1) This Year – The Sunset Tree – The Mountain Goats

That one repeating piano chord, the automotive imagery and the smalltown desperation strongly recall “Thunder Road” to me, which means “This Year” is some kind of minor masterpiece. It’s also got the year’s most resonant chorus yet, with John Darnielle wailing “I’m gonna make it through this year, if it kills me.” Man, if you can’t identify with that, you are blessed.

2) The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is kinda the internet flava of the month, celebrated from Pitchfork to your favorite mp3 blog. At times it sounds like Neutral Milk Hotel as a dance band and there’s a great bit on the end where it sounds like the dude just starts singing in tongues.

3) Seal the Deal – Live Shit – Quasi

I remember at one Quasi show, there was a lull inbetween songs and one guy yelled “DRUM SOLO!” Janet Weiss looked kind of confused and said “Dude, this whole show’s a drum solo.” This was before the 20 minute version of “War Pigs”, by the way.Hear the drummer get wicked.

4) Opulent Canine – You Know the Rules – The Gay

Still my favorite band name, The Gay jumped out at random and I dug the old Throwing Muses/that dog sound that they were still doing. The album as a whole is superinconsistent, but I’m not sure the band is even together so it’s a moot point.

5) Mary Anne With the Shaky Hands – The Who Sell Out – Petra Haden

One of the reasons Petra Haden’s cover record works so well is that she pretty clearly doesn’t know much about The Who Sell Out. That ignorance lets her get at the deconstruction without any preconceptions and really lets the record become transcendent. On the other hand, not knowing the record leads to her flubbing the very first lyric of this song. That said, Marry Anne With The Shake Hands eventually gets to its happy ending anyway.

6) Chemical, Chemical – New Romance – Pretty Girls Make Graves

Another random popup, I remember this being one of my favorite records two years ago. It hasn’t really diminished at all, this track being just as explosive as anything released this year. On the other hand, when are we seeing something new from PGMG? They seem like they’ve been on tour FOREVER.

7) Seduce – Complete Arsenal – Cinema Eye

I was planning on hitting up the Cinema Eye show, but something came up. It might have been the night I got violently ill and started projectile vomiting all over my apartment, but I kind of lost track of the dates. Anyhow, “Seduce” is a one of Cinema Eye’s best rollercoaster records, but holy crap is the production shitty. Compare/contrast it with the PGMG track, for instance.

8) Get Up – The Hot Rock – Sleater-Kinney

I was reminded of the song because it’s the one that Miranda July directed a video for. There’s actually a few recycled shots from the video to her new movie “Me and You and Everyone We Know,” with the aerial shots of folks lying on the ground. As for the song itself, it’s got this weird loopy guitar line that seems like it’s swallowing itself on repeat until about 2/3rds through Corin does that “oooooooooooooh GET UP” bit that gets everyone jumping at the live show.

9) The One – Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking – The Like

My favorite local jailbait band is on the cusp of busting it huge with their debut release showing up in a few months. I’d like to say that I had remarkable powers of prediction when I guaranteed success two years ago, but quite frankly it was a no-brainer. They were good looking kids with the right connections and a whole heck of a lot of talent, so it was just a matter of time, really. Z’s throaty vocal cracks in all the right places on this track.

10) You Say You Lie – Pretty in Black – Raveonettes

Pretty in Black didn’t really blow me away when it came out a few months ago, but I’m turning around on it, as it seems every few weeks I hear a song off it that totally hooks me. “You Say You Lie” is not a great song, mostly because it lacks any bridge of significance, but that main guitar line is endlessly intriguing. Even though it’s the only thing of note for the entire song I never really get sick of it.

11) Use It – Twin Cinema – New Pornographers

More new pr0n from the New Pornographers. Like a lot of Twin Cinema the song takes a little while to get on track, but by the time they get to that part about the wrecking crew and how he can’t walk right, Newman’s back to spinning instant pop gold again.

12) I See You, You See Me – The Magic Numbers – The Magic Numbers

The Magic Numbers are an interesting brit export, in that they sound nothing like Gang of Four and their press photos are filled with four perfectly average looking people. THEY MUST BE GOOD! The record strikes me as a blue-eyed soul record more than anything else, and “I See You, You See Me” is an enchanting duet with a crystal clear guitar arpeggio straight out of R.E.M.’s playbook. It’s a bit long, and at times a touch overproduced, but it’s also silky beautiful in a way that most rock records just aren’t.

13) They Are Night Zombies!!! – Illinois – Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan reworks his sound into something almost funky for this soft anthem about the living dead. I really wish they would do a video for this track, just because a bunch of zombies dressed in the blue and orange fighting Illini cheerleader outfits dancing in time would be SO HOT.

