My 2011 list

Imaginary Softwoods: maybe I heard some of this in 2010 but I finally got Spectrolite via the DC wax-to-digital, which pre-Spotify was pretty cool. This is just some of my favorite stuff, so beautiful, but stays away from the touchy/feelyness of new age. It makes me want to quietly pass away someday listening to this taking in a Huxley/Leary-like dose of psychedelics. I've probably listened to this hundreds of times this year.

King Krule (formerly Zoo Kid): you see a lot of posts on Facebook of music stuff and if you're like me you skip most of it. a guy I don't even know well posted a video of Zoo Kids' "Out Getting Ribs" and I clicked and have become a big fan. Maybe it was the title of the song, which I don't think has anything to do with anything, that got me to click, not sure. It's just a killer song, low-fi, and the guy's got a cool baritone voice dripping with English attitude. I became more of a fan when I started reading about him and found out he's Archy Marshall, 17 year old, tall, pale, skinny ginger kid who is totally unimpressed with rising success, cold chilling in sweatpants at CMJ and just not giving a shit. Not that much already out there from this guy but check out "the Noose of Jah City" and tell me that shit's not great. He's playing Glasslands in Williamsburg on 1/13 and I got a ticket, psyched for that show.

Grouper -- Alien Observer / A I A Dream Loss: I have really liked all of Grouper's music, her ethereal vocals have soothed my insomniac soul (along with copious scotch) on many an evening, but I didn't take to this right away. But after a little while, sure that there was something that I didn't quite get I began to feel this one too, in the same places. I just found (thanks Spotify!) the part two aspect, Dream Loss, to this.

Aglaia: I don't know that much about this, but I think it's two dudes from Italy. I got a few of their albums in 2011 and now have access to several more via Spotify. Another deep ambient trip, veering towards new age, another great one for the late/early hours, listening brings you back to floating in amniotic bliss, unaware yet ecstatic, great music for drifting off or waking up to.

Real Estate--Days: Another I tried the mediafire trick on, didn't work, and I gave up and sort of forget about but then got on Spotify and now I get to like (that sentence made me dizzy, sorry). An album I definitely wouldn't have bought (maybe if it was $5?) but now I'm more a fan of the band and would really like to check them out live. The music reviewers do a good job describing these guys and their blissed-out suburban stoner vibe and those mid-tempo or slow ones are what I'm most into, in fact I got "Kinder Blumen" going right now as I type this.

Kurt Vile: When I first heard "Smoke Ring for my Halo" my reaction wasn't good, it sounded way more slickly produced than his other albums. And I still don't love the whole record, but its got some of my favorite tracks on there--"On Tour" & "Puppet to the Man"--and the KV EPs that either came out this year or that I just checked out this year further solidified this guy as one of my favorite songwriters. On the Square Shells EP the first track "Ocean City" sounds like a throwback, catchy melody almost campy lyrics, and then he fades in this gorgeous wash of ambient sound, and it's classic KV, beautiful, deep but with darkness and irreverence co-mingled just right.

Ryan Adams: I wanna send this out to my main man DC because I know he's a fan. For real though, this guy is one of the most hated dudes around, both for his behavior (which I've personally confirmed through several direct sources is as bad or worse than what I've read about) and his output, which can be uneven. But forget the inconsistency of his work, some people just hate what this dude is about (you know who you are), straight-forward, alt-country stuff, kind of a modern James Taylor at times. Fuck it, dude sometimes writes great songs. I guess he got cleaned up and leaves out in LA and is married to Mandy Moore and he put out his best album since Heartbreaker this year, Ashes & Fire. If you hate him, don't bother. If you've liked some of his earlier work, give it a listen.

