The Learned Pig Eats Your Pop Music.

Occupancy of the Hormones

2010-07-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

For loud summertime car trips - Occupancy of the Hormones.

1. Collision With A Frogman... - Swell Maps
2. Roaming the Foam - LFTR PLLR
3. My Valuable Hunting Knife - Bils Negra (GBV cover)
4. Smile Now - Thee Headcoats
5. Got To Get Me A Job - Ann Alford
6. With My Rifle - Bloody Phoenix
6. Big Bed - Danko Jones
7. Money I$ King - Lee Fields & the Expressions
8. Animal Party - King Khan & the BBQ Show
9. Captured Danish Photographer - Men's Recovery Project
10. She Ain't A Child No More - Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
11. World of Mirrors - France Has the Bomb
12. Women Police in England - The Mighty Terror & His Calypsonians
13. Yr Belligerent Face - Dan Melchior und Das Menace
14. Flat Foot Hustlin' - Dillinger
16. I'm So Glad You Love Me - Juanita Rogers (Sun Ra Doo-Wop Jawn)
17. Nothing Left Inside - Karp

Get at some loud, in-the-car jamz this summer. Sho' ya right!

These Minerals We Seem Lacking

2010-06-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

I promised the Doog that I would compile hims some "between sets jams" for him to rock whilst being a soundguy at various rock clubs. Doog is the only live music aficionado I know who hates music. So he has been alternating between a Meters collection and Talking Heads - Remain in Light for several years while bands get their shit together. I mean, he could have picked worse shit to groove out to between changing over gear, but I understand the frustration of the club managers who are probably sick of "The Great Curve".

So while I am diggin' in the crates and trying to paint some aural buffet for my man to use on the job, I can't seem to put down Plants and Animals latest, La La Land. I was not bowled over by 2008's Parc Avenue - it seemed to leave a lot of holes where the songs could have gotten much more rich and then would just fall flat. But La La Land picks up with a much more cerebral meatiness... less folk-noodling that seemed to be so en vogue with the success of bands like Animal Collective, who every indie band seemed to be aping at the time.

I have not seen the live show translation of Plants and Animals, but there definitely seems to be a lot of room for improvisation. I am hoping they stay "plugged in" and keep the layers working, because La La Land is a solid listen. It may be a little too difficult to fit into the Doog's mid-show setlists, but I may try to sneak a track like "Fake It" into one of the more energetic moments.

Check La La Land here... and then, if you are down, do the right thing.

Driving and Talk Radio: Go Fuck Yerself

2010-05-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

It has finally worn off... I cannot stomach anymore talk radio. These pandering windbags on the right and the left are just stoking the social brain damage with every passing caller. the people that call are certainly 38 - 42% dialing in from some payphone in an asylum somewhere. Don't expect me to back this up with some over-the-top bullshit segment I heard today or yesterday or whenever... this is a culmination of the isolated brain wanderings inflicted upon me by my 2 hours of isolation per day trapped in Ye Olde Family Truckster to and fro the shore from my suburban home.

I am going to now only listen to heavy, evil, angst-ridden sludge so that I may surround myself in a deafening sonic cocoon that reflects the dangerous and primeval thoughts that I mull over at a maddening rate while swerving thru shit-fuck tourists at 90 MPH on yonder AC Expressway.

Can you handle the deep fucking rage? I am gonna bringin it to you directly, and it's disfigured, scarred, and oozing-tumor face will stare back and whelp it's tears of despair. You will know just how I feel.

Where is the Learned Pig?

2010-04-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

Don't cry yet children... these shadows run long and deep, but the darkness wanes for the sake of heaven's gravity.

What does that mean?

It means I am stirring the stew and the shit is hot.

Pistols At Dawn (could only work for so long...)

2009-07-21T21:40:00.000-07:00

Hey, I like making mixtapes. You do too... come on. Who hasn't made one for their lady or dude in the day?
Yeah, no one has actually put the shit on a cassette in ages, but a mixtape is a mixtape, right?

