Long Hair Beardo Freak

2009-10-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

all things anew once again i return to this blog with unsure intentions.

2007-12-31T23:28:00.000-08:00

new years again and here i am far from home. alone in crowded rooms. i fit no where. at least not here.

2007-12-20T16:20:00.000-08:00

so here i am, back in business. half a year later. lots of things have happened, ready...

1. moved to cleveland
2. did not go to montana
3. moved back to chicago (in with brett)
4. started working at the ups store
5. moved in with mike and will

so i really kind of ditched my whole "i am going to listen to 10 new albums a month". but i did dive into 60s pysch which has changed my life.

but here is what is i actually heard of this year...

TOP 13

1. IN RAINBOWS/RADIOHEAD
2. PERSON PITCH/PANDA BEAR
3. FRIEND & FOE/MENOMENA
4. STRAWBERRY JAM/ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
5. NEON BIBLE/ARCADE FIRE
6. THE REMINDER/FEIST
7. PLAUGE PARK/HANDSOME FURS
8. CONQUEROR/JESU
9. RISE ABOVE/DIRY PROJECTORS
10. A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS/A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
11. GOOD BAD NOT EVIL/BLACK LIPS
12. PEBBLES/PUMICE
13. VOLTA/BJORK

2007-04-03T17:12:00.000-07:00

Monkey Flees Zoo, Attacks Bus Passenger

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A spider monkey that escaped from a Mexico City zoo boarded a bus and attacked a passenger, Red Cross officials said Tuesday. The monkey got on the bus at about 11 p.m. Monday after escaping from the San Juan de Aragon Zoo, Red Cross spokesman Jair Martinez said. Zoo officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The animal sat next to the bus driver for almost an hour as he drove through the city, and scratched and bit a 20-year-old female passenger when she tried to hold it, the Mexican news agency Notimex said.

Martinez said the woman was treated for her injury, and the animal was placed in quarantine. He said he had no further details.

2007-03-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

HEY. Pitchfork has done it again. You should read these (seriously)...

On Drugs
Person Pitch

2007-03-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

Scene: A party

Drew walks up to a hipster chick with a Velvet Underground T-shirt on.

Drew: Hey, I dig your shirt.

Girl: OH, thanks! I bought it at Urban Outfitters!

Drew: Oh... So... Do you dig on the Velvets?

Girl: Who?

Drew: The band on your shirt.

Girl: What? Oh, I just like bannanas.

Drew: SO... what kind of music do you dig?

Girl: Well I really like _________________!

Drew: Well it's been nice talking to you, but I have to go pretend this conversation never happened.

Drew walks away in Charlie Brown like fashion.

What band did the girl say she liked that disgusted Drew?

2007-03-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

i found these shorts from a Grizzly Bear tour in europe. this is the first one. if you dig it, check out the rest.

2007-03-16T15:28:00.000-07:00

so i have been super behind due to finals and other messes. but i should catch up. here is the plan and a recap.

January

Jesu – Conqueror 8.6
Menomena – Friend and Foe 7.8
!!! – Myth Takes 7.3
Deerhoof – Friend Opportunity 7.0
Julie Doiron – Woke Myself Up 6.3
The Apples in Stereo – New Magnetic Wonder 6.2
Field Music – Tones of Town 6.2
Bloc Party – A Weekend in the City 6.0
Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? 5.5
The Shins – Wincing the Night Away 5.2

February

Panda Bear – Person Pitch 9.1
Arcade Fire – Neon Bible 8.3
Eluvium – Copia 8.2
Explosions in the Sky – All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone 8.0
Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha 7.9
Do Make Say Think – You, You’re a History in Rust 7.8
The Besnard Lakes – Are the Dark Horse 6.8
Deerhunter – Cryptograms 6.1

Blackfield – ii
Klaxons – Myths of the Near Future

March

Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Papercuts – Can’t Go Back
Blonde Redhead – 23
Feist – The Reminder
Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
Kings of Leon – Because of The Times
The Postmarks – The Postmarks
Amon Tobin – Foley Room
Electrelane – No Shouts, No Calls
Low – Drums and Guns

2007-03-16T15:22:00.000-07:00

Eluvium
Copia

Amreik 3.5
Indoor Swimming at the Space Station 5
Seeing You Off the Edges 5
Prelude For Time Feelers 4
Requiem on Frankfort Ave 4.5
Radio Ballet 4.5
(Intermission) 2
After Nature 3.5
Reciting The Airships 3.5
Ostinato 4.5
Hymn #1 4.5
Repose In Blue 4.5

49/60

Score = 8.2

i probably won't play this record for anyone. it is a personal headphones experience, not something you play for your friends at a party. some of the song titles on this record are just absolutely perfect. i can see it all. i am not sure why matt decided to put an intermission on the record, it threw me off. it was dumb. anyways give it a listen preferably when you are alone and feeling emotional. this will grip you in ways the first m83 record did or the first time you saw lost in translation. if you dig it tell me and we can talk about it more in depth.

2007-03-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

Do Make Say Think
You, You Are A History In Rust

Bound To Be That Way 4
A With Living 3.5
The Universe! 3.5
A Tender History In Rust 4.5
Herstory of Glory 3.5
You, You’re Awesome 4
Executioner Blues 3.5
In Mind 4.5

31/40
Score = 7.8

i am pretty sure the main riff in "bound to be that way" is from the Apostle Hustle song "folkloric feel". i had to listen to this record a few times to get a true rating. the first time i heard it i was floored, the second bored, the third somewhere in between, and a few times later i still enjoy most of it a good amount. i am not super familiar with their other records, but must people who are say this is one of their worse. if that is the case, their others must be great. so i am going to check those out. "a tender history in rust" has an early album leaf feel with the solo guitar picking. "the universe!" sounds like it was recorded somewhere else of lesser production and after the punch in the face riff at the start doesn't really set it up a notch or take it anywhere else worth going. the bass towards the end of "herstory of glory" is pretty rad. "in mind" is probably my favorite song with the brush drums and bells. pretty as hell.

2007-03-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

seriously check this guy j. tillman out. here is a song.

when i light your darkened door

2007-03-06T23:07:00.000-08:00

PH: do eggs have protein in them?
drew: yeah, a lot of vegetarians eat them to get protein.
PH: but that's like eating an animal.
drew: well actually an egg is not considered meat.
PH: but it has the possiblity of becoming meat.
drew: it's like eating an abortion.
PH: yum. *

*PH did not actually say "yum".

2007-03-06T22:56:00.000-08:00

emergency?
WMD?
huh?
an answer?

2007-03-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

ok, so i read pitchfork and usually i think they get everything wrong. well not everything, but our tastes are usually off, but today i read a review that summed up almost exactly how i feel about the new arcade fire record. check it out.

neon bible

my biggest disagreement with pitchfork is about "no cars go" which should not have been on the record. but i won't rewrite my review.

2007-03-04T23:51:00.000-08:00

Besnard Lakes
Are The Dark Horse

Disaster 3
For Agent 13 4
And You Lied To Me 3.5
Devastation 3
Because Tonight 3.5
Ride The Rails 3
On Bedford and Grand 3.5
Cedric’s War 3.5

27/40
Score = 6.8

This one is probably a grower. It's slow paced long winded harmonic chill out music that is maybe easy to lose track of but good to get lost in.

