The Universal Chrome >> I'm in full control

The Universal Chrome - "Helium"

(self-released, 2000)

This is from the band's debut and only release, the CD EP Meet The Universal Chrome.  In my opinion, and I've said this since buying it in 2002, it's the finest disc ever released by a New Orleans rock band, and nothing else comes even remotely close.  I say this because it avoids all the clichés of "New Orleans music" in favor of the musical palette used by '80s / '90s Brit bands and their U.S. counterparts.  There's nary a trace of funk, zydeco, blues, etc. on this disc, which sounds like a dumb or naïve thing to even point out, but you'd be surprised at how heavy the peer pressure is in NOLA for rock bands to include at least some native signifiers.  After two crushingly dense opening seconds, "Helium" cruises along at sort of a moderate, dream-pop-y pace, sounding like nothing too special for its first two minutes.  But at the 1:55 mark, the weather suddenly changes and it becomes a white-knuckle ride into paranoia ("Suspect the one who knows everything") and fight-or-flight aggression.  With wah pedals alfutter in dramatic fashion, singer Zac Wilson announces very bluntly: "I'm in full control, so if you're fucking with me... Don't."  It's simply one of the most amazing vocal performances ever laid to tape, in my opinion.  I often like to say that certain songs "singlehandedly make the wah pedal cool again," and this is clearly one of them.

The CD and the inside of the booklet; took me 10 years to notice the naked lady.  The CD is actually totally grayish silver, in fitting in with the "chrome" theme, but the lighting gave it a pinkish cast that I couldn't fix:

The band was originally known as Flux, and my introduction to them was hearing a live interview on corporate alt-rock station 106.7 The End on a cold, dreary night in latte December 1996 while driving around uptown New Orleans.  I made a mental note to check them out, and I wish I had a recording of that interview.  I'm sure the band does somewhere.  A year or so later, they had to change their name due to a dispute by the group Flux, which was led by James Plotkin, who would later front the hilariously lame metal act Khanate.  I still don't know what the band's name means, but I've seen it used as the finish color for certain auto parts.  I had originally thought it was an homage to Catherine Wheel's classic heavy shoegaze album Chrome.  The album cover is an image of a car engine's drive belt, so the band's name is probably indeed a car reference.  Anyway, they opened for national touring bands like At The Drive-In, the Jesus Lizard, the Starlight Mints, etc., as well as big local bands like Burnversion, Rigid, and Weedater.  And of course they opened the killer Hum / Swervedriver show I went to in '98.  It has a hidden track, "The Last Resolve," which slays just about any song, hidden or non-hidden, in the history of music, and yes, I will be posting it someday.

I was overjoyed to find this flyer a few years ago at TUC's MySpace page, since I had never seen it back in the day:

Anyone who went to that concert (see ticket here) knows how the Chromies tore shit up and just about stole the show.  I mean, jeez, they sure ate their fucking Wheaties that morning, as I like to say.  They knew this would be one of the biggest moments of their lives, and they played like their lives depended on it.  The singer was a manic ball of energy with his eyes almost bugging out of his head, like Frank Black on speed.  And Melissa played her strong, Pixies-style basslines clad in her trademark red and white candy-striped leggings.  I even bumped into my Loyola ichthyology teacher, Frank Jordan, there.  (There was later an indie rock band named Frank Jordan, but I don't know if there was any connection.)  Dr. Jordan saw Sonic Youth in Florida in the mid-'80s, so you know he knew what was up.  I even lent him my Screaming Fields Of Sonic Love VHS around this time and never got it back.  About a year later, he admitted to me that he had never gotten around to watching it.

