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Is there some kind of reason I hadn't listened to Portishead before now? What the hell, self!

i've been listening to r u still in 2 it off of mogwai's first album on repeat all day long.

and yet i'm not sad!

As Ali might be able to tell you, I am currently listening to Alan Parsons Project...I never realized how fuckin' awesome they are or how vocally talented Eric Woolfson is. Holy banana-pancakes.

Shoot yeah, diggity...I didn't know I could have so much fun drinking and singing as loud as I can to The Turn of a Friendly Card.

By myself! and I am so extroverted it hurts.

Isn't the Alan Parsons Project some sort of hovercraft?

I bought Three yesterday, and it's pretty good. None of the tracks grab me like Sour Times or Wandering Star, but the beats are REALLY good, and original. It makes me bop around lke crazy.

I've been listening to NIN's "The Slip", since it's free. I like it, although it's just not as memorable as, say, "With Teeth". I'm downloading "Ghosts", too, since I never got around to listening to that one.

I decided to try a little experiment with "The Slip", since it's available in multiple formats. I downloaded both the MP3 and the FLAC, and tried listening to both, flipping back and forth and seeing if I could hear any difference. Maybe I have crappy audio hardware in my computer, and maybe I have crappy speakers and headphones, and maybe I have a crappy brain that has been ruined by years of listening to low-quality MP3s like the audiophiles say, but I really couldn't tell a difference. If there was a difference, it was at the distant, ragged edge of perceptibility.

Torche! Torche is fucking awesome like crazy awesome in ways I have a very hard time describing. It's like all the best melodic elements of Pelican with the grunge-indie sensibility of the early Smashing Pumpkins and chugging merciless riffs a la The Sword and the vocal and instrumental energy of The Marshes. I mean, I'm seriously floored. Check out Meanderthal, their new album, post haste.

Torche's Myspace page here.

man i liked them a lot then the guy started singing and WHAT ARE ALL THESE FUCKING BASEBALL HATS DOING IN MY LIVING ROOM?

i have boris tickets for july too! whee! and i go see a silver mt. zion on monday.

i spent today cleaning the house (i'm almost done) and i've decided

a) estradasphere is overrated
b) secret chiefs are underrated
c) most people could not tell them apart
d) i blame the government

today i discovered, much to my delight, that seasons in the abyss is still a really good album, despite the 8th grader lyrics.

You betcha! And some occasionally misogynistic hovercrafting, at that, if you take Eve (and especially its cover art) seriously. Being an old guy, I naturally think the earlier stuff is the best and I still listen to I, Robot and Pyramid occasionally. For those not in the know, Parsons previously engineered Dark Side of the Moon, and so his work was wildly popular with audiophiles back in the '70s, too.

I went to see This Will Destroy You in Austin on Friday, it was pretty dope:

some recent purchases:

new will oldham is really good. very poppy and country, though. but still.

new m83 is surprisingly enjoyable, though it is, as i said to a friend, "a giant glittery pile of cocaine where nothing will ever be the same."

new silver mt. zion? a lot rougher than earlier material. 1,000,000 died to make this sound is still the highlight, i think.

apparently sophie and someone else in asmz are putting out - or have put out - a stoner metal album with just a two piece, so the new album kind of makes a lot of sense.

Trivium's "Ascendancy". Got it yesterday at a street fair - they had a good selection of semi-obscure stuff, and I was trying to remember what I'd heard on Live365 and liked. "Ascendancy" is OK. At its best, it's chunky, complex riffing and grooving reminiscent of Arch Enemy or Dimension Zero. At its worst, it's generic nu-metal. What's weird is that both of these can occur within the same song. "A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation" is probably the best track.

I saw Live open up for Jane's Addiction back in 2001, right after 9/11. At one point during their set their singer draped himself in an American flag and made the rest of the band exit the stage so that he could do some weepy a capella posturing. It was the most grandiose display of self-absorption. It made me want to throw up. In fact, I didn't like their set. But their pretentious singer was, without question, the worst part.

EDIT: But I am glad you are gleaning some enjoyment of their recordings, Stevo. I didn't mean to sound so hateful of your band. That's just one of those instances that I'll always remember of how gag-inducing political posturing by celebrities can be.

smacky --

Sigh. Alas, lots of good musicians and actors and artists are assholes, especially WRT their politics, so I'm not super-surprised. Their lyrics might make me throw up too if I could figure their meaning out completely, but either the words consists of subtle and oblique metaphors or else it's just free association imagery like old Kansas lyrics that doesn't actually mean anything specific. Probably somewhere in between.

EDIT: Also, I have to give them credit for having a hit song that has the word "placenta" in the second line. There aren't a lot of bands out there that can say that. Especially about one falling to the floor.

I've been listening to Loveless over the past few days to coincide with the My Bloody Valentine reunion. Blown a Wish has probably surpassed I Only Sleep as my favorite song. That Japancakes cover album from last year is also pretty good, even if it does at times sound like elevator music.

