St*Johnny >> I wanna burn like a martyr in my Chevrolet

St*Johnny - "Go To Sleep"

(Ajax Records, 1992 / Caroline Records [U.S.], 1993; Rough Trade Records [U.K.], 1993)

This song was released as a 7" by cool indie Ajax in '92, and then appeared on the band's High As A Kite singles compilation the next year.  (The U.S. version on Caroline, which I own, has 11 tracks, while the U.K. version on Rough Trade has only 8.)  This type of song is a perfect example of why I started this site: An obscure indie band releases a universe-destroyingly great anthem; no one hears it back in the day; the band breaks up; the song languishes in cool ppl's mix tapes / closets / iTunes for years or decades until the song decides to break free and assert itself much like when the robots rose in T2: Judgment Day.  The only unfortunate thing about this song is its name, which does not exactly generate much excitement, especially when the mundane band name is factored in.  Note: They sometimes spelled their name St. Johnny (in the early days), st. johnny, or St Johnny, and the asterisked (DGC-era) version of their name is technically spelled st✮johnny.

Reviews and zines from the early to mid '90s always pointed out how St*Johnny were protegés of Sonic Youth, though I think they were more aligned with fellow New Yorkers Mercury Rev.  (The Rev's Grasshopper guested on at least three of their songs: "Velocity," "My Father's Father," "Matador.")  Either way, this kind of thing is always a double-edged sword.  The band was allegedly scoffed at relentlessly, at least by the hipsters and tastemakers of the era, which seems really sad to me.  This song obviously has a ton of S.Y.-esque characteristics and charisma, down to the Thurston-y vocals, but it is definitely its own beast.  To describe how awesome this song is would take me a while, but I don't think most people need a roadmap to its bounty.  That one killer guitar riff immediately grabs the attention, and melds perfectly with the vocals, which are delivered in a desperate way, and with interesting post-Lou Reed / Tom Verlaine enunciation.  It's a really amazing vocal performance overall.  He says "I know that we're in trouble now, and I know that we're in deep" and "You're cursed and I'm a liar" without explaining the conflict in question.  More cool lyrics: "If we live long enough we'll see the other side of everything," "The stars are out and they're comin' down on my head," and of course "I wanna burn like a martyr in my Chevrolet."  (Note: I had thought for the last decade that it was "I wanna burn like the motor in my Chevrolet.")  The somewhat detuned, violin-esque guitar anti-solo at the 2:29 mark is the perfect bridge between arena dino-rock and the noisy indie rock of the '90s.  And I love when any instrumental break is preceded by a frenzied volley of drumming.  Another cool touch is that the song's title is only uttered right before the guitar solo and as the final words of the song.  I mean, check this out, they should build a whole museum dedicated to this song, if only so that lame, putzy, non-rocking rock bands like Wilco, Arcade Fire, Spoon, etc. can make pilgrimages to it in order to learn how to rock like motherfuckers.
The band's proper debut album in '94 had the great title Speed Is Dreaming.  But, aside from the killer "A Car Or A Boy?" (featuring some backing vocals from Mercury Rev's head weirdo David Baker), sucked.  I owned that CD but actually threw it away years ago; wish I had it back to check it out again, though.  Being signed to DGC (Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Beck, Posies, Sundays) apparently didn't land them in the Buzz Bin, and they faded into obscurity in the mid-'90s.  Singer Bill Whitten reemerged with the band Grand Mal (named after a St*Johnny song, which was named after a type of seizure) soon afterwards, but I don't think I've ever heard them.

7" insert sheet

Well, I was very wrong about Hurricane Isaac last week.  It turned out to be one of the worst disasters in the state's history, and was much more of a rainmaker than I had anticipated.  Luckily I had trimmed most of my trees a week or two earlier, so they didn't blow around too much in the wind and suffer torsional stress injuries to their trunks.  Since the eye of the hurricane passed directly over us, I went out and trimmed them a little more during that calm period.  That day (Wednesday) was probably the most harrowing day of my life, due to all the wind and rain noise, and not being able to see the origin of it since most of the windows were shuttered closed.  We never lost power, though over a million people statewide did.  And it's fun to be able to walk around the house butt-ass naked, thanks to the boarded window thing.  I drove through Gonzales, Prairieville, & Baton Rouge a few days later and ended up scoring this t-shirt at FYE:

...as well as the Stooges' Fun House 2xCD reissue and a rather tame CD by a band called The Mysteries Of Life. The store was playing Portishead's first album, so I recommended Slowdive to the Asian employee who had put it on after he told me he was a big Cocteau Twins fan.

