bo fo' sho

thanks to math is sexy

better than mtv

the secret machines - nowhere again


interpol - specialist


green day - basket case


leonard cohen - suzanne


the black crowes w/ stereophonics & jools holland - twice as hard

boss tuneage tuesday 12/25

for some reason people tell me to be giving this time of the year. mostly jesus. and marc bolan.

t-rex - xmas message

for lack of posts lately. here's a whole buncha relevance. happy birthday america! i mean jesus.

trans-siberian orchestra - christmas canon rock
jim white - christmas day
the ventures - sleigh ride
james brown - soulful christmas
barnyard playboys - eight-ball for christmas
jesse malin - xmas
weezer - christmas song
the smashing pumpkins - christmastime
bright eyes - the night before christmas
caetano veloso - in the hot sun of a christmas day
elvis presley - if everyday was like christmas
the flaming lips - christmas at the zoo
deerhoof - xmas tree
fuck buddies - no playstation2 for christmas
mew - she came home for christmas
mogwai - christmas steps
okkervil river - listening to otis redding at home during christmas
seachange - christmas letters
smoking popes - o holy night
daniel johnston - merry christmas everybody
steve earle - christmas in washington
the walkmen - no christmas while i'm talking
harry nilsson - remember christmas
vince guaraldi trio - christmas time is here


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boss tuneage tuesday 12/18

almost totally forgot.

grinderman - go tell the women
gang starr - tonz 'o' gunz
robert palmer - sneakin' sally through the alley
immaculate machine - old flame
konono no. 1 - kule kule
22-20s - shoot your gun
2pac - white man'z world
albert hammond jr. - holiday
spiritualized - you know it's true
black rebel motorcycle club - complicated situation
curtis mayfield - check out your mind
pink floyd - if


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placebo instrumentals II

thought i had a few more than this. oh well shit happens.

dub psychosis
h.k. farewell
theme from funky reverend
hug bubble


go buy whatcha likes and delete whatcha don't

evenstar interview

after checking out the two cow garage show, we headed over to the evenstar and the rebuilts cd release show at the cactus club, i shot an email over to joey from evenstar with a few questions for interview #2. kinky!

so who's in the band and what do they do?
Chris - Guitars / Vox
Joey - bass / vox
brian / drums
josh - guitar

where does your name originate from?
the deep mind of chris evens.....the name was his baby

you play bass, describe your setup.
i play through an Ampeg and a fender bass.....im not really into equipment so much....actually chris picked out my setup...

how is the scene in your hometown of milwaukee?
Its cool, were just breaking into it again.....but from playing in milwaukee bands for years we all still have ties with many established local acts

what bands have you guys been in before forming evenstar?
joey - backyard voodoo, dirt puppy, SLURR, lost idols
josh - no direction
chris - no direction
brian - pseudo slinkee, spank, SLURR, fame, leval blessing, protestant

what was the worst gig you guys played and why?
our first show was at my friend sarahs birthday party at this bar in town, we werent prepared, we actually had to write a song the night before, actually we sucked.

ever had any on stage injuries?
not that i know of, chris gets a strained liver sometimes....he also enjoys competitive smoking...which injures his throat

what's the best gig you've played and why?
The cd release that you attended.....releasing a cd is a milestone for any band..it was a fun night, great turnout, great venue (cactus club)....

who have you shared the stage with?
we really havent played all that many shows...breathe fire and the rebuilts...both whom played the cd release are my two favorites to date

what are some of your favorite cities or venues to play?
we just got a van, so we have only been playing milw for the most part.....mad planet, cactus club are both good spots....riverwest commons too.....

what are 5 things in milwaukee that keep you guys there?
each person would answer these different....
1 family
2 friends
3 beer
4 brewers
5 the great weather

my favorite records are:
currently for joey
1 the jennifer echo - be dangerous on rock guitar
2 flickerstick - welcoming home the astronauts
3 big drill car - cd type thing

my favorite songs not on those records are:
1 paper wings - rise against
2 untitled - the cure
3 denim and leather - saxxon

if i could work with _________ life would be great.
1 music
2 eclipse printing full time
3 our own club

these records get spun on the bus the most
1 aiden (i think im the only one in the band who likes them)
2 Hot water music
3 grade

describe the songwriting process if you will.
we all come up with parts....chris and i primarily write the foundations/lyrics....each person adds....considering none of us listen to the same music it comes together pretty easily it most cases...we hit dryspells just like anyone else

say, did you ever see that movie, uh, 'clash of the titans'?
i havent....but im sure the other guys did

well i don't want to sound like a queer or nothing but i think unicorns are kick ass.
then you would probably enjoy the fact that we have a 10th level cleric in our band.

