Wye Oak >> You look over my shoulder, distant, abstract

Wye Oak - "Spiral"

(Williams Street Records / Adult Swim, 2012)

On August 3rd, while pulling into the parking lot outside the Saints' facility in Metairie to watch an open practice, I heard this song on WTUL and just about lost my shit.  I called in and found out who it was, then asked the DJ if he was sure that it was really Wye Oak, since this song is totally different from their normal rustic alt-country sound.  He and I talked about how 4AD-ish it was, and I mentioned that it sounded a lot like the album Euphoria by the band Insides.  He said he hadn't heard any Insides, but would check them out.  The next night, the Oak opened for the dreadful Dirty Projectors at the House Of Blues.  I almost went just to see them perform this song, but I couldn't justify the cost of around $30.00, plus I would've lost all respect for myself if I had stood in the same room with the Dirty Projectors or their fanbase.

Wye Oak are named after the state-champion (that means largest) oak tree in Maryland.  R.I.P.  This song premiered as a free download at Stereogum, which is where I downloaded it, and it is still available there.  Singer / guitarist Jenn Wasner said on Stereogum "This track was written specifically for this Adult Swim series, but they didn’t provide any thematic or sonic guidance for the song. A lot of the music I had been working on independently at the time sounded something like this — so I felt like the Adult Swim opportunity was, as a standalone track, a great opportunity to experiment with some of these new sonic and rhythmic ideas in a low-pressure context. The song revolves around the idea of repetition and rhythmic interplay — parts that are fairly minimalist and circular that come together to form an almost hypnotic wash."  The song's stuttering ambient marimba finale strikes me as a clear homage to Tortoise's genre-busting "Djed."  Check out the passion with which impending indie heartthrob Wasner belted out this song on the same day I first heard it, meaning the night before they played in N.O.:

After seeing that video, I was absolutely kicking myself for not going to the gig.  But I'll see them when they come back to N.O. or B.R. as headliners.  If they can continue exploring this type of sound, I'd say they'll instantly be the most compelling band in all of indiedom.  You could say Wye Oak pulled a reverse Slowdive with this song, considering how Slowdive suddenly went from an electronic dream pop sound to a country-ish sound under their new name Mojave 3 in the mid-'90s.  Well, folks, the Oak is the new sheriff in town and they're ready to right Slowjave 3's wrong.  My only complaint is that the vocals in "Spiral" are hard to decipher due to the massive amounts of reverb and Wasner's breathy, innovative phrasing, but that actually helps the music to more dreamlike and disorienting.  For a not-so-accurate stab at them, go here.  I think she sings "Hearts have signed for(?) a contract: Constant contact" and then she definitely sings "You look over my shoulder / Distant, abstract."

You can download every digital single in the Adult Swim series for free here.

Jenn's new project, the hilariously-named Dungeonesse, is a full-on dance/synth thing, so hopefully they'll put out at least a few songs in the same vein as "Spiral."

View the best pic I took at Saints practice that momentous day here.

Tue. 3/12: Got an eye exam from a new doctor and then got contact lenses for the first time in a few years; had been wearing really scratched up old glasses.  It was like seeing the world in HD and I was somewhat in shock for the rest of the day / week.

Sat. 3/16: Went to the spring Record Raid and talked to the usual music buddiez but didn't see the person I hoped would be there, so I was pretty depressed the rest of the day.  In my haul: School Of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire (2xLP on swirly gray vinyl), Broken Water - Whet (LP on translucent green vinyl), Steve Reich - Reich Remixed (2xLP), Dead Leaf Echo - Truth (EP), Niki And The Dove - Instinct, Crowded House - Temple Of Low Men, Joan Armatrading - Greatest Hits, Frank Ocean - Channel Orange, Toro Y Moi - "So Many Details" promo single, Mary Timony - The Golden Dove, TEEN - In Limbo.  Bought some vitamin B-12.

