There's a Hockey Game

US plays whoever won the Canada - Latvia matchup the other night, will probably watch.

vinyl weekend:

Mirah - Aspera
The Clientele - Strange Geometry
Jimi Hendrix - Axis: Bold as Love
Greg Cartwright - Live at the Circle A
She & Him - Vol. 2
V/A - Boogaloo Pow Wow
Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care

Ouch

US up 6-0 on Finland after one period, didn't see that coming! and OUCH Hurricane Tim Gleason just took a puck to the head....Finns getting chippy now in the 2nd...

Friday listening:
Bee Gees - Horizontal
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen
Straightjacket Fits - Hail
Talk Talk - Colour of Spring
The Magnetic Fields - Realism

Have great weekends....

Healthcare Summit

Is there anyone who has fallen so far in terms of the respect he engenders and the substance he brings to an issue as John McCain?

Watching the Healthcare Summit and McCain's comments are self-righteous and self-aggrandizing and hard to stomach.

Obama's response: "John, we're not campaigning anymore."

odd note: Obama refers to ObGyn docs as something that sounds like "Obee Guynees"...never heard that one before.

also odd: Obama suggests Republicans do some soul searching...would require them having said souls.

listening:

Amor De Dias - S/T
Rolling Stones - Between the Buttons
Straighjacket Fits - Melt
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me

The Clientele tonight!

The Clientele are in the US to tour for the fantastic Bonfires On the Heath record, playing here in NC tonight with Vetiver at the Cat's Cradle, can't wait.

listening:
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen
Elvis Costello - Trust
La Nueva Banda De Sanisteban - Sabor a fresa
The Ettes - Do You Want Power

USA Hockey beats the Swiss in a much tighter game than the other day...Miller gets the shutout 2-0.

Big Tuesday

Chris Knox tribute STROKE is out today on Merge, as is the great new Shout Out Louds album, WORK. They make albums that sounds like albums but at the same time each song is kind of a hit, it's an underrated combination.

Also, elimination hockey starts today! (Swiss currently up 2-1 on Belarus in the 2nd)

listening:

Rocket from the Crypt - Scream Dracula Scream!
SMOG - Rain On Lens
Organos - The Limbs EP
Patti Smith - Horses
Times New Viking - born again revisited
Kris Kristofferson - Kristofferson
Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago

