YES! Finally the video for my favourite Music Go Music song! I first heard this song from Stereogum, like, a loooooong time ago. They had a video for quite a few of their songs, all of which consist of the band performing on the show Face Time, which we are all too young to remember. Despite what MGM would have us think, they are are a side project of David and Meredith Metcalf of Bodies of Water and assorted blonde girls and a bass player that looks like Aaron Behrens (it's not him though). These video's are all awesome, like the later BoW videos but less plot driven. The aesthetic is amazing as are all the gross 70's clothes. The lead guitar player can fucking shred! According to MGM's MySpace the band's 3 members are Gala Bell (Meredith), Kamer Maza (David) and TORG, who I'm guessing is the guitar player. In any case, this video and the rest are available on the band's long awaited (by me anyway) website. Now if they will only start playing shows...
13 December 2009
Music Go Music
YES! Finally the video for my favourite Music Go Music song! I first heard this song from Stereogum, like, a loooooong time ago. They had a video for quite a few of their songs, all of which consist of the band performing on the show Face Time, which we are all too young to remember. Despite what MGM would have us think, they are are a side project of David and Meredith Metcalf of Bodies of Water and assorted blonde girls and a bass player that looks like Aaron Behrens (it's not him though). These video's are all awesome, like the later BoW videos but less plot driven. The aesthetic is amazing as are all the gross 70's clothes. The lead guitar player can fucking shred! According to MGM's MySpace the band's 3 members are Gala Bell (Meredith), Kamer Maza (David) and TORG, who I'm guessing is the guitar player. In any case, this video and the rest are available on the band's long awaited (by me anyway) website. Now if they will only start playing shows...
07 November 2009
2001 state of Mind
I Can't Help It from The Breeders on Vimeo.
I've been thinking about 2001 a lot lately so it's kind of appropriate that while i was wandering around the Breeders site I found this video of the Deal's covering Hank Williams (the deals would be a good band name, no?). I first heard this song when I was making a playlist of covers for the Dr. Awesome and Sarah Show in SDSU college DJ days (this is Dr Awesome and your listening to KCR). I typed in covers to songspy, or whatever mp3 site i used to use back in the antediluvian days of free music downloading and i found so many great covers; among my favourite still are Foo Fighters covering Carry on My Wayward Son and Sonic Youth doing Moist Vagina (Kim Gordon sounds SO much like Kurt Cobain!) and Nirvana doing. I love covers, as most people know. During the brief but intense life of the Mix Tape club i was unfairly disqualified from the covers round for submitting a tape with over 50 songs on it.
Anyway, imagine 18 year old me, fresh from the tide pool of Los Angeles and treading water in the slutty shark infested deep of San Diego. I had never been in the kind of love the song talks about and probably liked it for the same reason everyone likes breeders songs: the crazy harmonies that can be achieved when two people who sound exactly alike sing together. OF course when i rediscovered this song a few years later (think 2003ish) it hit a disturbingly close resonance for me. I had all but forgotten about it until today and it's as great as ever. I remember playing it a lot on the show (i always got in trouble for playing songs over and over) and one time i coupled it with this great Tom Waits song, also about a love i couldn't understand at the time, when my biggest romantic concerns were French exchange students (hi Suzel) and being a substitute boyfriend (sex only) for lonely girls. I think they go pretty well together. For not understanding these songs at the time, they both featured a pretty big in my musical history.
Tom Waits I hope that i don´t fall in love with yo… - MyVideo
PS: While neither Tom or the Breeders made in on my I Heart 2001 mix (though the Amps did) I was way into both at the time. I remember Mitsi and Christine Lam talking about Swordfishtrombones in Mr Acosta's creative writing class. Then I saw Fight Club, bought Bone Machine and was, like, "Oooooh".