Thur. 3/21: Went to the Alicia Keys / Miguel concert at New Orleans Arena with Em, Ashley, and Ashley's mom.  Was stunned at Em's new car that she bought a few days earlier.  Almost wore my Glish t-shirt, but donned a long-sleeve shirt at the last minute.  Only saw Miguel's last 3 songs due to a ticket snafu, so I dunno if he played my fav. song of his, the future #1 hit "Don't Look Back".  He finished with an extended rendition of his mega-hit "Adorn."  Saw Hornets star Eric Gordon in the drink line; probably should've shook his hand or something since he will surely leave as a free agent soon.  Alicia brought her A-game despite the fact that the arena was about half full.  (Everyone on the upper level got a free upgrade to the middle level.)  Seeing her perform "Un-Thinkable" while bathed in orange lighting was one of the top 10 concert moments of my life, and I was pleasantly surprised at how berserk the crowd went when she did an old fave of mine, "Diary."  Maxwell dueted with her via a pre-recorded video segment shown on the screen behind her.  She played for almost 2 hours, meaning about twice as long as when I saw her in '04.  Afterwards, I hurried over and absorbed the end of a hushed and beautiful Benoît Pioulard show at the Circle Bar by myself.  A rude bartender tried to throw shade when I mentioned the concert I had just seen up the street, but I still stupidly tipped her a dollar.

Fri. 3/22: Decided to do the "be a tourist in your own town" thing... Well, in my previous hometown at least.  Went to Barrister's Gallery at its new location on St. Claude (used to be inside of or next to Zeitgeist Theatre on Oretha Castle Haley) and saw some very impressive avant-garde stuff; got a poetry book at Maple Street Book Shop at the N.O. Healing Center; got some cool stuff at Euclid Records (Acetone LP, Cul De Sac 7", Lansing-Dreiden CD); got a thyme plant at Harold's; played basketball at Delgado for 2+ hrs until dark; watched March Madness.

Sat. 3/23: Went to Slidell on a whim and scored a book about Ani Difranco at Goodwill.  Man, I had forgotten how much she once meant to me, and how endearingly funny she was/is, but flipping through a few pages in this book brought it rushing back.

Planets with similar climates: Cocteau Twins - "Road, River And Rail" (1990), Insides - "Distractions" (1993), Beach House - "Wild" (2012), Lush - "Undertow" (1993), Twin Sister - "The Other Side Of Your Face" (2010), Grimes - "Be A Body" (2011).

Long Fin Killie >> Friday night in a stolen car

Long Fin Killie - "Clinch"

(Too Pure Records, 1996)

I first read about Long Fin Killie in a spotlight article in Alternative Press in 1996 (the article used this exact photo), and later learned that I missed them at Lollapalooza '96.  (It was at the field outside of UNO's Lakefront Arena, not at Tad Gormley Stadium as this poster incorrectly says.  That poster also omits Rage Against The Machine, who played right before Soundgarden.)  My friend Clark was not keen on going, so he went with me under the condition that we would only see Soundgarden, and then leave.  We did leave, right before Metallica came on.  I was such an indie rebel, brah.  But too dumb to wander around and check out the side stage / second stage bands during the long amount of time we stood around waiting for Soundgarden (who kicked ass, by the way) to go on.  Long Fin Killie were an unorthodox group, to say the least, so you must read about them in AllMusic Guide's excellent bio.  The key phrase is "staggering levels of musicianly talent."  I personally recommend their second album, Valentino, with its haunting ambient-pop title track, plus more intense standouts "Cupid" and "Cop".  Mark E. Smith of The Fall did some grating guest vocals on "The Heads Of Dead Surfers" on their debut album, Houdini.  All three of their albums were named after people who garnered the public's fascination before dying young, and all their artwork was intricate wood etchings.  As for fame and dying young, the Killies got in a near-fatal wreck on tour, in N. Europe I believe, but never became even slightly well-known.  I bet the head of Lollapalooza's accounting division resigned when he found out these passive-aggressive art terrorists were being bused around the U.S. on his dime with nary a Beavis & Butt-head or Buzz Bin appearance to their name.