2007-03-04T23:17:00.000-08:00

Andrew Bird
Armchair Apocrypha

Fiery Crash 5
Imitosis 4
Heretics 4.5
Dark Matter 4
Plasticities 4
Armchairs 4
Simple X 3.5
The Supine 4
Cataracts 4.5
Scythian Empires 3.5
Spare-Ohs 3.5
Yawny and the Apocalypse 3

47.5/60
Score = 7.9

another great release from my chicago brother mr. bird. he is eco friendly and unafraid to make catchy songs that have real substance. this album may tend to lean less on the classic bird sounds, but i don't believe that to be a bad thing at all. there is rock and there is pop and great lyrics like "when i was a little boy i threw away all my action toys, i became obsessed with operation." need i say anymore.

2007-03-03T00:04:00.000-08:00

SO... i know i am behind with my reviews for last month but I have all albums downloaded and I have been listening inbetween other things that are currently needing my attention. so here are the albums for feburary so far plus unreviewed...

(reviewed)
panda bear - person pitch 9.1
arcade fire - neon bible - 8.3
explosions in the sky - all of a sudden i miss everyone 8.0
deerhunter - cryptograms 6.2

(not reviewed, but rated/subject to change)
do make say think - you, you're a history in rust 8.8
andrew bird - armchair apocrypha 7.9
the besnard lakes 6.8

(not reviewed or rated)
blackfield - ii
eluvium - copia
klaxons - myths of the near future

so there is my list. i should be finished rating and have a majority of those reviews up by the end of next week but no promises. sneak peek at march: modest mouse, blonde redhead, dino jr, papercuts, electrelane

in other news i am giving billy bragg a second chance. i was not into his side on the mermaid ave stuff but i am liking his original stuff. note to self: download the meadowland by the wrens for pleasure listening outside of 2007 lists, yeah like that is going to happen anytime soon. if anyone has any suggestions for other 2007 releases let me know. and really check out that owls thing, it is rad.

2007-03-02T18:07:00.000-08:00

Deerhunter
Cryptograms

Intro 2
Cryptograms 3
White Ink 2
Lake Somerset 3
Providence 3
Octet 2.5
Red Ink 3
Spring Hall Convert 3
Strange Lights 4
Hazel St. 3.5
Tape Hiss Orchid 4
Heatherwood 3.5

36.5/60
Score = 6.1

there is an uncertain haze covering the songs of this album. perhaps there was an air conditioner leak in the studio and some chemical mixed with the drugs the engineer was already on made him feel that the album should be mixed this way. or maybe it is suppose to. i really like it, because behind that haze i see a guy spilling his guts out on the floor trying just to make it in this world and the only way he can is sounding like he does. at other points in the record it feels like the engineer hit a bad trip and decided to put a mic on the broken air conditioner and throw delay pedals on it. some may say it adds to the psychedelic mood, but at those points all i really want to do is fall asleep or skip tracks. nothing much to grab onto, but surely an experience.

2007-03-02T17:41:00.000-08:00

holy goodness look at what i stumbled upon... THE OWLS!!!!!!

2007-02-27T15:23:00.000-08:00

Explosions in the sky
All of a sudden I miss everyone

The birth and death of the day 4
Welcome, Ghosts 4
It’s natural to be afraid 3.5
What do you go home to? 3.5
Catastrophe and the cure 4
So long, lonesome 5

24/30
Score = 8.0

There is not much to say about this record. It is your typical Explosions in the Sky: good. Nothing that you wouldn't find on their other records, just new songs. The songs are getting shorter, more to the point. Probably not as good as their other records just because not everything comes together as well plus the lack of surprise. Still solid in my book.

2007-02-26T20:45:00.000-08:00

2007-02-19T22:44:00.000-08:00

Panda Bear
Person Pitch

Comfy In Nautica 4.5
Take Pills 4.5
Bro’s 5
I’m Not 4.5
Good Girl/ Carrots 5
Search for delicious 3.5
Ponytail 5

32/35
Score = 9.1

holy goodness. listen to that reverb. listen to those voices. listen to those crazy beats. this album is a trip. all the weird goodness with pure pet sounds hooks, i feel like noah knew exactly what i wanted this album to sound like. every time i would put on young prayer i would always think how much more he could be doing with such a great sound and here it is. Noah's voice really makes the record for me. the howling melodies reverberate in my head for days. i sing them in the shower. i hum them on the train. who thought that tribal freak folk made on beat machines and reverb soaked vocals could sound this pop, but that is exactly what it is. and it is not afraid to be. it is catchy. you want to sing along even if you have no idea what he is saying. you want to dance around and clap your hands. so do it.

2007-02-16T18:24:00.000-08:00

Good Week For...
Baseball fans, after pitchers and catchers reported to spring-training camps in Florida and Arizona at the same time a winter storm swept across the U.S.

Bad Week For...
Interventions, after Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man, released an audiotape in which he calls President Bush an alcoholic, and says he is “addicted to two other faults: lying and gambling.”

From The Week Magazine Online

P.S.
anyone hear the new dino jr. OH YEAH! back in bussiness!

2007-02-16T02:10:00.000-08:00

i stole this from hibba's myspace.

it is 4:09 and i have class at 9:40.

i feel sick from my chimi chonga.

i made a myspace. what can i say? i am feeling pretty lonely these days.

2007-02-14T16:06:00.000-08:00

Good Week For...
Missing the 5:15, after Bulgarian mass-transit authorities began screening soft-core porn movies at a station in Sofia “to take [passengers’] minds off the cold and to pass the time while waiting for a bus.”

Bad Week For...
The future of the species, after a survey of 1,000 American women found that most valued their favorite clothes more than sex, and would gladly abstain for 15 months in exchange for an entire new wardrobe.

[stolen from The Week's website]

2007-02-12T15:13:00.000-08:00

so here we go...

Arcade Fire
Neon Bible

Black Mirror 4
Keep the car running 4
Neon bible 4.5
Intervention 4
Black wave / bad vibrations 4
Ocean of noise 4
The well and the lighthouse 4
(Antichrist television blues) 5
Windowsill 5
No cars go 3.5
My body is a cage 3.5

45.5/55
Score = 8.3

After "Intervention" got leaked people were saying this was going to be better than Funeral which made me not enjoy it. But as I listened to the song some more it soaked in it's subtelty. Then seeing the video of them playing it live made me even enjoy it. But I am not going to lie to you I was very afraid for this record. Still I am not going to claim it to be a masterpiece or really on the same level as Funeral. This record is not about individual songs, it is about a theme a feeling, a ideaology. Sometimes it works well and the band really branches away into new waters with songs like (Antichrist television blues) and Windowsill. Other times I wonder. The rerecorded No Cars Go is solely out of place and awkward in the tracklist, and seems to be kind of a throw in. The song is more mechanical and stale than the original. Really it does not make sense to me to put a old song on a new record unless it is wildly different and fits in the context of the new material which No Cars Go does not. But on the better side most of the record is very strong and plays on the bands strengths of melody and interesting transitions.

2007-02-09T11:56:00.000-08:00

here are some pictures i stumbled upon that i found humor filled. and yes the narcotics building is very close to where i live.

2007-02-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

Pan's Labyrinth
3/5 stars

actually the film was very different from what i imagined it to be. parts were a bit over stressed (the captian's first act of violence) and some parts just un-even (what lured her to the grapes? how did the faun get in her room? is this all in her head?) the music was very sparse and only really added drama to the first scene which was mostly a set up of the little girls back story. the plot was usually interesting and the acting was mostly not bad. the monster with eyes on his hands was pretty rad. the chalk thing was totally stolen from that nickelodeon show about the boy with the magic chalk. altogether it was pretty good. worth seeing at least once, maybe twice just to pick up on some detail.

