Maria Minerva >> Northern star, what you are

Maria Minerva - "Luvcool" (a.k.a. "Lovecool")

(Not Not Fun Records, 2011)

This song is like a complex crystal built from deceptively simple molecules.  It's a perfect example of "less is more," and the importance of simply playing the right notes.  If that opening keyboard drone note was any lower or higher, it simply would not mesh with her voice the right way, and if Maria sang the opening word "Cool" differently, it would just not be as starkly beautiful.  Drea immediately remarked that this song has a real Twin Peaks feel to it, and I had to agree.

Maria Minerva was born Maria Juur in Estonia, and is now based in London.  She has written for the super-highbrow music magazine The Wire.  I had been hearing about her for the last year or so, as one of many artsy female electro-pop crooners.  After thinking about going to see her opening for Jesus & Mary Chain-esque retro fuzz-poppers Moon Duo, the evening arrived and still had not decided.  And there was a somewhat shockingly contentious Vice Presidential debate on TV.  The show was gonna start at 10 PM and I live an hour away.  I was quite sure I'd be able to see her when she returns as a headliner someday, but a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.  9:00 rolled around; listening to some of her stuff on YouTube... "I'm a dude whose main love is shoegaze & post-punk type music; why do I even feel the need to see all these solo female electronic musicians?"  Striking me as a more less-girly, more "European" version of Grimes, or a less pretentious Laurie Anderson... 9:15... Listening to some more, still also listening to the debate in the other room... I forgot to shower tonight... 9:30... Welp, after listening to "Lovecool" (how it's spelled on YT) about 5 times and having my soul / mind just turn to warm lime jello, I realized this song would be haunting me for the rest of my life, and hence I had to go see her.  So at 9:45 I headed out.

Listened to MSNBC's post-debate analysis on the radio; WTUL's DJ played my request for George McCrae's "I Get Lifted" right as I pulled up to Siberia.  I had previously only been to two shows here, and one Record Raid.  In fitting with its name, the club now serves what is billed as New Orleans' only true Russian / Slavic food, so I ordered a $4 provolone blini (Russian crepe) and $2 grilled asparagus while watching a blonde-looking lady setting up some equipment onstage in the nearly-empty building.  It turned out to be Maria, who I guess dyes her hair darker in her videos.  She began by saying "Can you guys come in closer, away from the bar?" and some people obeyed.  There were film clips projected behind her the whole time.  She had some sound problems, due to getting to the club right before 10; "This is what happens when you don't have a sound check," she said apologetically at one point after having to restart a song, and I had flashbacks to Grimes' performance at Tulane's quad last March.  She only played for 30 minutes, and did not do "Luvcool," so I was disappointed, but was still glad I had gone, since I would have always been wondering if she played it or not.  I think most of the crowd was a bit dumbfounded by her music, especially the singing.  Like many great singers her voice can admittedly sound off-key until your ears adjust to her style.  I could sense some snickering going on just based on how people were turning to their neighbors and talking while smiling.  (For example, Bob Dylan has a terrible voice but is a great singer, if that makes any sense.)  I think her voice is more suited to icy, almost-whispered songs like "Luvcool," just as Grimes' voice is better-suited to songs like "Be A Body."  She could totally become the go-to female guest vocalist in all of indiedom, not just in synth-popdom or chillwavedom.  I'm not trying to turn this site into Hipster Runoff or anything, but hopefully Maria will supplant the rather boring and pretentious Zola Jesus.

It's kind of freaky how much she resembles my dad's sister Kathleen.  I also kept thinking to myself how much she resembles Lindsey Vonn, even down to the height (probably almost 6 feet) and the frankly startling Olympic swimmer build, which was only startling because most indie dudettes & dudes tend to be so rail-thin and lacking in musculature.  Those N. Europeans are generally the most unweak on earth, which you'd know if you've ever watched those World's Strongest Man or CrossFit competitions on ESPN2.  Maria Minerva is probably Lindsey Vonn.  Maria Minerva is Lindsey Vonn.  Maria Minerva is the world's foremost female downhill skiier.  Lindsey Vonn is the most meteorically-rising composer of electronic avant-pop.  Maria Minerva was on a Wheaties box.

Pic with no flash during middle of her set, showing projected video

Pic with flash during her last song; the flash obviously killed the video

I took one flash pic as I on my way out the door to get a few moments of refreshing air; this turned out to be at the end of her last song.  Camera battery died soon after, so the existence of the pic itself is sort of a miracle.  Saw her outside a little later and gave my standard "Good show."  Her accent is quite odd, since English is probably not her main language; she sounds kind of like Marlee Matlin.  I was wearing a black shirt with 4 gold dolphins and the word "MAUI."  "Mah-oo-ee?" (or something like that) she asked, while touching the word on the shirt.  I told her I came in just to see "Luvcool" and added "and you didn't play it, or at least I don't think you did."  She confirmed she didn't, and asked if I had seen the video.  I said yeah.  She said she can't play it live because she no longer has the computer on which she composed it about 3 years ago, which had all the synth presets; I forgot if she said it had been stolen or if she just lost it.  I told her she should re-record it and should definitely keep working on it / start playing it, but I stupidly forgot to ask her what the song is about.  Also forgot to ask if she tried the club's food to see if it passed the authenticity test.  She said she was surprised at the low turnout because "Moon Duo are big," so I explained the neighborhood's new no-concert-flyers rule.  I asked if opening act Sir Stephen (misspelled on the chalkboard outside as Sir Stephan) had gone on before I got there, and she said "No, he's on next.  He's my fwend; you should come back inside and watch him."  Then she indicated that the convo was over when she reached out and shook my hand and said that she had to go back inside.  So yeah, that was my little 5-minute brush with the next Laurie Anderson or Grimes or, if she gets more into multimedia stuff, Miranda July.  Her future stardom is all but a given.  She has boundless charisma, friendliness and energy, and zero ego whatsoever, so it's weird that people probably think of her as an "ice queen" based on her music / image.

Other show tidbits: DJ Perpetual Care played Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express" and "Numbers," among dozens of other songs.  In fact, the vast majority of the music came from his decks, since there was only 75 mins. of live music in the 3.5 hours I spent there.  Sir Stephen, with trumpeter in tow, got bumped.  DJ PC pointed me to him, so we chit-chatted and he apologized and seemed really bummed out.  He's a local dude on 100% Silk Records, a disco-ish offshoot of Not Not Fun, hence he and Maria are basically labelmates.  He told me he and Maria had just met tonight, so I thought it was cute that Maria already thought of him as a friend.  But that's just her personality: super-friendly as fuck.

I put 2011 as the date at the top of this page, even though I mentioned that she said she recorded the song about 3 years ago, which would be around 2009 or early 2010.  If you stole her computer, please return it to me.

Staking Chinese Pistachio trees with Parkway Partners peeps, incl. Nell Howard, Tim Hurley, and two guys whose names I have temporarily forgotten.  This was the biggest and most annoying tree, so we had to rock the roots back and forth to sever some of them.  Pic by my sis, who provided moral encouragement and called this pic the "Iwo Jima moment."  I'm in the red Drew Brees jersey, as I mentioned before:

Mon. Oct. 15: Saw MONO at the Spanish Moon for the fourth time; Chris Brokaw (ex-Codeine guy) opened.  More on that show next time maybe.