The fact that this song didn't make it onto Valentino is pretty infuriating to me.  The band's artsy, dense music is grounded by bouncy-yet-predatory basslines, and Luke Sutherland's vocals are usually mesmerizing, going from a whisper to a booming falsetto in half an instant.  To call LFK's drummer one of the best and most innovative ever would be pointing out the obvious.  The swaying, tropical-noir feel provided by the bassline has always intrigued me, and has made me return to this song again and again since I first downloaded this EP (Hands And Lips) on eMusic in '03.  The "Dope, sex, protest, rock n' roll" chant at the end of the song has to be one of the most subtly hilarious / postmodern things in the history of music.  When it comes down to it, most musicians' lyrical conceits can be summed up as either: a.) boasting about all the rad/illicit things they do, b.) whining about all the injustices in the world, or c.) reminding us how hard / capably / frequently they rock.  Sutherland simply reduces all these things to a simple jingoistic slogan, repeated as nonchalantly as though it were a child's schoolyard song, thus squashing the previous several decades of popular music into a little ball of putty in his hand.  This is a perfect example of why LFK were so far outside the mainstream, and equally far outside the alterna-stream.  Not surprisingly, their fanbase today is small but very devoted.

From a broader standpoint, while recently thinking back about the fact that my opinion of this song is always in flux, I've realized that one of the coolest things about this song is that it seems to fit and adapt to my mood, or my mood can bend it (the song) in different ways.  You can pay attention only to the pretty vocals and the snappy beat in the verses and it sounds like a breezy jangle-pop song.  Or you can focus on the savage drums in the instrumental breaks and let the bass overwhelm you and it's a post-punk song.  Someone with so-called classical training may follow the violin as the main instrument and hence view the song as a chamber-pop piece.  To use more intangible terms, it can be either a blurry / pastel / 2-D kind of song, or an edgy / primary color / 3-D one.  Sometimes this song just goes in one ear and out the other in a pleasant way, and sometimes I focus intently on it, obsessing over all the dozens of little details.

Fun Packaging Fact: The CD apparently came with a green plastic tray, as seen in this pic of a still-sealed copy:

I've amassed lots of different colored CD trays over the years, from gold (Primus' Brown Album), silver (Sonichrome's Breathe The Daylight), seafoam green (some CD by Pure), glittery gray (Eve's Plum's Envy), neon green (Alice In Chains' Alice In Chains), purple (Alice In Chains' Alice In Chains) (alt. color scheme), white, red, neon pink (Bagman's Wrap), yellow, orange (REM's Monster, bane of all clearance bins nationwide), taupe, etc.  But I had never seen a green one until this one.
Sutherland gained underground fame (incl. comparisons to Morrissey) for his cryptic lyrics, and he was no pretender, later becoming a minor literary sensation upon the publication of his books Jelly Roll, Sweetmeat, and Venus As A Boy.  The latter was later adapted for the stage, and its title rings a bell to me only as the title of one of Björk's best songs, but I'm sure it has some deeper meaning.  A multi-instrumentalist virtuoso (violin, guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, saxophone, hammer dulcimer, thumb piano) in LFK, he also played some violin on Mogwai's downer LP Come On Die Young.  Definitely a genius of some sort.  Read an informative little article on him here – "So I started reading everything I could lay my hands on: fiction, history, mythology. You name it, I devoured it in an attempt to create a wider context for myself. And all the rigid constructs of race, nationality, sexuality just fell apart."

Press photo from mid or late '90s; Luke Sutherland is second from right

Since LFK broke up in the late '90s, Sutherland has helmed Bows and Music A.M., which are more trip-hop / downtempo / "glitch-pop" type projects.  Fun German Fact: Music A.M. included bassist Stefan Schnieder of To Rococo Rot and Kreidler.