For several years now, the Dibbick Schmibbick Collective has taken the art form of mixtape composure to a next level, a nearly competitive stratus. We started hosting Mix Trade Parties as a way to challenge one another into making the "most fly" mixtape and then sharing it with the group. Inevitably, themes pop up or common strings to make sense of all the song-mashing... I love it.
I was always the dude who would force his headphones on unsuspecting chumps or force people to "hey, wait... listen to this shit!" when hanging out. My late entry into the world of driving held me back from forcing others to listen whatever kooky jams I would be bumping in the whip, so I had to make up for it by working at Hall of Heroes and playing the most anti-retail music I could come up with to drive my Michal Jackson-obsessed boss up a tree.
So, I am natural mixtape obsessive. I have spent years working on my craft. MP3s and the digital media have made the shit almost too easy... just draggin' and droppin' shit into a playlist isn't the same as spending hours in front of your tape deck making sure your 'transitions' are on point. But c'est la vie... I go with what works. Embrace the future.

Just a few weeks ago, my main man Jack Luminous hosted this summer's Mix Trade BBQ and my goofy summer schedule prohibited me from joining the fracas. But that does not mean I didn't compose a submission that I am very proud of. Early on, while thinking of what I would do to put the "most fly" mixtape together, I was inspired by the couplet "...but pistols at dawn, could only work for so long..." from the Destroyer track Helena (click here for the Dan Bejar lyric generator - it's fun and will give you snob points +5). Heavily drawing from the term Pistols At Dawn, I wanted to craft a mix that would evoke the feeling of morning, or sunrise. As most of my mixes tend to do, the shit went off-track real quick, though there are some elements of "morning" and "renewal" and of "breaking the fast" present in my ultimate selections. Though the theme can be a little heavy-handed at times, I think I approached the mix with a really open-mind and let loose with some shit that has been in both heavy rotation and, as always is the unspoken intention of the mixtape, some shit that I am hoping will get those that may be unfamiliar with the artists chosen perhaps a bit more familiar.

So, here is my submission - Pistols At Dawn. I had some dope artwork worked out for it, and still plan on distributing the "hard copies" as it were, so the images used her are like the plan B jawns.

PISTOLS AT DAWN - TLP 2K9 / PIX MADE TRARTY
1. The Wheel Rolls On - Archie Bronson Outfit
2. Early In The Morning - Harry Nilsson
3. Indian Summer - Spectrum (Sonic Boom)
4. First Heart Mighty Dawn Dart - T Rex
5. Mini-Manhunt - David Shire
6. Check Your Bucket - Eddie Bo (NOLA)
7. Empty Is - Frank Sinatra
8. Helena - Destroyer
9. Can You See? - Thee Oh Sees
10. Wild Eyes - Vivian Girls
11. Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down - Kris Kristofferson
12. Tight Frame Loose Frame - Smart Went Crazy
13. Weeds Breaking Through The Concrete - Jonathan Richman
14. Good Morning Kaptain - Jackie-O Motherfucker
15. Shelter - Black Mountain
16. I Don't Feel at Home In This World Anymore - Two Gospel Keys

So, download the shit here. But, because I love everything I added to this mix and would be stoked to see the artists get theirs, each track in the listing above is linked to a spot to buy the shit right-proper. Do the right thing.

And to those involved in JL's Mix trade BBQ that I pussied out on and and could not make it to, I am very sorry. Please know that I have the hardest of the hard copy ready for you to hold in your grubby hands.

Oh hey...

2009-05-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

OK, I fell off.

Right now, I am braising two enormous veal chops for stuffing whilst roasting an onion and fighting evil all at once. I am a busy guy. Smacking my lips and shaking my ass.

I know that being hyped on David Shire's incredible score to the original Taking of Pelham One Two Three is kinda bullshit what with the new adaptation set to be released this summer... but this Denzel busted-ass remake will have nothing on the original 1974 Walter Matthau high-stepper. And I am damn sure the music will not come close to the erratic, bombastic street-funk that won David Shire two Grammys. So, I will still be hyped.

And this Denzel/Travolta madness will need to be really really good for me to even consider it for viewing (unlike the dirty made-for-TV Edward James Olmos disaster...).

Get with it.

