and a part of me still rocks the eff out to this stuff.
Rancid's Out Come the Wolves is absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt on my list of top 10 albums. i've had to buy this album 3 times now because i listened to it so much and carted it around so much during middle school and high school. so today, tired of listening to some way-too-mellow music that was pushing me closer and closer to the edge of a complete and utter fit of pure melancholia, i decided that i needed to do something to try and reverse my impending gloom.
i paused briefly on M.I.A. and that didn't help. then Pharoahe Monch, which only made me angry, and went through the ole pod until i saw Rancid.
and i am currently rocking the eff out. and am in a totally stellar mood.
and, in keeping with the grand tradition of me having a libido that is fueled largely in part by boys with guitars and bad attitudes, i have the most enormous crush on Tim Armstrong.
to those who know me...this man looks eerily similar to several boyfriends i've had. eerily, eerily similar, especially in that picture above, to my first "love"... oh lawdy... (btw, how's the wife and kid, D?)
seriously though, slutty urges aside, this album has successfully lifted me out of my funk and placed me atop an energetic and fiesty little pedestal. i'm going to listen to this album like 4 more times before the days over.
so, now that we've gotten that cleared up, i'd like to take this opportunity to fluff the shit out of the new Raconteurs album, Consolers of the Lonely. i really liked Broken Boy Soldiers, and was hoping the boys would release another album. and lo and behold, last Tuesday (or Sunday, as iTunes mistakenly thought...) they released their sophmore effort. i won't go on and on about the way they released it, because i'm tired of reading every music critics' summation of their "guerilla-style" release, but let's just all agree on something: it's pretty fucking cool that, in a time where nearly every album is, in some way or another, leaked early and thus removed from any former methods of anticipatory christmas-morning type of release dates, the Raconteurs managed to put an album out, whilst avoiding early leaks (except for the iTunes debacle) and getting people pretty stoked.
or at least i was. maybe it's just me.
so i waited until last Tuesday, got the album and have listened to it about 5 times all the way through at this point. and i love it. i love Jack White, for my libido's sake, and for his musicianship. i think he's original and talented and, from what my untrained ear can tell, he's quite good at what he does. i like that he's like, dark and brooding and seems quite intelligent. i like that he has a couple projects that he works on. i like that the White Stripes are sort of along the lines of the newer sound that rock music has been leaning towards and favoring lately. i refuse to call it "indie" because they're on a major label, so they can't be, but since the label "indie" is thrown around and used completely out of context these days to describe a "non-mainstream" (but totally mainstream) sound, i'll use it. but the White Stripes were, in my eyes at least, one of the first to really bridge between counter-culture music-philes and the mainstream, radio-listening, MTV-watching part of society.
anyhow, i also really like Brendan Benson too, especially his solo work.
okay, enough of my school-girl rock-star yearning, back to the album.
Consolers of the Lonely is a little more bluegrass, a little more country than Broken Boy Soldiers. and, i think that, as i'm listening to it again, i think i might actually like it more than Broken Boy Soldiers. i didn't initially think i did at first--in fact, my first synopsis of the album was that it wasn't nearly as good as BBS, but now i think i like it better. much better.
lyrically, it's so on point--intelligent, honest, heart-felt--and musically it's pretty varied. (again, i know nothing about music, technically speaking, so this is all just the way i see--err, HEAR--things...). i'm currently loving 2 songs the mostest: "Old Enough" and "Many Shades of Black." "Many Shades of Black" ties with the Postal Service's "Nothing Better" as the most perfectly accurate to me specifically break-up songs ever.
here, check out some of this genius:
Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead
And smash it on the floor
Take whatever's left
And take it with you out the door...
See if I cry, see if I shed a single sorry tear
I can't say that it's been that great
No, in fact it's been a wasted-free year
Everybody sees
And everyone agrees
That you and I are wrong
And it's been that way too long
Take it as it comes and be thankful when it's done
There's so many ways to act and there's many shades of black
There's so many shades of black
There's so many shades of black
this is a super album. you should get it and listen to it.
anyhow, it was at the Park West, which a pretty great venue, if i do say so myself and it's kind of a cool set-up: performers do a couple songs, then someone else comes on, then someone else, and they join each other on other songs throughout the night. basically, just mellow music. a decent way to spend a friday night. especially when one is taking delicious pulls off a flask of tequila for the duration of the night.
anyhow, that fella who sings "Blue Eyes" on the Garden State soundtrack was there and sang that song, and i don't care how lame it is of me--i simply adore that song. cuz i got blue eyes an' shit. and that Ingrid Michaelson chick was there as well and sang this song "Overboard" that i have been mildly obsessing over in the privacy of my own home as of late, and she sang that and i liked it.