2007-02-07T15:34:00.000-08:00

corey came over today. we listened to carole king and mount eerie and discussed how as of late he has abandoned foreign and art films in favor of commercial horror and adam snadler flicks. sometimes you just got to change it up. then we watched the eels video that mark romanek directed. we didn't like it. he had never seen no direction home so we put that on and discussed dylan for the majority of the rest of his stay. i downloaded the nick drake documentary which i will watch tonight. i am also planning on seeing pan's labyrinth with steve. i may get some groceries too. not sure.

2007-02-02T16:33:00.000-08:00

i rediscovered frodus.
mid to late 90s post-hardcore/spazzcore.
i really enjoy it.

here is a picture of phil clutching money.

2007-01-31T20:45:00.000-08:00

i bought the go! team album today for $2 at reckless. i also bought a few vonnegut books at myopic. i don't have any money and yet i keep spending money. odd. isn't it.

i became enamored with the first two hold steady records today. they are great. steve and i agree that craig finn is some sort of modern prophet of drunkenness. bar band of the century.

i am struggling with the idea of college again. i understand it. i just want to run away from it. i don't want to be a teacher. be a part of the system. i wish college was when a teacher came over and drank coffee and listened to records with me and we talked about books we were reading and he told me things i didn't know and we learned from each other in discussion. my life would be college then. i would play him benoit pouilard and he would tell me about 20th century philosophers and we would fight about Nietzsche. i would buy a frozen pizza while he was taking a cigarette break and then we would listen to dylan and discuss how he is really all i really need. how he changed everything. yeah. that would be great. too bad i have to sit in a room with hung over jocks while some guy sweats over explaining the meaning of this and that hoping that he is vague enough to incite questions. sorry guy. i understand you. i just don't want to be there. i want to be cruising the record store for jazz records. i want to be recording songs that will be talked about for years to come. discovered in the dark depths of other music junkies hard drives. i like to dream.

2007-01-30T17:30:00.000-08:00

REVEIW OF JANUARY

Jesu – Conqueror 8.6
Menomena – Friend and Foe 7.8
!!! – Myth Takes 7.3
Deerhoof – Friend Opportunity 7.0
Julie Doiron – Woke Myself Up 6.3
The Apples in Stereo – New Magnetic Wonder 6.2
Field Music – Tones of Town 6.2
Bloc Party – A Weekend in the City 6.0
Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? 5.5
The Shins – Wincing the Night Away 5.2

Disappointments and out of nowheres. an interesting month. next months biggies: Arcade Fire "Neon Bible", Explosions in the Sky "All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone", Panda Bear "Person Pitch"

2007-01-30T17:12:00.000-08:00

!!!
Myth takes

Myth takes 3.5
All my heroes are weirdos 4.5
Must be the moon 4
A new name 3.5
Heart of hearts 4.5
Sweet life 4.5
Yadnus 3
Band over beethoven 4.5
Break in case of anything 4
Infinifold 4.5

36.5/50
Score = 7.3

I have heard this band described as no-wave discopunk. i am not sure what that means but i really haven't heard anything like this. !!! wants to make you dance and then screw with your head. it's pretty fun. there are points on this record that are solely made for dancing. this took awhile for me to get used to. most of the arty dance bands around now have songs that are short and to the point but !!! take you on a trip, a dance floor epic. sometimes it really works for them like "heart of hearts" and "sweet life", but other times it didn't translate as well like "yadnus" or the sometimes awkward "myth takes". the last song threw me for a loop. a piano ballad. or at least the closet thing !!! will come to one. great lyrics on that one altough towards the end i was hoping it go big and it didn't. maybe that was the point. not bad.

2007-01-30T15:38:00.000-08:00

M. Ward @ Park West (Jan 29 2007)

last night I had the pleasure of seeing M Ward live for the first time in a "rare solo performance" (as the ticket reads). The best word to describe this show is EXCELLENT. with no dramatic entrance he just walked out and started to play. his guitar held the great low tones that are usually lost when acoustics are plugged in and his style was so manic. my friend will describe his hand like a squid attacking the strings. it was wonderful. in addition to a wide variety of Mr. Ward's catalogue we were also grace with his film debut which turned out to be more of a humorous power point. hats off to Mr. Gore. one of these last slides included a picture of the great Daniel Johnston which was surpisingly great. then it got better. after the presentation came to an end he played my favorite Johnston song "Story of an Artist". i was almost in tears. it was a very emotional show and Ward knew just when to bring things down and then start back up. i was in a trance. in other words a great show.

Score = 9.5/10

and here is another 2007 album. I should have the last review for january (which will be !!!'s "Myth Takes") by tomorrow and an overview of january will follow.

Jesu
Conqueror

Conqueror 5
Old year 4.5
Transfigure 4.5
Weightless & horizontal 3.5
Medicine 4
Brighteyes 4
Mother Earth 4
Stanlow 5

34.5/40
Score = 8.6

i am a farely new Jesu fan. my friend steve introduced me to them and i have enjoyed everything i have heard by them. "Conqueror" is the first great album of 2007 for me. it really struck a chord with what i have been into lately. a love between the heavy slow and melodic. a fuller realization of their "Silver" EP with punch you up guitar heaviness and sweepy vocals. A sort of Low meets Starflyer 59's first album. sure the album drags but it is suppose to. you are suppose to get lost in the distortion, in the drones in the depth. for such a heavy record it is actually quite relaxing. i have heard the shoegazer tag applied to this record, but i feel it is much different in execution. the drumming is a major difference in that they are more straight forward, laying back with the guitars shedding the more dancey rhythms of more shoegazer genre oriented groups. the distortion is more rough and gritty than fuzzy. check this out.

2007-01-23T22:21:00.000-08:00

menomena - friend and foe

muscle flo 4.5
duel 4
wet and rusting 4.5
boyskouts sweetboyskouts 4
running 3
rotten hell 4
the pelican 4.5
airaid 3
weird 4
evil bee 3.5
ghostship 4
west 4

47/60
score = 7.8

from the start of this record i almost thought i was going to be hearing this great gem of 07, not to say it isn't great but the second half is much less engaging as the first. the first four songs really grab you. this seems to be a trend of 07 records so far. i am not going to say much about this record, not because there isn't alot to say but because you should just listen to it. it is really good.

2007-01-22T20:27:00.000-08:00

i am probably not getting as much done as i should be.

but i am not super unhappy either.

terence koh

made from: drum kit, paint, ropes from a ship found after midnight, black wax, plaster, vegetable matter, crushed insect parts, artist's blood and cum

2007-01-21T21:42:00.000-08:00

bears are in the superbowl and all is well.

good job rex.

so i have not gotten around to finishing the new record reviews. soon. the new menomena is way better then i could have hoped for.

this week: quizzes, presentations, band practice*, readings, listening, buying tickets to the lyric opera, seeing "children of men", thinking about what i am going to do next year, do i really want to be a philosophy major? i am young. i can change that up. oh college how useful you are at strealing my money. i really just don't want to pay for you.

looking forward to: band practice, the super bowl, sleeping, not working at the coffee beanry

I NEED TO START LOOKING FOR A job. lame.

*that's right i am writing some songs with will and steve

2007-01-19T22:06:00.000-08:00

franklin is the man. gob bluth is a god.