David Shire - The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (Original Motion Picture Score)
Tracklisting (12"):
A1 Main Title (2:18)
A2 The Taking (1:51)
A3 Blue (0:32)
A4 More Taking (0:59)
A5 Dolowitz Takes (0:59)
A6 Dolowitz Killed (1:25)
A7 Blue Green Talk (1:59)
A8 Money Montage 1 (0:55)
A9 Money Montage 2 (2:57)
A10 Fifty Seconds (0:50)
B1 The Money Express (3:55)
B2 Conductor Killed (1:18)
B3 The Money Bag (0:38)
B4 The Pelham's-Moving-Again-Blues (3:10)
B5 I'm A Police Officer (0:56)
B6 Renewing Disguises (0:47)
B7 Goodbye Green, Hello Garber, Goodbye Hippie (1:10)
B8 Smoking More, Enjoying It Less (0:26)
B9 Mini-Manhunt (2:12)
B10 End Title (3:00)

Calendar years and I am supposed to do what...?

2009-01-08T22:21:00.000-08:00

2008 has passed unromantically into 2009.

We are now three years closer to imminent doom, if you ask my wife or the Mayans or Nostradamus or any of those other crackpots. I stopped worrying about the 'bolt from the blue' when I was 8 years old and read Marvel Secret Wars.
( -- for those not hip to this Jim Shooter masterpiece/action figure tie-in, all the Marvel superheros and super villains (like The Wrecker?) are scuttled off to some patchwork planet to fight an epic battle to amuse this godlike entity known as the Beyonder. The winner of the battle will be given anything they desire... so of course, super baddest dude of all, Dr. Doom, decides that rather than fighting the same heroes that had been kicking his ass for the last 30 years - he would try to usurp the power directly from the Beyonder. Well, the crazy shit worked, kinda, and rather than just disintegrating the heroes into dust, he gets all dramatic and tosses a powerful energy blast into their HQ to shred them to pieces. Of course, because the power of the Beyonder is so great, Doom cannot contain it all within his mortal mind and it runs astray and his paranoia begins to bring back the dead superheroes until they are all back in action and kick Doom's ass... again. It's a damn good story for being written simply to sell a toy line. )

Anyway, I always feel like I have to rummage thru every top ten or top fifty or top whatever list that comes out this time of year.... whether about music or movies or books, I really give these lists a shot. I guess because I just want to find something new that someone else found merit in... so I am ecure I wont be completely busted.

From the always hit-or-miss Pitchfork Best Albums of 2008, I found this posthumous gem from Arthur Russell... the LP Love Is Overtaking Me. Boy... I cannot stop listening to this collection of very emotionally charged 'folk' compositions. Russell's ability to paint a story over his faint but powerful acoustic guitar is as compelling as it is subdued. Russell seemed to travel in quite luminary circles during his all too brief time on the Earth - Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, David Byrne. Those relationships make sense when you hear the literary quality of his lyricism and the classical, maybe even minimalist, arrangement of his compositions.
Hey, for once, Pitchfork got it right and stopped worrying about BPM and more about authentic song crafting and human storytelling thru the folk that isn't folk.

Love Is Overtaking Me was digitally restored by Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear. Culled from the many tapes Russell recorded during his final 10 - 20 years before passing from AIDS in 1991. Released on the Audika label, I don't think it will be the last posthumous collection we see from Arthur Russell... at least I hope not.
<click here for download>

$1.77

2008-11-20T21:38:00.000-08:00

I paid $1.77 per gallon for gas today. Just wait 'til the inauguration, when the other shoe drops and the shit is $4/gallon again.
And the expressway tolls went up to $3.75 per trip... that's $7.50 a day.
Driving eats my shit.

To combat this crass commercialism and my refusal to willfully accept the crushing depression brought on by having to pay outrageous sums of cash money just to get to work, I present The Pop Group's uncompromising 1980 LP - For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?

If you are worried that The Pop Group might sound like the Bay City Rollers or Britney Spears, then maybe you deserve to pay $7.50 to drive to work and home again. So I will be listening to this crazy shit in my mini-van, sneering and shaking my fist along with the super-hardcore funk miasma. It will take away the pain.

Fuck - Baby Loves a Funny Bunny

2008-09-03T15:52:00.001-07:00

I love this album, the CD came in a giant matchbox.

Boy Meets Girl
Swinger
Love Me 2
Flight of the Mongeese
Tired
22 No
Nice Burg, Lettuce
Talent, OR
Ballet High
Part of Me
Rococo
Like You
Loosened Mind?
Crush a Butterfly
Whimper and Cry
(untitled)

It was released on the 'Walter Rhesus Lampighter' label, which I am pretty sure was a vanity label. I remember there was a show at either the Khyber or some similar joint where Come opened for Fuck.. I thought that was a little backwards.

