song, the Buddy Guy Blues Band and a few others tear through "Sunshine Of Your Love." A very tripped out Rick Danko leads an entire rail car in the prison song "Ain't No More Cane." And though it's a really great moment- Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir playing guitar behind the entire car, Rick, Janis Joplin, Ian & Sylvia singing- it's also kind of tarnishing, watching Rick forget a verse and stumbling over sentences, telling Jerry what to play, and sounding very much like whatever drugs he had ingested. Which really brings out the kind of unspoken side of the film- someone says that "Woodstock was a treat for the audience and [Festival Express] was a treat for the performers." They enjoyed themselves the way bands were doing in the 70s, the way Janis killed herself doing.

It's also double edged to think about who is interviewed- beyond promoter Ken Walker there's Sylvia Tyson, but not ex-husband Ian who has moved away from this period of his life in nearly all respects, Buddy Guy, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart. Buddy Guy makes it a point at the end to say how it was a great way to spend time with Janis and Jerry. Nobody from The Band is interviewed, probably so a bitter piss fight wouldn't make its way across the screen. It's also interesting, at least for me, to note that The Band, the top-billed act at the time of the toor, is for the most part shoved to the back-burner; the film's focal point lies on the Dead and Janis Joplin, which is a disservice I think.

All in all, the film is awesome. Go see it.

The Uncharismatic Frontman

2005-02-25T09:47:00.000-08:00

Anyone else notice just how nerdy someone like Rivers Cuomo is? This isn't a knock against him, mind, but if anyone has the good fortune to have a copy of The Lion+Witch EP or has listened to it on Rhapsody (not sure if it's on the other music services), you will notice how Rivers is, with greetings like, "Good morning Tokyo" and weird jokes like, "our new record, Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Ha ha!", quite not full of charisma.

Hearing the Wilco webcast from their first night at the 9:30 Club here in DC told me that it was just limited to Rivers. Jeff Tweedy is kind of shy, is prone to rambling and self deprecation. Really, this kind of behaviour from guys who front awesome bands just gives hope to the rest of us shy and prone-to-ramble nerds who rely on self-deprecating humour to get ourselves over. And for those of you missed it, the webcast from the 2/23 show can be found here, the 2/24 show here, and an NPR interview and in-studio performance here.

Gretchen Wilson can go chug a cock

2005-02-21T09:36:00.000-08:00

Man, modern country music fucking blows. It's some of the most formulaic, bubblegum sounding music this side of where the Top 40 stations rest on the dial. In fact, it's a lot like modern pop, in that the individual artists are interchangable, the songs all fit certain archetypes- slow, sentimental song; danceable get my party on song; love song; song talking about all the shit that you own- just that country songs are generally cleaner. You know, for families and all that.

But really, country isn't. You have people talking about getting drunk all the time, and I guess that's more legal than getting crunked up WHAT? Crunked up. WHAT? Crunked up. OKAY! (look how clever I am, I'm stealing a bit from somebody else! oh, I'm so funny.) And then there are the songs about beating your wife, and lots of double entendres about sex. So really, country music and its fans are by far the most hypocritical people I can think of right now to direct ire at.

And I'm eating breakfast and the radio's on, and this song by Gretchen Wilson comes on, and I'm standing there, like, "What the fuck. This is a song about being a big slut. This is a song about going to parties and being a slutty slut who likes to slut her slutty stuff." And the station's has those neat spots in between songs, and one of those spots is all about being all about family values.

You fucking cocksuckers! What the fuck is wrong with your moral compass? Because from looking over your shoulder it seems to be set on "oblivious." Let's condemn rap music for being mysognystic and hateful, let's condemn rock music for being violent and Satanic, let's condemn pop music for making our children loose. Instead they should be listening to country music, which is good for the whole family.

The worst part is all the Jesus Freak girls who listen to shit like this and find it empowering. Yes, using your pussy is empowering. So is making yourself an intellectual equal, accomplishing something, and also, not being a cheap slut.

Fuck you Gretchen Wilson.