Mon. 3rd: Went to Cocodrie (old Cajun slang term for "crocidile"), right on one of the southernmost tips of Louisiana.  Listened to Verve's A Storm In Heaven, perhaps the ultimate roadtrip album.  The area pretty much got no damage.
Tue. 4th: Watched Batman Begins at my sister's, since my parents in N.O. still hadn't gotten power back.
Wed. 5th: Went used book shopping for a few hours at The Book Rack in Mandeville, then drove over through Lacombe & Slidell.

Planets with similar climates: Sonic Youth - "Hey Joni" (1988), Verve - "All In The Mind" (1992), Swervedriver - "Blowin' Cool" (1993), Ride - "Here And Now" (1990), Catherine Wheel - "Texture" (1992), Silversun Pickups - "Well Thought Out Twinkles" (2006), Glide [Australia] - "Taste Of You" (1992), Nice Strong Arm - "Cloud Machine" (1989), You Am I - "Berlin Chair" (1993).

The Bevis Frond >> I drown, I get resuscitated

The Bevis Frond - "Desperate"

(Woronzow Records, 1993)

This is just a dope as hell song that fuses classic rock stylings (Stones, Hendrix, Clapton) with enough Stooges / Dinosaur Jr. bite to keep the Pitchfork kids from feeling like their own dads.  Trust me, Pitchfork kids are way lamer than their own dads.  I think I once read Nick Saloman say in an interview that he saw Hendrix live, or maybe it's just that he was really into him as a kid growing up in England in the '60s.  In any case, his congested voice and badass way of brandishing a guitar would please even the most discerning Jimi fan.  The way the guitar line doubles / rises imperceptibly right as Nick sings "love me" in the chorus is so spine-tinglingly cool, and dare I say sexy.  The line "I get insufficient adulation" needs to be made into a t-shirt.  The song is from their album It Just Is, which was directly responsible for kicking off the annoying "It is what it is" craze.

I first heard the Frond via their amazing Pink Floyd-esque epic "Requiem" on a Darla Records sampler CD in '97 or '98.  It's more psychedelic and vast than the compact rocker "Desperate," so I would say those two songs perfectly encapsulate each extreme of the band's sound.  (Well, much like Guided By Voices, it's really a solo project of Nick Saloman + a rotating cast of backing members.)  Their discography is large, and I only own a few CDs, so I can't preach about which ones you should buy; sorry.  But a third song I can highly recommend is the evocative "Coming Round" from the album London Stone.  The Frondies rarely performed live, mainly preferring to rock out at the annual Terrastock festivals.

Back of CD booklet; note the fact that Nick Saloman did literally everything on this album except the "engineering."

Fun Fact: After seeing psychedelic warriors White Hills last year, I asked their singer / guitarist if he was into the Bevis Frond.  His eyes got wide and he told me he was a big fan.  (IIRC, we both gave props to "Reqiuem.")  Bevis Frond fandom is sort of like a secret society.

Let's see, in the last three weeks....
I did the Nielsen ratings again, after doing them in Feb.
I decided to do "Meatless Mondays" from now on, after hearing Rush Limbaugh relentlessly mock it on his show one day in late July.  "Eat nothing but beef from now on!," he implored his Dittoheads.  Having been a vegetarian for two years, it shouldn't be too hard.
I caught the end of a Saints practice on Fri. morning, Aug. 3.  Drew Brees signed autographs right next to me afterwards, but I didn't have a pen or anything to sign.  Man.
I went to the New Orleans Botanical Garden the next day and took a bunch of photos.  Also notified them of a mislabeled palm (A Chamaerops humilis labeled as a Washingtonia robusta!  I know, I almost laughed too.)
I have been watching the XXXth Olympiad obsessively, like most other true Americans.
I read a horrifying article on the rise of dubstep in SPIN.

Surprisingly addictive TV shows:
The Newsroom (HBO)
The Girls' Guide To Depravity (Cinemax)
Bar Rescue (Spike)
Victorious (Nickelodeon)
Women's fencing; anything with Alex Morgan or Allyson Felix (Olympics on NBC)
Restaurant: Impossible (Food)
Dan LeBatard Is Highly Questionable (ESPN2)
Showbiz Tonight (HLN) (mainly because of former FOX 8 Saints reporter Nischelle Turner)
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (reruns on Comedy Central)

I watched upwards of an hour of rhythmic gymnastics just to espy this particular athlete but came up empty-handed:

Canadian rhythmic gymnast Kelsey Titmarsh, doing the "geeky glasses with no lenses in them" thing, concurrently popularized by Dwyane Wade, Russell Westbrook, etc.