Back on topic... The Universal Chrome were one of the best-loved local bands of the late '90s, but I only saw them that one time.  Still kicking myself.  They moved to NYC in 1999 to make it big or somewhat big, and in a less douchey world they would have.  The most tantalizing fact: They recorded an unreleased full-length album, titled Closer To Shine, around the time of this EP.  Their Facebook page said they planned on releasing it digitally in August 2010, but I guess that never happened.  God damn.  I can only take so much suspense.  Luckily Meet has been released on iTunes.  In the '00s, drummer Keith Hajjar was a member of Rock City Morgue, along with former White Zombie bassist Sean Yseult and singer Rik Slave of Rik Slave & The Phantoms.  RCM had some success and garnered international interest; they even toured Europe in 2005.  Their sound was on the glammy, proto-punky '70s NYC side (NY Dolls, Dead Boys, etc.), very different from The Universal Chrome.  In other words, RCM was dedicated to recreating a bygone era, while TUC tried to forge something new, edgy, and dangerous.  So it's no surprise that I never saw RCM live or paid much attention to them.  Like anyone who was a teenage male in the '90s, I had a crush on Sean, and I have to say that White Zombie was one of the most fun and entertaining live bands I ever saw.  (Opening for Pantera at Lakefront Arena in '96.)

Tue. Oct. 16: Went to GW Fins, it was loud as hell, got some non-seafood, tried to block out the noise, great bread, great waiter, it got noisier, I got peeved.  Seemed overpriced, and the portions were on the small side.

Thur. Oct. 18: Went to Pelican Club for my sister's birthday.  Finally met her fiancée's mom, Mary, who immediately praised my palm paintings that she had seen.  Aunt Ann flew in from Savannah and Vanessa came too, along with mom and dad.  Afterwards we went to the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone briefly; was my first time doing so.  Definitely swank city.  Missed the second Obama-Romney debate due to all this, but Obama dispatched the creepy dude easily, based on highlights I saw and according to the general consensus of political pundits.

Fri. Oct. 19: Ann, mom and I went to the NOMA Sculpture Garden, had lunch in NOMA's café, then went to the Botanical Garden.  These things are all literally yards apart from each other, making for one of the most interesting couple of blocks on the planet in which to feed your brain and pass some time.

Sat. Oct. 20: Went to Kathleen & Jay's Halloween party for the first time.  This is a big-ass deal, and they even have cops close off the block to traffic.  They were screening The Avengers on the side of the house via a video projector outside.  I went as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle in a shirt I had found at a thrift store the previous day.  Good clean fun, as Cat Power would say.  Stuck a bony hand decal / sticker thing on Ashley's face.  On WTUL's concert listings I heard that my favorite local jazz band (since Christian Scott no longer lives here), Tarik Hassan Group, was playing at AllWays Lounge, so I headed over there.  It was Hassan's birthday.  They were great, as always, and I was amazed to see the jazz singer I had met recently (Meghan Stewart) come into the club wearing a rather provocative red outfit.  I was hoping she'd sing with them, but it turned out she was there as a bellydancer(!).  So yeah, she danced / twirled / jiggled in rather stunning fashion to a few songs and really got the crowd going.

Sun. Oct. 21: I finally joined last.fm.  My username is a Magic Dirt song that I should've already posted on here by now.  Some other possible usernames that made the final round: HighwireDays (song by the P-Furs), FiresInMotion (lyric from Simple Minds' "Speed Your Love To Me), InvisibleKnife (lyric from Sand Rubies' "Drugged"), TheNewSunrise (song by The Joy Circuit), ExitBodyExitmind (lyric from New Fast Automatic Daffodils' "Music").

You may remember a few posts ago I pointed out the fallacy of the attempts by the Tea Party / Birther faction of Republicans to convince their peers that Obama would snatch up everyone's guns upon taking office.  And how paranoia has driven gun & ammo sales to record highs in the U.S.  Well, I had assumed everyone had come to their senses on this topic, but just the other day, I saw this ad in Baton Rouge's The Advocate newspaper:

Translation: "If the black guy gets elected again, you'll need something a little more powerful than that paltry shotgun or revolver that you have."  It's kind of chilling how the phrase "We lost a game, we didn't do enough" is right above this ad in the football recap.  And to answer the question asked in this ad, my answer is: Yes, as a matter of fact I am worried what you fucking rednecks will "bring" over the next 4 years.  (A bill is about to hit the Louisiana legislature that proposes automatically granting a concealed weapon permit to anyone who buys a gun.  Think about that for a second.)  Gun sales are already up around 70% between 2008 and 2012.