2007-01-19T09:19:00.000-08:00

my new favorite place

Neighborhood: Lincoln Park, Union Park
2604 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60614 (773) 929-6325

steve and i hit this place up last night. great selection. reasonable prices. they have a cheapo section, which is great for poor kids like me and steve and will. steve bought the picture disk jesu record. it looks amazing. i bought an assortment of jazz, french lounge, classical, and herman's hermits. awesome. yesterday was a great day for record shopping.

so the new wilco album has been announced. i was freaking out last night. "sky blue sky" is the title which i feel is a good title for what i have heard of the bootlegs. it is slated for an early may release. i am hoping they will put it up on the website for free listening lke they did with ghost and yankee. excitment abounds within me. ha ha!

as far as other 2007 listening is going i should have a review up for !!! - myth takes by the end of the weekend and one for the new clap your hands say yeah soon after. their (clap your hands) record is stream-able on their myspace if anyone is interested. i listened to the first song last night and was not too impressed. i think corey gave it a 2.5. so i don't have high hopes for it but i will try to be open minded.

i am starting to enjoy the guillemots more and more. i have one of their eps which i find very enjoyable.

2007-01-17T10:37:00.000-08:00

situation solved. ordered a new needle. should be here hopefully by saturday. meanwhile, working tonight so hopefully i will make enough in tips to hit up Reckless on the way home and pick up another jazz record. this could become an obsession. hm.

listened to sonic youth's sister today. pretty enjoyable in a twisted way. i am going to sit with it for awhile before i rate it. the !!! record is growing on me. i am getting over some of the scat like lyrical absurdisms.

underrated band of the day: roadside monument
please look this band up and enjoy them.

2007-01-17T09:18:00.000-08:00

i got sick of being inside last night so i ventured out into the freezing cold. a mistake maybe. but as i wander down belmont i came across my destiny at the broadway intersection. reckless. as i flipped through albums i knew i was looking for something but i wasn't sure what it was. i am sure you have had a similar experiance. sure there are a ton of records sitting in front of me that i want and would love to have for my collection but just don't have the excitement about them enough to buy them yet. i need to make a purchase that will get me going. i decided a few weeks ago that i want to start my jazz collection on vinyl only. so i have been keeping my eyes open. while scrambling through the jazz section a album cover caught my eye. a plain white cover with a black and white photo of a man leaning close to his piano. keith jarret : the koln concert. i felt like i had seen this cover before. like it was important. but why? perhaps i had run across it on RYM and was intrigued. i couldn't remember. this intrigued me. $4.99. worth my interest. so i bought it. the problem. my record player is at steve's house. suddenly steve called me. and today my record player is here. new problem. my needle is kinda messed up or finished. after about 2 minutes the sound gets really scratchy which bothers me immensely. so what am i to do. my previous searches for needles has proved fruitless. does anyone have a needle for a portable crossely record player. i would love you.

2007-01-16T14:24:00.000-08:00

current listening :
danger doom : the mouse and the mask (2005)
cee-lo : green... is the soul machine (2004)
the clash : the clash (1977)

next up on my 2007 list:
!!! : myth takes
explosions in the sky : all of a sudden i miss everyone
blackfield : ii
jesu : conqueror

new songs:
ted leo and the pharmacists "the sons of cain" - kind of a alt-country feel. could ted be listening to uncle tupelo?!?
RJD2 "get it" - no i don't get it. but i dig it. the middle part is real cool.
panda bear "comfy in nautica" - as always, craziness ensues. this album could be amazing.

FOR THOSE WONDERING: yes i do visit pitchfork often. not because i am pretentious, but because i love music.

2007-01-16T14:18:00.000-08:00

lemon-isms

i am currently taking a music class titled "from wagner to mtv". it is a class about music's impact on the visual arts starting with opera and ending with music videos. my teacher is a well read pony tail and sports jacket kinda guy who likes to drop obscure and odd references into his fast pace articulate lectures without even a hint of sarcasm. like 19 yr old girls that go to depaul have seen bergman films and listen to devo. ha! i have decided to devote a portion of this blog to recalling the days references and memorable quotes.

today's lemon-isms:
jimmy page
slash from guns and roses
public enemy
tool
swedish death metal
puff daddy (this 50 some year old man owned a puff album on tape cassette)
the police
the kinks (which we listened to as an example of melodic pharsing)
gravity kills (which we listened to as an example of climatic phrasing)

2007-01-16T10:46:00.000-08:00

of all the songs for the apples to make a video for they make one for the song i hate the most! the bill nye song! this is frodo's doing!

notice that rob has the same guitar as i do. points for that. not a terrible video. i like the one guys goggles.

2007-01-16T00:02:00.000-08:00

So today Pitchfork posted this:

Kevin Shields: MBV Will "100%" Make Another Album
Kevin Shields has revealed, in an interview published in the January/February issue of Magnet Magazine, that he intends to record another full-length with My Bloody Valentine. It would be the shoegaze overlords' first album since 1991's classic Loveless.
"I do feel that I will make another great record," Shields told the publication. "We are 100% going to make another My Bloody Valentine record unless we die or something. I'd feel really bad if I didn't make another record. Like, shit, people only got the first two chapters, but the last bit is the best bit. It's just that it's taken me such an oddly long time for that to happen." Wait. Better than Loveless? Kev, we know good for press and everything, but holy crap, dude, what are you saying?

Given Shields' recent remix and solo work for Sofia Coppola films and Go! Team singles, the guy has a lot to prove-- although there's no question the album would certainly be one of the most highly anticipated releases of... whatever year it eventually comes out. As for what year that might be, Shields was hesitant to give any kind of timeframe. (Actually, the answer was, "I don't know," so let's just take this with a grain of salt altogether.) But Shields did have this to say, in defense of the band's inability, thus far, to follow their magnum opus:

"A lot of people say the reason My Bloody Valentine didn't make another record is because we couldn't. That's mostly true, but not because we couldn't make another record, but because I never could be bothered to make another record unless I was really excited by it. And just by fate or whatever, that never happened. I'm quite optimistic about the future, even though experience has taught me that I'm probably just delusional."

------------------------

so i bet you are wondering how i feel about this. well i will tell you. pitchfork needs to shut their mouths! two years ago they said there was going to be this MBV box set with the full Tremolo LP and other unreleased goodies and live shows as well as a DVD. did this ever happen? no. LIARS. obviously kevin wants to put out another record. everyone knows this. duh. the question has nothing to do with what he wants to do, but will it actually happen.

so i hear GNR is finally coming out with "chinese democracy". when i have a copy in my hands i will believe it. until then i take everything with a grain of salt.

???

2007-01-15T23:50:00.000-08:00

Apples in stereo
New magnetic wonder

Can you feel it? **/
Skyway ***/
Mellotron 1 ***/
Energy **/
Same old drag ****
Joanie don’t u worry **/
Sunndal Song ****
Droplet **/
Play Tough ***/
Sun is out ***
Non-Pythagorean composition 1 **
Hello Lola ***

7 stars ****
Mellotron 2 ***/
Sunday sounds ***
Open eyes ***/
Crimson ***
Pre-crimson *
Vocoder ba ba ****
Radiation ****
Beautiful machine parts 1-2 ***/
Beautiful machine parts 3-4 ****
My pretend ***
Non-Pythagorean composition 3 *

Score = 6.2
74/120

dear elijah wood,
please leave the apples in stereo alone.
dear jeff mangum,
i will do anything if you put out another album. anything.

five years! trim the fat and this could be a great album. there are a lot of really dumb and not needed filler tracks some that go with the next song, some completely annoying. the worst actual song is probably "energy" which sounds like it could have been on bill nye the science guy. oh rob! what i am going to do with you? and please no more colbert songs. that was just creepy. for the rest of you, download the songs with 3 stars and up and you will have a shorter, better album.