Not to be confused with:

Noted non-Olympian Sally Jesse Raphael

Video showing every Space Shuttle launch at the same time::

Related: 30 years, 135 launches in 135 seconds

Unfun Fact: My elementary school class in San Francisco watched the Challenger explosion occur live on a TV set that our teacher had wheeled into the classroom.

Planets with similar climates: Pink Floyd - "Young Lust" (1979), Acetone - "Sundown" & "Pinch" (1993), Meat Puppets - "Scum" (1995), Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Gimme Back My Bullets" (1975), Jimi Hendrix - "Crosstown Traffic" (1967), The Rolling Stones - "Brown Sugar" (1969), Screaming Trees - "Shadow Of The Season" & "Nearly Lost You" (1992).

Swervedriver >> Get me to the world on time

Swervedriver - "99th Dream"

(DGC Records, 1996 [unreleased] / Zero Hour Records [U.S.], Cortex [Australia], 1998)

I wrote most of this in September, during California Month, so I couldn't post it then.  I recently revived and expanded it, and then yesterday I learned the astounding news that the Swervies will be playing on the Jimmy Fallon show tonight.  Yes, go back and read that sentence again.  A cult band from England that hasn't recorded any new music in ~15 years will be playing on the Jimmy Fallon show tonight.  Unfortunately, the Swervies live up to the "shoegaze" stereotype of being quite uncharismatic live (ever since losing charismatic bassist Adi Vines in the early 90s), so I'd recommend closing your eyes and turning up the volume.  They truly are all talent and no image; Adam Franklin even shaved his trademark dreads.

Yes, this was recorded in 1996, for Geffen / DGC Records, and a promo CD was sent out in '97.  But li'l Dave Geffen dropped the band and the album was shelved and the promos were probably ordered destroyed.  It ultimately came out on indie Zero Hour in early '98, with a different mix of "These Times".  (Those who have heard both versions say the original DGC mix of that song was superior.)  Just another installment in of the Swervies' legendary record label-related woes...

"Architecture, nature, alcohol / Space travel, rock and roll."  Any questions?  "I'm dreaming number 99 / Get me to the world on time."  This is the song that should've finally catapulted them to arena headlining status, after deafening audiences in arenas for the previous 7 or so years as the opening act for alterna-stars like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Monster Magnet, and the Smashing Pumpkins.  (I should've gone to the Pumpkins show in late '93; Swervedriver and Shudder To Think, two bands I had never even heard of at that time, were the opening acts).  The very Beatles/Oasis-esque "These Times" also had major chart potential, obviously.
Here is the back cover of the super-rare '97 DGC promo CD; even the photo itself is so rare that hardly anyone has ever seen it:

1998 Zero Hour promo CD single (edited down by 2 minutes) showing the band's new "satellite" logo

The opening surf rock lick is mighty nice, but I wish it had continued throughout the song.  Dick Dale would be proud.  Adam had learned to sing by this album, bringing a lot more nuance and tenderness to his delivery, and this song is a great example of it.  This album, also titled 99th Dream, is generally viewed as being the least great of their four LPs, but it has some impressive moments.  I personally rank it ahead of Ejector Seat Reservation, but way behind the essential one-two punch of Mezcal Head and Raise.

My obsession with Swervedriver began when I read about Mezcal Head in Alternative Press in '95, then listened to it in '96 at Plan 9 in Richmond, VA, then finally bought it in '97 at the Mushroom in NOLA.  Then I saw them in March '98 opening for Hum, which was an incredible show of course, and still one of the loudest and most amazing I've ever seen.  Then I got their debut album Raise late that year, an album that, like Mezcal Head, is simply chock-full of songs that should've stormed the airwaves.  The band broke up the following year, making the upcoming millennium look even more grim.  In early 2003 I won a lot of four Swervie 12"s on eBay for a shockingly low price (I pretty much got them free and just had to pay shipping), and then gradually acquired most of their singles.  For example, I have "Never Lose That Feeling" on 7", 12", white-sleeve promo 12", and CD single.  Yes, it's that mind-blowing of a song, and is probably the one song that most encapsulates everything that this site stands for:

Be sure to listen to the equally mind-blowing instrumental dub/space-rock meltdown "Never Learn" immediately after the above song finishes, since it comes right after "Never Lose That Feeling" on the EP.  Trust me.