The music piracy/industry stuff continues to be fascinating. I already noted my come to Jesus moment with Spotify on the blog, but that's been a huge shift for me, really. I've gone from trying to accumulate music (which I had been doing, sincerely, really for decades) to paying to access it. It's an amazing world where I can use my phone to instantly pull up a band and check out their album right away. There's still lots of rough edges to the way the industry is evolving, how musicians and people who support them (labels, people who do album artwork, etc.) can make a living, but I mostly think it's an amazing time to be making and listening to music.

Happy holidays everyone and thanks for all the music picks and convo this year.

JH.

Happy Holidays from The Scoobie Brothers

The new Scoobie Brothers LP! It was originally 47 tracks in 52 minutes... so we edited it down and put together as 5 tracks to stream or download. This is some hot dog style scoobie, all lips and assholes. We present to you... "The Funkiest Brothers in the Universe" LP!

The only physical copies created were the limited edition 5 sided (with etching on side 6) LP set with deluxe packaging which was exclusively sold in Japan, and is now long sold out. You may be able to find a copy on eBay but they are going for north of $400. So if you would like to "own" this you can download it off the Soundcloud page.

Enjoy and have a great holiday!

The Scoobie Brothers

Side A - The Funkiest Brothers In The Universe by TheScoobieBrothers

Side B - The Funkiest Brothers In The Universe by TheScoobieBrothers

Side C - The Funkiest Brothers In The Universe by TheScoobieBrothers

Side D - The Funkiest Brothers In The Universe by TheScoobieBrothers

Side E - The Funkiest Brothers In The Universe by TheScoobieBrothers

access over ownership: one man's saga/capitulation

So I finally checked out Spotify, went right for the premium option, and it's pretty great. I was never really against it, I just wanted to fuck with DC, and that was pretty rewarding for a while, but it ran it's course.

Over Thanksgiving I decided I'd give myself over fully to the cloud and the idea of access over ownership. I looked into Apple's iCloud service, which for $25 a year allows you to upload your library to the cloud to back it up and access it anywhere you want. Apple will match any song you have, even if you didn't purchase it through itunes and provide uniform quality (so if you have low-quality Mp3 uploaded when you access it via iCloud it will be of higher quality). But it will only upload up to 25,000 songs that haven't been purchased through itunes; I currently have 56,573 songs in my library. So that's not really the best option at the moment.

But Spotify's rad, for $10 it's well worth it. It has me checking out all sorts of things I haven't gotten my hands on. I've been digging deep into the oeuvre of Prefuse 73; dude is so prolific, great stuff, some of his Savath & Savalas stuff I hadn't checked out as well. But I guess some bands are pushing back. I've been waiting for the new Black Keys to drop on Spotify but I guess those dude's ain't playing ball. I see their point, though they are kind of an exception. Actually, probably worth a whole post about the Black Keys right now, crazy that they've literally become one of the biggest bands in the world, well deserved too. Anyway, I'm slowly moving away from my squirrel-like project of trying to get my hands on as much music as possible for my library and now I'm releasing myself to the glory of the cloud.......

The Best vs. My Favorite

Many years ago, Donnie and I had a discussion centered around whether or not you can think something is your favorite but not the best. This was before either of us had children and we were definitely drunk at the time and those things combined mean that neither of us will remember the details of the discussion (NOTE: This principle does NOT include the Andrew Hat Debate. Not only was it never in my pants, I am certain I never claimed it was. But that's not why you called, is it?)

The basic argument I was making was that it is possible to look at art and separate your objective and subjective views. I believe my example referred to literature (but it relates to all art, music, women, etc.) My favorite book of all-time is Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. I think it's the perfect combination of cerebral and visceral storytelling with wonderfully developed characters, heart to spare and a perfect ending. However, the best book I've ever read is unquestionably The Great Gatsby. Every single word in that book is exactly as it should be and I don't believe there is any way it could be improved upon. While I know that there are some people who would take issue with Robbins' language and tendencies to go so far off on tangents one forgets what book they are reading sometimes, it works for me. And while Gatsby didn't make me finish it while driving so as to not put it down for a single second (Jitterbug did,) I can appreciate it for the literary perfection that it is.