Mon. Oct. 22: Obama simply eviscerated Romney in their third debate.  He did so even though the debate focused on foreign policy, which means the challenger can simply lay into the incumbent on any little thing the incumbent has done overseas in the last 4 years.  In other words, the red carpet is laid out to the challenger, and the incumbent has to be on his heels the whole time.  I've honestly never seen anything like it, and I think it will be studied by future generations.  I mean.. wow.  This was just an all-out humiliation for Romney, in which he walked right into trap after trap that he set for himself, such as the topic of the outsourcing of jobs to China (a practice which Republicans all but patented) and the size of the U.S. military.  For an average person, I would worry that he or she would have major psychological issues for the remainder of his or her life after having such a thing done to him or herself on live television, but for someone as smirky and used-car-salesman-esque as Romney, I think he'll be able to shake it off on the strength of his utter inability to have any spine or sense of self.

Sorry for all this personal diary type stuff, but it's been an eventful month, and the next few will definitely not be.  Concert-wise, this may go down as one of my best ever, along with March '98 and March '04.

R.I.P. David S. Ware.  Even if you're not an Aquarius like I am, spark up his serenely hypnotic "Aquarian Sound", one of my favorite jazz tracks ever.

Diet soda is doing these 7 awful things to your body - "Downing just two or more cans a day increased waistlines by 500%."

Planets with similar climates: Catherine Wheel - "Waydown" (1995), Pixies - "Gouge Away" (1988), Quicksand - "Dine Alone" (1992), ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - "Prince With A Thousand Enemies" (1997), Unwound - "Stuck In The Middle Of Nowhere Again" (1992), Bailter Space - "Control" (1994).

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).

Pharmacy Lounge >> A little insane

Pharmacy Lounge - "Building A Compound"

(Atavistic Records, 1993)

This is from the 1996 edition of the State Of The Union compilation 2xCD, which features 147 songs, all of which are about a minute long.  (I previously posted the song "Backlash" by Margot Mifflin from this compilation.)  All I know about this band is what's in the liner notes, and this might be the only song they ever recorded / released.  Here's the data:

Matt Karn - guitar & vocals; Lokke Highstein - bass; Mark Ludwig - drums.
Excerpt from "WACO: The Rock Opera."
Recorded at Moldy Basement Studio, Madison, WI. 1993.

Ween, Prince, The White Bitch, or The Make Up would've killed to have written this ditty.  Every single second of it is instrumentally amazing down to the tiniest detail, and the vocals are just nailed perfectly, down to the intro and outro chant "Jesus... loved... guns."  It's hard to think of similar songs because this one has such a fast tempo, and most funk / r&b songs are on the slow to medium side.  Overall, it's one of the ultimate songs to use to fill out the spare time on a mix CD.

I don't like most sensations that are bracing, such as riding rollercoasters, eating York Peppermint Patties, or anything involving snow.  I had braces from age 13 to 16.

Based on the band name and song title, I had assumed the lyrics would be about synthesizing molecules in a laboratory.  We made soap in organic chemistry lab once.  But it's clearly about a David Koresh-style cult leader building a compound, as in a heavily-fortified building.  "Making a stockpile, plenty of guns... Screw the feds and the coke they run."  "I'll build a compound and be the messiah."  (Note: For hilarity, Google pics of Koresh playing guitar.)  Folks, think about it: Blowtorch Baby... The inferno at Koresh's Waco compound that was set by the feds... Talk about art imitating life, hello.  This is probably the best song to listen to on the day that Obama's jack-booted henchmen come knocking at our doors to take away all our guns, as Fox News and Tea Partiers (same difference) are always reminding us...  Er, wait, Obama has received a rating of "F" (lowest possible rating) from the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence, for doing absolutely nothing to curtail gun ownership or gun violence.  ("The group, which endorsed Obama in 2008, gave him an 'F' on every issue it scored, including background checks, gun trafficking, guns in public, the federal assault weapons ban, standing up to the gun lobby and leadership.")  Nah, that was reported in a newspaper, so it can't be trusted, since Obama has complete control over the media.

If anyone can turn me on to any other songs by Pharmacy Lounge, please get in touch.  Since I have no pic of the band, let me just dump some random photos.

Me at House Of Blues in June, about to drink the only appropriate beer with which to celebrate the Flaming Lips' Guinness Record-setting performance.  This was right after we saw this obnoxiously compelling opening act named MNDR, who had replaced Grimes at the last minute:

Camera phone pic by my sister

Coconut palm etching on that black paper that scratches off to reveal glitter underneath.  Made in about 15 mins. using only a disposable plastic dinner knife; total cost: about $1.  (Paper bought at Dollar Tree.)  I highly recommend buying some of this paper and just having a blast:

One of the few times I've signed something on the front rather than on the back.  My sister made a very different etching simultaneously, but I don't have a pic of it.

We all enjoy laughing at pathetic internet commenters.  Golly, SNL even did a skit about it last season.  This comment was so beautiful that I had to take a screenshot of it.  You may remember some topless pics of Kate Middleton surfaced last month, and, as the saying goes, "broke the internet."  Well, check out the critical insight of one Eddy Chorizo on the website of the Mercury News:

(Note: To see this or any other pic on Blogspot full size, drag it into your browser's URL bar and then click on it there.)  After admiring his sentence-construction prowess, I had to wonder if "Eddy" is actually a typo, since most/all guys go by Eddie.  If anyone knows how to contact this fellow so Blowtorch Baby can interview him, let me know.  I'd love to have him review some mp3s that I've posted, particularly stuff like Karlheinz Stockhausen, Scala, and this Pharmacy Lounge song.

Mind-blowing stat of the week: Monday night's game was the 666th Monday Night Football game in history.  In it, the Houston Texans beat the New York Jets.  On the season, Jets QB Mark "Sanchise" Sanchez has a QB rating of 66.6, with 6 TDs and 6 INTs, and has averaged 6.6 yards per pass.  He wears jersey number 6.  He played for Mission Viejo High School, whose mascot was the Diablos.  I've already seen him referred to by the new nickname "Satanchez."  The Jets' backup QB is devout Christian Tim Tebow.

NRA, gun industry once again mine profit from paranoia

Alpacas with post-punk hair

The NFL's campaign against breast cancer is a total scam

Planets with similar climates: Ween - "The Goin' Gets Tough From The Getgo" (1992), !!! - "Intensify" (2000), The Make Up - "Walking On The Dune" (199?), Gil Scott-Heron - "Free Will" (1972), Union Wireless - "Come And Tell Me" (1995), Medium, Medium - "Hungry, So Angry" (1981).

Juno >> When you turn off the alarm, I turn on you

Juno - "Leave A Clean Camp And A Dead Fire"

(DeSoto Records / Pacifico Records, 1998; Modern City Records [France], 2001)

This song really has it all: A ridiculously long, atmospheric intro, cool guitar textures galore, rocket-propelled drumming, a tsunami of psychedelic axe-mangling, and of course a monster climax to end all climaxes.  And only four lines of of lyrics in ten minutes.  And three guitarists.  Do the math.  You can see by the genre tags I used that this band was not exactly easy to pigeonhole.  I've always wondered where that word came from.

Due to the stealthy escalation of tempo, there is an 85-90% chance that you'll get a speeding ticket if you listen to this on ye olde American highway, so it's better to listen to it at bingo nite or any other time you need a quick pick-me-up without caffeine.  In order to stave off insomnia, I avoid caffeine after noon.  Juno covered DJ Shadow's "High Noon" on a split EP with DeSoto labelmates The Dismemberment Plan.

I first heard about Juno in a Jade Tree Records mailorder catalog in early '98, and almost ordered a 7" by them.  I read reviews of this album, This Is The Way It Goes And Goes And Goes, around the time it came out in '99.  But I didn't buy it until spring '03, when the Wherehouse Music (formerly Blockbuster Music) on Tchoupitoulas St. had a going-out-of-business sale and I snagged dozens of used CDs.  (That's the only time I've ever seen this CD for sale in the used bins in the 13+ years since it was released, since almost no one who buys it is dumb enough to sell it.  If you ever see it used, do not hesitate to open your wallet.)  Articles about the band always mention singer Arlie Carstens' former career as a pro snowboarder, and the grisly accident he sustained which forced him to focus solely on music.  His loss, our gain.  The review of the album in CMJ by Kelso Jacks said "Juno crafts its music slowly.  However, the brilliance of this album more than compensates for Juno's less-than-prolific nature.  The band relies on the powerful interplay of three guitars to churn up an expansive whirlpool of textures.  Juno's blasting, six-string complexities mimic everything from airplanes to waterfalls to banjo plucks.  Unfettered by convention, these Northwesterners follow their sonic muse without paying mind to the clock, allowing sweeping, 10-minute epics such as 'Leave A Clean Camp And A Dead Fire' to unfold with the kind of passionate aggression that makes potentially self-indulgent duration a moot point.  The brutal rhythm section adds to and controls the thunder using carefully measured accents and punctuations.  This raucous din is topped off by guitarist Arlie Carstens' intelligent, surreal utterances, which are processed through a fuzzbox to complete Juno's wall of intensity.  Truly worth the wait."  That's basically a clinic on how to write a compact and informative review, by the way, though he should've mentioned more than just one specific song.  (I omitted one discography-related sentence near the beginning.)  It concludes: "Marketing Data: A summer tour is possible, though Carstens is currently recovering from spinal cord injuries, the result of his severely being injured in a snowboarding accident, earlier this year."

Great live clip at an unspecified venue in an unspecified year:

Also check out the sublimely haunting murder ballad "A Listening Ear", featuring co-lead vocals from Seattle chanteuse Jen Wood.  It has some of the coolest slide guitar I've ever heard.  A band called The Sea, Like Lead named itself after the album's closing song, "The Sea Looked Like Lead."

This Is The Way It Goes And Goes And Goes was not originally released on vinyl, but in 2001 a European tour edition on double LP was pressed on a French label called Modern City Records.  Juno's live shows are the stuff of legend.  They never played in New Orleans, sadly, and believe me, I sat around staring out my window for several years, pining for them to come by and Junoify my city.  I guess Europe was a lot more inviting to them.  The only other three-guitarist band that I actually listen to on a regular basis is Band Of Susans.

2001 gatefold double LP with two different colored records; pic courtesy of discogs.com

Juno's stature in the indie rock community is such that a documentary film was made about their recent comeback, but I don't know if it ever came out, and its website appears to be in mothballs.

Fri. Oct. 5: Despite having some sort of sinus infection or cold, saw Merchandise and Glish at the Big Top.  It was kickass, and each band played the songs I wanted to hear, though it was evident that Merchandise's (very charismatic) singer was wasted off his ass.  More on this show in an upcoming post!  Oh yeah, I donated a book called For The Vegetarian In You to the NOLADIY / An Idea Like No Other guys so they could add it to the Iron Rail library.  And I requested that they order me a copy of the new Possession EP by this Portland band called Arctic Flowers.  Wandered around Frenchmen St. afterwards, mainly to catch the end of a photography exhibit called Velado by Melissa Stryker at Scott Edwards Photography Studio & Gallery.  The photos had naked ppl and were printed on huge aluminum sheets, but in my opinion were not as racy or scandalous as the artist probably thought they would be.  Here's the front and back of the postcard that made me decide to trek to the exhibit:

No, that's not Stryker in the pic.  I saw a few songs by a crazy funk / party band called Yojimbo that was playing at Maison.  Their singer / trombonist is a super-energetic, bespectacled redhead, and I was stunned to see she was wearing this bootleg Sonic Youth Sister t-shirt that is commonly sold by shady sellers online.  I got mine on eBay about a decade ago; I think I gave it away to my internet girlfriend Michelle, whom I am no longer internet dating.

I took some video clips of Yojimbo, if only as proof that the singer had this shirt on.  I didn't go inside due to it being packed and me being sick, but the open door and huge glass windows made it easy to see & hear inside.  This girl, Carly Meyers, will be a superstar.  In between jumping up and down as if on a pogo stick, playing her trombone pointed up at the ceiling, and laughingly wiping sweat from her face with a towel, she guided the crowd in holding up a blanket and urged them to "Get in the love tunnel!"  I found a great Merchandise show poster (a big one, different from the small one shown above) on Frenchmen, so my night was complete.

Sat. Oct. 6: Went to the Bridge House thrift store and bought some sweet books and NIN's The Downward Spiral on CD ($1), then played hoops at that Annunciation Street court.  One of the dudes was LSU's point guard in the late '80s / early '90s.  He was a stocky redhead who could fill it up from outside.  I mentioned that I went to LSU basketball camp in 1990.  Watched some of the #4 LSU vs. #10 Florida football game with my sister, then we tried to go to the Botanical Garden.  She was impressed by the raw power of "I Lived My Life To Stand In The Shadow Of Your Heart" by A Place To Bury Strangers on the drive over there.  NOBG was due to a wedding, so we walked around City Park and did some obnoxious stuff.  Came back and watched LSU lose in pathetic fashion.  I had lost track of my The Downward Spiral CD long ago, and was blown away by how fresh and visceral it still sounds.  I still have the promo postcard that Interscope sent me when the album came out, and my friend Warren and I listened to it all the time in the mid-'90s.  I had kind of swept the album under the rug of my mind as I got into better music over the years, but songs like "Reptile" and "Mr. Self-Destruct" are just inimitable and stand up to any sort of highbrow scrutiny.

Sun. Oct. 7: This was a pretty interesting day.  A cold front blasted through, bringing the temp. down by about 20º from the previous day's high.  I helped to stake some Chinese pistachio trees on Metairie Rd. with some Parkway Partners people.  I was wearing my red Drew Brees practice jersey since he was gonna try to break Johnny Unitas' streak of 47 straight games with a TD pass that night, and the NFL wisely made sure it was against the team that let Drew go, the Chargers, a team that is so inept that it actually got the name Chargers from the fact that it was founded by a credit card ("charge card") magnate.  Then Em and mom and I went to the zoo; Em said "Oh my God" so many times that mom and I had to tell her to limit it to one time per exhibit, but she couldn't even do that.  Then we ate at this pizzeria called Slice next to Whole Foods, then went to Whole Foods, then went home to watch the first half of the Saints game.  Drew got the record early with a pass that literally hit Devery Henderson on the numbers and in stride.  That means "The ball flew through the air and hit the receiver on the chest, and the receiver did not have to alter his running motion."  Found out that the Godspeed show already started, since the dumb promo postcard and poster had the wrong start times on them.  So Em and I drove over to Tip's, knowing that we had missed the opening act, G String Orchestra.  Luckily Godspeed were in peak form, beginning with a long (10-minute?) ambient drone, the one at the beginning of "The Dead Flag Blues" but unfortunately omitting the ominous dude talking about cars on fire, a thousand lonely suicides, etc.  Minimalistic film clips (sometimes just words) were projected behind them throughout the show; they also did this when I saw then in March '03 at TwiRoPa.  I was disappointed at a few downsized elements: The band was down to only one female member, and no longer had any cello; the venue was smaller than last time; the merch table was way smaller, with only the (brand) new album for sale (and only on vinyl), plus some t-shirts.  These are minor complaints, because it was a really challenging and uncompromising concert, the kind most "post-rock" bands wouldn't even dare attempt.  Even by GYBE's standards, the buildups were extra-long and the climaxes were done with a great flair for layering.  Mom texted me to say the Saints had won; I texted back "Fuck yeah."  Near the middle of the show a dude passed out and hit the ground with a huge thud right behind us, and had to be escorted out.  (This was nowhere near as cool as when a guy slashed his wrists outside a Humpers / Neckbones show that I caught in '97 at Monaco Bob's.  That show continued after only a brief pause, by the way.)  The finale was just incredible, with two of the greatest pieces of music I've ever seen, set to a backdrop of a factory on fire.  I'm pretty sure the last thing they played was "World Police And Friendly Fires."  There was no encore, despite lots of cheering.  Efrim didn't say a word to the crowd, despite the fact that he was practically a stand-up comedian at the A Silver Mt. Zion show in Feb. at One Eyed Jacks.  To celebrate the fact that her computer had not been stolen, despite being parked with one window totally down, we went to this bar called Ms. Mae's up the street.  It was as lame as my sister told me it would be, though I played two Interpol songs and Catherine Wheel's "Black Metallic" on the internet jukebox.  Some guy in a just-bought Godspeed (or G String Orchestra) shirt juked some Pelican and Russian Circles.  Uhh... No comment, Beavis.  A charismatic 59.9 year old art teacher at Tulane sit right down at our table and hit on Emily right in front of me, and kept claiming he had met us before.  So we had to eventually make a daring exit, which prompted him to desperately ask us "Are you guys on Facebook?"  "No, sorry."  We were, as the saying goes, so done with that.