14) San Diego Serenade – Heart of Saturday Night – Tom Waits

To all my nerd peeps, this is the only song I could find in my catalog that mentioned San Diego whatsoever. Unfortunately, Tom Waits mentions nothing about fat jedis or comic books or anthing like that. And here I thought he was a great lyricist. BAH.

Posted in Mixtape No Comments »

It’s been a few days since I left San Diego Comicon and my brain is still on vacation. After a while you get used to the crush and the busy, and you half expect the people you work with to show up dressed as Jar-Jar Binks. Someone mentioned that after your first day you grow nerd gills, where your body learns to breathe and process nerd and use it for precious life energy. Even though I took an extra day before popping back into work, it’s been sort of a case of the bends. Has anyone ever died of nerd decompression?

Con went a lot smoother than last year, with my precious lessons learned from 2004. I only made one or two walkthroughs of the con floor, killed time in panels, slept in a lot and generally got tons of rest. The weather was wonderfully cooperative, and I was able to traverse the Gaslamp at will without bursting into flames. A non-immolating Han is a happy Han.

In terms of schwag, I bought a power glove shirt from Gameskins and a new Chocolate Thunder shirt from Jeremy Love, but that’s about it. I did score a couple of little freebies, including a tin of Invader Zim mints. Every thing else I wanted had stratospheric prices, like the red version of those previously coveted Gorillaz vinyl dolls or weren’t available at all, like the upcoming Mospeada Beta Fighter/Alpha Fighter combo. I also found that I was generally unimpressed by the wide variety of crap, mostly because all of it is available via internet anyway. Other than some convenience and saving on some shipping charges, I didn’t really see the big deal most of the time. I was vaguely interested in Black Lava‘s t-shirts, which run like some kind of bizarro Ambercrombie with their pro Asian sloganeering. Unfortunately, their designs are pretty plain and just not competitive with the gear from places like Giant Robot or Threadless.

The nerd contingent was quite a bit bigger this year, with lots of visitors from overseas, but somehow everyone managed to avoid a chaotic dinner party of 20+ and I snuck out of San Diego never getting stiffed on a bill, which is a minor miracle dining with cheapass nerds. Best meal of the weekend was probably a tapas extravaganza at Sevilla with old college buddy Charity, which was one of the few non-Mexican meals I had.

For the most part I got to see all the people that I like that I barely see once a year and was able to avoid most of my mouthbreathing internet stalkers, except for a few schlumpy exceptions. Kelly Sue was totally ditching me all weekend, but I’ve parlayed her guilt into future favors, so I’m still in the black overall. My pics are clicky here. If you want the same subjects actually in focus and with proper lighting, I’d check these out instead. There are even a few where I look stunningly non-hideous.

Posted in Eratta 3 Comments »

When I first heard Petra Haden’s acapella eight track recording of “The Who Sells Out,” I thought it was the greatest bedroom recording of all time. The prospect of a live rendering never really crossed my mind, since there was only one Petra Haden and the album was only achieved with the miracles of 1960′s technology. Fast forward a few months and numerous accolades later, Haden assembled an all-ladies choir to properly perform the record at the John Anson Ford Theater.

Haden nervously introduced the choir as “The Sellouts” and began with “Armenia City in the Sky.” There would be no setlist shenanigans, it was strictly performed in album order except for a few pauses for conversation. While Haden seemed out of sorts inbetween songs, speaking shakily and constantly fidgeting with the music sheets, she was confident and assured during the actual singing, frequently going into a bit of air guitar or drums while soloing.

Haden’s new arrangement reshapes the Who’s songs into something completely different. They lack punch without the benefit of Moon and Entwhistle, but the transformation accents Townshend’s original harmonic intents. Stripped down and reinterpreted into purely vocal form, the duo of “Our Love Was” and “I Can See For Miles” are completely transcendent. There’s also an added tinge of whimsy to the affairs, particularly on the ads where each of the ladies get to make funny noises and voices.

The combination of beautiful performance and an equally gorgeous summer night made for a pretty perfect evening. This was a rare opportunity, but there are a few more chances for people to catch the act. Petra Haden and the Sellouts will be opening for the Decemberists this fall at the San Francisco and Los Angeles dates.

Posted in From Blown Speakers Comments Off

I had this really long entry about how I shouldn’t speak to famous people, but it got eaten up by an errant keystroke. Suffice it to say, one the dumber things to say at a booksigning is “Are you OK? You look a little dazed,” as if you just dropped a brick on her head but were looking to get out of a lawsuit by appearing sympathetic.

And if anyone asks? This was totally Jo’s fault.