So why am I going on and on about this on a music blog? Because I've been struggling with this concept in some of the records (or Spotify tracks if we're being honest,) that I've been listening to recently. Specifically, I finally 'discovered' the Mumford and Sons record a month ago. I'd seen the performance on the Grammy's and because I work down the hall from the Rolling Stone folks, I'd been aware of their existence, but never dove in. However, on a recent flight to LA (thank you Delta for having free music as well as a decent free trivia game...SUCK IT guy in 24C, I OWNED YOU!) I was able to listen to the album straight through for the first time. And the second. And the sixth. After I got back home and had played it so many times in my office I considered buying a banjo, I realized I had a problem. But I couldn't shake the thought that I might not actually like it. I mean, it's definitely possible that it's really cheesy, right? I could see myself never listening to it again. But one thing that I knew for sure was that it was awesome. They are clearly good at what they do and I couldn't imagine the record possibly being better than it was. Objectively, I appreciate it. I'm still waiting to decide whether or not I subjectively like it.

Conversely, I am 100% convinced that I absolutely LOVE all of the John Linnell songs from They Might Be Giants. Yes, the early stuff is so horrific on a production level (bad drum machines, bad synths, etc.,) and his partner (the other John,) is so incredibly annoying and shitty that it takes away from my overall enjoyment. But when you get to the later albums where they're actually playing with a band (John Henry and Factory Showroom being my 2 favorites from the period,) the songs that Linnell writes and sings on are, in my view, incredible works of pop/rock songwriting. I love that shit. But it's also entirely possible that it sucks beyond belief. I've almost lost the ability to be objective about it I love it so much.

So I ask you, gentlemen (are there ladies on here?) What are your favorite band/albums that may not actually be good and what are the albums that you KNOW are fantastic but you may not like?

What I've Been Listening To 2011 Edition

Okay, I'll go first with an end of the year list. I could do a list of my top ten albums/singles that were released in 2011 but it would end up being a bunch of reggae that I'm sure wouldn't be too interesting to the rest of the group here. Instead, here's a list of what's made the biggest impressions on me this year - including some new stuff but a lot of older things that I'm either rediscovering or discovering for the first time. I thought it would be more interesting than a list of reggae nobody's heard of before. The list is not in order of preference, just a list.

10) Cream - Disraeli Gears - Never heard this album before this year...except for one track they played on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I like this one a lot better than Fresh Cream , which was my only previous exposure to Cream. And if you're curious, they played "Tales of Brave Ulysses" on BtVS. I still think Clapton turned into a wanker but I appreciate him a bit more after hearing this record.

9) David Crosby - If Only I Could Remember My Name - When I'm out digging through the stacks I always keep an eye out for records that have Jerry Garcia on them (yeah, yeah, save it - I've heard it all before). I fell in love with this record from the first drop of the needle. It captures a certain rock/country-ish vibe that appeals to me. Love the long track "Cowboy Movie" on the first side.

8) Misfits - S/T compilation - For whatever reason I never checked out the Misfits in my youth. I listened to many punk/hardcore bands back in the day but never them - what a mistake! I've been making up for lost time by cranking their 1988 self titled compilation frequently. I want your skull, indeed!

7) David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - I'm a casual fan of Bowie and checked this one out from the library this year. I was a little surprised I liked it so much - especially "Moonage Daydream" - put your ray gun to my head...

6) Rolling Stones - Tattoo You - I was already kind of a late comer to the Stones and had sort of dismissed later (can early 80's be considered later?) Rolling Stones. I was in love with their earlier stuff like Aftermath and Out of Our Heads. Someone on Facebook made a post saying Tattoo You was the best Rolling Stones album and, even though I'd never heard it, took umbrage with that opinion. It so happened that the next weekend at the flea market there was a minty copy in the dollar record section of a booth I frequent. I don't know if it was fate or whatever but I gave it a listen when I got home and now I almost agree that Tattoo You is their best...almost.

5) Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Go Down Under - This was actually released in 2011..I just wanted to point that out! The latest from this punk "supergroup." The group is comprised of people from Lagwagon, NOFX, No Use for a Name and one or two other bands. If you aren't familiar with the Gimme Gimmes, their schtick is to do covers of familiar tunes in a punk style to great result, at least in my opinion. They've done show tunes, country music, 60s rock, 70s rock, etc - this release, a 2 x 7" set, is comprised of covers of Australian bands. Love it....and now I know Australia's to blame for Air Supply - something I hadn't know before.

4) Ahmad Jamal - Portfolio of Ahmad Jamal - I really could've chosen anything by Ahmad Jamal but I listened to this one most recently so I went with it. He's just such a force on the piano - swinging but mellow. His playing oozes emotion and the blues.

3) Disrupt / Tapes - Events Occur in Realtime / Atomica Rydim - Another release from 2011, albeit early 2011. Disrupt is easily my favorite current producer and he really shines on this 7" b/w his buddy Tapes (whom my love and respect for is growing). Events Occur is a speaker tester as the bass is unreal. I would love to hear this played out on a good club system - it might shake the building down. I kind of over looked the Tapes side for a while because I was so crazy about the A side but my appreciation for it has grown now that I revisit this release. This was put out by Police in Helicopter - another great German reggae label.

2) Black Chow - Wonderland - I made a post about this one earlier in the year. Haunting vocals by both the Japanese singer on the title track of this 12" and by Pupa Jim, a Frenchman, on the track "Signs." Another great Jahtari release - and it's from 2011 too!

1) Nicodemus - Serious Nicodemus: Nicodemus Meets Roots Radics at Channel One Volumes 1 & 2 - More reggae for the list. Dancehall at its finest. Nicodemus is the real deal - heavy, heavy heavy shit. These two comps may have catapulted him to my favorite dancehall artist - every track on these records sounds fresh and vital.

So there you go - my list for 2011, which was another shitty, shitty year for me personally but which has started to improve a bit towards the end. Hope everyone has a merry holiday season and a great 2012.

Respect,

-matt

Rhys Chatham

He'll do the same thing with gongs and trumpets he does with guitars.  Rhys Chatham just doesn't give a damn.

Drone with a capital "D", mesmerizing with a capital "M".

Ryhs Chatham - An Angel Moves Too Fast To See: Selected Works 1971-1989

Typically great commentary from the top-notch GLOWING RAW blog, so I'll leave the rest up to him, other than to say that Chatham, along with Branca, formed the baseline that Sonic Youth built from. On second thought, I won't say that . . . because, as much as I love Sonic Youth, such statements only diminish the music of Rhys Chatham.  So, do yourself a favor, check out the Glowing Raw blurb, and listen to this album.

A-ha!

I love that "A-ha" moment when you hear the source material of some famous sample...



c/o Matt Varnish....

dc

Quilt

Another gem I saw on Altered Zones.

This is like a hipster Peter, Paul and Mary. Or maybe The Free Design (if you feel that). 60's pop sensibility and three part harmonies. Really great, I think I just hit the "over 10 listens in 24 hour period" mark.

I listened like 5 times before i googled them to put a face to the name. Amazing that what I'm listening to is produced by a three piece, but if you listen closely it checks out. It all comes across with zero irony, and, look at those pics... They're adorable! I want to give them a big hug and say "you knuckleheads! Keep up the good work!"

Everyone go listen to their one LP on Spotify 100 times so they can get $20 bucks.

dc

Multiply

Great jam, dub production care of Sun Araw's reggae side project Duppy Gun Productions. Plus video sent from deep within the gooby dimension. I couldn't find it on Spotify so i bought the 12" on vinyl (I feel like it is a noteworthy event now when one spends $$$ on music).