My cousin Shane is studying killifishes and cocahoe minnows in grad school at Mississippi State University right now, so this song goes out to him by default.  The tropical killifishes kept by aquarists are often mind-blowingly gorgeous, so one can understand why Long Fin Killie chose its name.  Here are some drawings I made ca. age 13, when I had recently gotten my first saltwater aquarium:

Blue Ring Angelfish (Pomacanthus annularis)

Some species of Rainbow Wrasse (Thalassoma spp.). No idea which one b/c their colors morph dramatically from juveniles to adults

I've long disowned these as somewhat pathetic, since they're just factual representations of these two species of fishes, and the white backgrounds always made them look incomplete.  But I guess a tweenager can't be expected to do much more than simply try to be a Xerox machine, and there is a certain beauty in giving someone or some critter an accurate, detailed portrait.  I now find the white background kind of cool, since lots of films / music videos have used it to create a disorienting feel.  My grandmother Marcie made sure that I signed & dated them, though I didn't understand why at the time.  I went on to have at least one saltwater aquarium, & sometimes up to three, between 1989-2010, excluding the year right after Katrina.

Sorry for the long, graphics-intensive post, but the study and care of fishes was my main obsession for about half my life, and I planned to become an ichthyologist or marine biologist.  Even notched a 102 test average in ichthyology @ Loyola Univ. New Orleans, which trumped my ~96 test avg. in herpetology (reptile / amphibian biology).  I took both of those courses in '98, and the field trips for each were extremely fun, especially the trip to the Ozarks in Arkansas for ichthyology and the trip to the swamps around the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for herpetology.  I still jaunt over to the latter site every few years to look around, but mainly for botanical lifeforms now.  Since I never even finished my last year of college, all the studying was for naught, but I think any sort of intensive learning of data makes one's brain better at gathering & manipulating info.  So in a weird way, my studying of scaly beasts made me better at remembering songs by obscure bands, and vice versa.  As I told Shane 2 weeks ago, "All I did in college was study and go to concerts."

It's a steal! How Columbia House made money giving away music - "On top of that, the clubs generally weren’t buying their records from labels and then selling them. Instead, the clubs would acquire the master tapes of records and press their own copies on the cheap. Moreover, remember those 'bonus' or 'free' records you got for signing up for the clubs? The clubs generally didn’t pay any royalties at all on those, which further slashed their costs."

2 great videos from The Onion:
New ad urges hipsters to go to Applebee's ironically
New Prius helps environment by killing its owner

Planets with similar climates: Simple Minds - "Sons And Fascination" (1981), The Dears - "We Can Have It" (2002), Lowercase - "Willing To Follow You Down" (1998), Bark Psychosis - "A Street Scene" (1993), Plexi - "Change" (1996), Cocteau Twins - "My Love Paramour" (1983).

Sovetskoe Foto >> Seeing you breathing is my inspiration

Sovetskoe Foto - "Cellophane Laughter"

(Rebel Rec. / SPV Recordings, 1991)

I don't really know anything about this band, especially what this song title meant.  That really irritates me.  While looking for their music on eBay, I ascertained that their name was taken from an old Soviet photography magazine called... Sovetskoe Foto.  The members of the band, at least on this album, were Georg S. Huber (bass), Walter Sterr (guitars), Stefan Busch (vocals), and Marc Turiaux (drums).  They hailed from Rosenheim, Germany, but recorded this album, The Humidity, in NYC with esteemed noise rock producer Martin Bisi.  I bought this CD on a whim for a dollar at the Tulane Record Raid in March of last year, drawn in by the cover art and song titles.  To read my overly long review of it, go here and look under the username shockofDAYLIGHT.  The song itself starts off funky and sleazy, and would be pretty memorable if it just continued on that way for its duration.  But it undergoes a sudden Helmet-style breakdown and then a speedy tribal part.  Just amazing, breathtaking musical talent, especially the rhythm section (translation: drummer + bassist).  Though the rest of the album doesn't live up to this song, the jarring, Bare Minimum-esque "Necromancer" and the ultra-funky, The Pop Group-esque "Stay Tonight" are noteworthy.