Backlog Part 1: Trail of Dead- - Worlds Apart, +2

2005-02-20T16:21:00.000-08:00

Found:

So for a while I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to talk about, but didn't have time to make actual posts on due to some other stuff interferring. So, here's the first of older items for me to talk about- ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead's new album, Worlds Apart, and the sampler, Worlds Apart +2.

First encountering Trail of Dead late one night on MTV2 in the middle of the video for "Relative Ways", my first thought was, "Wow, they look like a tanned Brit-pop band." My second thought was, "That spinny Price is Right wheel thing is a tad pretentious." And to some, pretentious goes a long way describing this band, and the Rolling Stone review indicted the entire album on that charge. Mainly based on how the title track of the album mentions MTV. The Stone basically summed up the album as an attack of music played on MTV. Kind of, sort of, not really. "Worlds Apart" also references the BBC and is a critque of the overall media culture. Not just MTV. And that sentiment isn't found on the rest of the album.

In fact, that's what's really great about this album, especially compared to the other Trail of Dead releases- it sounds like a mixtape. A very eclectic mixtape that has the same singer. Gone is the constant barrage of pop-hardcore that's characterized their other full lengths; the dynamics of the great 2003 EP The Secrets of Elena's Tomb are errected, then extended, and instead of going from soft to loud like on the EP, here the songs go from genre to genre- the prog rock "Will You Smile Again?" leads to the punk "Wolrds Apart" to the altrock "The Summer of '91".

There are lots of high thematic points, from the slightly glam "All White", the high and lonesome violin on "To Russia My Homeland", the slow moving, pounding "Will You Smile Again?". It's probably the best album out this year so far. Give it a listen.

Also neat-o is Worlds Apart +2, a sampler with "Worlds Apart" and two other songs. I listened to this all the time on Rhapsody before Worlds Apart came out, and it's a neat little disc for just two bucks. Quite neat, really, and a nice little bone to toss to the fans and to entice new fans.

So. Get yourself a copy. It's wholesome, I promise.

You love Wilco? Well, Wilco fucking LOVES you.

2005-02-20T11:28:00.000-08:00

Consider me a bit on the slow side with this one, but for a few months I've been trying to track down a copy of the Wilco EP More Like The Moon, which has its lyrics listed on cool Wilco lyrics page A Sea Black With Ink. After looking in trendy record shops and online retailers, I decided to Google it, which really should've been one of the first things to do, and came up with this page. Yes the band has it to download for free, just like what they did with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A ghost is born. The EP itself is pretty swell, featuring a radically differnt version of "Kamera", with a spelling difference even (!), a demo of "Handshake Drugs", and then four exclusive-like tracks that are quite neat.

There was a great article in this month's Wired about how Wilco is a band that knows how to do things right- offering albums online, putting extra content on their CDs- YHF featured a music video, and ghost had a streaming two-hour concert- and recognizing that music is also about the audience and not just the performer. Getting this EP right after I heard about how a re-issue of ghost is going to have extra content and that if you already own it, you can download it for free really hammers the point home- Wilco loves me. Hurray!

By the by, this is just more proof of how downloading does not hurt sales- ghost is Wilco's highest selling album yet, despite a lot of Wilco fans having listened to it many times before its actual release. Another good case example is Weezer's Maladroit, which had demo and finished tracks availible from the band's website and fan input on the final selection, being its biggest debut on the Billboard charts at position number 3. Basically, fuck those lying RIAA bastards.

The Wilco Book

2005-02-17T17:23:00.000-08:00

The Wilco Book is probably one of the bigger surprises I've had this year- what I thought was going to be an overpriced book full of crappy poetry is really neat.

Starting off with selections from Bern Porter's Found Poetry, the book seems to have the quality of a Wilco song, and reading the book with the enclosed CD playing feels so undeniably right. And then it moves into different anecdotes from band members about lots of things, featuring interesting pictures and artwork. The humor and good nature of the band shines through the book, and the first anecdote ends with a wonderful illustration of that- says Jeff Tweedy, "I wish we owned the whole building and all lived there, like the Monkees. And had a fire pole from floor to floor. It's not going to happen, though."