Here is an entire set they did on March 16, 1998 in Oklahoma City, which was five days after I saw them at the House Of Blues in New Orleans.  I actually would recommend not watching that unless you saw them live in the '90s, because it doesn't do justice to how stunningly loud and tight they were.

Not mentioned on the ticket was an incredible local band called The Universal Chrome (formerly known as Flux), who played first

Like The Sound and The Comsat Angels in the '80s, Catherine Wheel and Plexi in the '90s, and Film School in the '00s, Swervedriver's failure to reach ultramegastardom will never cease to baffle myself and other enthusiasts of this kind of music.  Luckily they became pretty big in Australia, where Stooges-influenced rock always finds eager ears.
"99th Dream" live in '98 on the Aussie Saturday morning(!) TV show Recovery; the flashing polka-dot background is apparently based on the promo CD's cover art shown above:

Logo I drew freehand in '06 in about a minute; tried to improvise some sort of vaguely "Asian" script style

Yesterday I signed onto AOL for the first time in almost 3 months.  There's stuff to talk about from the past week pertaining to two concerts (Alcest, Tineke Postma), and the spring Record Raid at Tulane, but no room or desire right now.

Last night's episode of Finding Your Roots, featuring Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis, was so interesting that I was inspired to dig out my family's genealogy book.  Some tidbits: There was a guy named Kermit who married a lady named Starlie Joy, and they had daughters named Starmary and Rosemary. About my great-grandfather Per, who emigrated from Sweden in 1903: "Changed surname [from Stadig to Rame, then to Ramee] in the Swedish army.  Counted Eisenhower, Marshall and Patton among his pupils at the military academy in Kansas City, where he taught for 10 years after being pensioned.  He was a good friend of Pres. Harry S. Truman."  And "Occasionally Pop [Per] was summoned to fill in at the President's poker table."  Um, what?  He trained and partied with some fuckers who later helped to defeat the Nazis and hence save the world? I suddenly feel pretty lame in comparison...

Blame the GOP for $4 gas

How exercise can change your DNA

God Hates Facts - "This explains a lot"

The NFL's punishment of the Saints is harsh, nonsensical, and hypocritical

Bounty penalties remove New Orleans Saints from Super Bowl contention - has an interesting comment provided by someone named Hazzard27: "It's funny how in 2009 the Saints were only fined a total of $10,000 (which was tied for 22nd in the league) and $40,000 in 2010 (18th in the league)......if there was so much cheap-shotting and intending to injure going on, it wasn't outside the rules according to the league."

Planets with similar climates: Catherine Wheel - "Black Metallic" (1991), Hum - "Little Dipper" (1995), The Bevis Frond - "Coming Round" (1992), Talk Talk - "Life's What You Make It" (1986), Plexi - "Forest Ranger" (1996).

The Furious Colour >> Echoes from a far-off place

The Furious Colour - "Closer" (BBC session)

(Dave Fanning session, 1986)

I can find absolutely nothing about this band.  The violin is just heart-stoppingly, soul-stirringly unforgettable, and the chiming, spidery guitars provide a sleek urgency.  Peter Hook would've killed to have written the bassline that unfurls at the 1:20 and 2:05 marks.  There are so many little magical moments within this song, such as the very subtle vocal harmonizing.  I found this song here, at a post by someone who is an expert on this kind of music from this era and yet still knows nothing about the band.  (He mentioned that their name might actually be That Furious Colour.)  This is a Dave Fanning session, similar to a Peel session, meaning it was recorded live in a BBC studio and aired a few days later, but recorded by someone not named John Peel, and therefore by someone is probably not an admitted pedophile like John Peel.  It was recorded on 6/30/86, in "a far-off place, an everlasting far-off time."

If anyone knows even the slightest bit about this band, please leave a note.  The two other songs that TFC recorded for this session were "Torn Apart" and "Carrion," if that helps.  Over here, I found that the band featured someone named Gerry O'Connor: "Gerry O'Connor's early musical influences stem from the music of Kerry and Tipperary, through the music of both his parents and grandparents. From an early age he won national awards for his virtuoso playing. In 1981 he joined the highly successful band The Wild Geese and toured Europe extensively, performing at all major international festivals. The years from 1985 to 1989 saw Gerry perform and tour with bands such as The Furious Colour, The Wilf Brothers, Moonshine and The Rocking Chairs. In 1990 Gerry recorded his first solo album entitled Time to Time which shot straight to No.1 in the Irish Roots Music Charts and was voted folk album of the year by BBC Scotland."  So I guess it's a safe bet that TFC were from Ireland.  I found out G.O. was also in a band called Skylark and another (a duo with his wife) called Lá Lugh.  I still don't know if he sang for TFC or not.  Maybe he was just a session player hired to play violin...
So I guess O'Connor is pretty well known in some circles, but I don't know why he abandoned this passionate post-punk sound.

