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Friday, May 28, 2010

Bad Music Friday: Sixteen Stone by Bush



In middle school, I was feelin' the FUCK out of this album.

There are no words to describe the lyrics for the songs from this album, but I think the closest one is "random". Or maybe "incoherent". Either way they are unbelievably bad. How do bands like this get big? Is it because Gavin Rossdale is so dreamy? Well, I have a feeling that it was partly because of Gavin Rossdale. I don't think anyone ever thought his lyrics were actually good, but I think that post-Nirvana, his voice was like the middle of the progression of the popular rock singing trend that was preceded by Kurt Cobain and followed by that Puddle of Mudd douchebag. The record labels seem to love that shit. Or maybe it was because they had that awesome bald guy in the band?

Anyway, back then (in middle school), it was definitely one of those albums where there were the singles, and they were the only listenable thing on the whole album. This seems to have become a common symptom of a major label product for the most part. HERE IS THE WHOLE THING. DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES? DO YA? After listening, you should post your favorite lyrics in the comments! Yippee!!

1. Everything Zen


2. Swim


3. Bomb


4. Little Things


5. Comedown


6. Body


7. Machinehead


8. Testosterone


9. Monkey


10. Glycerine


11. Alien


12. X-Girlfriend

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Cinematography: Barry Lyndon by John Alcott







Wednesday, May 26, 2010

RANT TIME: Jandek (w/ Thurston Moore) - 4.29.2010 - Hollywood Theater, Portland



I've never seen a show succeed in pointing out all of the posers among the audience as well as this show.

About 40 minutes into the set of improv noisy jamming, people started to slowly trickle out of the auditorium. They were trying to be sneaky about it at first, slowly became more obvious about it, and eventually getting to the point of being all hipster art-fag-ish snotty with their exit. Meaning some woman and her dude left out of the exit door at the front of the theater, blinding all of us with the outside light after our eyes had adjusted to the barely lit stage inside the dark theater, and closing it with a giant slam. I have a feeling this must have been the same poser woman who yelled out "D.B. Cooper!" right when the show was about to start, when everyone was silent, I guess to try to get everyone into "party mode" or something. If I had come to the event WITH her, I would have disowned her immediately and sent her back to LA or whatever other place where people move to Portland from because of its "authenticity". By the time the lights came back up, about 90 minutes after they had been dimmed down, the auditorium was barely more than half full. What a shame for a show that was sold out and likely had a lot of people who actually wanted to see the show not be able to attend due to the SOLD-OUT-ISH-NESS of the evening.

I believe this to be the perfect illustration of Portland's Hipster/Poser Artist problem.

Going into this show, while you didn't know exactly what would happen, you had a rough idea of what to expect if you used your brain and had any familiarity with the artists that were performing. Jandek is an until-recently recluse, and what they refer to as an "Outsider Artist", who has put out almost a billion album since the late 70's. The fact that he was going to be performing with Thurston Moore said to me that perhaps something like this was happening for several reasons. The first being that it seemed very unlikely othey would be doing a set of Sonic Youth covers and really rocking out. But if they aren't going to do that, why fly Thurston Moore all the way to the opposite side of the country from where he usually hangs out? Would they really do all that just to have him accompany Jandek as an extra guitarist? Hmmm. Lets see. Well, I do know that both Thurston Moore (and Sonic Youth as a whole) like to experiment with noise and sounds. In fact, a lot of people are at least aware of that. There is even a lame attempt at a joke about that in the "movie" Juno. I heard people laugh at it when I was at the theater which says to me that the type of people who know enough about the two guys who were performing that night to actually buy a ticket and go, likely know that Thurston Moore does that sort of stuff A LOT. So lets see, we have an "outsider" musician and a constant noise musician performing together, my guess is that there is going to be something strange and different happening.

And yes, it was strange and different than what most everyone was expecting. I wasn't expecting it to be improvisation. I didn't know Jandek was into "Jamming". But as soon as it started, it made sense. It was strange and different and COOL. The guitar tones that Jandek was playing around with for the majority of the show were some of the most interesting tones I have ever heard come from a guitar. And watching Thurston Moore display his mastery of manipulating a guitar to make all sorts of different noises was a pleasure. Watching and listening to them play off of each other was a treat. All of it was great. I feel happy and privileged to have been able to be there for it. Two legends from two different music scenes, performing together, and I saw it, and it was awesome.

It's really too bad that many who were also there, couldn't look past what they were expecting, and had to leave in a disrespectful (to both the audience and the musicians) sort of way. It seems like they came to the show merely due to their need to be able to tell their poser friends that they saw Jandek, in the hopes that they might get the "cool" seat at the Aalto Lounge the next time they all get together.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Ladies and Gentleman.....Kyuss!










http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7Ske2eKX2g



Monday, May 24, 2010

Free Video Game of the Week: Turbo Granny



This game has everything you could desire in a good game: It's free, it's fun, it's funny, it's got bitchin music.

GET THAT GRANNY TO THE PHARMACY!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

My Favorite Record Labels: Ipecac Recordings



Ipecac Recordings has been one of my favorite record labels, if not my #1 top favorite, for almost a decade now.