Today: Tamaryn's new album drops, but they are not coming here on their tour with the equally dream-poppy Young Prisms.  Still mad at myself for skipping the Prisms last year.  Tamaryn's new single is sorta forgettable, not nearly as amazing as "Dawning" (then again, what is?), but the new album is allegedly more radio-friendly as a whole.
Probably going to eat at GW Fins tonight for my parents' anniversary, even though it's a seafood restaurant and I don't eat seafood.

Oops: Without permission, Paul Ryan and family show up washing clean dishes at Ohio soup kitchen - "The Post reports that Ryan made the unscheduled stop after an event at Youngstown State University, and was there for about 15 minutes.  But though the pictures taken show Ryan apparently doing dishes, the food had already been served and everything had already been cleaned before he got there."

Planets with similar climates: Julee Cruise & Angelo Badalamenti - "Falling" (1989), Memoryhouse - "Lately" (2009), Laurie Anderson - "Walking & Falling" (1982), Chairlift - "Cool As A Fire" (2011), Slowdive - "Losing Today" (1990), Insides - "Darling Effect" (1993).

Das Racist >> It's fun to do bad things like rhyme about handguns

Das Racist - "Rainbow In The Dark" [original version]

(self-released, 2010)

After two "mixtapes" which set the underground rap (sorry... "hip hop") world abuzz, Das Racist's debut album, Relax, was unleashed on a label called Greedhead Music, run by DR's own Heems, née Himanshu Kumar Suri.  Their unforgettable and extremely quotable song "hahahaha jk?" (built on a sample of the theme song of the soap opera Days Of Our Lives) was an instant classic that made me sit up and take notice, but the effortless charisma and cool of "Rainbow In The Dark" is what made me a true Das Racist convert.  Highlights: That slightly off-the-beat synth part and all the obscure, geek-friendly lyrical references.  The 2011 version on Relax is slightly spruced-up compared to the mixtape version, but is almost indistinguishable.  (The original 2010 version is about 10 seconds longer: 4:02 vs. 3:52.)  Das Racist is a group that is always one step ahead of the spider; their secret weapon is the ability to subtly parody other rappers' attempts at lampooning lame genres of hip hop.  (Think De La Soul's "Ego Trippin'" video.)  SPIN's review of Relax says "The synth-pop jam 'Booty In The Air' is essentially Das Racist spoofing Lupe Fiasco spoofing mainstream rap."  It goes on to say "Reprised early internet cut 'Rainbow In The Dark' is a welcome oasis of expertly half-assed calm amid the newfound clamor."  (The last line of this song is especially funny because my sister and I's Cuban friend Alex once exclaimed "I can't... They'd put me to work!" when he was asked if he wanted to visit a plantation.)  Here is the origin of the group's name, if you're the last person on earth who was still wondering.  In order to not embarrass yourself further, the first word is pronounced DASS, not DOSS.  I will remind you that this is a professional site, so please, no Dio jokes re: the song title.

I mentioned this concert last year, so go here to read a nano recap and see the extremely great, Wikipedia-worthy, 7-dudes-in-one-shot pic that I took near the triumphant finale.  Note: I just found out the "DJ dude" (who also did some rapping at the beginning of DR's set) is Lakutis.
Despite the band's laid-back flow on record, they were super-energetic live, almost to the point where I'd use the word "frantic" to describe their onstage antics.  They do rap about Four Loko, and I remember jokingly pointing that out to my sister as a possible explanation for their manic energy.  Amazingly, no vids from the show have been put on YouTube yet, despite it being a pretty packed show.  The bizarre film clips that were playing behind them were definitely unexpected, and I can't even begin to describe them, so I won't.  I'm still shocked that they didn't play "hahahaha jk?," but at least I have a reason to try to see them again.  Some girl was hitting on Lakutis after the show outside, and invited him to go the Saint with her.  My sister and I went over there just on the off chance that he or any Das Racist members would show up, but none of them ever did.  Opening act Danny Brown has gone on to become a pretty big star, at least in indie circles, though he has apparently stopped wearing tiger outfits onstage.  Kool A.D. of D.R. recently released two solo albums.  Sorry... two solo "mixtapes."  I guess the only difference is that a mixtape is given away free, oui?  Heems is my favorite Das-er, basically functioning as the Q-Tip of the group with his nonchalant delivery.

Fun Fact: DR's mixtape Shut Up, Dude was named after a lyric in this song.

Fri. Sep. 28: Bought a gorgeous, essentially brand-new La-Z-Boy recliner at Salvation Army for only $140.  Looked at carpet samples beforehand with my mom, but decided to just get my carpet professionally cleaned instead of getting new carpet after realizing that $2.50 a square foot sounds cheap until you extrapolate it out to the size of a living room.

Sat. Sep. 29: Went to the Mushroom and finally got to talk to Sam again for the first time since Jazz Fest.  I found out she's in a band (Trampoline Team).  She asked if I'm going to see Dinosaur Jr., but alas I ain't; tried to talk her and Mike into seeing Godspeed You Black Emperor.  She offered to burn me this Dino Jr. remix album, but I said I'd have to hear some samples first.  Was somewhat amazed to find out she had gone to the Boris concert in Baton Rouge in '07, and also had seen one of MONO's many shows there.  And she casually mentioned Magma(!) when describing some local band's sound...  We both made fun of Ben from Bipolaroid.  I dug out some used CDs (Unwound's Fake Train & Challenge For A Civilized Society; Yo La Tengo's Painful; Suzanne Vega's self-titled) from under the "blue roof" tarp for her to check out.  Picked up Cat Power's Moon Pix on vinyl and showed them the inner sleeve, boasting "This is what my front porch looks like":

Sam replied that her dad in New Jersey has lots of cacti and desert plants too, which really impressed me.  In addition to the Moon Pix LP, I scored the 2-DVD Criterion Collection edition of Paris, Texas for only $4, and a movie called Forty Shades Of Blue.  (Again, no jokes please.)  Mike said his jokey metal / grindcore band Foot was playing 3 hours away in Mississippi that night, and I took a 1-song freebie CD-R of theirs.  Sam said I'm her favorite customer, which, since she's pretty much my favorite person in the world, pretty much made my year.  Though as a Phillies fan, I was not too fond of the fact that she was wearing a Yankees shirt.  (Aren't Jerseyites supposed to be Mets fans?  I know the members of Yo La Tengo are diehard Mets fans, and their name even came from a phrase that a Mets outfielder was known for shouting.)  It was raining, so I ducked into some little place called Favori Deli on Maple St.  Got a very good grilled chicken for myself and a Philly cheese steak for my mom, who was born & raised in Philly.  It's right next door to the former digs of The Camera Shop, which I used to frequent when taking Fine Art Photography at Loyola in '97. I caught the very end of the Fall Garden Fest at City Park, but most of the vendors had already left due to the rain, so I just bought a little lily called Zephyranthes atamasca, which looks like a chive or wild onion plant.  I unfortunately skipped Glish's Come Down EP release party at Circle Bar, just because I don't really like going there and the acoustics are awful, though Sam had informed me that it finally has air conditioning now.  My sister surprisingly bought a Godspeed ticket without me having to even convince her.  I thought she'd want to go to M83, but apparently not, so I might got to that alone, despite how gleefully Hipster Runoff has mocked M83's recent efforts.