26 September 2009
The first time I heard stuff from the new Cursive record was when they were on Daytrotter last year. I hate to say but I miss the epic Cursive of Ugly Organ. Not that this is bad, Let me Up is one of the better songs on Mama, I'm Swollen, but there's something missing from this album. The two albums since Ugly Organ have been ambitious (Tilly the Wall on percussion?) but the urgency from Ugly Organ is gone. Tim Kasher had his existential crisis and came out a different man, but he still seems to be writing like he did when his life was in shambles. Writing about how terrible your life is only works when your life is actually terrible. Regardless of what your feelings are about Cursive (the feelings are love, right?) This video is pretty awesome. There's dead girls, fire, angels that look like Suicide Girls. It's Epic.
Mama I'm Swollen has been out for a minute via Saddle Creek
[bonus: click here to hear Cursive do a fantastic cover of Modern Love and an OK cover of Love Cats and a reworked The Casualty]
02 September 2009
I was 18 years old when I discovered William S Burroughs. I bought Naked Lunch at the SDSU bookstore for like $5 on sale and it freaked my whole shit OUT. It had trancipts from the indicendy trial and a handy little drug guide in the back that would come in handy when I found myself having to revive girls at the Del Mar.
The scariest part of this video is not how badly I'd still like to have Burroughs' life (except for the boyfriends) it's that horrifying plastic surgery monster Genesis from Throbbing Gristle. I forget if Genesis was a man first or a woman first but it's safe to say he/she is neither now. Anyway if you don't feel like watchng the whole 5 minute teaser (why don't you feel like watching the whole 5minute teaser?) the best parts are when one of Burroughs' "ex-boyfriends" talks about sleeping with Burroughs and there being a loaded gun in the bed. This guy was like maybe thirty. Burroughs died at 83 in 1997. This dude was around 18 in 1997. Bill still fancied himself a bit of twink I see. I couldn't seem to find any release date for this movie, but there was a celebration for the 50th anniversary of Naked Lunch a few weeks ago in Chicago. Since i don't get to go to Italy or New York or San Francisco or Arizona on my two and a half week vacation from school, I'll probably rent Beat and dream about shooting Courtney Love.
20 August 2009
Rihanna!
No, the reason that I put this video up is not because Rihanna looks good in a garter belt (Rihanna LOOKS GOOD IN A GARTER BELT!!!). I'm trying to put the fact that I think Jay Z is boring has been aside; I'm trying to put all the criticism I have about his coming out of retirement to save hip-hop (yawn!) aside and keep this focused on one thing: Yeezy.
My belief is pretty easily suspended and that means that I like a lot of things, things that maybe I shouldn't like. Something has to offend the rules of taste I've arbitrarily set up for myself in order to get me to critically think about it so that I might rip it to shreds and belittle all those who like it (hip hop is little more than a commodity and Jay Z is merely trying to cash in on the fact that people still think of it as a culture because Beyonce don't wanna have no broke-ass kids with no broke-ass man). I don't think there's anything wrong with this mode of criticism (sorry Northrop Frye), and it allows me to sound smart when I tell you what you like is silly (just kidding I don't so that I'm a Socialist).
That being said: there's something about this video which I love...I mean LOVVE!!! It plays to the innate fascination people have with mob mentality and militarism. It also evokes the themes of Apocalypse and post-Apocalyptic society. I don't know what it is but I got chills. My only problem is the fact that even in a song about taking over a society that they're not satisfied with, KANYE USES HIS SIXTEEN FUCKING BARS TO BRAG ABOUT HOW MUCH HE FUCKING LOVES CHAMPAGNE!!! Hella faggoty, blood.
18 August 2009
Somesaj Thing
Nosaj Thing Visual Show Compilation from Adam Guzman on Vimeo.
This is what you can expect, visually, when Nosaj Thing Drifts through your town this fall. Punned! I prefer the view from backstage.
Lurker Benvenuto!

13 August 2009
Are you a cop?

from nathan's blog Ghost Ramp, which usually is a platform for him talking about old Hip-hop. He put up a demo of a song called Mickey Mouse way back in July. But this new song Cool Jumper is just 6 minutes of heaven with a broken fussy wrist.
06 August 2009
Good n' Plenti (a tale of 2 Julian's)
In other Julian news, Julian Casablancas is also putting out a new album. This is weird because the Strokes are already working on a new album, which is also the reason that Little Joy was Fab-less when they opened for Jarvis Cocker at the Wiltern a few weeks back. I think Julian (Casablancas) was tired of all the side projects his band mates have going on and decided to wrangle the fillies back to the stable and make a new record. But not before letting them know who the stud in the coral is. (More equine metaphors please!). Whatev, here's a "trailer" for his album Phrazes for the Young. I think I'm going to skip this despite the fact that Jules had my fave track on the Dark Night of the Soul album that Dangermouse and Sparklehorse did. Especially when heard right next to the god awful Frank Black track. So bad. Anyway, trailer:
Don't forget that Julian quit drinking and started smoking lots of weed and the result was First Impressions of Earth. From the looks of the trailer he hasn't come to his senses.
Is...Skyscraper is out now on Matador.
Phrazes for the Young is coming soon.
absence

Screen images not simulated. As far as I can tell the phone is fine and the problem is with the screen. I couldn't tell what text messages I was getting or who was calling me, so i just decided to stop answering (sorry). Thanks to anyone who called/ texted me on my birthday. This is why i didn't answer. Sorry Mom. So, my cousin got me a replacement phone (don't ask don't tell) and it looks like this:
only instead of a mountain it has a shot of two sticks rubbing together. There's no charger for it so i have to use my aunts universal car charger with the different adapters you can change to fit your phone. Trying indeed. but at least I can be in contact with the world again. Also if you try and call me please leave a message so i can get your number. Oh yeah I lost all my numbers except for the ones i was able to figure out from the text messages i got. :(
16 July 2009
My baby is so vain she is almost a mirror...
I never really understood what that line meant. Anyway, a few weeks ago Patrik over at Cobain in a Coma put up a bunch of videos (mostly dark, post-punky glamy stuff, but also Fever Ray and Gwar) and among them was this gem from the Boys Next Door. For those of you who might not be familiar with the Boys (or able to deduce from the video) they were basically the Birthday Party without Tracy Pew (aka the best part of the Party). I love the Boys almost as much as I love the Birthday Party, but a lot of people talk shit about them. Yeah, if you take away the screeching guitars and soul-rattling bass of the BP and add some sax and keyboards the product comes off a little maudlin and mopey, but those critics forget that Nick and the rest of the boys were like 7 yrs old at the time. Plus their album Door, Door has a song about Roman Polanski on it!
One time me and Mitsu were talking about the BP and I got in trouble for saying that [bassist] Tracy Pew was the balls of the BP. Mitsu argued that [guitarist] Rowland Howard was the balls.
For the record:
This is Tracy Pew-