Wiki Here

Here are my Top 15 Recommendations in no particular order (I like so much stuff on this label that I put a list of honorable mentions at the bottom that are worth your time as well):


1. Fantomas - The Director's Cut
see also: Delirium Cordia, Suspended Animation, Fantomas (self-titled)


2. Tomahawk - Mit Gas
see also: Tomahawk (self titled), Anonymous


3. Isis - Oceanic


4. Melvins/Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire


5. Dalek - Absence
see also: From the Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots


6. Mugison - Mugimama, Is This Monkey Music?
see also: Little Trip, Mugiboogie


7. Kaada - Music for Moviebikers


8. Hella - There's No 666 in Outer Space


9. Melvins - (a) Senile Animal
see also: Everything by the Melvins


10. Goon Moon - Licker's Last Leg


11. Zach Hill - Astrological Straits


12. Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Dolores
see also: Black Earth


13. Beak> - Beak>


14. Steroid Maximus - Ectopia


15. Phantomsmasher - Phantomasmasher

Stuff I didnt want to leave unmentioned (Honorable Mention, all high-quality releases):
Skeleton Key - Obtanium, Moistboyz - III, Ruins - Tzomborgha, Yoshimi and Yuka - Flower with No Color, Desert Sessions Vol. 9 & 10, Trevor Dunn's Trio Convulsant, Vincent and Mr. Green (self titled), General Patton vs. The Xecutioners (self titled), The Locust - Safety Second Body Last, Messer Chups - Crazy Price, Patton/Kaada - Romances CD and DVD, Farmer's Market - Surfin' USSR, Mike Patton - A Perfect Place and Mondo Cane, Zu - Carboniferous, Sax Ruins - Yawiquo

I guess they all can'tbe great though, so...
Don't Even Go Near These Albums:
Northern State - Can I Borrow This Pen?, Ghostigital - In Cod We Trust

Monday, May 17, 2010

Free Video Game of the Week: Tuper Tario Tros.



Well its the second Mario Bros. Mash-up game in 3 weeks, but what can I say? A fun game is a fun game. Tetris and Mario put together, and its way better than it sounds.

TUPER TARIO TROS.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Bad Music Friday: www.thug.com by Trick Daddy

NOTE: This is gonna be a new weekly post. I'll probably start out going through all of the awful stuff I listened to in high school and then move on from there. The choices are always going to be albums that I have spent time listening to at some point in my life.





The idea for this weekly spotlight came to me when this album came on my iPod when it was on shuffle the other day. Thats right I have it on my iPod. This is because I still like it despite the knowledge that www.thug.com(and if you ask me, Trick Daddy in general) really is pretty bad. The one thing that keeps drawing me back to this album, though, is his delivery on a handful of songs. There is a feeling of desperation and urgancy in the way he raps that I guess appeals to some part of my brain. But, don't get me wrong, everything about this album is pretty stupid. I would argue that the album cover (above) is one of the best of all time because it perfectly captures what the album sounds like, which I believe to be the job of the album cover. The bottom line is that I enjoy blasting it in my car, because its fun to both pretend you are into bad stuff, and to pretend you are still in high school, which I guess is kind of the same thing. At least it was for me.

HERE! SAMPLE THIS BEAUTY!





I guess that is all youtube has from this album, but if you are like me, and you have a soft spot for particular bad music, this is a "don't-miss", as they say.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Back When MTV Had Cool Stuff: The Maxx


THE MAXX was a show on MTV which was a faithful and well-made animated cartoon version of the comic book THE MAXX. It ran 13 episodes and was apart of MTV's whole "Oddities" line-up it had going on there for awhile with Aeon Flux (also great) and other things. It is still one of my favorite shows from the 90's. Well, I have good news. It looks like MTV has all of the full episodes available for streaming on their site, HERE, which is pretty awesome. Which is great because they never bothered releasing it on DVD.

WATCH THEM ALL!!!!

Here is what I was able to track down on youtube for the show:



The rest of the videos for this show available on youtube seem to be those crappy fanmade music videos using footage from the show. I have always hated those kinds of videos, so if you want to watch them you are going to have to do it yourself. But here is something interesting; it looks like someone made a THE MAXX video game for some Atari Jaquar competition:

Monday, May 10, 2010

Free Video Game of the Week: The Portal Flash Game




I, like many others, am a big fan of the First-Person Puzzle game, Portal. If you haven't played it, do yourself a favor and pick up THE ORANGE BOX, which features Portal along with Half Life 2 and its expansion pack, and Team Fortress 2. I picked up mine for 20 bucks brand new. A steal.

Anyway, here is a free 2D flash version of Portal. Great for any fan or newbie alike.

It will help you learn the basic concepts behind the full-on version of the game.

Also, some dude with a lot of time on his hands made an ASCII version of Portal.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Teen Daze - Shine On, You Crazy White Cap

Teen Daze - Shine On, You Crazy White Cap from zeeeeej on Vimeo.



My favorite thing about this video is that it shows that all you need for an effective video to a song is a feeling for the music, some footage, and some creativity.

Here is the band's Tumblr.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Free Video Game of the Week: SUPER MARIO CROSSOVER



Have you ever wanted to know what it was like to play through the original Super Mario Bros. with characters from other Nintendo games? HERE IS YOUR CHANCE.