It reminds me a lot of "Worlds Apart" by Cactus World News (which is probably in my all-time top 10), which has the refrain "Closer than I've ever been to you."  CWN were from Dublin and released that song in 1986.  So I don't know if one band influenced the other, or if they ever even heard of each other.  So many bands had that urgent U2-ish sound at this time that it's hard to keep track of who influenced whom.  This song could thus be lumped into the "Big Music" scene/phenomenon of the mid-'80s, when bands like The Alarm, Big Country, etc. tried to make big, anthemic, inspiring, urgent songs in the vein of early U2.  I talked about this a lot a few months ago, but I forgot which post.

My mom hits the big 6-0 tomorrow, so we took her to a restaurant in the Quarter called Bayona tonight.  It's run by semi-famous chef Susan Spicer, who, according to some article I read a while back, used to be a punk/indie rocker in the '80s; or maybe that author was just surmising that based on her tattoos and overall non-stuffy attitude.  Our reservation was for four instead of five by accident, so they wouldn't seat us even though the place was nearly empty, so we went to the Pelican Club instead.  It was my first time going to a restaurant in the Quarter in many years.  The painter Michalopoulos' gallery is right next door to it, and one of the rooms of the P.C. is adorned only with his paintings.  I got a quail with grits appetizer, duck with asparagus entrée, Newcastle ale, some red & white wine, and crème brûlée.  The waiters were amazing, treating us like we were a royal family or something.  So that's the first and maybe last fine dining report in Blowtorch Baby.

I took this at Delgado Community College on Jan. 27; cropped off the top line which says "Funeral Services." I guess they teach a course on this.

I'm Still on YouTube Trying to Figure Out When Whitney Was High and When She Wasn't

Darrell Issa makes life difficult for Obama - Somewhat stunning article about this slimeball congressman (former car thief, arsonist, chronic liar, etc.) who will be trying to investigating the Obama administration leading up to the election.

Planets with similar climates: Cactus World News - "Worlds Apart" (1986), The Church - "Reptile" (1987), U2 - "New Year's Day" (1982), Simple Minds - "Speed Your Love To Me" (1983), Idaho - "Pomegranate Bleeding" (1995), Glide [Australia] - "Taste Of You" (1992), The Sound - "The Fire" (1981) & "Whirlpool" (1984), The Chameleons - "Return Of The Roughnecks" (1985), The Cleaners From Venus - "Follow The Plough" (1986), The Lotus Eaters - "Set Me Apart" (1983).

Lions & Ghosts >> Like a thief outside your window

I can't believe it's still California Month, tremor #42:

Lions & Ghosts - "Wild Garden"

(EMI Records, 1989)

This is another rare major-label song that I'll be posting once in a blue moon, and hence I made it non-downloadable.  I bought this CD, also titled Wild Garden, at a pawn shoppe in LaPlace in April 2007 for 25 cents.  I had never heard of them, but was intrigued by the band name and song titles, and even by the cool blue and black color scheme.  The album has been out of print for around two decades, so I'm just trying to spread the word about this great song.

Mind-bogglingly, this song was not even released as a single.  It could've been the biggest song of the year, if not of the decade.  ("Five & Dime" could've been a big hit as well, but was of course not released as a single either.)  "Wild Garden" destroys the Replacements at their own game (ragged, heart-on-sleeve rock with lyrics about heartbreak) without breaking a sweat, and the band was much more photogenic than the 'Mats.  Lions & Ghosts opened for lots of cool bands on the Sunset Strip in their heyday, and they were apparently quite big in Japan, where their breezy, Byrds-ish single "Mary Goes Round" was a hit:

The band broke up after this album.  Singer Rick Parker put out a passable solo album on Geffen in 1992, which I have.  After that he fronted a short-lived band called Sparkler, which put out one album, but I have not heard it.  I'm guessing the name Sparkler was a pun on Parker's last name?  If anyone knows anything interesting about L&G, please share, because I just cannot fathom why they didn't become huge.  Their previous album had another potential hit, the very Social Distortion / Church-esque "Love & Kisses From The Gutter".