Sun. Sep. 30: Took my dad to the airport parking garage to jump the dead battery in his truck.  Went to Barnes & Noble in the rain for a few hours, getting a few things for my sister's birthday.  Hit up the second (final) day of FGF and scored three more native species: Osmanthus americanus (Devilwood or Wild Olive), Amsonia hubrichtii (Narrow Leaf Blue Star), and Hypericum densiflorum or H. frondosum (St. John's Wort).  Somewhat renowned local acoustic guitarist John Rankin gave a chillaxable performance under the glass dome of the fern / cycad / orchid house at the Botanical Garden, accompanied by a sax player and a guy on upright bass.  I used to walk by his open door at Loyola in '01 and hear him giving one-on-one guitar lessons.  I guess he still teaches there, but I don't feel like checking.  I used to have his '84 LP Something I Ate.  Anyway, it's not often you get to see a jazz concert attended by about 5 people inside a greenhouse at a botanical garden in the rain.  If this sounds appealing to you, move to New Orleans, because I really doubt you'll find that anywhere else other than maybe Amsterdam or San Francisco.  (Which reminds me... Note to self: Move back to New Orleans.)  Drew Brees torched the Packers in Green Bay for 400 yards by the end of the 3rd quarter, but the Saints still found a way to lose, falling to 0-4.

Mon. Oct. 1: The first day of the Times-Picayune's mega-controversial shift to only putting out a newspaper 3 days a week after 175 YEARS as a daily paper.  Why they couldn't have just trimmed it down to 4 or 5 days a week is beyond me.  This happened because the paper sold out to a cheapskate conglomerate based in the NE U.S. called Advance Publications, which already was notorious for killing off Ann Arbor's newspaper after buying it.  And word has it that they're giving Syracuse's paper the axe next.  N.O. is now the largest city in America without a daily newspaper.  Baton Rouge's The Advocate is making an aggressive foray into the N.O. market to try to fill this void.  As a tree fanatic, I can't say I'm too distraught, considering that lots (millions? tens of millions?) of trees will be saved by the shift to digital.  I still refuse to read novels on any format other than actual paper, though.  Extremely psyched to see Merchandise & Glish at The Big Top on Friday, and for the first Obama-Romney debate tonight.  Working on a metal / punk mix CD to bring to the dudes at the Mushroom, since that's what they mainly listen to.  But I'm miffed that the mix I painstakingly made for Sam never made it to her.  And thus ends a post that began with me talking about "mixtapes."

Speaking of Alex, here he is, valiantly holding the purse of his extremely wasted wife Tace at the Orpheus parade in February.  This girl is a doctor and can outdrink the entire U.S. Senate without even blinking, so it was quite a shock to see her practically unable to walk or form a coherent sentence:

(Camera phone pic by my sister.)  I'm in the green hoodie, just a few days before the Trayvon Martin hoodiegate incident broke.  FWIW, I wore a baby blue hoodie to see Boris the previous November, just to stand out among the black-clad metal masses.

Planets with similar climates: Special Ed - "I Got It Made" & "I'm The Magnificent" (1989), MC Paul Barman - "Make No Mistake" (2002), Poor Righteous Teachers - "Can I Start This?" (1990), Eminem - "My Name Is" (1998), Flight Of The Conchords - "I Told You I Was Freaky" (2009).

Asylum Party >> I can only hear the sound of my own shade

Asylum Party - "Play Alone"

(Lively Art [France], 1989)

Asylum Party formed in 1985 in Courbevoie, France, and lasted only about 5 years, which is about the maximum that any good post-punk band should last.  They were part of what is allegedly called the "Touching Pop" movement in France ca. '89-91.  I didn't find out about them until a few years ago, and by golly if I didn't have to wonder why they are not superstars of the post-punk scene.  In this song, and in many others, they knew how to use an athletic bassline to guide a song melodically, giving it a visceral feel in the midst of the prevailing gloom.  I'm always a sucker for songs that begin with the instruments entering one at a time.  I guess I never realized that practically every country in Europe had its own post-punk scene in the '80s.  I had thought the bands over there emitted mostly nuance-deficient stuff like neanderthalic industrial metal or cheesy synthtronic pop.

This song definitely goes on a bit too long, but that Krautrockin' beat makes it a joy to listen to all the way through.  As for the lyric "I can only hear the sound of my own shade," that's how it is written at SongMeanings, but it sounds to me as though they got that last word wrong.  Maybe it's "chase"?  I've been meaning (ha... ha...) to join that site for many years now.

Back cover of LP

Tue. Sep. 18: Did some yard work.  Took this pic in my car window with a tarp inside that reflected lots of weird gleams of light.  Another thing you can see reflected on me is bags of recycling that I was bringing in to New Orleans, since recycling is no longer done where I live.

The slight paunch is probably due to my recent beer enthusiasm, which I've decided to curtail.  The curve of the window makes my arm look a bit bigger than normal, not that I'm complaining... Watched some of the season finale of So You Think You Can Dance with Em and mom.  Gave Em a big black portfolio thing to keep concert posters in, and an extra copy of J.D. Salinger's Nine Stories.  Stopped at the Mushroom while on my way over to Tipitina's to see Beach House, hoping to see Sam, but failed yet again.  Recommended Curve's Cuckoo to Michael ("They're like Bleach with a drum machine""), who immediately put it on.  Bought Godspeed You Black Emperor's Slow Riot For New Zerø Kanada EP on used CD.  I had first heard a song from it in summer of '99 on WTUL, so it was nice to finally own it on CD.  (The CD's packaging makes no mention of the band's name.)  Michael was surprised when I told him GYBE were coming to Tip's and that MONO were coming to the Spanish Moon in B.R., and said he wanted to see Beach House, but couldn't.  The Beach House show was sold-out, with a huge line to get in, even though we had tickets.  I spontaneously confessed to the doorman that I had used a fake i.d. to get into my first-ever show at Tip's, which was Helmet, a few days before my 18th birthday in '95.  Opening act Dustin Wong studiously tormented his geetar as though he he felt he was reinventing the medium, but it came off as pretty tedious.  After a ridiculous 30-min. wait, the House kicked things off with their best song, "Wild," so I was pretty happy.  Also did "Norway," "Gila," "Silver Soul," "10 Mile Stereo," "Myth," "Lazuli," and many more crepuscular hits.

A full setlist will probably be added here at some point.  They were much better than when I saw them in '08 at the Spanish Moon.  This is mainly because they simply have better songs now, and a better drummer (their drummer last time was the singer of their opening act Papercuts), and a sweet light show.  Afterwards, Em & I hung around in the suspiciously cool air of a cold front for the Beachies to stumble out to their tour bus, but they never did.  We smoked a few cigs, since I allow myself one or two per month, then went to a bar down the street, and after a little while my sister realized that it used to be Shiloh, one of her old hangouts.  She told me about how she had said a few words to Carlos D. of Interpol after their show at TwiRoPa in Feb. '05, when he DJ'd a heavily-advertised afterparty at Shiloh.  I think some other members of the band were there too; not sure why I didn't go.