This video from one of their first reunion shows is awesome and hilarious:

Right at this moment? I'm listening to Atmosphere by Joy Division, Na Nanana by The Squalls, Strange Little Girl by The Stranglers, and Say Hello, Wave Goodbye by Marc Almond. In that order. And for dessert, I think something by The Smiths. Or The Clash. Or both.

Nobunny loves you.

*Edit* Maybe a Little Bit Sorta Maybe Not Safe for Work Maybe On Second Viewing Sorta

I'm not that big of a fan of his, but I enjoyed this video a lot:

I don't see how it was not safe for work. I finally just saw this now since I can't do any streaming at work.

I liked it! Good video. I love a good cartoon. This was a good cartoon.

So I'm kinda based in La Jolla for now, although I'm in Manhattan Beach too...

...and San Diego always puts me in a Ragga state of mind... ...and I've been revisiting some of my old haunts. I was at the Shores earlier this week. I went to Rivermouth. They won't let you build bonfires down there anymore. I was in Pacific Beach and Solana. I got up the first time off Solana Beach when I was a kid... I haven't surfed in almost twenty years now. Damn.

Anyway, they play a lotta Reggae on the local radio down here. ...and there's this local band that I'm listening to. Yeah, they've been around for a long time, but "2 AM" seems to be big on the radio right now, and the band's coming to a town near you*. ...so straight outta Ocean Beach...

It's Slightly Stoopid. It's what I've been listening to.

http://www.myspace.com/stoopid

Check out 2 AM.

*Unless you're in the Midwest. ...in which case I guess they aren't coming to a town near you. ...at least not in August. Do people in the Midwest listen to Regge?

If not, they should. ...sometimes. Sometimes nothing else will do.

Turbonegro! Kind of NWOBHM meets New York punk as interpreted by a bunch of Norwegians. Imagine Frank Zappa writing lyrics for music composed by the Clash, subsequently covered by early Def Leppard. No, I am not making this up.

I think they have sometimes gone by TRBNGR when it was adjudged preferable. Hey, even "Turbonegro" might be somewhat preferable to the un-Anglicized version of their name, "Turboneger".

Oh, and they completely intended the racial meaning, AFAICT. Partly because Norwegians just don't have the same history of racial awareness that USAnians do, and partly because they're just like that. I doubt they'd get much airplay anyway, given that a lot of their songs are about things like wiping your ass.

The Airborne Toxic Event

Never heard of 'em in my life until Sirius. Holy crap, that sound is totally me. Great melody. Great lyrics. Sincere and sad, but not whiny.

Santogold.

Unique sound that is easy to Get Stuck In Head.

I've been listening to what I think would be called American folk/roots. I really can't have enough of "Pretty Saro" and "A Roving on a Winter's Night". In fact, I'd like to ask you guys if you know exactly what genre of music these are (I was told folk/roots, but am not sure or need something more specific because folk/roots seems to be oo generic) and if you have more suggestions of similar songs.

and sometimes you get cirque du soleil assailing the western tradition by way of a folk-metal-showtunes extravaganza.

the european tradition, filtered through years of rock, metal, theatre and a thousand and one schoolyard beatings:

I've been listening to The Estranged

I REALLY like this band. And they're coming to a town near you!

...unless you don't live in Portland, New York, Somerville, Mass., Waterbury, Conn., Providence or Montreal. ...in which case I guess they aren't coming to a town near you. ...at least they aren't scheduled to for the next couple of months or so. ...yet.

http://www.myspace.com/theestrangedpdx

Thanks, dhex.

I am guessing smacky or DAR would know.

I don't know what it is, but I think it is a combination of the vocals, the fact that usually a group is singing as opposed to a single singer, and, I think because there is also a story being told.

I also like blue grass music a lot. Especially the stuff from down in KY. I hear that music a lot on local stations in upstate NY and VT. Very nice and relaxing.

Sunn 0))) makes me feel like I need better speakers, but if I had them, it would just piss off the neighbors.

the threshold houseboys choir, the post-coil project by peter christopherson. makes me wish i was going to brainwaves in boston at the end of november.

in name dropping news, the dudes from dead prez are hellaciously nice guys.

oh snap youtube:

the wife went to see the legendary pink dots last night. verdict: new material is fucking awful wank that makes their prog-laden fanbase* happy, but they also played a bunch of old stuff for the closer which made her very happy.

the new album, which i'm listening to now, is really sloppy and shitty. texture-wise, it's fine, but it sounds like something from 1981, and not in a good way. very, very repetitive and lyrically lazy.

*their fanbase is sadly really, really stupid. these are the people who thought ryan moore was the worst thing to happen to them, even if he was the only competent percussionist and bassist they've ever had, and by competent i mean fucking brilliant because the dude has ears of gold.

Listening to Jesse Walker's "Celebration of Fear" on his radio show on WCBN. All kinds of awesome, but it makes me muy triste that I missed the first hour, and I'm not home so I can't record it.

Just picked up Metallica's "S&M" album they did with the San Francisco Orchestra. One word: Awesome!!