Enjoy.

If you're going to race with the devil, you've got to be as fast as Hell!

2008-07-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

I wake up a lot in the middle of the night. It comes with the territory of being a neurotic narcoleptic with sleep apnea. I am sleepy all day and I can't sleep for 8 hours straight. So I watch a lot of shitty movies... because that's what is on TV at 3:30AM when I wake up. Rarely I will come across something that interests me enough to keep me up.
Last night I watched "Race With the Devil", an incredible chase thriller from 1975 starring Peter Fonda and Warren Oates. I read a bit about it this morning and of course there are plans to remake it this year... I am sure it will suck my balls and motherfucking Ashton Kutcher or some other asshole will star.
Anyhow, the movie revolves around 2 married couples on vacation in an RV. They stop in some secluded area for the night and get drunk (like people used to do in movies) only to stumble across some locals performing a fucking-A gruesome Satanic sacrificial ritual. They try to do the right thing and report the crime only to discover that the fuckers in town are all in on the shit. This sets them on a trip out of the stick with hope of getting to the "big city" so they can analyze a blood sample and set things straight.
The trip to the city is plagued by intense paranoia and kooky characters. The closer they get to salvation, the more shit gets in their way... great cinematography, and Peter Fonda's frustration with the loopy shit that is going on lead to a terrifying epic chase scene. Good flick.

Anyway, I was so disturbed by this damn movie that I never got back to sleep, so I made a playlist to accompany my feelings of dread and hopelessness. I will post it soon.

And put "Race With the Devil" in your netflix queue before Hollywood fucks up and remakes it.

GRILLZ BE HOT... (cookin the motherfuckin Brontosaurus burger, Gus)

2008-05-26T07:20:00.000-07:00

"Get away from that grill you dun'know how to start a fire... You dun'know how start no fire, put this fire out. This ain't no fire goddamnit...
Eddie. Eddie go over there get all of that wood I need half a tree. Chop that tree. Chop down that tree and give me the wood.
And Charlie go get me 10 gallons of gasoline out the shed... we needs 10 gallons of gasoline, you kids roll up your shirt we're gonna start a fire!
Come on, you wanna eat? You wanna eat?. Then shut up and put it on the fire.
OK, put that wood on the side there. OK gimme the gasoline, Charlie. Hold the match, when I tell you, throw the match on the gasoline, all right? When I tell you, right? We gonna make a fire.
We gonna eat.
Here we go pour the gasoline on like this.
We need the whole ...get that goddamn lighter fluid out of here we can't use that shit.
Using all the 10 gallons gasoline on this wood. And make a fire, we're gonna eat a hamburger, OK? Here we go, Charlie ...throw the match...

NOW THAT'S A FIRE!
That's a fire, look at that, look at that!

He be alright... roll Charlie 'round, roll him around."

Since its officially Cookout Season - Please indulge yourself Mr. Murphy's finest hour, Delirious, the audio from the infamous 1983 HBO special that pretty much cemented my sense of humor for years to come. This MP3 rip does not include the AIDS bit for some reason... I guess some PC wingnut decided it was too radical in 2008... who knows.

but shit, I do it well, so what the fuck...

2008-04-28T06:49:00.000-07:00

I worked like a beast last week. It was good for me... working hard can cleanse the soul a little. I dived into shit; writing SOPs, training guides, etc. Opening a new hotel is something I took for granted when I was part of the opening of Borgata... didn't have the responsibilities I have now.

Over 70 hours.. and now, day 3 of a 3-day weekend of recuperation. I should be working today, but its my turn to take care of the kids when the normal daycare option fell thru. Shame too.. its a crappy day which means we are stuck inside all day...and Char took the carseats. So, I am setting up a new PC... retrieving bookmarks, files, re-installing programs, etc. I expect to be ripping a bunch of stuff I never ripped before, so expect to see some shit uploaded soon. I have been neglecting the reason I opened this blog. I really thought someone would care about my drivel regarding the pop music. Somebody out there is downloading the shit, but no one leaves comments... I feel shunted.