Wed. 19: Cleaned my parents' gutters & rooftop.  Hit up McKeown's Books and scored some good stuff: Donald Rawley - Slow Dance On The Fault Line (Stories); Ron Rash - Chemistry (Stories); Ekkehard Jost - Free Jazz.  Bought a ticket for Godspeed You Black Emperor at Tip's next month, after grudgingly deciding that they are "the kind of band that I'd go see on a reunion tour."

Thu. 20: Went into a nearly empty little coffee shop called Sound Café, next to the Bywater NOCCA, and was impressed to find out they have a built-in bookstore called Beth's Books.  The girl working there was really sweet and thoughtful, and mentioned she was a jazz singer.  She told me her name and said I should come see her sing at her next few gigs (Tommy's Wine Bar and The Spotted Cat).  The shy African-American guy sitting in the café turned out to be her trumpeter; they do only jazz standards.  Here's the video for a song she did with someone else: "Emergency Baby".  So yeah, the old cliché about the person serving you your coffee being a musician sometimes turns out to be true, and you sometimes wonder why the person isn't a big star yet.  This particular lady could win American Idol with half her vocal cords tied behind her back.  I began debating in my mind if she was better than Sasha Masakowski, but decided their voices are too different to make for a fair comparison, even though they both sing the jazz.
I bought a very strong and flavorful iced coffee, which is what I usually buy after panicking upon realizing I don't know all the cool terminology that is needed to order complex coffee drinks.  As for books, I scored:

Yes, I don't have much of an attention span for novels, so I tend to go with collections of short stories / poems.  I got the one called Body Betrayer gratis, sitting on the freebie rack outside.  It's a collection of very edgy, sexually blunt poems that Anais Nin or Erica Jong would be proud of.  Not sure why they were giving it away.  My interest was piqued in the James Purdy book because The Dream Palace was a local music club; since about 2003 it's been under new ownership as The Blue Nile.  Saw a building that was possibly destroyed by Hurricane Isaac:

Good question

Then I went to Harold's Nursery and bought a little tillandsia (air plant), then to Euclid Records, where I got three good 7"s (Psychedelic Furs - "The Ghost In You"; Windy & Carl / Hopewell split; Bush Tetras - "Things That Go Boom In The Night").  Listened to an A.R. Kane 12" and an early Sad Lovers & Giants LP but didn't like them enough to buy them.  Recommended a Dif Juz EP to one of the dudes there who likes to play New Age-y, 4AD-ish stuff over the store's stereo.  Sorry for all the specificity, but music and books are not things that can just be mentioned vaguely.

Fri. 21: At night I talked to Drea on AOL for a few hours, during which we apologized for a little spat we had a few weeks ago.  Have known her online for 7 years, and didn't want to lose her friendship, so I was relieved.  I think her site is one of the few female-run Tumblrs in existence that are Ryan Gosling-free.

Sat. 22: Okay, this really strange thing happened this morning... I had put out my nasty old sofa for the trash guys to take away.  I'm playing basketball shirtless, and a girl and a boy, about age 7-10 or so, drive past on a golf cart, as kids (and adults) are often wont to do out in the country.  This sofa, well loveseat actually, probably dates back to when the house was built & furnished 35 years ago, and is hideous, saggy, brown with fucking tan and navy zig-zag stripes.  Seriously, you couldn't even dream up a lamer and more pathetic couch as a joke.  The girl asks "Can I have your sofa?"  It's a valid question, but I don't turn around to talk to her, because I don't want to be seen by neighbors talking shirtless and sweaty to some kids, and because it might take a while to explain why this sofa sucks and why their parents wouldn't even allow this thing anywhere near their house, much less inside it.  Don is painting some iron porch furniture black across the street and the smell of paint fumes is wafting over.  I kinda turn my head a few degrees in the kids' direction to show I had heard and processed the question, but I walk further away.  "Hey! Can we take your sofa?"  I still don't turn around, so they ride off.  The garbage guy crams the monstrosity into the back of the garbage truck several minutes later, rejecting my offer for help but taking the sports drinks I had laid out as thanks.  On the kids' next pass (they passed by about 10 times), I see the girl picking up and examining a shoe or something, which had apparently dropped out of the garbage truck.  ("Wow, and I thought I was an obsessive scavenger," I think to myself...)  I go inside now, having just thrown my sweaty clothes into the washing machine, wearing only boxers, about to go hop in the shower, and I hear the doorbell ring.  "Oh great, it's some candidate for a November election seat," I think, and I hope he/she hadn't peered in and seen me.  Instead I see the girl running from my door back to the street, whereupon the kids motor away nonchalantly.  Okay, a simple doorbell-ringing prank... So I take a shower and come down, and the doorbell rings again, and I see the girl running back to the golf cart again, but this time she (AND the boy) both have some sort of wedding veil on.  This is turning into something right out of Gummo now... (That's what I always say to myself whenever I see some bizarre incident going on out in the sticks: "This is like something out of Gummo.")  Believe me, you never see any kind of cross-dressing out here.  Maybe they were annoyed at me for ignoring them, or just wanted to ask why I was getting rid of something that is functional.  I guess this story is not very interesting without visuals, but it's of course a felony to film someone without permission, so you'll just have to take my word that it was a head-scratching situation.  A little while later, I saw them pull into a special golf cart garage door at a house a block away.  I started chuckling uncontrollably at the concept of a mini garage door sized specifically for a golf cart, especially since it was situated right next to the "big boy" garage door for a car, just like a doggy door next to a people door.  I think I'll put out something at the curb next week for the kids to scavenge up, so that they won't exact some violent revenge on me years from now for rudely depriving them of a sofa.  So I'm at that awkward moment when I feel pressured to put some stuff out at my curb to appease some Mad Max-esque kids, but I have to make sure it's not too cool, otherwise they'll expect more.
Later on XM radio I heard the Sonic Youth song that Drea had used as her AOL name years ago, and smiled.

Sun. 23: The Saints dropped to a stunning 0-3 with a home loss to the Chiefs, blowing a 24-8 lead.  At home.  Panic grips the state, since everyone here hoped they would go to the Super Bowl in NOLA this season.  The main problem is that the defensive scheme used by new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is giving up the most yards in the NFL.  And Darren "Sproles Royce" Sproles, who set the NFL's single-season yards record last year (yes, he amassed more total yards last year than any player in history had ever amassed in one year, and even got his own exhibit at the Hall Of Fame in Canton to commemorate it), has been MIA.
Repotted a cactus and planted a Butia palm I had plucked up as a tiny seedling 4 years ago at the north border of Esplanade Mall in Kenner.

Music video of the year so far: Strip Steve feat. Puro Instinct - "Astral Projection"

Latest obsession: The band 2:54, particularly their song "You're Early"

Planets with similar climates: Bleach - "Seeing" (1991), The Chameleons - "Second Skin" (1983), For Against - "Autocrat" (1985), Bailter Space - "Now I Will Live" (1987), Kitchens Of Distinction - "Hypnagogic" (1990), U2 - "The Unforgettable Fire" (1984).

Dub Sex >> Before things started spiraling down

Dub Sex - "Then And Now"

(Skysaw Records, ca. 1987/1988 / Cut Deep Records, 1989)

I got an excerpt of this song in the mid-'00s somewhere online, and quickly became pretty obsessed with it, then bought the actual 12" EP (self-titled) in 2008 on eBay.  This band was a favorite of John Peel, recording a whopping four Peel sessions despite never releasing a full-length album.  In fact, this song was performed on his show as early as January of '87, so it was surely written in '86 or earlier.  If I remember correctly, one band member did some time in The Fall, which would explain Peel's affinity for Dub Sex, since he had an inexplicable allegiance to Mark E. Smith's abominable band.