2007-01-15T16:15:00.000-08:00

Deerhoof
Friend opportunity

The perfect me ****
+ 81****/
Believe E.S.P ****
The galaxist ****/
Choco fight ****
Whither the invisible ***/
Cast off crown *****
Kidz are so small ***
Matchbook seeks maniac ***
Look away ***

38.5/50
Score = 7.0

deerhoof is not a band i usually throw on for easy listening. maybe the occasional dance freakout, but even that is pretty tough with such a spastic drummer. but with this record deerhoof comes pretty close to what i had imagined if they were to make a pop record. not to say that deerhoof didn't have a pop sense, but this is probably the easiest to digest of all their work. it is maybe not as raw, not as messy, which would usually turn me off, but they make it work pretty well. probably because less is still a good amount for them, ha! in almost every song there is something that just catches me and says "dig it", so i do. probably not a radio hit record but far more tangible then some of the off the wall, in your face material that deerhoof has hurled at us before. the end drags a bit and the last song is way too long, but that was probably the point.

2007-01-15T16:03:00.000-08:00

Field music
Tones of town

Give it lost it take it ***
Sit tight ***
Tones of town ****
A house is not a home ***
Kingston **/
Working to work ***/
In context *****
A gap has appeared ***
Closer at hand ***
Place yourself **

31/50
Score = 6.2

I found out about field music reading a review for their first album. the reviewer mentioned wilco comparisons, so reluctantly I downloaded the record to confirm these hefty statements. I don't hear wilco, but I still enjoy it. unfortunetly I am not as struck by this album as I was their first, but there are still some great songs on here. I am not really sure what it is that makes them stick out. they are essentially the basic guitar rock band with the arty inclination to use strings to smooth things out. but they can still rock (see "tones of town"). their song structures might not be as conventional which makes it a bit more interesting and appealing to me, but for those of you who could care less about those things the pop sensibility is still there.

2007-01-15T15:47:00.000-08:00

Julie doiron
Woke myself up

I woke myself up ***/
You look so alive ***
Swan pond ***
Yer kids ***/
I left town **
No more ****
Don’t wannabe / liked by you ****
Dark horse **
The wrong guy ***
Me and my friend ***/
Untitled ***

34.5/55
Score = 6.3

if there is one person i would marry on the spot without ever having met it would be julie doiron. i love her. her voice, her lyrics, the way she strums the guitar makes me feel like she is sitting next to my bed telling me about her life. it is great. this record doesn't exactly lose that quality, but it does not maybe go as deep as others. some of these songs just aren't as (cheesy as it sounds) moving. what do i mean by that. i guess i mean she just feels further away. she still has the voice but maybe she is holding something back, something that the other albums feel more open about. instead of sitting next to my bed she is in the other room and i am eavesdropping. there are still some great songs on here and you should hear them.

2007-01-15T15:35:00.000-08:00

Of Montréal
Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

Suffer for fashion **/
Sink the Seine ***
Cato as a pun ***/
Heimdalsgate like a Promethean curse **/
Gronlandic edit **
A sentence of sorts in Kongsvinger***
The past is a grotesque animal ***
Bunny ain’t no kind of rider **/
Faberge falls for Shuggie */
Labyrinthian Pomp **
She’s a rejector ***/
We were born the mutants again with leafling ****

33/60
Score = 5.5

i do not understand of montreal. sure i can bob my head and dance along but sitting down and trying to listen to this record frustrated me. i kept feeling like there was something that i was missing. a secret. something that would unlock my brain so that when i heard these songs i would say "oh, i get it.". up until now, this has not happened. and i bet you are saying to yourself "drew! i don't understand you! you love those terrible joan of arc guys but you can't get into of montreal! what is wrong with you?" to which i would reply, "i just dunno." there are a few songs on the album that i can get into. the flow from "she's a rejector" into the last song is nice. i enjoy those two. "cato as a pun" is another one i wouldn't mind hearing again. i like the random guitar wail. that seems real to me. the line "and don't say i've changed because of course i have" is pretty great too.

2007-01-15T15:29:00.000-08:00

The shins
Wincing the night away

Sleeping lessons ***/
Australia ***
Pam berry */
Phantom limb ***
Sea legs **
Red rabbits **/
Turn on me **/
Black wave **/
Split needles ***
Girl sailor **/
A comet appears **/

28.5/55
Score = 5.2

nobody wanted this. i surely didn't. i had to go back and listen to my other shins cd's to see if i still enjoyed them. which i did. so what is the problem here? uninspired? i really couldn't say. i feel as if dynamics are lost. even the usually clever lyrics feel forced. i tried listening to it over and over. probably about 15 to 20 times, but it just doesn't move me. i hope you have a better reaction.

2007-01-15T11:00:00.000-08:00

Bloc party
A weekend in the city

Song for clay (disappear here) ***/
Hunting for witches ***/
Waiting for the 7.18 ****
The prayer ***/
Uniform **
On **/
Where is home? ***
Kreuzberg ***/
I still remember ***
Sunday **/
SXRT**

33/55
Score = 6.0

this album starts off pretty strong. immediately anyone who has heard "silent alarm" senses their change. bloc party seem to have taken advantage of the studio creating complex layers of noise and booming guitar production. i am not a huge fan of things that are this produced but it is mostly done tastefully and adds a new dimension to the angular guitar jangle of "silent alarm".the major problem is that the second half of the record wishes it was the first half. the songs are only nearly as engaging and i find myself wanting to start the album over again. "kreuzberg" manages to grab my attention again despite it's length but then another plunge into not quite finished thoughts. it is pleasant enough. worth a listen. mike really enjoys it.

2007-01-15T08:48:00.000-08:00

i have been neglecting this blog for a good amount of time because i really did not feel that it was that useful, but i have decided to revisit it for a new purpose. last year (2006) i became a bit more serious in my music listening and created an end of the year list which exhausted most of my december. you see, i hadn't heard nearly as many records as i felt i should have heard to compile a list of such magnitude. so i spent most of my waking hours absorbing the sounds from oh six. altough the list is far from comprehensive it was good enough for me. this year i planned on getting a head start, which i have already been busy at and i plan on using this site to keep track of my listening. i am planning on listening to at least 120 records this year (10 a month) and rating them on a scale of 1.0 to 10.0 in hopes of creating a well rounded end of the year list. expect the first few reviews within the next few days.

2006-09-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

so here i am back from the dead. many things have been hapening, so much in fact that i have not found time to write in this blog. but now i will continue.

so i have this computer which is faster than eny computer i have used before and i can download my own music. as much as i want. so i have been trying to listen to bands that i had heard a lot about but never actually heard any of their songs. have you ever heard of emperor x? i dig it. and there are a few others that i have been really into. and as much as i want to dig finnish folk music i really just can't get into it. so i am going to make natalie a mix from these new favorites with a few old favorites.

earlier today i had school or at least i was taking part in a mandatory school activity. not that mandatory means bad. i actually had a good time. we took the pink line out to a neighbor that needed some love and went to a school there and helped clean out some rooms and get rid of a ton of extra junk. there aren't enough people who generally want to help people. i try. i think i do. but some people are just unwilling and i am not sure how to handle them.

complaining bothers me. not that i don't complain, but most of the time i keep things to myself. no one complained today. not out loud at least. i built a table today. i am not much of a handy man but i felt like i did a good job. it was a bit more complicated than my desk but i figured it out fine.

man i miss haning out with brett and meghan and jeremy and nick. those guys are so great.

2006-08-25T00:08:00.000-07:00

there are only so many things that keep me coming back for more. root beer. kurt vonnegut. wilco. among few other things. but lately i have been unable to tear myself away from the original mario game. mario 1. not super mario although that is also a great game. i can't get farther than world 8. if you can. call me. i want to see this. i have been playing too much. it has cut into the time that i would usually be making music or reading. i know this and yet i still play. this is why as vonnegut says our big brains are our biggest enemy. i am too tired to finish this. sorry dor. maybe tomorrow.