This is Rowland S Howard-

This is just a phenotypic comparison, but it goes deeper. One of the biggest draws of the BP is their menacingly loud sound. No, I'm not trying to sell Rowland short, he's a big part of the BP sound, his wailing, distorted and manaical guitars are almost wholly responsible for the assulting racket that makes the BP so appealing (along with Nicks screaming, duh). Tracy is solely resposnible for the presence of the band. Listening to the BP in preperation for this post I tried to find a song representative of Tracy's awesomeness but for the most part couldn't get past the screaming and the guitar feedback, until I realized that in every song the gutteral bass is the ground that the rest of the band plays on. That bad vibration is the lurking monster. Rowland stabs you in the face, Tracy swallows you whole.
I remember breaking down the physiology of the Birthday Party like this: Nick Cave is the raw, throat, the bloody mouth. Rowland is the sharpned fingernails or the teeth. Phil Calvet/ Mick Harvey [drummers] are the boots on the feet and Tracy is the balls/ guts of the beast.
This is from a Birthday Party DVD called Pleasure Heads Must Burn, it's my 3rd favourite BP song.
11 July 2009
Malajube
New video for Canadian band, and Nic Harcourt faves Malajube. I think Malajube is a kind of disease, but I'm not sure. The song is pretty neat and also pretty pretty, and the video has a girl almost drowning.
Labyrinthes is out via Dare To Care as are their other records.
06 July 2009
Too Soon?
29 June 2009
This just in...
"I would smoke the surfboard, I wouldn't take it in the water. It's made of weed."
Wavves "No Hope Kids" from Pete Ohs on Vimeo.
I love Wavves. I think Nathan and Ryan are on to something, lo-fi revival aside. Everyone loves to talk shit about Wavves because Nathan is young and likes to smoke weed and writes songs on Garage Band using only 3 chords. The reason Wavves is so popular is because despite the horrible sounding description it's the fact that he's young and stoned and write songs on a computer that makes Wavves so good. Then, there's the whole Spain situation. Yeah, Nathan talked shit about Spain and discussed California's superiority (very true things), but it was also a Festival show! Wavves' set time was 2:20 AM! Pitchfork and all the other music jerks acted like Animal Collective had just said they were bigger than Jesus. Sure Nathan's a mess, but he's also a kid. If he can write songs this good as young and as stoned all the time as he is, imagine what he'll do when he puts the pipe and the pills down. I also love how hipsters will interview Nathan and then get angry at Wavves popularity. Anyway, this is the video for No Hope Kids off of Wavvves. This was kind of ranty.
Wavvves is out now on Fat Possum
Currently Listening to: Teenage Super Party by Wavves
09 June 2009
Weekenders

This Saturday Telepethe is playing at the Smell with Abe Vigoda and some other bands. Someone named Heather Gram is DJing. That's actually really clever. We were going to to go see Abe Vigoda last Saturday at one of those Vice parties where they give you free Colt 45 for 2 hours, but ended up skipping it. Telepathe seems like they're too big for the smell, no?
This weekend though, we're definately going to hit up the Viceland Summer Bender. The Soft Pack are playing- they used to be The Muslims, they're O.K. No Age is doing a DJ set. I wonder if they're going to play any Child Pornography. Or Laco$te. Ha ha ha ha ha. Are those jerks still alive?
04 June 2009
Gaze into...THE ABYSS!
This is a crazy ass video! Yeah, it's 8 months late and this was totally the banger last summer but it's still a good video. Kids and monsters and Joanna Newsom (thankfully keeping her mouth shut). I feel bad for the kid, he's gonna be wetting his bed 'til college. Worth it, though.
Bill, killed.

For the record, that's:
currently listening to: Captured Tracks by Dum Dum Girls
02 June 2009
Feel good blog of the summer

What is Isabella up to?
26 May 2009
Good to be old

currently listening to: Wavves (2009) by Wavves.
22 May 2009
20 May 2009
For a Rookie
2 Candide by François-Marie Voltaire
3 The Drowned World by JG Ballard
4 Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra
5 The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things by JT LeRoy
6 Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
7 Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr
8 RANT by Chuck Plahniuk
9 The Postmodern Condition by Jean-Francois Lyotard
10 Tough, Tough, Toys for Tough, Tough Boys by Will Self
11 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
12 The Safety of Objects by A.M. Homes
18 May 2009
Mustache Ride

Between the gross Club Underground DJ's that started spinning once Ponytail finished their criminaly short set and Rjyans set, it felt like Ponytail's show got comendeered by techno. They still rocked it- near the end of their set Molly Siegel let the crowd know that they had only two songs left but assured us "the next one is really long." They played one new song that sounded like they already know what direction they're moving in (MORE VOCALS!) and Molly ran around the crowd twice, collecting sweaty hugs from the happy fans. This is Dustin, one of the guitar players: that's about as sweaty as we all were after the show.
13 May 2009
You want me to make you a mixtape, Lollipop?
12 May 2009
Plog
11 May 2009
Spoilers Alert Machine