This song later appeared on a compilation of the band's material called Splintered Faith, which I have on vinyl rip and CD rip; the LP version has 15 songs, and the CD version has 18.  I'm intentionally uploading the crackly vinyl rip so that folks will be inspired to seek out and purchase the actual LP or CD.  Both are long out of print, so you'll have to buy secondhand, hence the band won't actually see any profit from your endeavor, but at least you can say you have something by a band called Dub Sex, whose sound is not remotely dubby and is definitely the polar opposite of sexy.  The singer's voice is one of the most unpleasant things I've ever come across, but I can't imagine anyone else singing "Then And Now" other than maybe Henry Rollins.  I also couldn't imagine the EP without its arrestingly unforgettable cover pic, credited to a photographer named P. Hoare:

I have no idea if Unwound were ever fans of Dub Sex, but their early, manic stuff sure seems to be in a very similar boat.  Early Swervedriver had some musical and geographical similarity to D.S.; coincidentally D.S. had a song called "Swerve," replete with a bare-bones, but professionally-shot, music video:

They had a slightly cooler video for "Time Of Life" in 1989, which shows bassist Cathy Brooks more clearly.  She had some pretty sweet basslines in many of their songs, such as "Voice Of Reason," "Man On The Inside," "Every Secret (That I Ever Made)," "The Underneath", and "Caved In."  So you could say she was the only one who contributed anything remotely resembling dub music to their sound.  Some interesting YouTube comments from "The Underneath": "I saw Dub Sex supporting the Stone Roses in 1989 at the International just after the Roses had released their debut album...two great bands" and "what happened to these guys? they are at least as good as Fugazi."  Your only chance to see the band members in living colour is probably this performance of "I Am Not Afraid" on Tony Wilson's TV show The Other Side Of Midnight.  (Wilson ran the club The Haçienda and co-founded Factory Records.)

Last week, after I loaded about half a ton of these white landscaping bricks into my car in 95º heat; note the chest sweat:

Best live bands I saw in the first half of 2012:
!!!, School Of Seven Bells, Whom Do You Work For?, A Silver Mt. Zion, Kindest Lines, The Neville Brothers (Jazz Fest), The Flaming Lips, Grimes (w/ Born Gold as her backing band), Tatsuya Nakatani + Helen Gillet + Rob Cambre, Tineke Postma (two shows in one night), Foo Fighters (Jazz Fest).

Good but nothing to write home about:
Alcest, EXITMUSIC, Shabazz Palaces, Magnetic Ear (French Quarter Fest), Dayna Kurtz, Sasha Masakowski (French Quarter Fest).

Ones I should've seen:
White Hills, The Weeknd (show sold out literally as I was about to buy tix online), Chairlift, Twin Sister, Har Mar Superstar (missed him twice so far this year; have still never seen him), No Joy, The darkness, Thurston Moore, Nautical Almanac, etc.

Atheist wins right to wear "religious pasta strainer" in i.d. photo

Speaking of the lyric "I used to live in this town before things started spiraling down," check out this YouTube video and/or this one.  Disclaimer: I'm a full-spectrum atheist, meaning I don't believe in any god(s) and am against all religions.  I have the least problem with "Far East" religions, since they're mainly centered on introspection and personal discovery.  I think any reasoned survey of the facts will show that Mormonism, Islam, and Scientology are cults, not just religions.  I like lots of aspects Arabic / N. African culture, and in fact I have over baby 100 date palms outside my window, have owned a Mali uromastyx lizard for 15 years, just noticed a CD called Moroccan Spirit on my desk, get chicken shawarma at a Metairie restaurant called Byblos on the regular, have The Kite Runner on DVD on my rack about 6 feet to my right, bought a copy of the Qur'an last year at a thrift store on a whim, etc.  And this is all despite having some Jewish blood on my mom's side.  I know that might come off as a "Some of my best friends are [black / Jewish / etc.]" type of rationale.  My point is just that I have no problem with Arabic people or culture, I just don't care for Islam, e.g. the fact that kids in the region are forced to join it from a very early age, that drawing Muhammed is punishable by death, that Jews are a mortal enemy, and other inhumane aspects.  From a broader perspective, I've long said that white people are the illegal immigrants in this country and that Native Americans and Mexicans have much more right to this land than we white people do.  I just don't know if this country can survive another wave of militant immigration, since the white influx of 1492 tore it apart pretty quickly.

Planets with similar climates: Venus Beads - "One Way Mirror" (1990), Unwound - "Lucky Acid" (1993), Prosaics - "Teeth" (2004), Hüsker Dü - "Lifeline" (1983), Live Skull - "Fort Belvedere" (1986), Quicksand - "Lie And Wait" (1992), Helmet - "Murder" (1990).

The Sea And Cake >> Water breathing warm and heavy

The Sea And Cake - "Choice Blanket"

(Thrill Jockey Records [U.S.] / Rough Trade Records [U.K.], 1993)

Few songs immediately make me feel summer's warmth deep in my bones like this one, so I had to post it to kick off the summer.  I think I've told this story before, but in October 1996, I heard a stunningly strange and joyous song on WTUL while stuck in traffic on Jefferson Hwy. driving to a dermatology appointment.  It turned out to be "Lamont's Lament" by a band called The Sea And Cake.  I couldn't even hazard a guess as to what year it had been made, what city the band was from, what ethnicity its members were, etc., which is usually a good sign of a unique work of art.  It bewitched and bewildered me so much that I immediately sent some money to Thrill Jockey Recs. and demanded that they send me whichever TSAC CD had "Lamont's Lament" on it.  I got the CD, Nassau, a week or so later.  It came with a Thrill Jockey catalog full of stuff I would soon obtain, by groups with intriguing names like Trans Am, Tortoise, and Oval, all of whom have recently been Blowtorch Babied.  Brad Wood recorded this album in early September 1993, fresh off of becoming indie rock's producer célèbre after twiddling knobs on Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville.

Archer Prewitt shows why he is the thinking jazzbo's guitar hero on this song, unfurling effortlessly cool licks as though the bloated and/or macho genres that marred the music scenes of the 1970s, '80s, and '90s never happened.  Sam Prekop's creaky vocals are unmistakable, and his falsetto near the end is the perfect closing touch.  It's worth listening closely to his lyrics, which are cryptically beautiful and naïve in almost a beat poet kind of way.  Even the maracas are perfectly shaken on the off beats.  The baffling cover art deserves mention, since it is a guy's afro made up of around a hundred cotton balls.  There's also a painting of Charles Mingus by TSAC's bassist, Eric Claridge.  I should mention he's one of the best bassists ever, period.  The combination of that one particular shade of sky blue with that one particular shade of corn yellow just works perfectly, and puts me in the perfect mindstate to listen to the music.  See all the artwork (of the U.K. LP, to be exact) here.  As for me giving this the tag "should've been a #1 hit," well, I'm not necessarily referring to the '90s; in the '50s or '60s it could've made serious inroads on AM pop radio, and I bet the band would've been fighting off major label offers left and right.

AllMusic Guide's 4.5-star review succinctly said "The Sea and Cake's buoyant debut is a breath of fresh air, an utterly distinctive and innovative work that expands the scope of frontman Sam Prekop's work in the great Shrimp Boat to incorporate a new fascination with Afro-Caribbean rhythms and textures. Recorded by Brad Wood, the album simply glows -- Prekop's dry vocals and free-associative lyrics skip along a shimmering and lushly pastoral backdrop that nimbly fuses pop, soul, jazz, and even prog rock; tracks like 'Jacking the Ball,' 'Flat Lay the Water,' and 'Showboat Angel' are as seductive as they are elusive."

This summerrific image is used on the back cover of the CD & LP, as well as on the LP itself

My TSAC timeline:

Jan. 1996: Read about them in a long article about this new-fangled scene called "post-rock" in a guitar magazine.

Oct. '96: Hear "Lamont's Lament," immediately buy their sophomore album Nassau. (See above.)

Mar. '97: Hear a few songs from their brand-new album The Fawn in my car and am blown away.

Spring '97: Buy The Fawn on LP at Tower Records in New Orleans.

June '97: Buy The Sea And Cake CD for my dad. (See above.)
Mar. '98: Got a free The Fawn promo poster from mailorder; promptly put it up on my wall for almost a decade.

Mid-'98: Buy Two Gentlemen remix 12" from Thrill Jockey mailorder.

Early '99: Borrow The Biz and Sam Prekop's debut solo CD from hip friend Andrew Mister.

Ca. '99: Buy Shrimp Boat's CD Cavale, since Prekop fronted this band before TSAC.  (Claridge and Wood also did time in the Boat; a very incestuous scene there in Chicago.)

Late '00: Somewhat disappointed by new album Oui after sampling it on the listening station at Borders; lose faith in band for a few years.

Mid-'03: Download Glass EP from eMusic; "An Echo In" restores my faith in the band's prowess.

9/23/03: After waiting 7 years for TSAC to come to NOLA, I sell my stereo to a pawn shop for $35 to buy a ticket to go see them play at TwiRoPa.  An incredibly boring band called The Kingsbury Manx opened.  TSAC were loud and used lots of distortion, which disappointed me, since I wanted a quiet, crisp, nuanced show.
Ca. '06: Buy a beautiful neon green Nassau promo poster on eBay.
Early 2009: "Jacking The Ball" is used in a commercial for the ultra-evil criminal enterprise* known as Citibank.  (In this live clip of the band's first-ever gig, Sam says the phrase means "Bring out your firearms and ammo."  I had only been wondering for 15 years!)
Early 2010: "Parasol" is used in the R. Patz "I'm-not-just-a-brooding-vampire" drama Remember Me.

I would say that, along with "Lamont's Lament," "Jacking The Ball" and "Parasol" were The Sea And Cake's two best-known songs, even before they got the aforementioned exposure recently.  The band's recordings since then have been pretty spotty, essentially treading water, though few bands are skilled enough to tread water like TSAC can, and fewer still are even allowed in the same pool.  Overall, Nassau remains my favorite album of theirs, with The Fawn and The Sea And Cake tying for second.  Buy all three.

Tue. June 19: Saw two garter snakes mating below my parents' neighbor's doorstep.  Later was called upon to help extricate a baby raccoon from her enclosed swimming pool room / greenhouse.  Stayed up all night talking to Drea online.

Wed. June 20: Finished up with two weeks of house-sitting for my parents while my mom was in Japan & other parts of Asia.  Realized I might be slightly allergic to dogs, since I always seem to get sinus problems when I stay there too long.  I've also banned my favorite food, blueberries, from my diet since I think I might have a sensitivity to them.

Yes, that's a Prince CD

Thurs. June 21: I got into one of the most HILARIOUS and rewarding incidents of my life.  I'm driving down Hwy. 20 to Thibodaux when some psycho person starts tailgating on me, while combing his/her hair, and weaving side to side on the road, nearly going off it a few times.  It's a narrow 55 MPH road with nowhere to pull over.  So I maintain my speed and take a film clip in my rearview mirrors using a little digital camera that I often bring with me, making sure to periodically show my speed, as well the time & date, on the dashboard display.  Down in Thibodaux, after being tailgated for over 10 miles, a cop pulls me over.  I'm trying not to laugh as she walks up to my car on this 90º day, since I know all my shit is up-to-date and on point and I will put my 20 years of driving up against anyone's.  She tells me that someone called the police and said I was photographing them while driving.  I say "Yes, and I have video of that person tailgating me right here."  HAHAHAHAHAHA.  LOL.  She watches the clip and decides I'm right, since she can see/hear that I even tried to wave the person around me at one point.  (FWIW, she was short, blonde, cute, and slightly chubby, with a gigantic, staggeringly vicious pink scar in a semicircle under her chin / on her throat.  I seriously was amazed that anyone could even survive such a wound.  A bite from the lower jaw of an alligator?)  She even gives me a business card with the Lafourche Parish police dept.'s phone #s on it so I can report tailgaters in the future.  So this was fun and all, but a few minutes later, I start to think what would've happened if I hadn't taken that video, if it was just my word against the tailgater's.  Would I have been ticketed?  And since two cop cars were dispatched to intercept me, and the cop declined my offer to burn a copy of the video for them to use against the tailgater, that meant the tailgater probably got away scot-free.  Not so funny.  But this did remind me of the power of video in clearing up a dispute, and coincidentally it came a few days after the death of Rodney King.
Continued on to Hebert's Nursery and labeled a bunch of their cacti for them.  At Rouses, being a huge Guinness fan, I took a chance on an amazing beer by Guinness called Foreign Extra Stout.  It's almost comically full of flavors like coffee, chocolate, honey, toffee, etc.  By far the best beer I've ever had.  The cHeat won the NBA title.

*Citibank received $45 billion in federal bailout money in late 2008, with which they immediately, brazenly, bought a $50 million corporate jet and then teetered on the edge of insolvency for a while as people like me gleefully waited for them to fail.  According to Bloomberg in 2011, "Citigroup paid back $20 billion of its bailout funds and the Treasury converted the remaining $25 billion into a 27 percent stake in the bank, which it began selling last year. It sold the last of its investment in December, realizing an overall gain for taxpayers of about $12 billion."  It is clear that that groovy Sea And Cake song singlehandedly revived the bank's fortunes and hence really paid off for the taxpayers in the end.  America.

Mark Bittman: What's wrong with what we eat - A fascinating, disturbing, and oft-humorous video

Beirutopia: Could Lebanon's capital become a garden city?

Man sees his stolen bike on Craigslist, steals it back - "A spoke for a spoke, so to speak."

Planets with similar climates: The Promise Ring - "A Picture Postcard" (1996), Luna - "California (All The Way)" (1994), The Sundays - "Summertime" (1997), The Cardigans - "Carnival" (1994), The Police - "Bring On The Night" & "The Bed's Too Big Without You" (1979), The Church - "Already Yesterday" (1986), The Smiths - "This Charming Man" (1983).

Kill Laura >> If you could be somewhere, where would it be?