"Seeing you breathing is my inspiration" is a blithely romantic line upon first listen, and later becomes evident as a great pun when you realize what the medical definition of "inspiration," as part of the system known as respiration, means.  Also buried under the instrumental fireworks is the line "Struck my eyes with a thousand lights."  Jim Thirlwell (a.k.a. Foetus) sings guest vox on the feral "Forget".

Fun Fact: Sovetskoe Foto's publicity company was named Art Rock Mgmt.

CDs in my car on March 8th; top one is Secret Life Of Machines by Doldrums.

Friday: Ate at Clancy's with parents, Em & Damion. Met one of D's brothers, who played hoops at (I think) Swarthmore.  I had the best bread pudding of my life for dessert.

Saturday: Went to Mandeville & took my customary stroll through the Northlake Nature Center, which is sort of a Zenlike ritual that I always do when I'm up there.  The flora really is quite different from that of the south shore of the lake.  A big black snake with yellow spots slithered right in front of me, and I, a former aspiring herpetologist, was sadly unable to identify it.  I semi-accidentally took a root pup of one of my all-time favorite tree species, Vaccinium arboreum (Sparkleberry or Tree Huckleberry).  It has some roots so hopefully it will live.  The pup I took in Dec. 2010 died.
Then went to a great plant nursery called Inwood Gardens in Covington.  They had dozens of unlabeled cacti & succulents, so I volunteered to write their Latin names on the sides of their pots.  So I did this off the top of my head (no books) for about half an hour.  Finally one of my useless talents came in handy... The lady working in that greenhouse seemed pretty bemused.  Bought an Agave guiengola, which I never thought I'd see in person, much less be able to buy.  Just look at this motherfucker reclining in a group of them, living the high life while you sit here on your computer.

Tuesday: Went to Baton Rouge to see School Of Seven Bells and EXITMUSIC at the Spanish Moon.  On the way, I stopped at the Blockbuster Video that's going OOB and scored a bunch more obscure foreign (mostly) flicks for $2 each.  Then I hit up FYE and got lots of kewl cheapo used CDs (The Heart Throbs, Hooverphonic, The Railway Children, Secret Machines, Sunny Day Real Estate, King Missile, Heather Duby + Elemental, Teenage Fanclub).  Passed on a Zapp CD due to its lame song titles.  I made it to the essentially empty club just in time, and saw SVIIB's Ben Curtis shooting pool upstairs.  As befitting their Radiohead-based name, EXITMUSIC were not too exciting, kinda dirgey, like Beach House meets Swans or something.  I think I just heard half of the blogosphere pop a boner after hearing that description.  They opened with "Sea," and closed with a great new song, "Sparks Of Light," from their upcoming LP Passage.  Their guitarist played it using a cello bow, Jimmy Page-style.  They were so loud that all kinds of things were rattling throughout the club, and I hence didn't even try to take a video clip of them.  SVIIB came on like a well-oiled machine and delivered a great performance to a crowd of only 40-50 people.  I saw them open for Interpol last April in front of almost 1000 people, so I was crestfallen that they had to headline for so few people.  The club had only put up a few crude flyers, so I mainly blame the club's management.  This time SVIIB had four members, whereas last year it was two, or maybe three.  Anyway, their new LP Ghostory is the one that I predicted would make them Big, but it seems the public is not paying attention, even though Katy Perry(!) is apparently a fan, according to every recent YouTube commenter.  (E.g. "katy perry sent me here XD")  Their setlist: Intro (sampled chanting of "I am here... I am here..."), Iamundernodisguise, Scavenger, Windstorm, Bye Bye Bye, Love Play, White Elephant Coat, Lafaye, The Night, I L U, White Wind, Low Times, My Cabal.  No encore.  No "Babelonia," which was their first song at the NOLA show last year.  Bought a cool white t-shirt afterwards with the "Kiss Them For Me" 7" cover art on it.