Lions & Ghosts ca. late '80s; singer Rick Parker on right.  (Photographer unknown.)

I saw Memoryhouse at the Hi-Ho Lounge on Wednesday, in a crowd of about 10-15 people.  The band still put on a great show despite the humiliatingly low turnout, and I'll talk about it some more when I get around to posting a song by them.  The reason for the low turnout was that there is a new rule in that part of town (the Marigny / upper 9th Ward) prohibiting concert flyers on telephone poles or any type of public property.  I went over to Frenchmen Street to see if anything was going on; saw Gravity A at the Blue Nile for about 15 minutes (they covered some Meters song), and then Deja Vu Brass band at the Balcony Music Club for about 15 minutes.  Had no luck finding a Memoryhouse gig flyer anywhere.  The next morning I bought about 30 CDs for 50 cents each at the Bridge House thrift store, and a DVD player / VCR combo unit for $15.  They had a whole stack of them that a hotel had donated.  Despite all those newly-bought CDs, I kept playing Memoryhouse's The Hours CD EP, which I had bought at the show, over and over in my car, unable to force myself to take out out of the CD player for fear of breaking the spell it had over me.
Yesterday I went to a coffee shop called the Hey! Café for the first time, to see a show headlined by a band called City Of Ships.  I caught two good local bands (Brothers, Opposable Thumbs) opening, and got a grilled cheese sandwich.  I passed some time by reading a pamphlet/book by an anonymous author titled Abolish Restaurants.  (I was stunned to learn that restaurants only came into popularity in the mid 1800s, since individual food artisan guilds controlled food production before that.)  The show ran way late, so I had to leave to meet my sister and her friends so we could go to the Boris / Asobi Seksu / True Widow show at One Eyed Jacks.  We missed True Widow, which was the main reason I had come to this show, so I was really ticked.  The only "good" thing is that the girl from T.W. told me at the merch table that they only played for 30 minutes and did not play "A.K.A.", my favorite song of theirs.  So I didn't miss much, I guess.  A.S. and Boris were good, so it was worth it overall.  And two cute girls, including one from the Mushroom that I kinda have a crush on, came up and talked to me, which doesn't happen to me all that often at shows.  Wearing a baby blue sweatshirt to a show like this makes one stand out in a crowd, for better or for worse.  I didn't buy any merch.
Today I swung by Skully'z Recordz and nabbed an Asobi Seksu poster from their window and gave them a Skinny Puppy cassette (VIVI SECT VI) as thanks.  Then I went to the New Orleans Book Fair on Frenchmen St. and got 3 books and 3 CDs, plus an amazing sticker that says "READ MOTHERFUCKING BOOKS! ALL DAMN DAY."

All the anarchist / feminist / radical / Marxist literature at this fair can be off-putting, but there was some good stuff to be found.  I went to it about 5 years ago, but didn't buy anything then.  I walked over to one of the coolest stores in town, American Aquatic Gardens, and bought a cactus which I believe to be a Mammillaria geminispina, a species that I had been lusting after for a while.  Then I stopped in at Euclid Records, which of course turned into a stay of several hours.  I got Lee Ranaldo's classic From Here → Infinity on LP, which is something I never thought I'd find.  (Already had it on CD and cassette, but the LP has a lock groove at the end of each track, plus an amazing etching of a dragon on one side, and embossed writing on the cover.)  Also got a bunch of other cool or random stuff (Antipop Consortium, The Church, Maxwell, Michele Rosewoman).  The owner played Yo La Tengo & Jad Fair's Strange But True and The Replacements' Pleased To Meet Me in their entirety.  ("The Ledge" on the latter is one of the greatest songs ever.)  I don't think he ever put up the Live Skull poster I gave him in March at a Des Ark / Pygmy Lush in-store.  I wrestled in my mind all day with the idea of driving to Baton Rouge to see True Widow headline a show of their own, but decided to stay in N.O.  Man.  Missing them twice on consecutive days is gonna haunt me for a long-ass time.
Watching the #1 LSU vs. #2 Alabama game ("Of The Century") right now, which is in overtime, while clad in my purple and gold BEAT BAMA shirt.  LSU is about to kick a potential game-winning field goal...

Planets with similar climates: Screaming Trees - "Shadow Of The Season" (1992), Kitchens Of Distinction - "What Happens Now?" (1992), Social Distortion - "So Far Away" (1990), The Replacements - "Alex Chilton" (1987), Hüsker Dü - "Games" (1985), The Church - "Metropolis" (1990).