I stupidly trusted the door time on the postcard rather than the door time on the ticket, hence why we missed the opening band

Sorry for all the pics in this post.

Planets with similar climates: Plexi - "Peel / He" (1995), Catherine Wheel - "Ferment" (1992), Kitchens Of Distinction - "Blue Pedal" (1992), The Sound - "New Dark Age" (1981), "Missiles" (1979) & "Whirlpool" (1985), The Church - "Chaos" (1992), Unwound - "For Your Entertainment" (1996), Pantera - "Hollow" (1992).

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).

Section 25 >> New day, clear day

Section 25 - "New Horizon"

(Factory Records, 1981; LTM Recordings, 1991/2000; Drastic Plastic Records, 2010)

Following a long, stunningly tense, hypnotic ambient intro, one of the most astonishing and sexy basslines ever cruises in from the æther and just dominates dat ass.  Hyperbole?  Decide for yourself.  The bassline and the snappy drumming give a cold, rubbery funkiness to this song, and the bass has that round, fat tone that I love.  The lyrics consist of mundane motivational-type phrases being repeated in a catatonic way atop random squalls of guitar.  Anyone reading the lyric sheet would think this was a corny children's ditty, but the musical presentation makes it menacing and quite heartbreaking.  It actually reminds me a bit of the last line of American Music Club's "Sick Of Food": "Another bright... nothing. Another... day."  Getting out of bed in the morning sure is an underrated component of success in life; as Woody Allen once said, "90% of life is just showing up."  An ambiguous line near the end: "It's a clear blue, a new clear blue" or "It's a clear blue, a nuclear blue."  If only we could goad George W. Bush into belting it out at a karaoke bar, the world would finally know what the actual lyric was.  This song could be said to have invented the musical genre called slowcore a good decade before most U.S.-based critics decided that it arose in America.  This mp3 is taken from my 2000 LTM Recordings CD reissue, which has a ton of bonus tracks and an extensive essay on the band.  You can read the essay here.

It's a great demonstration of the power of repetition, and proof that the sum can be much greater than the parts.  Any overly-wordy songwriting would've defeated the purpose.  Reggae and dub were hugely influential on lots of U.K. post-punk bands, which is of course why they tended to have such killer basslines, since stupid-ass American punk bands were too busy trying to sound like the Ramones.  Keep in mind that this is from Section 25's bleak early years, before they added a female singer and went synth-pop and scored a club hit with the undeniably catchy and Knight Rider-esque "Looking From A Hilltop".  I'm sure this only fanned the flames of those who liked to make "First they pulled a Joy Division, then they pulled a New Order" jokes, but in the end, in a perfect world at least, a band shalt be judged by the sum total of good songs that it recorded, even if they have to reinvent themselves at various times.  I also have their From The Hip album, but like I mentioned earlier, it was from their unabashedly synth-pop-ular era, so be forewarned.

From the Always Now CD booklet

Just because Section 25 is not exactly a very sexy band, here is inevitable future star Corina Calderón, protagonist of that movie All She Can (a.k.a. Benavides Born) that I mentioned in the last post:

Yes, this individual plays a powerlifter in the movie All She Can

I don't like to objectify women, but come on, we've all laid out at the beach, and we've all stretched on the floor by our fireplace, right?  These are everyday activities.  I've known many a great Latina lady in real life, and they are taking over Hollywood, so I don't want Cor-Cal to get lost in the shuffle.  She reminds me a bit of the (part Chilean) blogger / provocateur Natasha Vargas-Cooper.  Snookie is Chilean, but I don't count her as part of the "taking over" group.

Ron Swanson's Pyramid Of Greatness might help you to solve that thing that you need to solve.

Revenge is a dish best served pink

Planets with similar climates: For Against - "Echelons" (1986), Poem Rocket - "Contrail de l'avion" (1994),  Sonic Youth - "Society Is A Hole" (1984), Joy Division - "I Remember Nothing" (1979), Interpol - "Untitled" (2002), Idaho - "Year After Year" (1993), The Comsat Angels - "Gone" (1981), The Sound - "Possession" (1981), Stone Roses - "I Wanna Be Adored" [full 5-minute album version] (1985/89).