The two logo things were flickering lights of varying colors via MIDI; my flash unfortunately negated it.
Not shown: 1.) The entertaining way that the singer shakes her head from side to side after every line. 2.) The guitarist's SVIIB chest tattoo.

Offensive wallpapers

Planets with similar climates: The Pop Group - "Sense Of Purpose" (~1980), Shudder To Think - "Goat" (1992) & "Gang Of $" (1994), Gang Of Four - "Damaged Goods" (1979), Live Skull - "Machete" (1987), Polvo - "Highwire Moves" (1995), Fugazi - "Sieve-Fisted Find" (1990), Tanner - "Hey Jigsaw" (1995).

Amoeba >> Might look like we're drowning

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #64:

Amoeba - "Ignoring Gravity"

(Lektronic Soundscapes, 1997 / Release Entertainment, 1999; recorded in 1994 or '95)

Here is a beautifully creepy ditty by the Robert Rich-led duo Amoeba, from their sophomore album Watchful.  It's obviously ultra-indebted to Brian Eno in more ways than one.

How is this not one of the most-discussed/adored songs of the last few decades?  The guitar is just impeccably recorded, like the sun is playing it up in the sky in a dream or something.  The overall production values are just spectacular, as you'd expect from an audio perfectionist like R. Rich.  I got this CD in the early '00s, but seem to have misplaced it.  I'm almost positive I didn't sell it or anything, but I'm also not sure if I have the original version on Lektronic Soundscapes or the reissue on Release.  For now I can't regale you with much more info on the band / album, but this song should pique you enough to go do some research and want to dwell in their biodome of sound.  Their second and final album, Pivot, is worth hearing, but I have not heard their debut EP, Eye Catching.

I'm rushing through these posts tonight, trying to get in under the 11 PM ET deadline for the end of November, so the quality is not as amazing as you've come to expect.  Sorry?  Nah.  I'm mad that I ran out of time to post a bunch of pics of myself as a kid in San Fran, though.

Planets with similar climates: Bark Psychosis - "The Loom" (1993), Brian Eno - "By This River" (1977), Sting - "Fragile" (1987), Peter Gabriel - "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" (1985).

Psi Com >> The city bleeds rosy veins to empty streets

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #51:

Psi Com - "City Of 9 Gates"

(Mohini Records, 1985 / Triple X Records, 1993)

The post I wrote about a band called The Autumns mysteriously vanished, so I had to turn to a quickie alternate plan, and my oh my what a Plan B it is.  I mentioned my longtime obsession with this song in my other Psi Com post, so I decided to finally pull the trigger and post it.  I think the lyrics might be about an acid trip, but hopefully not.

I've had a crush on Alex Wagner for some time now, based on her frequent guest appearances on The Rachel Maddow Show and other such cable political shows.  She even helped me forget about my huge crush on fellow MSNBC contributor Ana Marie Cox, which is no small feat.  So I was overjoyed to see her get her own show this week, NOW With Alex Wagner.  I was pretty surprised to learn she was the editor-in-chief of hipster rag The Fader from 2003-7.  I'll admit that I used to skim that magazine strictly to determine what bands to avoid, but I still think it's neato that she was so immersed in music.  Wagner is a pretty powerful last name in showbiz, but I don't know anything about her ancestry, other than the fact that she appears to be at least half Asian.  (A guy from Psi Com looked Asian too, but I forgot his name.)  She looks like she's about 15, and constantly has this infectious ear-to-ear grin, as though she knows she has the winning Powerball ticket in her back pocket, even when casually eviscerating a douchebag pol.  Much like Maddow, she has a mind like a supercomputer and totally guides any conversation she's in.  I've never really seen anything quite like it, so check her show out.  There are hardly any clips on YouTube of her talking politics, and there are only a handful of pics of her on the Google, but I assure you this will soon change as America falls in love with her charming ways and makes her its first female President in about 25 years.  You heard it on Blowtorch Baby first.  Hopefully she won't tap any of those stupid Fader-approved hipster acts to play at her Inauguration.  (Can you even imagine how much America's worldwide standing would plummet if The Rapture or Sleigh Bells screeched their way through the Star-Spangled Banner or "Jesus, Take The Wheel" or whatever it is that they sing at Inaugurations?  We'd become a third-world nation overnight.)
In the meantime, mouth-breathers on conservative websites are having a field day disparaging her for her comments about the Second Amendment.  For example, this unflattering pic in a post at a site named Ammoland.com (really) is titled Freedom-Hating-News-Annalist-Alex-Wagner.jpg:

"I will squash your guns into non-deadly metallic implements such as silverware or paper clips, and you won't even be able to shoot me while I do it."

ROFL... "Annalist"?  Was that supposed to be a clever pun, or was it just a typo by their tobaccy-chewing intern goon?
She inspired this hatred by using her pesky First Amendment rights to say:

This face kills fascists

I don't necessarily agree with that, but I don't disagree with it either.  In a perfect world, guns would have never been invented, but they have been invented, so you have to face about the old adage "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns."  And by "outlaws" I mean "Republicans and some random crackheads n' thugs."  (Go look up the origin of the word thug; it's not what you think.)  When I'm President, guns will still be legal, but it will be like in Holland where you have to prove you only want it for hunting, take a comprehensive course on using one, and submit to frequent home checks.  And even the tiniest offense will result in a lifetime loss of gun privileges.  Like, if you even cough on an American flag or pet a bald eagle's feathers in the wrong direction, NO GUNS FOR YOU.

Yesterday I donated some plants & a little cypress tree to Parkway Partners, then sold a bunch of CDs to Skully'z for the first time in 1.5 years.  Right before driving in to NOLA, I gave a baby Live Oak tree to an elderly guy who was walking down my street, who told me his name is Donald or Ronald Brown.  He was ecstatic.  While driving down Bourbon Street to Skully'z, I noticed a jazz singer with a great voice crooning in a courtyard, so I parked and then walked about a dozen blacks back to see who it was.  Her name was Eilleen, I think, and the place was called Cafe Beignet, you know, that place with those corny statues of Pete Fountain, Louis Armstrong, and Chris Owens out front.  It was my first time ever actually going in it, since it's so tourist-trap-y.  I watched her sing for about half an hour, with little finches perching on my table and on nearby wire chairs begging for crumbs, while I ate a blueberry yogurt on a crystal-clear, crisp (65º) afternoon.  It was pretty much my own little slice of paradise.  It was just her, a black lady, accompanied by a seated white dude on jazz guitar.  I finally went to Skully'z and bought Simple Minds' New Gold Dream on CD.  (Already had it on LP & cassette.)  We chuckled at a $400 Smiths box set he had just gotten in.  Then I headed to Domino Sound Record Shack and donated some free seed packets I'd picked up at Parkway Partners; I bought a nice Rahsaan Roland Kirk LP for 6 bucks, and the owner (Matt) let me have a bunch of The Wire magazines for free.  One of them has the band Broadcast on the cover, so I was reminded of their singer's recent death; I never liked their music too much, though.

Today I randomly ended up back to that part of town and saw that some sort of festival was going on, so of course I had to check it out.  Zion Trinity and Sharon Martin performed; I got some bland macaroni & cheese for $3.  An obese lady was sitting a table to sign copies of her book titled Wet, but I decided not to check out if it was about... that.  Apparently no one else wanted to either, because her table had no visitors.  I bought a few more things at Domino, including a Chameleons 7" I'd been wanting for many years.  Matt played some of Matana Roberts' new album and said he thinks it's a masterpiece.  Just another weekend of stumbling onto lots of cool shit in NOLA.  Not to rub it in or anything, but why anyone would want to live anywhere else on earth is beyond me...  Oh yeah, the heat, humidity, crime, govt. corruption, bad schools.  Well, they build character, as the dad in Calvin & Hobbes used to always say.  And another bonus is that Nicholas Cage recently moved away from here (I think), though he is allegedly constructing an elaborate pyramidal tomb in one of the cemeteries downtown.