Kill Laura - "Unheeled"

(Klee Records, 1994)

I downloaded this EP, Unloverlike, last year after seeing it on an mp3 blog that I used to follow, despite my vehemently hatred of Kill [Female Name] band names.  The EP itself, released only on 12" vinyl, is long out of print.   It took me forever to decide whether to post this song or the passionate "False Dawn".  Singer Jane Weaver obviously has one of the most astoundingly awesome and versatile voices on the planet.  The best showcase for her voice on this EP is the delicate and almost hallucinogenic dream-pop ballad "Cinnamon Brow," in which she does some stunningly nuanced vocal gymnastics that only someone with operatic training should be able to pull off.  And the EP's title is a lyric in that song.  So just check out the whole EP, which is truly one of the lost classics of the '90s.  If it had been released on Creation, 4AD, or Too Pure, it would have the large cult following that it deserves.  The most simplistic overall way I could describe the EP's sound would be Lush and/or Bleach (U.K.) meets Sonic Youth and/or Poem Rocket, with a PJ Harvey lyrical style.

Info about the band is hard to come by; they were from Liverpool and released three EPs.  It's hard enough to know anything about these kinds of bands while they're still active, and almost impossible two decades later.  You can see a copyrighted promo photos of Kill Laura here, plus a live pic here.  On the live pic page, the photographer refers to Jane as "One of the tallest, most talented and nicest musicians I have ever met."

Promo pic by Tony Smith, "Taken in the Winnington Rec Snooker Room"

When I first heard this song, I immediately thought of PJ Harvey's classic "Rid Of Me", due to the abrupt soft-to-loud dynamic shift.  I think the word "unheeled" in this song means both untamed (as in, teaching a dog to heel), and its homonym, unhealed (as in, the singer's wounds).  And it could also mean poor, as in the opposite of "well-heeled."  So she could be saying that at that bad point in her life, she was reckless, injured, and poor, which led her to getting into some situation that she regrets.  "If you could be somewhere, where would it be?" is a chilling thought, in terms of it being something that an abused person probably spends a lot of time thinking about.  But the way she sings it is so gorgeous that it should be aired continually in Travelocity or Orbitz commercials around the globe, bringing vast royalties to the members of KL.  Just snip out that sentence and play it atop some slo-mo clips of parents walking behind their kids on a beach and you have instant advertising gold.  Or better yet, picture William Shatner fucking hang-gliding off of the edge of an erupting volcano to this song and watch the money roll right in.
Speaking of wounds, here's the cover art:

I buss'id my lip open playing basketball while wearing one of my Paul Pierce jerseys, on June 6th at the Annunciation Street court.  Also broke my glasses, jammed my thumb, and slit my palm up, but that's streetball, America's best pure invention aside from jazz.  Unfortunately, the Celtics lost to the cHeat in game 6 that night, and they lost in game 7 a few nights later, probably ending the Big Three's tenure in Boston, though Rajon Rondo has now eclipsed all three of them, so they can get to rebuilding.  This pic of my buss'id lip that I took the next day didn't show the injury too well, since the light reflection covered up the yellow pus, and since only my neck was in focus:

Wearing my terrific Macha shirt; will finally get around to posting a song by them soon

So, if I could be somewhere, where would it be?  A few off the top of my head:

The Faroe Islands in the summer
Anywhere in New Zealand
Nong Nooch Botanical Garden in Thailand (1100 different species of palms)
The famed palm groves of Elche, Spain
The famed coffee-growing mountains in Jamaica
Anywhere in Belize
Dakar, Senegal
Cozumel, Mexico (again)
The Canary Islands
Kew Gardens in London

Jane Weaver on ITV's This Is Music show in 2002; from her MySpace

75 awesome "Looking into the past" pictures

Driving like a jerk may cost you an extra $100 per month in gas

Planets with similar climates: PJ Harvey - "Rid Of Me" (1992), Juned - "Leeches" & "Pretty New Song" (1994), Bleach - "Hit On Me" (1992), Band Of Susans - "Mood Swing" (1993)

Lynnfield Pioneers >> Look directly into the sun

Lynnfield Pioneers - "Add It Up"

(Matador Records, 1997)

Since that guy in the Beastie Boys died, I decided the only thing to do is to post the most Beastie Boys-esque song I can think of.  Unfortunately for the Beasties, these 140 seconds eclipse pretty much anything they ever did... Awkward.  I really hope their moms are not reading this...

Note: It should go without saying that the tagline on this site's header ("Providing roughly the same amount of hits as Sadaharu Oh since 2011") is an appropriation of a line in the Beastie Boys' "Hey Ladies."

I got this album, Emerge, on LP in Dec. 1998, after reading about the band in Alternative Press and/or Magnet (both of which I subscribed to) in the previous year.  They were essentially always described as some variation of "Pavement meets the Beastie Boys," or "Archers Of Loaf meets the Beastie Boys," etc. The hilarious cover art, a soft-focus shot of a group of flowers, is a classic.  It'd be ideal for an album by Starland Vocal Band or some hirsute new age flautist from a Balkan nation.  As for the curious band name, it's simply the name of their high school football team; for what it's worth, mine was the Country Day Cajuns and our mascot was a crawfish.  I was a starter at wide receiver and cornerback, and wanted to play WR in the NFL.  AllMusic Guide gives this LP an accurate 3-star review and accurately says "Emerge seeks out the common ground between the Beastie Boys and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, slicing and dicing meaty hip-hop beats, crazed garage-rock riffs and vintage keyboard squawking; what could have amounted to little more than primordial pomo sludge is actually quite impressive when it catches fire (see "Go for a Ride," "Add It Up" and "Get Off Your Feet"), although the band's willful lack of focus is a weakness as often as it's a strength."

The drumming is incredible... Like, it should be in the hall of fame of drumming.  Listen to how the drummer leads the way in speeding up and slowing down the tempo within each bar.  Polvo would be proud at the sheer math-rockness of it.  The distorted organ (Hammond B3, I'm guessing) sound is just too cool.  The song has an overall badass quality that is infectious.  I planned to recommend this song to Apple for use in an iPod commercial about 10 years ago, but for some reason I never did.  The "Do the math / Multiply, divide, subtract" line would be perfect to play next to a graphic showing how many songs could fit into a certain size (GB) iPod.

"Add It Up" is a huge leap forward from their early self-released novelty single "Yos To Go," which begat what was apparently their only music video:

Pic taken by my sister, at my behest, in December on the edge of the French Qtr. while we were going to various Prospect.2 art exhibits around town:

She also took this one of me with some sort of robot vending machine outside the Contemporary Arts Center:

Pretty uneventful week... Went in for Mother's Day barbecue with the fam, and drove around with my dad frantically looking for flowers at 7PM on a Sunday night.  Luckily Rouse's saved the day.  Planted a Juniperus chinensis 'Blue Point' (Blue Point juniper), a Chamaerops humilis (Mediterranean Fan Palm) (normal green version), and a Leucophyllum frutescens 'Compactum' (Compact Texas Sage).  Had to buy a new $300 tire due to a tiny nail in the sidewall.  Found out holes in this location cannot be patched, so the whole tire has to be replaced.  Was sort of creeped out by how enthusiastically the mechanic told me "If someone gets mad at you, all they have to do is stick nails in your sidewalls!"  Vaguely considering seeing a band called As Cities Burn on Friday.