2006-08-08T14:18:00.000-07:00

hm. i am not sure what to say about yesterday.

i went job searching today. who says i am unproductive? walked all the way down michigan ave and it was actually really nice out. great breeze nice sun. and i usually hate warm weather so this is just shocking to me. sweat is the number one enemy of guys my size. it ruins me. i have been letting my hair and my beard grow out. my hair is starting to really curl. i am not down with this but i want to see where it leads. though i sort of know already but i have just stopped caring. hair is hair. if it bothers the people i love i will change it but everyone seems supportive of a change in length. people always tell me the only reason that i hate curly hair is because i have curly hair which is not true. i know plenty of people who have curly hair and they dig it. i hate it. even on other people. but i am missing the point. i went job hunting today. there is no one else at the apartment so waking up to no one was weird. i didn't have to be quiet (because ph is usually sleeping). i got ready quickly and then headed out. i pasted the subway that i was planning on applying at first because it was really crowded. so i walked on. there was a shoe shop with a now hiring sign so i went in but knew i would not fit there. just a feeling. so i left. and got weird looks. i walked down state and then headed over to michigan untill i came upon the dreaded virgin megastore. i felt like i was betraying john cusak as i walked in and asked if they were hiring. even mark from empire records has more integrity than i do. sad. i was directed from desk to desk until someone actually found something for me to fill out. the usual. i sat in the magazine section and filled it out. in the "other abilities" section i put down avid fan of Bob Dylan and Woody Allen. this is bound to catch someones eye. i hope. i looked around a bit after i turned in the app and found that they had 2(!) copies of "ships" which i had been looking for furiously weeks prior and they did not have. things of this nature happen to me often. so i continued my search and headed over to a amc theater. i went up two super long elevators and reached a small desk where a huge woman gave me another application which i filled out quickly and left. i hate being up that high with those big windows. the rest of my search around the michigan ave was fruitless though i did see a guy with a "ninjas killed my family, need money" cardboard sign. i would have taken a picture but he looked like he would have killed me. so i walked back to this subway which was still pretty crowded but i didn't care anymore. so i asked for an application and sat down only to witness the craziest verbal fight i have ever seen in a subway. a black girl, probably in her mid twenties starts yelling at the latino guy behind the counter to start helping her when he is trying to help someone else. he tries to calm her down but she takes it as an insult and she starts shouting at the guy. so he asks his manager to help her which she does but this lady can't let it go and continues to harass this poor guy and he replies "who don't know me lady" to which she says "and you don't know me" followed by colorful language of which i will not repeat. i couldn't believe it. as i handed the guy my application he says to me "are you sure you want to work here?" i smiled and said "probably not." he laughed and i left. this is what i am doomed to experiance anywhere i work. so i better get used to it.

2006-08-07T17:16:00.000-07:00

now anyone can post comments on this blog. i didn't know that it was set to only let bloggers comment. please leave your name if you comment. thanks.

2006-08-07T17:10:00.000-07:00

YESTERDAY:

i watched 2 movies: everything is illuminated and enron:the smartest guys in the room

then i watched season one of the chappelle show. brett and meghan hung out and watched some for about an hour. mike and dor and tony and his friend got back. then dor left. and we listened to new wilco song bootlegs and youtube videos of the flaming lips which then led to us watching the fearless freaks and talking about music until four in the morn. pretty good day. though somewhat unproductive. i guess a ton of people met broken social scene and mike and dor met the guy from the shins right outside the apartment. cool. good for you guys. seriously.

2006-08-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

so i am back in the city. i woke up early. slept in my brother's bed. my mom made pancakes for my brother and i when he got back from his sleep over thing. i don't remember the exact order of events but well actually i am not even sure what happened this morning really. i sorted some clothes and drove my mom to the gas station to get some pepsi. i got a dp. i remember watching "high fedlity" with my brother which was kind of werid. i think he was drawn to jack black. good film. anyways well i guess i really didn't do that much today that is worth mentioning. i discovered that there is a level 6 sudoku in the newspaper which i feel like i got really close to completing but in the end did not. i had three squares left before i realised this. i was upset. seeing that i couldn't finish the five star from yesterday's paper. someday. so for what ever reason i started a facebook. the idea had always interested me and since i am an avid myspace user i thought why not? so i plugged in some info and bam i had one. so in order to get involved with some depaul people i joined a few groups involving students there. one happened to be a woody allen group and in the corner there was a related groups, so i checked out this agnostic atheist group. on the group description there was a disclaimer that said something about people trying to preach to the group. on the discussion board there was this debate between this girl who had lost her faith and this fundamental christian guy. i guess they were giving their takes on christianity. and wow. this guy . no wonder people hate christians. so i printed out her arguement and visited her source sites and decided that i was going to send her my take. maybe i will post it here. i dunno. i so then i watched some of kill bill with my brother and ate dinner with my family. yum. i met some interesting fellows on the train. they were going to see a jam band play beatles and zepplin songs. there were tons of people at the station and on the walk to the apartment. concert goers. i saw a girl with a brian jonestown shirt. brett, nick, meghan, and sarah were waiting outside. we talked about the shows. sounded like a great time. then they left and i talked to natalie and we talked and we are doing great and i can't wait to see her again. then mike and dor and a whole bunch of other people came in with them and i met a guy who was into woody allen flicks. there aren't that many of these people so when i meet one i must automatically become friends with that person. good guy. now i am going to watch v for vendetta with tony and his friend.

2006-08-04T20:26:00.000-07:00

so i have missed a few days and plenty of things have happened in my life but i really don't feel like explaining them all so i won't. the most important thing is that i am back and today i have done virtually nothing. but let me rewind just a little so that today makes some sense. last night was "the ice party" a multi-birthday/theme/dance party. everyone was supposed to wear white. just so happens all that i have to wear that is white is my dad's karate outfit. so automatically i feel super awkward add in the fact that no one else is really in costume as much as they are all just wearing white clothes. there are some people with masks but for the most part i am the only one fully dressed in a "costume". so being the shy person that i am i sat in the corner waiting for my comfort level to center out. as it turns out i start to get a stomach ache. so now i really can't dance. so i am feeling pretty terrible by now because i wouldn't mind dancing and i feel like i am letting natalie down by being a spoil sport. i usually would dance at things like this. they were playing great music. so i get up to get a drink and some guys steal my seat so i latch onto a wall. after watching everyone else getting down for awhile i start to get bummed because i am not feeling so great so i tell natalie that i am going to leave. but she offers to come with me which i felt really terrible about because i know she was having a ton of fun. she must really dig me! so we head over to denny's [near spring hill mall] and i get a root beer and some fries [which i barely touch because i don't feel so great but at the same time really want to eat because for some reason i ordered them] and i am talking about all this crap and it turns out that some people that she knows from work are there and they are in some band, so that is awkward and then some guy that natalie went to ecc with sits down behind us. and makes things even more weird. so i try to lighten things up but everything was just so weird and odd that it never felt completely comfortable. so i drop her off back at the ice party and drive home pretty bummed out because i almost feel like i am some kind of baby. so i am kicking myself and screaming the words to some promise ring song i haven't heard in years. i can't remember what i did when i got back. natalie let me use a air bed of her's because i have been sleeping on the floor in my room. my parents through out my futon. so i went to sleep uneasy.

today has been bla. i mostly played old nintendo games that i downloaded and some depaul stuff that needed to get finished. i tried to do a five star sudoku to no avail. i screwed it up the first time and erased all the numbers and tried again. nothing. so i made some mac and cheese and watched some tv and played some guitar. worked on a new song which is actually really interesting. to me at least. then i recorded a cover of mazzy star's "fade into you". sort of my anthem of the day. i got a message from natalie saying that we probably won't see each other for another two weeks because she is working everyday and tomorrow i am going back to the apartment. man that bums me out. i feel like we left on a bad note. and she just got home and i wanted things to be great and laid back but i just am not so great at these things. i should have called her today. but sometimes it is so hard just to pick up the phone. wow. that sounds lame. oh man. so i watched detective shows with my parents until i got a call from brett who was at the 7 eleven in the building that my apartment is in. i am not there. he might give me a call later. but maybe not. i smell but i am wide awake. where did i go wrong?

