Friday, March 27, 2009

Friday Listening


Various Artists - The Birth of Bossa
Bill Fox - Transit Byzantium
Roky Erickson - I Have Always Been Here Before
The Love Language - s/t
DKV Trio w/ Fred Anderson
Akron / Family - Set 'em Wild, Set 'em Free

have great weekends...

Thursday, March 26, 2009

RIP John Hope Franklin


Historian, author (From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans,” 1947), professor John Hope Franklin passed away yesterday at the age of 94. He had an amazing life and a center at Duke University in his name that everyone should visit.

Photo by Derek Anderson.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Manic Pop Thrills



well i didn't expect to see That Petrol Emotion at sxsw, or ever really! but i was a huge fan of their first two albums and couldn't pass up the chance when i saw they were playing late last night at something called Elysium....they were less...manic? than they used to be but the O'Neill brothers and Steve Mack seemed pretty ageless and sounded really good (though i only recognized two songs -- "Good Thing" and "Big Decision").

also saw a killer set by Dinosaur Jr including a guest appearance from Kevin Drew on "The Wagon"...Dino sounded great.

today i decided to see some bands that weren't around when i was in college 20 years ago, beginning with new merge artist Telekinesis, who sounded great at the pizza joint on S. Congress...

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Going to Texas


...headed into the SXSW fray later today, better make sure i have some Doug Sahm and some Big Boys in my ipod. I would definitely be live-blogging it from my blackberry except the little rollerball broke and only rolls in three directions now...seriously, it won't roll down. makes certain tasks difficult.

Wwax comp is getting some love over at Pop Tarts Suck Toasted blog.

The fabulous Sound Opinions radio show has a Merge retrospective this week! Laura and I talked for it. Listen in.

Recently i recorded a version of "Ram On" for a compilation covering the entire Ram album by Paul and Linda McCartney, for Tom Scharpling's show, the Best Show, on WFMU. NY Press has an article about Tom's show and his great fundraising for the station.

Friday, March 13, 2009

39 degrees and raining

ugh! back to the crappy weather after fake spring, but at least there's basketball on TV!

friday listening:

prefab sprout - steve mcqueen (acoustic version)
telekinesis - telekinesis!
buzzcocks - another music in a different kitchen
bert jansch - the black swan
tahiti 80 - wallpaper for the soul
julian cope - world shut your mouth

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Wwax is Bback


i was in a band called Wwax (i can't remember the origin of the extra W, but we existed before that band Wax that had only one W and a video on mtv) with Wayne Taylor (previously of NC hardcore legends No Labels) and Brian Walsby (of Patty Hearst Shifter, Polvo, and many others, plus comics fame) for a couple years in the mid to late 80's...we were kind of normal (guitar bass drums) but kind of weird too...we put out a few singles and a cassette that was Merge's second release (MRG002), and now all that stuff is collected into a digital compilation, at least all the stuff you'd want to hear...

The digital compilation is called Like it Or Not and is available at the Merge store NOW!

Saturday, March 07, 2009

If You're in LA / UPDATE What you missed in LA...

nice write-up of the show here, wish i could have been there!

heard SF was amazing as well.

go see Lambchop tonight at Largo!

with the fabulous Radar Bros.

there is no such thing as a bad Lambchop show, only a rare one...

i only wish i was out west to see it!

Monday, March 02, 2009

Just Like Old Times



i swear when i was in high school it snowed at least 3 times a winter with at least one good 7-8" snowfall that would get us out of school for a week. not any more; we're lucky to get freezing drizzle these days but finally woke up to the white stuff today with a milder version of what the rest of the east coast got...nice. of course school is cancelled though the roads are completely clear.

over at MBV Music Ryan of the Catbird Seat is running a nice series on Merge and our 20 years, starting with our dormroom combo Bricks...

and over the weekend the Carolina Hurricanes, after a scintillating shootout win over the Sabres on Thursday night, put together one of the worst 3 periods i've ever seen, blowing a 3-1 lead to lose 5-3 to Atlanta. one of those games where you tune in and your team is up by a goal or two and you think "ah finally, a relaxing game i can have on in the background and just enjoy a win" and then it all goes wrong.

at least the next morning we got to see Katrina vanden Heuvel eat Karl Rove's lunch on ABC's This Week with George...regardless of the fact that he's evil, Mr. "Call me Karl" Rove has a TERRIBLE teevee presence: sputtering, takes everything personally and comes off basically who doesn't realize that the election is over and he and his peeps LOST. Vanden Heuvel was so ready for this opportunity (normally the round table is kind of nicey-nice) and crushed him (George Will was crushed already).

weekend listening:
Miles Davis - ESP and Kind of Blue
Curtis Fuller - The Opener
Fonotone Records box
Amadou & Mariam - Welcome to Mali
Jennifer O'Connor - Here With Me
Dark Was the Night comp
Sir Victor Uwaito - Guitar Boy Superstar 1970-76
AC Newman - Get Guilty