and then this chick Meiko comes out and sings and i'm sorta in love with her now. one, i really liked her songs. two, she's hella cute, and three, she has an absolutely charming stage presence. like, slightly awkward and self-conscious and super endearing. and she curses and i like that in a woman.
here, look at how hot she is:
and for all you fellas out there: this hotel cafe tour thing? yeah. it's DEFINITELY the place to find a lady. the dude to chick ratio was like 1:50. and many of the girls were very cute. just fyi.
and then i heard "Life in Vain." it may be one of the sweetest songs i've ever heard. and nevermind that your voice usually doesn't sound very good. it sounds perfect in this song. and though it could be seen as kind of depressing--as much of your work sort of is--this song isn't depressing...it's just...it's just true and sweet and quite lovely:
I don't know where is up or down
And there ain't any love left around
Everybody wearin' a frown
Waiting for Santa to come to town
You're giving it up so plain
You're living your lives in vain
And where are you going to?
You've got to really try
Try so hard to get by
And where are you going to?
Flip on your TV
And try to make sense out of that
If we were all in the movies
Maybe we wouldn't be so bored
We're giving it up so plain
We're living our lives in vain
And where are we going to?
You gotta really try
Try so hard to get by
And where are you going to?
Goodbye, goodbye
anyhow, Pitchfork isn't all that expensive--$30 a day (Friday-Sunday) for some pretty great bands. the entire lineup has not been announced yet, but as of now, Public Enemy, Vampire Weekend, Dizzee Rascal, Animal Collective, !!!, Fleet Foxes (whom zach loves, but i'm kinda "mehhh" on), Jay Reatard, Dinosaur Jr., Apples in Stereo (yay yay yay!), Cut Copy, Fuck Buttons, and a handful of others are slated to play. that's july 18-20. just fyi.
and then the allusive beast of them all: Lollapalooza. there's been some speculation regarding a certain superawesome british band (*cough* Radiohead! *cough, cough*) headlining, along with Nine Inch Nails (i don't care what anyone says, this will be awesome), and yesterday someone brought my attention to some more bands that may or may not be playing, including Bloc Party (please say this is true, fortheloveofgod), Yeasayer, Wilco, Dierks Bentley, CSS, Rhymefest, Gnarls Barkely, MGMT (i hope so--their chicago shows sold out earlier this year), Black Lips, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings (who i'd like to see, as nearly everyone put this album on their top albums list from '07), and a few others. now, this is all speculation, and certainly not even close to the amount of bands that will play, but i suppose in about a week (April 7th, to be exact) we will have the full lineup for the August 1-3 shows.
anyhow, Lolla tix are up to $190 i think now. and i've yet to buy mine. i know i'll be going, so i should just buy one now, but there's some rational part of me that refuses to spend a deuce (god, i love that term so much) on--right now, at least--a MYSTERY show. and i'm broke too, so there's that. 
there's a lot of great music coming through this spring and summer, and if my calculations are correct, i'm going to be spending approximately 1 million dollars on music between now and September. hmph. it may just be cheaper for me to swap out a crack addiction for my current live music addiction.
so, i found a link to a "leak" of the "new Girl Talk" album that's supposed to be released sometime in '08. i've also found some discussion as to the legitimacy of this "leak" as well as some acknowledgment of this "leak" from Gregg Gillis himself. he says its not legit. though, i must say, i take that with a grain of salt, because like, by telling the internet world that it's not legit, the hope is that people will be like, "Oh, okay" and like, the hype continues until the actual release of the album. regardless of the legitimacy, i decided to give it a listen and make my own decisions.
here they are:
it could be legit. it's his style--that is to say, there are a bunch of shitty pop songs mashed together with some classic rock (The Who, Beach Boys, Beatles) interspersed through, along with a bit of pretty good (in my opinion) hip-hop (Public Enemy, Biggie, old Outkast) and some music that i like to listen to on a daily basis (Cake, Postal Service) and some newer "indie music" (that song from the new Mac commercial by that french/israeli chick Yaell something or other). this is definitely Mr. Gillis' style.
that's sort of where my opinion of the legitimacy of this "leak" ends...it's not complex enough, it's slow in weird places, it's too fast in other places. though, i mean, if this just a rough, unmastered "first draft" if you will, then i can totally see this.
what really made me think it's not him is that the same clip from "Bittersweet Symphony" that he used on Night Ripper is used on this mix. i just don't think he'd do that.
above all, listening to this yet-to-be-determined mix of mashups has confirmed what i've been sort of leaning towards for the past several months since i saw a shitty Dan Deacon/Girl Talk show at some church in Bmore this summer: MASHUPS ARE SO LAST YEAR.
bring on the untz. that's what i want to dance to. or at least stop fronting like you are actually talented by mashing a "unique" blend of pop and classic songs together. just go back to what true DJs do--i want the breaks, the hip hop, the grimey shit.