This movie had Abrams' stamp all over it: 3D lettering floating in space (pun?), the needless inclusion of time travel, and lots of daddy issues. I've never seen Alias because it was the worst, but I feel pretty sure it had all those things. Was anyone else waiting for Kirk to call someone freckles?
Speaking of time travel: It's amazing how totally obvious JJ Abrams was about making sure that the audience all knew that this new Star Trek was his Star Trek. He straight up destroyed 2 Federation planets that were a pretty big part of the old Trek mythos. JJ Abrams is basically Captain Nero- taking it upon himself to rearrange the past for his own selfish purposes. I'm not complaining- I love the new Star Trek movie and am not the kind of nerd who thinks remakes have to be faithful to source material (I am a different kind of nerd). I like the fact JJ Abrams used his first Trek film to establish himself as it's universe's new God. Looks like Simon Pegg was wrong about all odd-numbered Star Trek film being shit.
07 May 2009
It came from Baltimore
First off i have to say how excited i was to hear Ponytail is coming to to Los Angeles (to the Echo) on May 15th (duh, I'll be there). I wasn't to sure the review of their new video over at Stereogum was a positive one. I personally think that Ponytail is for everyone. They're complex but not complicated. kind of math-y and spontaneous at the same time. I think i have a crush on Molly Siegel. She's very unfairly compared to Yoko Ono because of her vocal style, but where Yoko 'sang' the way she did out of a sort of proto-hipster pretension, there's no sign of insincerity coming from Molly or any of the Ponytail members. There's a reason they're always smiling: they're happy little fuckers. It comes across in their music. I'm very excited about the show.
If however you feel like you'd like your Ponytail a little mellower they stopped at Daytrotter last November and you'd hardly recognize them. I mean, you can see that it's the same minds making the music, but it sounds so different coming from acoustic guitars. Anyway, here's their new video for Celebrate the Body Electric (it came from an angel) off of last year's brilliant Ice Cream Spiritual.
Ice Cream Spiritual is out now (buy it!) on We Are Free.
Currently listening to: (ironically NOT Ponytail) Rainer Maria- CT Catholic
06 May 2009
Drinko de Mayo

Currently listening to: Black Angels- Directions to See a Ghost
04 May 2009
Monday Nights.
for all fellow night owls:
The Western Tradition- channel 50 (KOCE)
Tuesday 12AM & 1230 AM
repeated Thursday 4AM & 430AM
Currently listening to: New Boyz- your [sic] a jerk
02 May 2009
Up Top, Sir.
"lo-fi"/ new scuzz:
Ganglians (Sacramento Scuzz)
Wavves (From SD- very good young man, has a cassette tape tattoo)
Dum Dum Girls (actually one girl)
Crocodiles (they want to kill)
Hospitality (like to record on cell phones)
Wetdog (one word- they're from UK kinda like Sleater-Kinney)
Thomas Tantrum (also from UK. more polished. Lily Allen likes them a lot- don't hold it against them)
I've also been listening to some electro stuff. Very noisey, boys like that I hear.
The Whip (been around since 2006- from manchester where they invented techno)
You Love Her Coz She's Dead (sounds like your NES is possesed)
Teengirl Fantasy (less noisy, more glitter)
Cold Cave (one of the guys from Abe Vigoda likes them- don't hold it against them)
Digital Leather (because Shawn is the champ! Jay Reatard used to be in this band and you can totally hear how it informs his current sound. they are playing together in long beach in June- we should go)
these are all myspaces but, whatev. Also have you heard the new Heartless Bastards? It's fucking magic. Next post will be more substansial. i gotta go cau'se they're gonna close the library.




