Good to be old

Of course everyone knows about Lyricwiki; it's great for finding out song lyrics to put on your MySpace. Or if you want to do a little studying before karaoke nights (oh! it's 'a light hits the GLOOM on the grey'...) or in case you want to work on your dance moves. But they also do a thing called Album of the Week and sometimes it dumb stuff like Linkin Park or Animal Collective but this weeks AoW is Madvillainy by Madvillain. I haven't thought about this album in forev. Weren't they supposed to come out with a second one? I know Madlib did Madvillainy 2 and Stones Throw did a box set. Anyway, it's a cool feature and a great album.

currently listening to: Wavves (2009) by Wavves.

put flaccid in yr butt

new BRIDEZ vid.

Bridez - Frenemies from ben chappell on Vimeo.

For a Rookie

A few years ago, me and David (the King) had a book reading contest- to see who could read the most books in a year. I don't want to say that i destroyed, but I DESTROYED! Well not really, 12 books in 12 months...still pretty good. We got the idea for this from George W Bush and Carl Rove who had the same competition and apparently W won like 5 years in a row. Here's 2007's list:

1 Post Mortems/ Of Mere Mortals by Dr. C. MacLaurin 
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

This year without even trying to (i.e. for school) I've read:

1 The Iliad by Homer

2 The Odyssey by Homer

3 The Aeneid by Virgil

4 The Inferno by Dante

5 The Metamorphoses by Ovid

6 Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney

7 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

8 Explosion in a Cathedral by Alejo Carpentier

9 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

10 House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

11 The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa

12 A Room of One's Own by Virginia Wolf

13 Confessions by St Augustine 

This is just counting books. I've read like tons (like literally there was very heavy amounts of reading) of short stories and poetry for various classes. I took 3 literature classes last quarter- big mistake. I'm taking 3 in the summer so this list is gonna keep growing. 

Currently listening to: Actor by St Vincent (it's very good)

 

Mustache Ride

The Ponytail show on Friday was amazing! Cex opened for them and I guess it was cool that Ponytail is about the hometown love, but Cex cux...sorry. Rjyan left his laptop on-stage for like an hour before he came up for an actual set. He was off eating Ponytail's pizza and stealing their Tecate while his computer droned on with minorly changing beats. Once he came on stage he rocked the Echo with one good song and like 45 MORE minutes of same sounding boring house beats. The best part of his epic (in length only) set was the light show projected on the floor. I wish I would've had some acid or at least triple C's. Rjyan kept mugging at these underaged girls who were in the front for his set, they would kind of sway awkwardly to the monotonous boringness. I think Rjyan forgot that making music like a 16 year old doesn't make you any more 16 .
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.

You want me to make you a mixtape, Lollipop?

dude...that season finale, right? too bad we gotta wait a damn year to get some answers...

Plog

So it's official. We're bringing pogs back. Tell all your friends, get your pog tubes out from under your bed and get your slammers. NO POISON! It's a pog party.

Spoilers Alert Machine

I'm not the kind of person who cares whether or not a spoiler is alerted to me, mostly because I don't care about spoilers. I don't need to go into a movie "fresh." Usually I end up forgetting what it is that got spoiled for me.

That being said; did anyone see Star Trek this weekend? It was pretty amazing. I read about three reviews and the authors all said to some degree the same thing that Scott Foundas said in his negative review in the LA Weekly and I quote him here: that they were 'long time (albeit casual) Trek fans.' I love that Star Trek fans (among which i am counted) have to so distance themselves lest they be called Trekkies. At least we're not dressed up like Chewbaccas right, guys? Anyway, the first thing that was wrong with Foundas' review is how short it is. It reads like he reviewed the trailer. But this is not a review of a review; it's a review on JJ Abrams' megalomania.
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.

Star Trek is out now, and it is gooooooood.

It came from Baltimore

This is a Ponytail post.
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

Drinko de Mayo

We went out last night and after hitting up the El Torito in Redondo Beach (I know right?) and this place called Old Tony's (where we sang so loud that more than a few people got up and left) we ended up at a bar called Naja's Place and it was actually kind of cool. It was right by the peir and it was really hot but the beer was cheap and there was a lots to choose from. I got a Franzikaner for $5! I honestly didn't think beach people went in for stuff like this. No offense, beach people. The place was empty for being 5 de Mayo as was everywhere that wasn't El Torito. I'm not sure whether we would have liked it had it not been so empty. The girl who suggested it was kind of an asshole and the bartendress kept talking to her boyfriend about how they were gonna have sex after she closed up. It was a pretty fun alcoholiday.

Currently listening to: Black Angels- Directions to See a Ghost

Monday Nights.

With Heroes being done for the season it looks like the highlight of Monday nights (actually Tuesday morning because it's on at 12am- semantics) is going to be The Western Tradition, which KOCE (channel 50 in L.A). The Western Tradition is, of course, the amazing and R.I.P Eugene Weber, a former professor from UCLA, lecturing on the history of the Western world. It's half-hour lectures, usually on a specific topic (episode 43. Revolution and Romantics). It's literally one of the most informative shows ever. Like, did you know that Feudalism helped create the Artisan class? Feudal Lords came into wealth and they wanted things to spend that money on; this meant that peasants who knew how to make pottery or weave could sell things to the Lord thus- Artisans! It's what history classes should be like. One of my life long dreams was to watch Dr Weber give a lecture, but unfortunately he died in 07. Thankfully the OC PBS station still gives us his wisdom in 2 back to back episodes every Monday night/ Tuesday morning. Which is great because after watching episode 31. The Age of Absolutism who could wait a whole week to watch episode 32. Absolutism and the Social Contract ?

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

Up Top, Sir.

These are some bands I've been listening to because a couple of weeks ago someone asked.

"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.