2006-07-20T22:14:00.000-07:00

i am back in the suburbs. or as my mom would say "my real home". i have come back to play at elevate this weekend and hang out with my friend chris who has been in ireland for the past month. but before that. all i have eaten today is a terrible egg, sausage, and cheese sandwich which i bought at 7 eleven only because i needed cash back and i hadn't eaten breakfast, but the stupid touch screen pen that i tried to press debit on went to credit and screwed everything up. i tried to explain this to the lady behind the counter but she didn't seem interested. so i stopped at the fifth third bank that is on the way to the metra. this sandwich was gross. i should have known this before i bought it. previously i tried and microwave cheese burger and a microwave burrito, both were terrible. never eat attempts at real food at 7 eleven. they will only bring you pain. but whatever it filled my stomach for awhile.

so i get on the train and start to read the book i have been reading and the chapters that i read on the train were actually very interesting and funny. the first one being about chuck's fascination with serial killers, which made me right away think about natalie. my lovely girlfriend, who also has a fascination with serial killers. she should read this chapter. she would find it very funny. right now she is probably trying to fall asleep in either the back of her parents mini van or in a distant hotel. i miss her.

so chris picked me up from the train and we caught up as good buddy's do. and we chilled out at my house and watched tv and talked about whatever. my dad had to go to a funeral today (for someone i did not know) so i was suppose to take my brother out for dinner at chipotle. a great idea. so after picking up some reading material at the library chris and i picked him up and we ate. it was a strange meal. i hadn't seen my brother in maybe two weeks and he was somewhat unresponsive, which is normal i guess, but being with a friend (chris) made him more quiet. i guess. we discussed our opinions on cars and the deconstruction of civilivation. it was interesting.

then we watched some more tv before deciding to visit steve and nate and brandon and others in wheaton where they are playing music at a camp thing. it was good to see them. i even saw mark novelli, my old small group leader whom i have tremendous respect for. the service that night was about the jewish passover which i couldn't really seem to concentrate on. but none of this was in context to me seeing that the camp was almost over and i had missed so much. the band was great though. everyone did a real good job. i was impressed. somewhat. i knew they were good.

the night ended with chris and i deciding not to meet up with everyone at denny's afterwards due to the fact that chris has to be up for work at 4. another reason i am glad i did not get that starbucks job. so i am home now. obviously. and i am hungry.

2006-07-19T22:20:00.000-07:00

so to answer your question, no i never called the temp agency, and why should i, if they need me they would call. they seemed responsible enough to give a guy a call if they need him. i am not complaining. there are a heck of a lot of people looking for jobs down here. i should know. they were all at the starbucks job fair. screw starbucks, their coffee isn't even that great.
(note the paradox here: the only coffee that i usual drink is the starbuck's coffee supplied to my apartment through steve's girlfriend, caitlyn, who works at starbucks) there are sadder things in life. yesterday was a short of waste, though my friend nick sandoval stopped by. i can't really recall anything else of note. today i watched two films, inbetween eating and being called back into my real passion (which is to make music).

the first film i watched is called "Good Night and Good Luck", a George Clooney film about a television news personality that takes on Joe McCarthy in the middle of the McCarthy "kill the commie" age. in other words: a good film. i won't tell you what i learned from the film because then you might want to see it less, which is dumb.

i don't consider myself a musician as much as a songwriter, but maybe even that is stretching it. when people hear the word songwriter they think of singer songwriters like james taylor and jackson brown and neil young. i don't put my name next to any of those people. but i guess in the generation i have been lumped into the closest thing we have to a songwriter would have been elliott smith. and look what happened to him. the reason i don't include conor oberst is partially because he goes under the alias bright eyes which to me even if it isn't true means that he is part of a band. the other reason is because he released a record in which he forgot that he wasn't in a mediocre version of the postal service. i might try to argue with myself that jeff tweedy is a songwriter, which he is, but he has engulfed himself in the setting of a band. which makes him something more of an inbetween. maybe beck. someone just said thom yorke (in my head), but then i thought about the eraser (which by no means is bad, but it lacks something i.e. the rest radiohead) and decided that radiohead is a band, not just thom yorke. so back to beck. the thing about beck is that he went beyond being what i would consider a classic songwriter, so in a sense he is disqualified. elliott smith you paved a way. may you rest in peace.

the second film that i watched is called "Chumscrubber". all throughout this movie i wasn't exactaly sure what i was supposed to be understanding. was i supposed to assume that this was a commentary on the evils of suburban living or an a watered down sketchy version of the everything is connected in some messed up way wave (which not many films beside the untouchable Magnolia can succeed at), i really wasn't sure. then there was a few minutes i thought the film was about drugs, but that subsided quickly and i realized the film is actually about dolphins. enough said.

for some reason i skipped to the last chapter of the book i am reading. each chapter is its own essay and they are only vaguely connected. i guess what struck me was that the title of the last chapter is named after a radiohead song "how to disappear completely", but what the chapter actually turned out to be about was the Left Behind series of books and movies on the rapture. Chuck Klosterman, in the last chapter of his pop culture driven manifesto speaks up about his view on the fundamentalist Christian. at heart he still believes that the arrogance and holier than thou attitude is totally backwards thus making him unable to subscribe to such nonsense. the funny thing to me though is how so many thinking people miss the fact that just because the people that supposedly believe something act a certain way means that they have to act that way in order to believe that. why can't that person say "yeah, your ideology makes sense but the way you live doesn't, so i am not going to follow your footsteps, instead i am going to live it the way it is supposed to be lived." i guess that is just too much work. anyways. read it yourself and make your own conclusions.

ph and i had a nice talk about junior high and growing up and how it shaped us. we also talked about how 100 years ago, isn't really that long ago and yet so much has changed in just the last decade. it is freaking scary. other noteworthy topics were death, AIDS, and the slow transition of 60s drug culture to now. interesting stuff. bring it up sometime and we can talk about it. back to the burbs tomorrow.

2006-07-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

i didn't even try to wake up today. and when i did it was to the sound of Highway 61, or in other words someone calling me. Vanessa. a friend from high school who lives and works in the city. today she was working at tower records and wanted to know if she could nap at my place until she had to go meet her friend. i agreed awkwardly. where would she sleep? in my bed? hmm. i guess so. by this time i had gotten up to see mike off to his applying at the Gap on michigan ave. he pretty much got the job. i hate job hunting. i have been at it since early june and have gotten nowhere. i hate it. so am up eating cereal and thinking about how this is all going to go down. mike comes back and we start to watch the movie "The Italian Job", which is according to mike a "pretty good caper". ha. i wasn't impressed. Marky Mark was pretty bad. anyways Vanessa arrives around two o'clock and things are pretty normal and i direct her to my sleeping quarters where she then falls asleep for the next hour and a half. not bad. i woke her up at around 3:30 and we (mike, vanessa, ph, and i) talked about music and pitchfork and whatnot. after she left the air in the room left and everyone went back to be bored. so i decided to pick up with my book.