Anyhow, here is 'Blues and Boogie Shoes' the only release from The Keene Brothers... a collab betwixt Mr. Robert Pollard and session guitarist Tommy Keene. I nabbed this from BCO a few nights a go and haven't listened to anything but since. Mature pop songs by dudes who know how to rock and let it out of the cage. As always, Pollard's lyrics and faux Brit accent charm me like no other, but with Keene's strong, but chimey guitar, the songs develop into something more than Pollard has offered in quite long time (read: back to the Tobin Spout glory days of GbV). I hope these two decide to collaborate agin soon, this a remarkably solid performance of adult-oriented pop-rock... just enough Blue Oyster Cult and paisley underground references to make it want to dig into my Pollard crate... so many hits, yet so many misses. I guess when you release something every other month for 20-some years. not everything is going to be 'Bee Thousand'.

Released form Pollard's Fading Captain Series... which brought us such well-received gems like Nightwalker's "In Shop We Build Electric Chairs: Professional Music from Nightwalker" and HowlingWolf Orchestra's "Speed Traps For The Bee Kingdom". Chuckle.

Awesome Saturday Squad

2008-04-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

I have been obsessed with Saturdays since I was like old enough to know what they were.

When I was a wee lad, my brother and I would wake up at 6am to watch cartoons. The cartoons that are on now on Saturdays all blow. And that's not me being a cynical, jaded old man either. As a father of two young girls, I watch more cartoons than I do baseball (a crime really). There are some cartoons I really like a lot; Foster's, WonderPets, Jimmy Neutron, even Spongebob (despite the crass commercialism... who can't love a show where all the voice actors are Mr. Show and Carnivale alumni?).

When I got a bit older, Saturday became the day that college football was on and that meant going over my Pop-Pop's house to watch Notre Dame or Penn State and eating dinner with Grandmom (almost always 'Mac n Meat' or ham and cabbage). Man, I loved talking to Pop-Pop about WWII and baseball and just all types of awesome shit. He would tell me the best stories... taught me about boxing, and tried to teach me how to maintain a nice lawn, but that lesson was lost somewhere through the years.

I used to wake up on Saturday mornings raring to go... sometimes my Dad would take Francis and me to the Deptford Mall (pre-food court) and we would get cookies at the bad-ass cookie shop that sold cookies by the pound. Then we would play pinball and video games at the arcade. My Dad was a pinball master and tried desperately to get me to carry his torch, but I am a fair pinballer at best. I was really good at Tetris and Pac-Man and shit, though that didn't impress Dad all that much. Trips to the mall also meant comic books for me and baseball cards for Fran. This was the golden age... I was 8 or 9... 1987ish... Marvel was still awesome. There was only 3 X-Men books (Uncanny, New mutants & X-Factor)... I used to be obsessed with Walt Simonson's Thor too... his lettering was always so different than other books at the time, it made me feel like they were really special.

Then, the Deptford Mall started to change... food court, etc. Plus, I started to change... I no longer wanted to go to the Mall on Saturdays with my Dad, and especially not with my brother. Of course, the whole point of going to the Mall now was to sit in the food court and check out chicks all day. My friends would skate halfway to the Mall, then walk the rest of the way... those walks were amazing. We would talk about shit that would blow my mind... stuff I had never thought of until Bruno or Jay Stell would remark about it. I grew up so much by walking to the Deptford Mall on Saturday afternoons with my skateboard and like 4 dollars in my pocket (usually enough for a Snapple and a chicken salad sandwich from Chick-fil-A).

We would stack up our skateboards on the table like we were tough or something... then just sit there talking shit all day long. It was fantastic. I would pay a million dollars to just have one more Saturday afternoon at the Deptford Mall with those motherfuckers.

Once chicks became a fully realized part of my life, Saturdays turned into time with the GF. In high school, I always had a GF. Not that I was some stud or something (far from it, in fact), but I was the type of dude who stuck with people that showed interest in what I had to say... I am still that way I guess. Saturdays with the GF would usually be pretty awesome... there was no responsibilities, I had no job, school didn't matter to me (it probably should have, looking back)... we would hang out in my awesome attic room in Runnemede or just walk around, or spend the whole day eating frozen corndogs in Bruno's basement. Always felt great on Saturdays.