Appreciation of BOOTED NEWS WOMEN Blog - I just found this, the worst site in the history of America, narrowly edging out Facebook.  It brews up anywhere from 1 to 30 boot-tastic posts per day.  Reading the user comments is by far the best part.

CSI Miami: Endless Caruso one-liners - Because this show just got cancelled

Your rage comic sucks

Planets with similar climates: Bailter Space - "Pass It Up" (1997), Six Finger Satellite - "Parlour Games" (1995), James Chance & The Contortions - "Contort Yourself" (1979), Bleach - "Shotgun" (1991), The Delta 72 - "...Ever Since You Told Me" (1997).

Dome w/ Angela Conway >> The whispers grow into a solid shout

Dome w/ Angela Conway - "Cruel When Complete"

(Dome Records, 1980 / The Grey Area / Mute / Elektra Records, 1991 / The Grey Area / Mute, 1992)

I'm not much of a Wire fan at all, but this minimalistic side project of theirs was pretty intriguing, based on the few songs I've heard by it.  For a song that's barely even there, it makes a pretty big impression.  Too bad Wire couldn't capture this chilly, cinematic vibe in more of their own stuff.

I got this song 2 years ago on an interesting Mute Records compilation from 1991 called Tyranny Of The Beat.  The CD booklet aptly describes this song as "elegant blocks of sweet noise free-floating through space."  I have to wonder if this album was a big influence on A.R. Kane, Hugo Largo, Bark Psychosis, and other quiet, abstract groups that came along later in the decade.

Side A of Dome's 1980 self-titled debut LP. Note: The stripey block design is a grayscale version of the album cover itself.

Angela Conway also recorded under the alias A.C. Marias, and released an album under that name on Mute in 1989 titled One Of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing).  She is now "a successful music video director."

In 1991, Mute released a VHS home video concurrently with the Tyranny Of The Beat CD.  It featured this Dome video, which could be described as the most hilariously botched soundcheck in recorded history, or as brilliant deconstructionist pop art:

Yikes... Hopefully Conway didn't "direct" that one...

Sunday, May 6: Made a last-minute decision to go to Jazz Fest, with Em & Damion.  Had my dad watch the video for "Best Of You" right before he dropped us off.  Delivered some cigars from him to Jeff in his patrol car outside the front gate of the fest right before going in.  Saw the Foo Fighters' whole 2-hour set, which started off great, then sucked for a while, then ruled at the end with "Best Of You" & "Everlong."  Moshing like crazy to the latter in the mud at End Fest '97 was one of the top highlights of my concertgoing life, so this time couldn't really hold a candle to that, but it was still good.  I spent about an hour staring at this girl in the crowd who looked exactly like this sex blogger named Pocket, trying to determine if it was her.  Speaking of candles, the Foos presented their guitarist with a birthday cake near the end, which marks the second time I've seen that happen in the last two weeks.  Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings then stole the show in the Blues Tent.  Also saw a bit of Maze, the Preservation Hall 50th anniv. celebration (with vox on a song called "Freight Train" by Ani Difranco), and the Neville Brothers (with a guest appearance by Trombone Shorty).

Went to the Mushroom that night on a hunch that Sam might be there, and she was.  I had only seen her once in the prev. 6 months, and was worried that she no longer worked there.  I brought some satsumas that I swiped from my parents' kitchen.  She immediately strode up grilled me on why I was not at the free Roky Erickson / Thurston Moore show the previous night at One Eyed Jacks, and excitedly told me all about it.  She got one of Thurston's lyrics sheets from the stage.  I saw The Orb's first album (the abridged 1-CD version, unfortunately) in the used CD racks and recommended it, so she put it on, and all of its weird samples sounded amazing on their incredible surround-sound stereo system, with speakers in all the various nooks and crannies of the store.  Got Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade (double LP), a stunning Joy Division poster, and Pet Shop Boys' "It's A Sin" (7").  I rec'd Drive Like Jehu's Yank Crime to her, so hopefully she dug it.  I think she and I must've been brother and sister in a past life.

They also had an amazing "Love Will Tear Us Apart" poster, which I was going to buy until I found the "Atmosphere' one.

Yesterday, May 8: My neighbor helped me take out this ugly 8x10 foot concrete slab in the backyard with just a 10-lb. sledgehammer, with a trick he taught me a trick in which you slightly raise part of the slab with a pry bar and then jam a rock under the slab.  This forms an air layer underneath the slab, so it makes spiderweb cracks very readily when struck.  So in a few minutes I singlehandedly turned that bitch into rubble with a few dozen hits, after procrastinating over it for a multitude of years.  Sure wish I had video of that.  A few hours prior to that yesterday, I took this snapshot in my car door's window before heading to a dollar store:

Today: He, my neighbor, gave(!) me a ~300-400 gallon pond liner that he had laying around.  He had been using it as a satellite pond next to one of his other ones for about a year before removing it for some reason.  I think May 2012 has probably been the best month of my life so far in terms of people doing considerate things for me and having illuminating conversations with me.  I should mention this neighbor is often referred to as "the bird man" due to his extensive collection of birds in aviaries in his backyard.  He's as big of a plant nut as I am, if not bigger, so we always talk about plants and landscaping philosophies, e.g. tree trimming, shade creation, propagation.  Some of his big Live Oaks, which he planted 30 years ago, can be seen in the pic above.  I'm not sure if I could ever move back to New Orleans after being spoiled by living out in the country since Katrina.  But if I did, I would need a big fucking yard.  The ones out here are about 5-20 times bigger than ones of houses of equivalent value in NOLA, which can be either a blessing or a curse, depending on one's enthusiasm for yard work and tree upkeep.

Jermaine Paul just won season 2 of a show called The Voice, which I don't watch.  I had seen him singing backup vocals (& occasional lead vox during the numerous time when she was offstage changing outfits) at an Alicia Keys concert on St. Patrick's Day '04.  You could practically hear the panties dropping around the New Orleans Arena every time the dude took the mic.  (The crowd was probably 80%+ female.) My only qualm is that I'm not sure why a seasoned pro was allowed to be on an amateur singing competition.  Check him out stealing the show in AK's song "Diary".

Millions Against Monsanto: The food fight of our lives - "Finally, public opinion around the biotech industry's contamination of our food supply and destruction of our environment has reached the tipping point. We're fighting back."

Love him or hate him, Bryce is here - "And let’s face it, his name is Bryce. BRYCE. That could only be more irritating if his parents had gone with EdHardyNickelbackCrocs." ... "Harper is self-aware enough to know he’s antagonizing you. He’s baseball’s version of the guy who sits at a stoplight blasting 'Sexy & I Know It' at unholy decibel levels, staring directly at you through the window of your involuntarily rattling Subaru."

Meet the former right-wing blogger who realized conservatives are crazy

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Planets with similar climates: A.R. Kane - "The Madonna Is With Child" (1988), The Comsat Angels - "Restless" (1981), Mazzy Star - "Mary Of Silence" (1993), Low - "Shame" (1995), Slowdive - "Albatross" (1991), Sonic Youth - "Satan Is Boring" (~1984), Plexi - "Ordinary Things" (1996), Insides - "Yes" (1993), Chairlift - "Cool As A Fire" (2011), Bark Psychosis - "All Different Things" (1989).