Speaking of people with minds like supercomputers, I found this clip at about 2AM last night.  Many YouTube commenters have accused it of being a backwards video, but it looks legit:

Planets with similar climates: Catherine Wheel - "Ferment" (1992), Plexi - "Peel / He" (1995) & "Peel" (1996), The Sound - "Missiles" (~1979) & "New Dark Age" (1981), Christian Death - "Cavity - First Communion" (1981), The Chameleons - "Second Skin" (1983).

Moonshake >> I have to hide behind mirrors

Moonshake - "The Taboo"

(C/Z Records / World Domination Recordings, 1996)

This song is fittingly bittersweet, evocative and mysterious, making a far cry from the angular confusion of their early years.  It's the final song on Moonshake's third/final album, Dirty & Divine, and I think it lives up to the album title.

Dave Callahan (ex-Wolfhounds) finally learned how to sing on this LP, replacing his snarl with a more relaxed, melodic delivery.  Mary Hansen and Katherine Gifford, both of Stereolab, provided some vocals on this album; someone named Kate Blackshaw is credited with the female vocals, specifically "South Pacific vocals," at the very end of this song.  Moonshake were named after a mediocre 1973 CAN song.  Their 1992 debut album, Eva Luna, is a fractured masterpiece of post-punk rhythms, illegally funky basslines, sampler-based hijinks and edgy, surrealist lyrics, with vocals split between Callahan and Margaret Fiedler.  Their 1993 EP Big Good Angel is even better.  Here's the video for the punk-funk onslaught that is "Capital Letters" from Big Good Angel:

Fiedler and (mind-bogglingly amazing) bassist John Frenett then quit Moonshake to form the band Laika.  Moonshake's sophomore album featured vocals by friend & frequent tourmate PJ Harvey on five songs.  Since Dirty & Divine featured neither Fiedler nor Frenett, most fans don't consider it to be a true Moonshake album, but as it's the first one I bought, in March '99 for about $3, I'll always have some loyalty to it.  I had first heard about Moonshake in a summer '95 issue of Alternative Press on this list, a list which sort of changed my life.

Eye-catching vertical typography on the back cover & spines

This "sleeveface" randomly self-generated in my computer room, so I had to take a picture of it, after chuckling at it for a few weeks each time I walked by it:

The Scott Walker album cover reminds me of the somewhat famous (at least if you've been on a message board in the last year or so) "exasperated Jerry Seinfeld" meme, which people post in response to a dumb statement:

I got an amazing grilled Mediterranean chicken pita sandwich for lunch today at this restaurant & coffee shop in Arabi called Touché Cafe, which opened in January, right down the street from Chalmette Battlefield.  I'm kind of sad that I'm missing a big family reunion up in Vinalhaven, Maine this week.  I went there for my uncle Tom's wedding in '84, then in '95 and '97, but not since then.  So... sorry, fam.


Planets with similar climates: Rip Rig + Panic - "Sunken Love" (1983), The Werefrogs - "Between Tomorrow & Sleep" (1992), Primal Scream - "Higher Than The Sun" (1991), Massive Attack feat. Liz Fraser - "Black Milk" (1998), Bush Tetras - "Rituals" (1982), Tipsy - "Space Golf" (1996), Moloko - "Boo" (1995), Poem Rocket - "Contrail de l'avion" (1994), Morphine - "Whisper" (1995).


Most telling headline of the week: Apple now has more cash than the U.S. government


Currently watching: Thunderball