Chuck Klosterman is a funny man. although some parts of this book have been totally irrelevant to me, today i was laughing constantly. that is all i will say about that.

there are not too many modern rock bands pushing the envelope. i mean there is some weird stuff out there that has never been done before, but a majority of that stuff is just uninteresting after the first few listens or just makes you sick after the first few seconds. so i am constantly searching for music that i find to fit the criteria of interesting and exciting. this doesn't happen too much. call me an elitist, call me a snob, but the truth is, is that i am not those things. we would hate each other's record collections equally. and how can i be a snob. i like radiohead. do you know how many records radiohead has sold. radiohead have been on mtv and the radio and i still love them. i am not an elitist. i listen to the beatles and bob dylan is my hero. i just love music and happen to have a high standard as to what i find good and worthy of my listening pleasure. enough said.

so i tried to get mike to help me out in a little musical experiment that i have been wanting to try out. mike was tired and didn't seem to interested. i tried to spark his interest but he never really got past the "drew, i just want to sit here and do nothing" phase. so i started off easy. we did some noise recordings. nothing complicated. put a microphone in front of a tv or radio or microwave or bathroom fan or air conditioner or even open a window and record the sounds of city living. all of these things sounded pretty good. so we moved on. me brushing my teeth, him dropping a cymbal, and some other more rhythmic things. then we stared in on the actual vision i had for the song. this is when mike completely shut down, and the time was ticking as to how much longer he would humor me. i recorded some clinking and clanging with spoons on the rails of my bunk bed. seeing that i am not a drummer, nor do i have the best rhythm, it sounded pretty bad, but i tried to work with it, layering it over other things to hide the sloppiness. but it just came off more sloppy and thin. i was not happy with my progress and mike was not helping so i decided to forget the whole thing. vision is a rough thing. and it is hard to share with other people, especially if they don't really care.

so i started reading again. until my mum called just to say hi. which reminds me. i did not get one single phone call yesterday. not one. this made me feel somewhat unloved. but really, i just was bored and wanted to talk to someone else besides my room mates. this reminded me that chris was back in town, so i immediately called him and caught up. chris has been in ireland for the last month studying and traveling. i was very jealous. i missed the guy. i will see him this weekend.

after talking to chirs i didn't feel much like reading anymore so i decided to write in this blog thing as a sort of escape from the walls of my apartment. it is so blasted hot outside that i haven't really left in two days. this is sad and somewhat pathetic, but i deal with it. tonight i will probably watch another terrible movie with mike and then read some more and then pass out in my bed. i am not saying this is a good or bad thing, but it is the way i live. i wish i would start writing a play or maybe even try to work on that short story idea that i had, but without my own computer i feel like this would be fruitless. for some reason i write better at a computer. and not on someone else's. now i am stalling. tomorrow i need to call the temp agency. let's see if i actually do it.

2006-07-16T19:26:00.000-07:00

today has been a lazy day. partly because of last night. i had a cup of coffee way too late which is never a good idea. followed by the antics of others. there are only so many things that a person can do in a day. i couldn't fall asleep and because i could not fall asleep i slept later. this has been a recurring theme within the last two or three days. i stay up way later than i usually would and then i sleep way later. it's proportional. i think the key factors of today and most days are based on the meals that i make. first cold cereal. always good but sometimes boring. there is never enough milk to feel like i can have some more. plus i was eating "breakfast" at one o'clock which is the usual time for lunch. so automatically, i am thrown off.

the cereal was followed by my first screening of the film Goodfellas, which is as the screen said before the film started, based on a true story. this is not hard for me to believe. it was a good film. it made me want to see the Godfather. which i hear is even better. i hated Scarface. most people don't actually like the movie Scarface as much as they think they do. rappers are obsessed with the movie because of it's hardcore gangsta philosophy, but as a movie there are only a few scenes that really interest me. and even those hardcore shoot em up scenes i have seen done better in other films. so whatever, Goodfellas was pretty good. the ending was a bit anticlimactic for me, or maybe it just made too much sense after watching Seven the night before.

then came my second meal which i barely remember because it was just plain not memorable. microwave pinwheel mac and cheese. don't get me wrong, i am a big fan of mac and cheese, especially when it is done right (like the stuff at Schuba's) but this stuff was mediocre at best. there are two main things that i look for in a mac and cheese experience. one. cheesey-ness. two. creamy-ness. i like it cheesy, i like it creamy. this stuff was neither. so i forgot about it, letting it digest it's way into history.

by this time one of my room mates put on some Dave Chappelle episodes to lighten up the mood. i watched for awhile but the skits were all familiar so i picked up my current reading material (Sex, Lies, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman) and retreated into my room. for those of you who have never been to my apartment, one of things that is hardest to deal with is that the ceiling for the kitchen the living rooms and the two bedrooms is not separated by fully complete walls. there is about three to four feet of wide open space that lets noise and other things seep over into all the rooms. this always had made it hard for me to concentrate so i usually sit in the bathroom and read. this was the case today. Chappelle show was blasting from the living room and my other room mate was yelling out orders to his online gaming friends to "get that guy over there" or "hold it, i will shoot him when he comes around the other side." this is something i have accepted and begun to live with. he is a great person who just happens to play online games more than he talks to us.

up until today i had really enjoyed this book, but it seems that i had hit the lull in the interesting and funny area. maybe i am just not as pop cultured as i thought i was. i haven't seen more than a handful of Real World episodes, I haven't even heard an album worth of Billy Joel's music, and I never have thought about Pam Anderson for more than, wait maybe never. sorry Chuck. I was born in the wrong decade i guess. (i constantly am put into situations where i believe this to be true).

so i kept reading this book for a few hours on and off. in-between i worked on a level three sudokou puzzle (which i finished later plus it was the first one i ever finished so i taped it to my wall) and checked to see what terrible music was coming from my room mate's computer. he was just watching music videos. by the way i was not as happy with the new Ultra Sonic Edukator's songs. i was really hoping these guys would save the Chicago music scene but i am not digging on the vibes i get from their newest efforts at pop songs. so i made some more coffee and looked out the window.

my next meal of the day came at about seven thirty or so. i decided to make some cheese burgers on the George Foreman grill my mum purchased me for my birthday. i salted them with some garlic and toasted the bread and cheese on the grill. they were pretty good. i decided to dip them in ranch dressing since i hadn't purchased the ketchup in the frigde. again, tasty. i had my room mate put on the Sunset Rubdown record while i ate. i have been wanting to hear this record. I was pleasantly pleased by the departure from Wolf Parade formulas. if you haven't heard it, i would suggest picking it up or finding a friend who has it and listening to their copy, or visiting me and listening to it with me.

so at around 8-ish i knew i had wasted my day but i took a shower anyway. just for something to do i guess. my room mate fell asleep on the futon in the living room, so i played my guitar in the bathroom. i haven't written anything in a while, just kind of made things up as i went along. the usually thing. not so interesting unless you can hear it. i guess.

i don't have my own computer so i am typing this on my room mate's. he is asleep right next to me. this is amazing to me seeing that this kid usually goes to sleep around 4 every night. but he is sleeping like a baby right now. i guess the reason that i made one of these things is that i found a link to someone else's and have nothing else really to do. plus i think it might help with my writing and other things. hopefully i can keep it interesting without getting too deep or sounding preachy.

the start

2006-07-16T19:10:00.000-07:00

i have decided to create a blog. and this is it.