Posted in Eratta 1 Comment »

This one’s only a few weeks late, so pretend it’s actually around June 23rd or so. Meditate or time travel, if you have to.

Spoon’s return to Los Angeles was a sellout show at the Avalon, if not exactly a triumphant success. Spoon just seems like one of those bands that stand there and play the songs, so if you like the songs you’re set. If you don’t, there probably wouldn’t be a lot to convince you otherwise.

Luckily, I think the songs are great. The setlist leaned heavily on “Gimme Fiction” but yanked the best material from the previous three records as well. In the end, they played pretty much every song I wanted to hear, which was really satisfying and pretty rare for me.

Whether Spoon is doing new-wave, funk or Mats’ style pop-punk, they’re able to retain a unique Spoon sound that ties everything together. As an arranger, Britt Daniel’s got a remarkable talent for using minimalist leads on guitar and keyboard to create tension in the empty spaces between notes.

For the most part, everything worked. Slinky material like “Everything Hits at Once” and “The Way We Get By” showed off the rhythm section and “I Summon You” and “Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine” unveiled a slightly fuller version of that trademark Spoon vibe. “Sister Jack” was probably as close to a crowd rocker as Spoon got, and was the highlight of the night. Oddly, one of the few songs that really didn’t come across was the current single, “I Turn My Camera On.” Daniels’ guitar seemed too loud in the mix, which ruined the groove heavy funk of the tune.

Despite being a sellout crowd, it felt dead at the Avalon. There wasn’t a lot of dancing or cheering or even mellow head bobbing, just polite clapping and an occassional scream for an old hit. This may stem from the aforementioned Spoon stands up there and plays the records type thing. The downer energy level, from the band and the crowd, kept this from being a really great show, rather than just a good one.

Setlist – yoinked from Sharony’s Spoonfuls (go bruins!)

The Beast and Dragon, Adored
Me and the Bean
Someone Something
Lines in the Suit
Fitted Shirt
Car Radio
Chicago at Night
I Turn My Camera On
Sister Jack
They Never Got You
Paper Tiger
Jonathon Fisk
Everything Hits at Once
The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine
I Summon You
Anything You Want
The Way We Get By
Back to the Life
My Mathematical Mind

Metal Detektor
The Delicate Place
Small Stakes
Lowdown (Wire cover)

Posted in From Blown Speakers Comments Off

I thought Land of the Dead was pretty assy, but that was until I watched Resident Evil 2: Apocalypse. They both had some redeeming aspects though. Land of the Dead has a sidestory of a proud Black zombie leading his zombie people to topple his White oppressors, and RE2 has more hot chicks and a zombie with a rocket launcher. That about sums up the general themes of the films as well.

Posted in Moving Pictures No Comments »

Now that Jeff Kent has succumbed to a hamstring pull, the Dodgers officially have lost every single quality position player to injury. I’m generally not one to write off entire seasons this early, but I’ve never seen a team this decimated either. There’s an off-chance that recoveries from Izturis and Bradley could float the team until J.D. Drew recovers from a broken wrist, but that’s a bad bet.

Posted in Eratta No Comments »

Posted in Eratta No Comments »

If anyone’s been messing around with the new version of ITunes and its integrated podcasting features, feel free to subscribe to the Donewaiting podcast. Robert Duffy plays great music that I haven’t even heard of. If you’re using ITunes, just drag this link into the ITunes window and you should automatically subscribe.

I’ll be co-hosting fairly soon, so you can hear me stumble and stammer my way through one of these things if you feel like. I’m terrible but I have a sexxxy voice.

Posted in From Blown Speakers 2 Comments »

War of the Worlds is a really peculiar Hollywood movie. The typical layout of this movie would have Tom Cruise be the world’s greatest dock worker, and only his unique skills at uh… moving boxes could save the earth. Thankfully, that never really happens.

Cruise is actually terrible at pretty much everything except running with his mouth open. There’s some plot about him redeeming himself in the eyes of his family, but it never really connects. The movie concentrates more on aliens vaporizing people, and how humanity is completely, hopelessly fucked. It never strays from that vision, as man turns on itself in riots and the pile of bodies grow. The movie actually works perfectly as a horror movie, as it’s completely terrifiying.

The more the aliens rampage, the cooler the movie is. By the time they’re harvesting humans left and right and covering the earth in red licorice, it was wicked awesome. On our side of the ball, we run, we die. We shoot, it deflects off forcefields and yet we keep shooting. I would have pulled for the humans more, but really, we’re crap. As a result, Spielberg has made bizarro-Schindler, a genocide where we root for Nazis. It’s all strangely satisfying despite being somewhat mediocre.

Posted in Moving Pictures No Comments »