yes i do.

david coverversion: neutral milk hotel vs. the mountain goats vs. ace of base

man, i fucking love the song 'two-headed boy'. the glue that holds 'in the aeroplane over the sea' together lies within this song. the mountain goats did a cover of the classic neutral milk hotel song live sometime, somewhere. the mountains goats also did a cover of the ace of base classic 'the sign'. some people say that the hives are the greatest band from sweden. i ask, how can this be when they aren't even better than ace of base? superopentonewideas says he heard something about the lead singer of the dresden dolls but he can't remember what. he can remember, however, that it was 'supergross'. anyone think they know what he's talking about??

neutral milk hotel - two-headed boy
the mountain goats - two-headed boy
the mountain goats - the sign
ace of base - the sign

dresden dolls - two-headed boy

ps thanks again to my sister for the ace of base tune.


go buy whatcha likes and delete whatcha don't

boss tuneage tuesday 12/11

got 20 minutes and 27 seconds?

beck - i've seen the land beyond
the toadies - mexican hairless
tenacious d - classico
the showcase showdown - police, police
the soul benders - 7+7=
benny martin & josh graves - salty dog blues
the frogs - u bastards
split lip rayfield - drinkin' around
the white stripes - jumble jumble
pavement - flux=rad
the ventures - hot pastrami
theivery corporation - within you without you


go buy whatcha likes and delete whatcha don't

david coverversion: massive attack vs. jose gonzalez vs. the knife

earlier this year, jose gonzalez released his second solo album 'in our nature'. keeping along the same lines as 'veneer' his excellent debut record a few years back, nature could just as easily been 'veneer2'. for 'veneer' he gave an excellent cover of swedish siblings the knife's 'heartbeats' and for 'in our nature' he gave another classical guitar take of trip hop pioneers massive attack's 'teardrop'. pigeon kicker nicholas has been a knife fan for many a-year and pigeon kicker superopentonewideas has been a massive attack fan for even longer. so direct any questions to them, like, hey nicholas, what's the deal with the knife and 'the swedish grammis'?

the knife - heartbeats
jose gonzalez - heartbeats
jose gonzalez - teardrop
massive attack - teardrop


go buy whatcha likes and delete whatcha don't

two cow garage interview

many thanks to shane from two cow garage for breaking our interview cherry as it were.

so who's in the band and what do they do?
Currently the line up is:
Andy Schell- Keys
Cody Smith- Drums
Chris Flint- Manager/sometimes guitar
Micah Schnabel- Guitar/vocals
Shane Sweeney- Bass/vocals

where does your name originate from?
A long time ago I worked at a science museum and a friend of ours and I were going to have a smoke. We were discussing the tribulations of coming up with a band name and he suggested, as a joke, Two cow garage. At our first show we still did not have a proper name so we, again as a joke, announced ourselves as Two Cow Garage. And it stuck. This could be fortunate or unfortunate depending on who you talk to. But we didn’t actually come up with it, I don’t know that any of us are that clever.

you play bass, describe your setup if you will.
Well, the thing is I play some pretty shitty gear. We tend to abuse our equipment and even aside from that expensive gear never lasts on the road. You just end up losing money on it. If I break a hundred and fifty dollar bass I don’t feel that bad, if it was like a ’59 jazz bass I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. So I play a Fender Squire P-bass through a 250 watt rogue head with a 4x10 crate cabinet.

how is the scene in your hometown of columbus?
The music scene in Columbus is pretty amazing. So is the art scene actually. There is an abundance of talent and some killer bands. Too many to name them all so I will name just three:
Times New Viking
The Evil Queens
Tree Of Snakes

what was the worst gig you guys played and why?
We played at a place in Pittsburgh, where the opening band played either bass or guitar (neither at the same time), the drummer had an electric kit, and two girls played plastic tubes. After sitting through that the manager of the place came to pay us our 8 dollars and we told him just to keep it, and he said, good that he needed to because the electricity was getting shut off the next week. This is by far not the worst but it was one that sprang to mind.

ever had any on stage injuries?
Yes. Many. I’m slightly accident prone. Guitar headstocks to the forehead happen occasionally, or small things like fingernails getting ripped. I once hit a globe lamp with the headstock of my bass. It shattered on me slicing my lip and left index finger. Everytime my heart would beat a stream of blood would come shooting out of my finger. Lots of stitches. That was probably the worst.

what's the best gig you've played and why?
Just like the bad ones, there are an inordinate amount of good ones too. Though as far as I am concerned, the recent This Is American Music, revue with the Drams, Grand Champeen, Glossary, and ourselves was the most special thing I’ve ever been a part of.

who have you shared the stage with?
This would be an extremely long list so I’ll just put some buddies that I haven’t mentioned yet.
I can Lick any sonofabitch in the house
Drag the River
Lucero
Centro-Matic
Little Grizzly
Hogpig
Okkervil River

i hear fiddles and banjos littered thru-out 'please turn the gas back on', are you guys playing all we hear, or do you bring in session players, friends etc...?
It really just depends. I think Micah played the banjo parts on that first record and we typically have friends get involved, even if its for something that would could conceivably play ourselves. It’s more fun to have your buddies playing with you. Sometimes we just don’t have the ability to play some of the things we hear in our heads though.

why was 'III' a more rock n roll record?
Well, actually I thought the first one was a rock record, it wasn’t until it started getting reviewed that it kind of got tagged as not that. For a very long time we were a three piece and we always played with a certain kind of abandon and obviously did not have banjo or fiddle live, so they were all rock songs to us. I just think that musically we had explored what those I guess “country” instruments could do for our songs and moved onto things that interested us more. So I guess dropping those things might make it sound more that way. Though they all have been to me. I don’t know if that made any sense.

i noticed with that with the drams and glossary, that whoever wasn't on stage would rotate in and out of playing the other bands songs on stage; a guest if you will, is that normal behavior for a show or a tour of yours?
Typically if we’re on tour with some friends we’ll have one of them on stage for something, but not to the degree of the TIAM tour we just did with those guys. That was specifically set up as a rolling thunder revue type thing. And it was beautiful. We’ve all toured together, we’re all friends, we all love each others songs. It was more like a family reunion than a tour. So no its not typically like that, though we do like to have friends up occasionally.

what are some of your favorite cities or venues to play?
I’ll list them, but it would be an essay describing why.
Cities:
1 New Orleans
2 Seattle
3 Columbus
4 Austin
5 Portland, Ore

Venues:
1 Vera- Groningen, NL
2 Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL
3 Subterranean, Chicago

what are 5 things in columbus that keep you guys there?
1 Music scene
2 Art Scene
3 It’s incredibly liberal
4 Clintonville
5 It’s our home

my favorite records are:
This is a loaded question
1 Born to Run- Springsteen
2 Where ya been- Dinosaur Jr
3 Sleepy-Eyed- Buffalo Tom

my favorite songs not on those records are:
1 Motion Pictures- Neil Young
2 Unsatisfied- The Replacements
3 Call the Legion In tonight- Centro-Matic

if i could work with _________ life would be great.
1 Springsteen
2 John Steinbeck
3 The Coen Brothers

these records get spun on the bus the most
1 The better angels of our nature- Glossary
2 Bested- Big Back Forty
3 Nothing feels good- The Promise ring

describe the songwriting process if you will.
For me, something will just appear, and I’ll hear it in my head, be it a melody or chord progression, a good line or a title, and then I just run with it and flesh it out. I can’t sit with a guitar and just write something like it’s a job. I’ve tried, it doesn’t work for me. I wish I could, maybe I’d be more prolific.

say, did you ever see that movie, uh, 'clash of the titans'?
Yes I have. It is the single reason why I’m afraid of scorpions

well i don't want to sound like a queer or nothing, but i think unicorns are kick ass.

david coverversions: absolutely sweet marie

full of desire with lines like "well, i got the fever down in my pockets", bob dylan's 'absolutely sweet marie' hasn't been given that many official takes, but the ones out there are worth tracking down. jason & the scorchers summon up the honkytonk gods and a bit of the stones' swagger for their take first released on the 'fervor' ep, their first release. they re-recorded it for their 2001 double album 'wildfires + misfires: two decades of outtakes and rarities'. for their 1979 record 'jumpin' in the night' the flamin groovies' gave a spectacular garage take. george harrison also tried this song out for 'the 30th anniversary concert celebration' in honor of bob dylan's 30 years as a recording artist. many people gave many sweet takes for this concert and the double album is totally worth tracking down, if only for neil young's 'all along the watchtower'...

bob dylan - absolutely sweet marie
the flamin' groovies - absolutely sweet marie
jason & the scorchers - absolutely sweet marie
george harrison - absolutely sweet marie


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my bloody underground

head on over to the brian jonestown massacre dot com and download the rough mix of their new record 'my bloody underground'. it's totally worth your time.

boss tuneage tuesday 12/4

got 2 hours?

the fiery furnaces - quay cur
neil young & crazy horse - slip away
tortoise - gamera
brightblack morning light - star
aphex twin - journey (aphex twin care mix)
stars of the lid - austin mental hospital part 2
the warlocks - jam of the witches
can - peking o
herbie hancock - sly
sigur ros - svefn-g-englar
bob dylan - desolation row
120 days - i've lost my vision


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david coverversions: froggie went a-courtin'

written way back in 1548 and many people have given different takes of this scottish tune. c-c-c-crambone. (there's a yodel in thar somewhar, but it's a little too high f'r me.)

bruce springsteen - froggie went a-courtin'
nick cave & the bad seeds - king kong kitchie kitchie ki-me-o
bob dylan - froggie went a-courtin'
pecos pest - froggie went a-courtin'


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two cow garage

on friday night we headed out into that long milwaukee night to catch the cd release parties of local bands evenstar and the rebuilts. this was going down at the cactus club. little did we know that just across the street at club garibaldi was columbus ohio's own two cow garage. having only read snippets of press here and there i thought this band was made-up, a fairy-tale if you will you could tell to hipsters. 'don't be a completely useless asshole and this band will come to your town and they will burn it down'. but here they are, live and in the flesh. tits. for those of you who don't know--two cow garage are musically like early wilco with the cowpunk swagger of jason & the scorchers (minus the mega-honkytown infatuation), the southern vibe of the drive-by truckers and my morning jacket, the blues, some banjos and some fiddles. they also utilize the booze-soaked vocal stylings not unlike the mark lanegan's and the tom waits' of the world. anywho the news here is that shane, two cow's bassist, agreed to do an interview for us so look for that in the next few days. in the meantime, check out these tunes from the first and latest two cow garage records then go to their website and buy them. (also gracing the stage on this evening, that i saw, were the drams and glossary.)

from 'please turn the gas back on'
been so long
farmtown
goodbye (alt)

from 'III"
mediocre
blanket gray
postcards and apologies


go buy whatcha likes and delete whatcha don't

free records #2 & #3: rachel car 'rachel car' & 'behave' ep

so more reviews. finally. i'd apologize for taking so long but i don't apologize for anything ever. the next defendant be: rachel car.

when these discs arrived at my doorstep, courtesy of los angeles' strater records, i wasn't sure what to expect. before this review begins, i'd like to declare that i have great admiration and respect for the fact that rachel car basically did this album and ep all by herself. that being said, these sound like they were done all by herself on her lil' casio and apple IIgs. but that's neither here nor there because i'm a-thinking that if rachel hooks up with a producer like linda perry, she could create the ass shakin' and boot knockin' music she's shooting for. not that these songs aren't filled with good ideas, they just don't bounce like she wants them to. it doesn't help her that these songs sound uninspired and that she sings them with a ho-hum boredom in her voice. if you want me to want you, act like it. don't sound like you'd rather be doing anything else. however, the remix album that streams from her website bounces like she wants it to.

side note: when i first got these records, i spent a good hour looking at the artwork for the 1-800 number to call as i thought it was promotion for some hot kinky clown sex phone line. too bad, i was totally in the mood for a hilarious verbal wank. but for seriously, all you cali cats and kittens keep an eye out for rachel car and her various projects, who shows much promise but sometimes people need a little help getting there.

arbitrary grade: knockin' boots with a softy johnce

from 'rachel car'
i know you want me
love somebody

from 'behave' ep
keep me high
love love baby


go buy whatcha likes and delete whatcha don't

david coverversion: paul simon vs. grizzly bear

so just about a year ago, i picked up grizzly bear's second record 'yellow house' without having heard them. being released by warp i was not expecting beach boys worthy harmonies sounding like they were recorded in a cave. excellent excellent excellent. i still need to go pick up the 'friends' ep with various covers by band of horses, css and atlas sound (who is one of the dudes from the excellent deerhunter). paul simon is god amongst mere mortals. anything, and i do mean anything, he has done is worth picking up. when i heard that the grizz covered my favorite paul simon tune off my favorite paul simon record it was insta-stiffy time. the excellent songwriting in the verses totally make up for the kinda lame chorus in the paul simon version. still looking for that department of eagles record as well...

paul simon - graceland
grizzly bear - graceland


go buy whatcha likes and delete whatcha don't