That kind of wonder permeates the book, as the overall artistic statement of the band's various works is explored by art itself- the two essays by Henry Miller and Rick Moody, being particularly deft and delightful wordplay. The book also has a section concerning the making of A ghost is born, which won Grammys for Alternative Album and Packaging. The Packaging statue is really what this entire book is about- it's not enough for Wilco to deliver just notes and words, but to present an entire work to be considered on multiple levels. The enclosed CD envelops the reader with experimental sounds and songs that maybe aren't very experimental at all, considering the excellent liner notes by engineer, laptop, and keyboard player Mike Jorgensen. And those liner notes, and a lot of the anecdotes go a long way into the band itself; the only real member of the band who gets press is Jeff Tweedy, the singing-songwriting head of the band, but then, they all help to write lyrics and create the music, and the thematic statements of the albums, proving that they are a complete collarboration, and accentuating each members' contribution to the music.

The entire book is great, and well worth the hefty price tag. Go out and get it. Oh, and Nels Cline is on the cover of this month's issue of Guitar Player in a neat little piece that focuses on this relatively unknown guitarist is quite the talented and accomplished musician. It's especially neat considering the huge change in the sound of the band between even when Nels first joined and now- listening to the bonus concert on ghost and then listening to a more recent concert, he is re-articulating familair music, in a good way. So, for those interested parties, both can be picked up at a book store, along with many other fine things.

What's that Lassie? Is Rock in Trouble?!

2005-02-14T20:16:00.000-08:00

GREEN DAY RETURNS TO SAVE ROCKWill the Bush-hating punk rockers sweep the Grammys?

I've gotta say, I'm getting pretty goddamn sick of this. How many times has rock been saved in the past couple years? The above headline is from the cover of an Entertainment Weekly issue I saw on the shelf of Best Buy yesterday when I was picking up season one of Arrested Development, a Robert Randolph and the Family Band CD, and one of the new Bright Eyes releases.

Before I go into the real meat of this post, I'd just like to point out that "American Idiot" is a fucking fantastic album, and "Bush-Hating Punk Rock" is a retarded way to sum it up, to say the least. There are so many facets to the CD beyond its political aspect that it's absolutely ludicrous to try and sum it up in a way that makes it sound like Sum 41 dropped an attempt at a political statement.

That being said, no matter how good "American Idiot" was, rock didn't need saving when it hit the shelves last September. Nor did rock need saving when Scott Weiland made his return to remind us all what a disgusting metrosexual he is. Nor did rock need saving when the Vines came out with "Highly Evolved." Nor did rock need saving when AFI "led the hardcore punk mainstream takeover" (I fucking swear to God, I'm quoting Rolling Stone there).

You get what I'm saying here, right? Bottom line, rock is just fine. Green Day, rock appreciates your contribution, but don't take it personally if it doesn't owe you its life forever. Ditto to the Vines. As for you, Mr. Weiland, rock says you're a wart on its ass and it wants you to fuck off and die. Take Matt Soram with you, he can keep playing his shitty, repetitive rock beats in Hell.

So stop worrying about rock. Rock is fine, it's not Daphne from Scooby Doo, it can go three episodes without getting kidnapped and (probably) raped. If you really want to save rock, or just music in general, buy a gun and blow Ashlee Simpson's brains out.

Welcome Your New God

2005-02-13T19:03:00.000-08:00

Oh, you're all fucked now. Nick invited me for some reason, trusting that I wouldn't go on a huge power trip and throw his ass out of his own blog. For now, I'll let him stay, because he's a good man. However, should he ever piss me off, I'm totally starting a revolution, so stay tuned, it'll be ironic. And hilarious.

ANYWAY, I believe an introduction is in order. My name is David Tveite, I'm a huge music and movie nerd, and I'm way better-looking than your average Minnesotan. No, we don't talk like those fags in Fargo, and I have never tried lutefisk in my entire life. The only things I cook with lye are the eyes of stupid motherfuckers who piss me off. Stay out of my way, keep your head down, and we'll get along just fine. Oh, and don't EVER make fun of new wave music around me if you don't want your head broken.

