Some Words

Waiting for law school to start up, and pottering around around getting moving stuff done, I’ve ended up watching a fair amount of History Detectives on PBS. The show is about people investigating artifacts from the past to see if they have any historical significance. You questions like, “Was this rifle owned by Herman Goering?”

The show, once you get into it, can be fun, but I don’t understand why they chose “Watching the Detectives” by Elvis Costello for the theme song. On the surface, sure, it makes sense. Yet, when you look at the lyrics of the song, you start to wonder. I’ll just grab a scrap.

They call it instant justice when it’s past the legal limit.
Someone’s scratching at the window. I wonder who is it?
The detectives come to check if you belong to the parents
who are ready to hear the worst about their daughter’s disappearance.
Though it nearly took a miracle to get you to stay,
it only took my little fingers to blow you away.

It seems a little dark. The show often borders on goofy. Even when the story is about something dark, they keep it light. Every time the heavily edited theme comes on, mangling one of my favorite Costello songs, I can’t help but laugh.

Slowly, slowly the email is catching up and the big project is getting finished. This is not at the rate that I hoped, but it is happening.

Shudder to Think is back on tour soon. This makes me unbelievably happy. I still remember staying up late one night in 1995, watching MTV, back when it seemed to have some semblance of relevance. (Isn’t it nice that it doesn’t anymore?) These weird guys came on the screen, there was jarring crunchy guitar, and I was hooked. The lead singer had this strange creepy voice and the video involved elevators and a weird basement scene. I was never able to explain to others what I loved, loved so much, about this band. Lacking the ability to attach any tangible explanation to it, I just assumed that they would take over the world eventually. Needless to say, that never happened. But I never stopped loving them. Pony Express Record remains one of my favorite albums, and one that is directly responsible for my love of rock.

Then the band broke up, and while I thought the stuff they did afterward as solo acts was ok, the big creepy magic and edge were gone. It felt a little too friendly, a little too bedroom or sitting at your breakfast table the next day over a cup of coffee. These guys had a video banned for “unnecessary cannibalism” and even their love songs were creepy. I missed that. I still got the new stuff, but I missed the band that thought re-envisioning the Atlanta Rhythm Section’s “So Into You” as a slow almost violent creeper was a good idea.

Later, STT became like a handshake for me. When someone started talking about 90s rock, we would sound each other out for a while, and then I would drop STT as a reference point. If they got a big grin on their face, I knew we would get along musically. Of course this didn’t happen very often, but STT fanhood always felt like being in on a very special secret, that came with decoder rings. You have a decoder ring, right?

And now I might be able to see them, which I never did get to do while they were together, living as I did in tiny town. What’s more, that video, the one that hypnotized me at the age of 14, is now on Youtube.

New album please guys and come to Portland. Please please please come to Portland.

Tomorrow I head to Portland, hopefully to find an apartment, and a place that sells Lemon Hart demerara rum. While there, I’m going to get to see Dosh and Anathallo at the Doug Fir Lounge. Dosh is on tour with Michael Lewis and from what my brother tells me, they’ve been turning in some awesome sets. Until Dosh, I had only really seen Lewis working with Happy Apple. Indeed, it had been long enough since I had seen Happy Apple that I had forgotten how amazing the man was. Watch him stretch his multi-instrumental chops:

Now, check them out if you get the chance.

And let’s have another Hot Chip video, shall we? Why not.

Looks like a little bit of data was lost from the DB, I’m reposting this one, but the post on the horrors of spoiled fish sauce will be consigned to oblivion, no one really needs that.

Why is it that Hot Chip is so much better live than on their albums. I mean, I expect people to be good live acts, but the mix is always better too. Maybe they’re a little more sloppy, but the album cuts are often just slightly… hollow sounding.

I mean, sure it makes me want to see the show, and I’m not nuts about the guitar solo, but come on… That’s a pretty big difference.

I have at times wondered what old pulp fiction would sound like if it was sung.

And in the very near future… less video posts.

While discussing acts to see at SXSW with my brother (who got to see Why? twice, the bum), this song came up. It has been stuck in my head since.

I don’t get out much, especially to First Avenue. When Andrew Bird came through town I thought, “He’s good, but I don’t know that I like him enough to go out and spend money for a live show.”

File another one under shows I wish I hadn’t missed. Parts of this remind me of Weather Report’s 8:30. And of course I wasn’t paying attention and he played the Triple Rock in late January.

Edit: There seems to be some sort of problem with my plugin for Youtube and this video. The others still seem to be working, but this one isn’t loading. I’m going to try to fix this, but it’s after 1 A.M. here.

The problem, as is so often the case, was user errror. That, and an extra pair of quotation marks.

I tend to ignore Pitchfork for long periods of time. I feel justified in this by noting that they’ve got Scarlett Johansson’s upcoming album track list as a top article right now. I’m sorry, but no. It’s mostly Tom Waits covers, and even if the man himself approved, I just don’t want to go near that.

Anyhow, knowing that, it’s not so surprising that I sometimes miss bands they cover. This is bad as often as it’s good. A case of the bad would be my missing Rock Plaza Central for as long as I have.

I had an idea today.

GWAR

needs to cover Milkshake

Universe, I am counting on you to make this happen.

Also, I updated wordpress, and broke the tag cloud. I’ll get around to fixing that. Hopefully soon, as in before I forget it’s broken.

New Radiohead, New Radiohead, New Motherfucking Radiohead!

10/10/07

I have been waiting for these guys to come out and show everyone how it’s done again. Now they have it out on the 10th for download, with a goodies box that you can buy as well. What’s more, if you just get the digital version, with no goodies box (which has more music, and some vinyl and stuff), you pay what you think it’s worth. Fantastic!

It’s not a business model that would work for every band, but I think Radiohead might even come out ahead on this, or maybe I’m just going to pay too much.

In honor of this, my work monitor’s video cable has gone wonky, tinting the my computer world a sickly blue.

Who comes to Minneapolis next week? The National

For a while I thought that I would listen their new album, “Boxer,” into the ground. It hasn’t happened yet.

A couple of videos:

The second one is of them on Letterman, which turns out to be a surprisingly good performance for a Late Show gig.

By all rights, the half spoken not really singing thing shouldn’t work, especially when they throw in background vocals. Maybe what I like is that this makes it very singable for guys like me, with little discernible vocal talent.