Top 5 Records I Picked Up Today

I got my record collection up to speed today. For the first time in a long while I actually went out and spent a substantial amount of money on some vinyl at my favorite record store in the world, Ear Candy. Here's a look at the cream of the crop:

1. The Supreme Genius of King Khan and the Shrines

I can't believe it took me this long to get into King Khan. Reminds me of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in their prime. This will be one of my summer jams.

2. Metal Attack: The Cream of Hard Rock

A limited edition, colored vinyl from Germany circa 1982. Features Motorhead, Judas Priest, Twisted Sister, etc. Plus there's a guy on the front with a screaming shield.

3. Fucked Up - No Epiphany 7"

Awesome band, awesome track. Plus the flip side is a No Age remix of said track. Should be listened to loud to really get the full effect.

4. Josh Martinez - The World Famous Sex Buffet

Josh Martinez is one of my favorite rappers of all time. I was going to wait on this, until I noticed that one of my good friends, Elliot B., produced the last track on the album. 

5. Vile Blue Shades - John Thursday California Adventure

Vile Blue Shades, from Salt Lake City, comes through town on a regular basis. So much so that this album was put out through Wäntage USA. They always put on a great show, and this is the first record I've heard from them that really capture it. My only gripe is that the "mp3" download the album promises is actually a Windows Media Audo download. Laaaaame. 

My Muxtape

I just made a "muxtape." It's sorta like making a mixtape, only online. I actually really liked the process. Waiting for the songs to upload was reminiscent of recording a song to a tape; you have to wait before you go on. I think it helps you in the process of planning out the order. While you wait for one song to upload, you look for another.

When I was in high school, a large part of my life was devoted to making mixtapes and the floor of my room would be carpeted with tapes and cds in various states of organization, much to my parents chagrin. Some of the tapes I kept, some I gave to various friends and acquaintances, but each tape took at least 2 hours of love filled labor. I always loved, and still do, providing previously unknown tracks to the recipients of my mixtapes. Guessing what they would appreciate, or wonder about, fueled my fire. Plus, I spent my days and nights glued to my stereo, which was more than enjoyable.

So without further ado, here is my offering to all of you. Since I have no way of knowing what you have or have not heard I picked fairly obscure material. While compiling this mix, I drank a few Olympia beers, hence the title of the mix: Oh Lord, Y Make Poor Indie-rockers Alcoholics? Also, since I am disclosing fully, I included a track from my former band BMMS. Click on the beer advertisement below to check out the muxtape.

Nominee for best band ever.

I blame everyone that reads this for the fact I haven't updated in three plus months. Seriously, my last post was golden and I don't have time to fruitlessly update this blog daily without some sort of response.

And since we've moved on, lets talk about my nominee for best band ever...Racetrack. Every single member is a friend of mine, and they are by far some of the best people I've ever known. Jackson, Chris and Meghan have slept on my floor(s) and found a place in my heart. It doesn't hurt that Jackson and I have known each other since High School and Racetrack's first show opened for my own band, BMMS. (Ancient history.)

Racetrack progressed since their first show (did I mention they opened for BMMS?), added Garden Variety Tsar (Chris) and took over as the greatest power-pop sensation to ever hit the Pacific Northwest. The other places they hit were hit so hard they forgot what happened to them.

So without further ado, because I would come closer to tears than I could as a man, hear are a couple of newly surfaced videos that preempted this post...along with a couple of older ones. Racetrack uber alles.

Turnips The Cat

The last week I've been in a two-cat household. I never thought I would see the day, but Jeffreys now has a friend, albeit temporarily. Turnips is Darcy's sister's cat. (Hey Casey!) He may be the freakiest cat I've ever spent time around. He's long, and meows a lot. He and Jeffreys had a really tough go of it at first, but now they're buddies. During the day they stay quiet, but at night I hear them playing upstairs. He's not too bad, and he gives me a good excuse to drive out to Seattle this weekend to drop him off at his new home. Plus I think Jeffrey's really enjoys the company.


Also, here are some pictures of me playing with the Seattle band BOAT a week or so ago (thanks Candice!) and Black Velvet Elvis playing last night. Don't sleep, they are coming up in the Missoula music scene in a big way!

Congress Killed the (Internet) Radio Star

I love the idea of Internet radio but the RIAA and others are trying to jack up the royalty fees paid by these companies 300 to 1200 percent. Internet radio already pays more than satellite radio, so why do some people see the need to increase the fees even more?

My guess is that this bill was spawned by a group of humorless, old codgers who don't understand the "tubes" of the internet and think this is an easy way to get more money. Click the link below for more info.



One more reason why I think the RIAA is the worst organization possible for the music industry, they really just seem to hate music.

Who Makes Me Want to Survive This Week?

Supertramp. I may say the best band of the 80's. I may not. But they do keep me in good spirits. They seem to embrace cheesiness to the fullest extent possible. Breakfast in American is, for certain, in the top 25 albums of all time. So, let them live supreme, for they are super...tramp.

PS. Guess what movie I'm watching right now...

You're totally wrong. I'm watching Judge Dredd, not Magnolia.

Old Shoes/1985/Earl Grey Hot Tour Kickoff

Last Friday night Old Shoes, 1985 and Earl Grey Hot kicked off their northwest tour at the Missoula Public Library. I hosted the show on behalf of the library, and 20 people showed up, despite a lack of advertising. Here's the pictures:

Old Shoes

1985

Earl Grey Hot

Who Makes Me Want To Survive This Week?