I found this on Altered Zones, my go to spot for off the radar lo-fi bug out shit, which, sadly, is R.I.P. as of today.

Frowny face.

DC

You may want to write someone...

http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/

DJDM Mix

Here's a mix i made last year, lots of West Coast stuff, Stones Throw B-sides, etc...

Trying to get my SoundCloud game together:

DJDM Left Coast MIX by TheScoobieBrothers

dc

Aloe Blacc

Just want to take back what I said about Aloe Blacc, EJ hooked me up and it's cool, got a Marvin Gaye feel to it, like it a lot actually. Thanks, E.

PREHISTORIC

Thought these pictures were worth a quick post, venues with 2 spaces make for funny marquees. Saw these dudes in Indy a few nights ago (not really with Barney) and it was a great show. I know there are only a few metal dudes on here, for my money Mastodon is state of the art metal in 2011. They were excellent live, really solid and up in your bizness. The other bands were Dillinger Escape Plan, whom I made myself appreciate even though it was tough going, and Red Fang. I would highly recommend Red Fang to anyone into Mastodon or that type of stuff.

Wanting to do my part I wandered over to the merch table (mediafired their last couple of releases, though I shelled out for deluxe editions of everything earlier) and quickly wandered away when I saw the prices. In the same way Rootless wants $5 albums, I want $20 or under, not $30 and up, concert shirts. In retrospect it would have been cool to have a Mastodon beer cozy for only $5 but it didn't hit me at the time.

My friend at the show with me, who doesn't download stuff, pointed out that if everyone bought their albums maybe the shirts would be a little cheaper. Um, yeah, kind of got me with that one...

45:33

Never thought I'd say it... but... LCD Soundsystem. 45:33. Apparently great for late-night software releases. Who knew?

Steve Hauschildt: Tragedy and Geometry (Kranky)

Pretty, bright, repetitive, unobtrusive, chunky synthetic music.  The cover art is right up my alley, too.  Who says you can't judge a book by its cover?  Since I stopped reading music reviews, I pretty much only listen to new music based on band name, cover art, and album title.  Didn't steer me wrong on this one.  OK, seeing that it was on Kranky was definitely a factor.

Feel The Excitement (tm)

Notes from the lab.....

The Scoobie Bros are in the studio working on a new LP coming your way in time for your holiday parties...

dc

Just upgraded to Spotify Premium

I'm lost... does this make me a good person or a bad person?

dc

New Kurt Vile EP

Hahaha, KV is one of my favorites, gotta love this cover, apparently it's real, he's totally passed out at a party. I'll check out anything this guy does, hopefully it's more on the dark and introspective side of his work.

Best of 2011

Unless something comes along and melts my face away in the next 2 months, I think I pretty much have my best of 2011 list all set to go... do you?!?!!

I know you are all twitching in anticipation, but you'll have to wait. My work may have the Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving, but the end of list cannot go live before mid-December. WWALT rule.

D-Styles

This came out yesterday.

And here it is streaming from the NY Times.  Did anyone hear him do the KEXP sponsored show at the ACE Hotel in his pajamas?  KEXP was streaming it online.  I don't think he finished a single song. 

another music industry post

Sorry, but can't resist. I've been watching the show "How to make it in America" and the theme song is slamming. "I need a dollar" is by Aloe Blacc and when I heard he was on Stones Throw I wanted to check out more. The mediafire trick didn't work for his two albums, captaincrawl searches got me nowhere, so I sat at my computer thinking about actually purchasing dude's album. And I was there because Stones Throw does a good job policing the interwebs to make sure none of their shit is available for free. And good for them, I suppose. So I check out Blacc's most popular songs on youtube and they sound like car commercials, or really lame snippets from romantic comedies. I'm so glad I didn't drop $10 on dude's album. This post would really just be an angry rant in that case. But then I decided to check out Harmonizer, cause my man DC knows my tastes and if he shouts that shit out to me I'm on it. Can't find it on the mediafire tip, but guess what? It was available off that link DC posted for $3.60 for the album! My price-point! Got out my credit card and boom, I'm the proud, legitimate owner of Harmonizer's "World Complete" (which definitely owes a huge debt to Jon Hassell). I really feel that if albums are around $5 I'd spent a lot more of my disposable income buying albums.