R.I.P. Mashups and the "artists" who create them.
so, on sunday, i trekked downtown to do some stuff and put this "most recent" business on. it was probably the best thing i've done in a while. because, for some reason or another, they re-routed the northbound red-line up through the clark/lake and consequently, the stop i had to get off on was significantly farther off Mich Ave than the stop i usually get off on. but i had a great fucking playlist, so it was okay. even though it was windier than a muh'fucka.
anyhow, a handful of songs came on that were so.effing.wonderful. that i couldn't help but strut. you know...walk with a swagga'? awww yeah. ha. without further ado, here's a playlist that you might want to listen to if you need to put on haughty airs and strut down the street like nobody's business:
1. "Paper Planes," M.I.A.
2. "Rich Girls," The Virgins
3. "Get Close (King Honey Remix)," Plastic Little
4. "Loose," Spank Rock and Benny Blanco (mainly Miss Amanda Blank's verse--seriously, it makes me like, want to beat bitches up or something)
5. "Wolf Like Me," TV on the Radio
6."Disco Infiltrator," LCD Soundsystem
7. "Simon Says," Pharoahe Monche
8. "Bendable Poseable," Hot Chip
9. "One More Chance (Remix)," Notorious B.I.G.
10. "Time to Get Yummy," A-Trak (LCD/Gwen Stefani mash-up--sheer brilliance, fyi).
11. "Mikey Rocks," The Cool Kids
there you have it. if you want to strut, put these on and shake ya ass.
Hulu.com is an archive or something that has just gone public. it has loads of tv shows and movies that you can STREAM FOR FREE.
my workday has just gotten a whole lot cooler. and less productive, simultaneously.
FUCK.YES.
i know, i know. i hate you. and i still sort of do, but perhaps this is the first step in a meeting of the minds, of sorts...perhaps i can start to let go of some of my animosity. but you have to promise to stop trying so fucking hard. deal? anyhow, apparently your band did "Shakedown Street" at Langerado (excellent choice of venues if i do say so myself--all those wooks and hippies prolly ate that shit right up), and i read that you also did it solo acoustically at SXSW. way to go, brah. i'm totally down with this.
Not quite Love, but not quite Hate,
Sarah
so today, i'm perusing You Ain't No Picasso (a pretty decent little site, i must say), and i find that at SXSW this year (which i am still REALLY bitter about not going to. next year, i say, next.year.) they covered Fugazi. how wonderful. apparently, Bishop Allen cites punk-rock as an influence, along with Jonathan Richman (whom i saw last week and l.o.v.e.d.), and Talking Heads.
and because a while back when i first got a listen to Bishop Allen, i didn't really do any further digging--i just located some mp3s, downloaded them and listen on a frequency that near obsessive--i've just recently found out about these "influences" and such, and i'm more in love than i was previously. i mean, everyone cites Talking Heads as an influence, as well they should, but whatever.
anyhow, i read about the Fugazi cover and then read that they've covered both Talking Heads and Jonathan Richman, and i immediately went to the hypemachine to try and locate said covers. (as i've mentioned in previous posts, i'm a cover fanatic). and i found the Heads one. "Psycho Killer" of course. and though it may be cliche or whatever, i reallyreallyreally love this song for some reason. and Bishop Allen did it total and complete justice.
anyhow, you need to check out Bishop Allen. really, seriously.
so last night was the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. zach told me about it, but i got confused and couldn't find it on tv, so i didn't get to watch it. (it's okay though, i watched back to back episodes of Anthony Bourdain, who, by the way, has just earned the distinction as my old-man crush.) anyhow, Madonna got inducted. i'm not a huge Madonna fan--don't get me wrong, i will belt out "like a virgin" any day of the week--but i AM a HUGE iggy pop fan. god, i love that man. anyhow, he did "Ray of Light" and hilariously enough, it's fucking awful. madonna thought so too. i love the look on her face when he's performing, and then the incredibly insincere and forced accolades that she offers backstage after the performance. truly hilarious.
ya know...part of me wonders if i should be offended. i mean, i don't consider myself to be a "hipster" at all. in fact, "hipsters" generally aren't keen a people like me...but i do like indie music. and i do adore spankrock. and i wear leggings. mainly because it's fucking cold in chicago and they're a nice thin layer to provide a little warmth. and i don't like walmart either, but that has way more to do with the fact that every walmart i've ever been in smells funny and is teeming with sad fat people. and i in turn, feel sad and fat by association when i go there. but anyways, this is still funny. check out this dude's myspace. his name is MC Lars. he's an english major (haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!) at Stanford and also raps about edgar allen poe. *sigh* a man after my own heart...