Aesop Rcok. Damn. Aesop Rock kills it. I don't think I know anyone in Hip Hop who keeps coming incredibly sick. Every time I hear Aesop Rock on a track, I feel like he destroys whoever he's rapping with. See: Aesop with Del on the Wu Tang Meets the Indie Culture. And his solo albums? Legendary to say the least. People who don't understand just don't get it. Don't worry, someday you'll figure it out. But, for now, take my word for it. Aesop Rock will make you want to keep living, and give you a reason to fight. But fuck listening to me, listen to the man himself. And thank him for giving you a reason to live another day.

I Hate You, Go Find MP3s For Yourself, Stream His Tracks Here

Casiotone For The Painfully Awkward

First things first, I was very excited for this show. I'm fairly new as a fan of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, but everything I've heard from him has gotten me excited. I went down to the Crazy Daisy right after I finished work and unfortunately missed Old Shoes, but was right on time to catch Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. I really dug their singing saw, and the music was good, pretty low key, but still good. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it through the show without a little help, so as soon as they finished their set I rushed to the gas station to grab some Sparks and Pabst. I returned to catch the last two songs from my friend Matt, who plays under the name 1985. I was bummed I missed most of his set, but since I'm seeing him play again on Friday I figured it was worth it to have a few drinks.
Purrbot was up next. I think Nathan may be one of, if not the, most consistent live acts in Missoula right now. I have yet to see him really butcher a song, or seem uncomfortable on stage. And the fact he writes some great songs helps too. He joked around throughout his set, which lightened the mood of his otherwise heavy material.

Finally, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone took the stage. It was a shame that the crowd (minus Mike, John and myself) decided to remain seated through his whole set. He kept making comments about how he wasn't sure how dancy songs would be received and had trouble with his audio mix. He thought he needed to play very quietly and seemed very reserved. The music was great, however. It was really amazing to watch him recreate his songs in a live setting. I especially enjoyed his cover of Graceland, which he ended his set with. Had the crowd not been so incredibly awkward, the show would have been even better.

Working Hard, or Hardly Working?

I work, as many of you already know, at the Missoula Public Library. My days are spent either at a public desk or tucked away in the bowels of the building working on computer related stuff. You know...websites, setting up machines, etc. Another thing about me you need to know is that I need music around me at all times. I'm not too fond of lugging CDs back and forth from work, and not too keen on using any space on my work PC to download or rip CDs, so my alternative? Online internet radio. I've found a few gems that I thought I would pass on.

www.pandora.com

Pandora is my staple for longer periods of work, when I just want something to play and not have to mess with anything. All you have to do is go to the site, and enter the name of an artist or song you like and it will feed you more songs that are related to the ones you picked. Then you have the option of giving songs a thumbs up or thumbs down so each station is "tuned" to your personal preferences. I like Pandora because you can have many, many stations and the stream is almost never interrupted. There are advertisements, but they are very limited and don't affect or interupt the listening experience at all. The major downfall of Pandora, is you're limited to more mainstream artists, and usually older material. Which leads me to...

www.hypem.com

The Hype Machine is my new standby, as it feeds from blogs and gives you the newest music, with some good older stuff as well. One definate advantage is the hype machines ability to open in multiple formats (winamp, real player, windows media, itunes, or flash) so you can skip around, listen to tracks again, or back up a few seconds and you have none of these options in pandora. The Hype Machine also gives you the option to link directly to the blog the music was pulled from. Great! This has become my favorite I think.

Other notable stations include:

www.barsuk.com - Their online radio station is great, but doesn't change all that often. But who needs to change when you have music as good as they do.

www.kpunk.com - K Records has an online mix tape that changes more often than barsuk, but still not very often. You gotta love K Records.

www.last.fm - I haven't had much luck with last, although I hear its very similar to Pandora. The times I've tried, my stream has gotten cut off and I've gotten frustrated.

Introduction

So this blogger.com stuff is still all new to me. I work at the Missoula Public Library managing the content of the web page (http://www.missoulapubliclibrary.org), fixing computers and actual library work. We are looking into options for blogging, so I decided to test the waters with my own blog first. This is me:


I have a great girlfriend named Darcy. Check out how cute she is:

I play music. Lots of music. I started off just playing the guitar, then moved into banging on pots and pans and singing a little bit in a band called BMMS. There were two of us, and we played shows and recorded tons of songs while we were in High School in Kalispell, Montana. Then we moved to Missoula and played a ton of live shows and recorded a few songs. Our first shows in Missoula were at Jay's Upstairs, quite possibly the coolest venue to ever exist. After Jay's closed, we played at a strange little place called Area 5 about once a week. Around this time, I started scratching and bought two turntables and a mixer from my band mate, Martin. Then Martin moved away to Japan. Here he is:

I worked on solo recording stuff for a half a year or so, and then joined a rag-tag band of my friends, then called Good Guy/Bad Guy. The band consisted of two of my oldest childhood friends, Patrick and Michael Gill, and a newer Missoula friend Tony Matts. I started out filling in on bass, but soon officially joined the band full time. I had never played bass before, but now I like it quite a bit. We changed our name to Victory Smokes and played an average of three shows a week for about four months. We mainly played at this really great venue called the Raven. We recently went on a short tour of the Northwest, and are finishing up the writing of songs for our debut LP. We already self released a demo EP and a recording of a live set in Bozeman. This is us playing:

My Upcoming Projects: New Victory Smokes Line-up, BMMS Reunion (sooner than later!), Mixing down my old solo stuff and recording new solo stuff, Spinning at more parties/Collaborating with other DJs