Roedelius Schneider: Stunden

Long, excited, reverbed piano tones, buzzy clicky sonic fog beneath everything.  German and spare.  Algorithmic.  This is a collaboration between Hans Joachim Roedelius (a member of my favorite Krautrock band, Harmonia, a member of Cluster, Brian Eno collaborator) and Stefan Schneider (a member of my second favorite Krautrock band, this one active since the '90s, Kreidler).

Roedelius Schneider: Stunden (Samples) by Bureau B

Harmonizer

Here's a good 'un... Harmonizer.

Here's the blurb on their EP "World Compete":

"On WORLD COMPLETE Harmonizer boggles brains via the storied terrain that Jon Hassell once charted, adding sub bass, magic eye loops and some fusion gomf that is makes them decidedly more On The Corner than Aka-Darbari-Java. But who needs to be convinced about a band named after the most dramatic stompbox of the late 20th century."

You had me at "Jon Hassell". Pretty good shit. Rootless, you will be all over this.

I heard about them on Altered Zones, which has a cool remix by matthewdavid up. Here it is.

Doing the work so you don't have to since 2008...

The Chizzle

What I'm listening to right now (this second)

Damn it, I had every intention of this actually being an uber-meta post about what I was listening to right this very second, but then Phantogram's EP "Nightlife" finished. I clicked the little button on my headphone because I thought I paused the album and it randomly cued up a song from Woods so I decided to check out their album "Sun and Shade", because I don't know that one that well and I like their other stuff. So that's what I'm listening to right this second....

Anyway, Phantogram is pretty cool, duo, both of them sing, but the chick's voice is what's hot (actually she's pretty hot). I like the dark brooding stuff more than the uptempo tracks, but that's pretty much true of almost everything I listen to.

Yeah, with all the politics on the blog, and literary references, and show promotion, I thought I'd bring it back to the old school WWLTN days, what I'm listening to right now. Have I made that clear? So here are some other bands/albums in heavy rotation (I just got an office, moving up in the world, so now I can listen to music easier at work, which is pretty awesome):

St. Vincent, "Strange Mercy": I checked another album, Actor, and it was okay, but nothing that great. I guess she used to be in Sufjian Stevens' band. To me she's kind of on the PJ Harvey tip, but she probably gets that a lot. But this new album jumped out at me right away. The first track "Chloe in the afternoon" is kind of punkish and she pulls off the awkward timing of the chorus really well, makes it catchy. The title track was the first thing that really hit me though, the song pivots on a breakdown and when it comes back she sings "If I ever meet the policeman who roughed you up.... I don't know what," and there is something fierce and beautiful about the words and how she delivers them. You know the way you associate an album with a time and place? Well, I just got back from China and this album will always remind me of riding around in Chinese taxis with the drivers picking their noses with their long yellow fingernails as I gazed out the window and pondered what a filthy, seething place China is.

Zoo Kid: some dude posted something on facebook with a video for "Out getting ribs" and that shit has me hooked, really authentic, kind of low-fi, check it out.

Susuma Yokota and Rothko: I'm pretty sure they made an album together but I couldn't find it online and I hate spotify soooo much that I haven't checked it out. But have checked out each of these acts, though SY not so much yet, but cool ambient, Japanese music. Rothko is kind of post-rock, but really mellow, and with two bass players, good stuff.

Sunn O))), "Oracle": I listened to this album yesterday when I needed to concentrate on something and it was really working for me, not what I typically listen to--DOOM--but it's not fast, just brooding sludge with that Lucifer voice. I think I'm going to have nightmares from that shit or go kill a puppy or something.