Thank you, goodnight, and God bless ~~America~~ David Tveite.

World/Inferno Friendship Society and Murder By Death - - Villanova, Pennsylvania

2005-02-12T15:14:00.000-08:00

It's not everyday that I get into a car to drive for over two hours and cross as many state lines for a five dollar show at a college for one band I've never heard of and another band I've listened to once. This time though, it paid off.

First off, getting to Villanova was a total bitch- there was a traffic jam as soon as we hit Pennsylvania, caused by a fender bender many miles inside Pennsylvania. We finally saw it after a little over a half hour of stop and go traffic. We thought we were gonna be late, but when we showed up they were still setting up, and it looked like no one had played. After being approached by a transplanted Villanovy-ite who recognized my friend's Chick and Ruth shirt, we were basically ready for the show, dreading the three or so bands before Murder By Death.

Oops, we read that wrong. Turns out all those names were for the opening act, World/Inferno Friendship Society. When the entire eight piece band was on stage, the first thing that came to mind was a goth Reverend Horton Heat. As soon as they started playing, moshing erupted. Those crazy Villanovy-ites were moshing, mimicking the singer, and tossing confetti in the air at key moments- as we later found out, most people were there to see World/Inferno and not Murder By Death. The thing about World/Inferno is that it's hard to describe their sound. It's easy to write them off as a ska band, because they are, but the overall effect of the suits, the hot percussionist, the accordian is really more like punk mixed with New Orleans funeral march. Well, all of them were wearing suits except the guitarist, who looked like a much taller, much more bored Slash. Indeed, it did not look like he was having much fun. The rest of the band was hardcore into it, from shoutbacks to dancing, to just generally looking not bored. The singer was fairly amusing in between songs, sometimes telling funny anecdotes. They were a tight act, just blazing through their set and they are reccomended to be checked out.

And then it was the damndest thing I saw. They got called on to play an encore. The opening band did an encore, and it didn't seem entirely like the standard encore! That's just weird. And cool.

Murder By Death's set was way cool, though they didn't have somebody playing keys, which is a big part of their sound. And also slightly confusing, since they soundchecked the keyboard. They played mainly from their last album, but they also lifted material from that one album they released as Little Jou Gould. And they brought out a new song, loosely based on pirates, which was pretty cool. Then they debuted a song from their forthcoming album, about the fourth circle of Hell. It was quite kickass. The frontman had some nice back and forth with the audience, especially when he asked for a Bic lighter to use as a slide, and seemed oblivious to how he was almost beamed with one. Though dissapointing because the crowd wasn't nearly as into Murder by Death as World/Inferno, and the lack of keys, the set was still really good, and Murder By Death is very much reccomended.

design help

2005-02-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

If anyone could help me with the code so that the links aren't repeating, that'd be super. Please and thank you.

release "Time Fades Away"

2005-02-12T10:00:00.000-08:00

Help release Neil Young's out of print record Time Fades Away. The album is a concert album, made after Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten's fatal overdose. It predates Tonight's the Night, often regarded as one of Young's greatest and darkest works, and the apocalyptic On the Beach, which was reissued after a petition for its release (but no one knows or gives a damn whether or not it helped, it still makes them feel good). So, here's where you can sign. Cool.

Sorry for the lack of updates- swamped by school. But I've given up now, so that's good. Coming soon: World/Inferno Friendship Society and Murder By Death at Villanova, Pennsylvania.

Haha, U2 fans get screwed

2005-01-31T09:49:00.000-08:00

After releasing an absolutely shittacular album filled with a shitty media blitz that included iPods- you know, those really neat mp3 players which already had ads that annoyed the piss out of me before deciding to put U2 in a commercial, at which point I decided never to actually pay for one- U2 of course decided they were going to bring it to the masses (unfortunately not like how the Dave Matthews Band did, or else I would've laughed and made a bad pun). As is standard,t hey had an internet pre-sale for the tickets and...Ticketmaster got over 2 million hits.

And now apparently all the pre-sale tickets are sold out.

This was brought to my attention as a kind of human interest story in The Baltimore Sun this morning, where it was painted as a large hassle for a lot of people. Obviously they decided not to spice it up with jokes, or the fact that this is really quite funny, since U2 fucking blows, are overrated, and all the people getting screwed had to pay $40 for the club membership that would let them get the tickets.

So, let me get this straight- in order to buy tickets that are probably $52 plus service charges and tax for the cheap seats and going up to $163 plus service charges and tax for the better ones, you also have to pay $40 to get in on the internet presale instead of just signing onto Ticketmaster right now to buy them, since only the presale tickets sold out.

These people are really, really fucking stupid and they've been fleeced not only by U2, but by Ticketmaster. If anybody knows a U2 fan, you can tell them they can join my online members only club for $40. They get exclusive presales on tickets to a show where I mug them in a backalley.

Jay Z: Bored Whore

2005-01-29T14:43:00.000-08:00

No disrespect meant to Mr. Carter, of course. He's one of the best rappers out there. But seriously dude- Linkin Park? What the fuck?

I recently ran across their video- a live performance- and Jay Z looked bored as hell. Basically, his routine was laying down verses, then sitting on a stool while Linkin Park took over, really enthusiastically, for the chorus. Now, my friend Sam had a good point- it's got to be somewhat gratifying to have one of the most popular white bands around be your backing band, and not just your backing band, but to let you take breathers in between verses. But beyond that, seriously, what's the point?

It doesn't sound nearly as good as the mixes people have done on their own, such as the delightful Grey Album or the neat-concept-could've-been-done-better Jay-Zeezer Black and Blue Album, and in the end makes for an unintentionally funny music video as the guys in Linkin Park are really fucking pumped to be on a stage with Jay, and Jay seems to be counting the money in his head (Probably some of the best unintentionally funny expressions since Mettalica's "St. Anger" vidclip, where everyone looked like they were madly in anger at their clenched bowells).

Oh, and the whole R Kelly thing is just retarded. I'm not even gonna touch that crap.

Bob Dylan and the Hawks, Royal Albert Hall Tapes

2005-01-29T11:26:00.000-08:00

A week or so ago, I picked up Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series Vol 4: Live 1966. Known as the Royal Albert Hall Tapes, but actually recorded at some other place in Manchester. The liner notes, written by Tony Glover, really lay it on thick- it's an important concert not just for its quality, but for its spectacle. It's a famous concert.

Everybody knows about the backlash to Dylan going electric. That's well documented. This is the famous "Judas!" concert, the one where all the tensions of being boo'd and stalled and hated by a good half of your audience came together to create a moment, right? This came after Levon Helm, of Dylan's backing band Levon and the Hawks, left the tour when it went to Europe because he couldn't stand playing for an audience that was there just to not dig the scene. This is it.

And I read some other pieces on the concert. Most of them called it bad. Boring. Colombia Records not only propping up the Dylan myth, but sucking money straight out of fans who will shell over twenty bucks for a shitty concert because it is famous, it is a moment in rock.

They're kinda right.

The first disc is Bob, solo and acoustic. And excepting "Visions Of Johanna", the same cut used on Biograph, there's not much to the disc. It's boring, and sprawling, and half of his harmonica work sounds like he's just dicking around. It's obvious he didn't want to do that. The audience politely applauds (not claps, there's a difference we'll get into in the next paragraph) after each song and everything seems cut and dried enough. It's Bob Dylan playing acoustic guitar and harp and singing for a paycheck.

The second disc though, the second disc is something else entirely. First off, understand that the Hawks are not The Band. The Hawks would go on, after leaving Levon Helm's replacement off of their actual roster, to become The Band after the summer of '67 when they just sat around in a basement playing songs with Dylan. There's a noticable difference in the sound from the Hawks behind Ronnie Hawkins to the Hawks behind Dylan to the Basement Tapes's Band to what was heard on Music from the Big Pink. At this point, with Dylan leading them, they sound like a backing band entirely. But what a backing band- Robbie Robertson's guitar work is nothing short of incredible at several points, and Garth Hudson's work on the keys informs the mood nearly as much as Dylan's singing. The Hawks seem halfway poised between the rockabilly bar band of their earlier days and the layered rock and roll band they would become. The second disc is Dylan leading the Hawks through an eight song set.

The music is good, morso in some places than others. "Tell Me Momma" is a fun track, nothing really amazing. And even though the audience is trying to fuck with Bob's head, they can't stop loving him- he introduces "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Had Met)" by playing the harp line, and saying "That was 'I Don't Believe You.' It used to go like that, now it goes like this." The audience laughs. In between numbers the audience starts clapping. Not applauding. It's a slow clap. It's a psych out. It's fucked up. Dylan and the Hawks trudge on. "Baby Let Me Follow You Down" is interesting- it's not too far removed from the original recorded version, aside from the backing band and rock beat and all, but it's not anywhere near the hard rock riffage of the tune as performed at The Last Waltz. If anything, that track should be downloaded if only to see how songs evolve and change. "Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat" is a kick ass track, flat out. And then the slow clap again as someone tunes a guitar. The clap is louder this time, and more persistant. Dylan steps up to the microphone and begins mumbling some kind of gibberish-story. Slowly, people stop clapping to listen. As soon as much of it has died out, he ends the story, "if you only wouldn't clap so hard." And everybody really laughs. In one moment it goes from the audience trying to piss him off and stall the concert to really enjoying it. And for the most part, Dylan seems like a good sport of it. They launch into "One Too Many Mornings", which is a good track- I don't know if it's as good as the Dylan duet with Johnny Cash, but it's different. In between the organ drenched (in a good way) and sprawling "Ballad of a Thin Man" and the next song, someone in the audience yells "Judas!"

The entire audience claps, cheers, and catcalls.

There is silence from the stage. Dylan strums his Fender Strat, and steps up to the microphone after a short pause. "I don't believe you." The kids in the audience there to see Bob Dylan, the rock musician, not Bob Dylan, the standard bearer of folk, clap and applaud and life. A bit more silence from the stage, and the audience. "You're a liar!" Bob Dylan turns around to the Hawks, and tells them one simple thing, picked up by his mic.

"Play fucking loud."

They launch into "Like A Rolling Stone". It's probably my favorite version of the song- better than Dylan and The Band on Before the Flood, more life-or-death than the original studio recording. They finish, and they leave the stage, they don't play an encore. That's it. That was their concert. So, the second disc, is it worth it? Yeah, definitely. It's a great concert album, but beyond that, there's something else entirely. After reading Dylan's Chronicles: Volume 1, you want to try and do your part to disspell the Dylan myth. Just a musician who was doing his own thing. But this concert proves that it was larger than life- it's the rock and roll rebellion all over again, it's an artist versus a world that doesn't understand him, a man ahead of his time. Dylan said that the 1974 Dylan and The Band tour was them playing parts and living up to the image of the '65 and '66 tours, but they were just playing parts in those tours, too. It's hard not to buy into the Dylan myth. He was just 25 in 1966, with a huge body of work. At 25 he was being told that he was straying too far from his earlier material, recorded when he was 20, or maybe 19 (it was sometime in 1961). That, in and of itself, is a horribly fucked up thing for an artist to deal with, much less being that young. And then after being rejected world wide, he crashes a motorcycle, breaks his neck, shuts out of the public eye for two years while cutting some of the best rock and roll songs ever with The Band (and then trying their best to keep the general public from hearing them), comes back with a wild beard and Born Again. The Dylan myth is pretty damn real, and it's all right there, on the second disc.

A Beginner's Guide to Eating Justice

2005-01-29T09:42:00.000-08:00

Hi. I'm Nick Dukes. Eat My Justice was a music column that ran from October 2003 to October 2004 at TwistedJungle.Com and 411Mania.Com. Archives can be found here and here. I got busy with general life things so I stopped writing it. And now, it's back. Just with a far different format. Instead of being a regular weekly, I am now part of the blogosphere (though I'm sure just as noticibly as before). I think that means I have free reign to make really short posts comprised almost entirely of links.

So. Read some. Sweet.