Even once I started working and was out of school, Saturdays were still always great. When I worked in the Mall (Echelon this time) it was as awesome as when I used to just hang out there as a younger kid. Work then was never stressful or difficult. It was just another place to hang out. I had an awesome job, I listened to my own music and sold comic books and magic cards. What was hard about that? Sure, I got paid shit... but I also had my own joint.

Since I turned eighteen I was living with Charlene in various levels of poverty. We always had a blast on Saturdays though, even though we were poor, we were always happy. Almost every Sat night in Collingswood would be a party. And not some bullshit frat-guy drink until you die party... we would actually really enjoy ourselves with a few friends and tons of conversation. Collingswood is where my lifelong friendships were cemented... but after awhile those Saturday nights with the Saturday Squad started getting Charlene and I thinking that maybe we could be better adults.

So we up and moved to Florida... to grow together, and learn about each other at a deeper level. I proposed to Charlene on a Saturday, in a mall... how fitting , right? Florida, though shitty, was still pretty awesome on Saturdays. When I was working at the Shell Convenience Mart, I used to occasionally take the open-close shift by myself all day. Though these days were long and arduous, but again, I have never had a job that I considered HARD WORK. I would sit in the joint all day and watch the denizens of Gulf Coastal Florida parade around in their pick-ups on their way to Wal-Mart or wherever the fuck. I used to love those all day Saturday shifts... I was allowed to bring in a radio, play my music (imagine walking into a Wawa and hearing Black Flag at 6 in the morning...HA) and sit on my ass all day. I used to keep a journal there... I should look for it.

So Florida worked... it turned Char and I into adults (kinda) and so we moved back to NJ looking for careers and plans to start a family. These Saturdays were seemingly the best of all. When I was working at Bally's AC, I always had to work the late swing shift (4p-Midnight) which was ideal for a people watcher like me... I would hang out in whatever store I was scheduled at and just watch degenerate gamblers and NY vacationers and elderly daytrippers and the faux-hip young set with spray-on tans and shitty hair. I used to look forward to working on Saturday nights because the walk from Bally's to the train station was always an adventure. This was before the Walk Outlets and Michigan Avenue used to be a fucking sad scene on a Saturday night. Aged hookers, homeless, broke-ass gamblers trying to scam motherfuckers... always a good time. I love to watch dystopia in action.

Once Char and I married, I started working at Borgata shortly after, then Jane came right after that... this changed me pretty considerably, I'm sure you can imagine. Saturdays started to become less of an important day to me because it meant that I was going to be away from Charlene and Jane, then Eleanor... my Saturdays became just another workday... it was better than say, Tuesday or whatever, but now Sunday was my favorite day. Saturday nights would occasionally be really fun... Schmib karaoke nights, various parties with old heads, what have you. But the day I looked forward to all week became Sunday. Sunday is the day I wake up with Charlene and the kids, make breakfast, lounge and play, maybe have an adventure like families do... always eat an early dinner together, and usually spend the nights watching Jane and Ellie dance or put on shows for us. I love my Sundays.

So since it is Sunday, but I am feeling a little old school Saturday action... here is The Four Mints - Gently Down Your Stream. The Four Mints were a soul group from Ohio in the early 70's... they are the second RnB group to use the moniker "The Four Mints"... but the jams are where its at. Its the kind of soul music i wish I had playing on the radio in my bedroom when I was 12, doing my hair before going to the mall... instead, I had shitty Tom Cochrane on shitty Eagle 106 playing shitty Life is A Highway.

So check out the Four Mints anthology... maybe wait til Saturday to play it.... my recommendation would be to play it after a shower while getting ready to do whatever you do on a Saturday.
YERP!

Hiccupping thru grunge

2008-04-01T10:51:00.000-07:00

After reading Our Band Could Be Your Life, I had a greater appreciation for Mudhoney. Also, a greater appreciation for Sub-Pop and especially photographer Charles Peterson. I had always seen the images of grunge-era record sleeves and noticed the similarity (check Nirvana's Bleach, Soundgarden's Ultramega OK, and of course Mudhoney's compilation of early singles Supefuzz Bigmuff... strangely, Peterson had nothing to do with the sleeve for Mudhoney single Touch Me, I'm Sick yet that was chosen as the title for his rock retrospective released in 2003) but never researched the photographer... perhaps I naively believed that all grunge shows were photographed in that gritty, in-your-face fashion (as they should be).

So now that I dig backwards thru the underbelly of grunge that I missed the first time around, due to splitting my music attention span between grunge, metal, and hip-hop... then directly into street punk, I find that Mudhoney is clearly my favorite from that era. Mostly because of Mark Arm's ability to write songs that deliver a heavy sound without the melodrama or macho metaphors in the lyrics as used by many of his contemporaries at the time.

Here is Superfuzz Bigmuff, the aforementioned collection of Mudhoney singles from the early days of Sub-Pop. It was released in 1990, I was 11 and still fascinated by Guns-n-Roses. Now I know that if I would have been rocking out to this shit back then, I would not have felt the joy I feel now by discovering it after having to deal with the GnR scenario.

Dont undermind me...

2008-03-25T03:34:00.000-07:00

I am paranoid lately. I think the other shoe is gonna drop at any moment. In the meantime, I rock steady...

Easter played out in a way I would not have imagined... easy-peezy. No breakdowns. No sniffling. Just good eats and sore feets.

I want you to taste my Green Bean Casserole. Listen to "...don't shortchange the Muse." again, if you never did the first time.

When I drop, it'll drop.

With Deerhoof

2008-03-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

I never gave Deerhoof much of a chance early on. My experience with the band had been limited to the songs I had heard off of their EP Green Cosmos which was entirely in Japanese and lent itself to sounding as totally off the wall, screechy half-serious j-pop-esque derivatives . I wanted to be down, I knew that KRS wouldn't lead me astray or their (at that time newly created) sub-imprint 5RC.
The first track from The Runners 4, 'Chatterboxes', immediately ingrained a more cohesive sound than before. The composition over individual sound mentality that fractured Apple'O and Milkman (for me at least) gave way to deeper harmonics and a defined song sentiment. The Green Cosmos EP was vocalist's Satomi Matsuzaki opportunity to refine her singing style in her native Japanese and she came back top The Runners 4 with a more refined approach to English harmony.
Slim Moon's Kill Rock Stars records has its best selling and longest-producing artist with Deerhoof. Though they rarely seem to tour the East Coast, so I cant say for myself, I have heard they put on terrific and lenghty live performances with the impassioned Matsuzaki tearing into vocals while longtime drummer Greg Saunier keeps the time signatures changing frequently and into places you wouldn't expect them to go.

The Runners 4 is the longest Deerhoof release to date and probably their best portal for new fans. Songs like 'O'Malley, Former Underdog' and 'Lightning Rod Sun' are great examples of the band solidifying their varied inputs and elevating their eccentricities into a refined composition.

The Runners 4 was released on Kill Rock Stars as LP and CD in 2005.

Download it here, and please as always, if you dig it, fork over some dough and pick it up in the tangible good commerce sense or pick up any other Deerhoof releases.

Deerhoof - Official page

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The Pop Off (expect them to be fast and furious...)

2008-03-05T14:44:00.000-08:00

Good evening, I have been expecting you. This is the 3rd time I have created a blog thru blogger. All other times (along with livejournal, the Schmib's "blog", etc.) I have fizzled out of interest with this online diary bullshit before compiling even a fly-shit size collection of content. This time, I am not going to approach the need to document my thoughts with such ennui. Maybe.

All the blogs I read nowadays are filled with "new media". Vids, pics, MP3s, you name it... I have always wanted to do record reviews. So I think I am gonna... right here, and I wanna post the records I review so that I can get people to groove to the shit I am grooving to. I don't expect a ton of success... but I am always thrilled to be blog-surfing and stumble upon some record I have been searching for... I get even more happy to see the words of some stranger who felt the same way I did when they played the music. I check out alot of blogs that I cant even read (I am barely monolingual) but I can stil see the excitement in the foreign text about some awesome song that I also thought was awesome.

So I guess thats why I want to do this. And I just like sharing music and the fellings music makes me have, I always have. I get obsessive about putting together mixes. As inconvenient a format as it is, I miss the cassette tape. Something about having that break between sides made mix tapes the artform that mix CDs will never be.

Its gonna come like lightning, I am gonna drop them in all over the place. Get ready.