Apparat, "the Devil's walk": I like this album, though it could get tagged by certain people who post on here with the controversial "gay" label. Definitely on the M83 tip, if you're feeling that check this out. I've got a few this guy's records and I like it when he goes fully instrumental, but this one is cool too.

Finally, shout out to EJ for posting about Shlomo and Plastikman, been listening to both of those a lot, especially Shlomo. And DC for hooking me up with Imaginary Softwoods, that was as good as advertised.

Future of Record Stores...

Interesting post from Matador Records that seemed apropos given the long Spotify discussion a few posts ago:

http://www.matadorrecords.com/matablog/2011/11/01/indie-record-stores-closing-and-opening/

"Record stores are becoming less commercial entities and more cultural ones".

Also, vinyl sales at highest in 6 years: http://www.digitalspy.com/music/news/a346371/adele-radiohead-cause-vinyl-sales-to-increase-by-40-percent.html

dc

An Oral History of Grunge

I just started reading this... it's actually pretty entertaining so far.

I'd let you borrow it when I'm done but it would be unfair to the author, taking food out of his family's mouth, etc...

I'm waiting for the part where it gets to the formation of the greatest grunge band of all time, ZAO.

dc

Australian punk on Fat Wreck Chords.

The Seven Fields of Aphelion

I have gotten like 20GB of "ambient" music from Rootless... basically the spectrum from like new age wind chimes type shit to minimal electronic bleep bloop type stuff.

Like any major data dump, a lot of it gets lost in the shuffle, but even more so for this particular genre where the music itself doesn't stand out especially. Is that wind chime melody that's stuck in my head Ituske Daiiichi? Or Dichu Miuske? (I made those up, but you get the gist).

But, again like any major MP3 kick down, certain things rise to the surface. That's what happened with The Seven Fields of Aphelion. While most of the other ambient joints got removed from my iPhone, and many got removed from my iTunes, this one stayed in the rotation. Not sure why, it has a different texture or palette... semi-weirdo synth textures but with beautiful piano on top.

Finally this week (after listening on repeat several times while trying to sleep off a hangover on my commute) (and then continuing to listen on Spotify once I got to work) I decided to google them and see what's up.

You can imagine my surprise when it turns out "they" are actually just one chick who happens to be a member of Black Moth Super Rainbow! I can't lie, I liked this album but that makes me like it exponentially more. EJ, this is the chick who was on stage with Tobacco that one time when we saw them in Williamsburg.

Here's her site... she is also a photographer, I like her stuff, you can buy it on Etsy.

My wife said "what is this new age shit?" when i played it at home, but still, I definitely recommend checking out her CD "Periphery", be it on Spotify or for those of you with more integrity you can buy a copy direct from her to make sure she gets maximum $$$ to her pocketbook. Maybe steal the CD off MediaFire but buy one of her pictures off of Etsy.

The Dizzle

For Chicago People

I think there are a few Second City denizens on here, so I'm posting this flier.  Some friends of mine are doing Wipers and Dag Nasty covers at Quenchers on Friday, so I plug for friends, yes?  Should be good time, no?  Hey chief, why not?

True Widow, "As High As The Highest Heavens And From The Center To The Circumference Of The Earth"

If Torche were Sonic Youth, and Sonic Youth were the American Analog Set, and they in turn were a very pensive stoner metal band (or if they in turn were Torche again), that whole process of sleight of hand would constitute this band, True Widow.  Slow walking rock from Austin.  I've been listening to little else this week.  This one is pretty easy to find out there (and two of their records are on the feted/hated Spotify).  I also have a few versions of their tracks that I sped up using the time stretch function in Logic until they sounded more conventionally metal to me. If anyone wants to hear those, I'll get them to you.

Seeing War on Drugs tonight, Shellac tomorrow, and I saw the new Replacements documentary last Friday.  This is a good music week for me.

Here's a Tres MTV video from these guys: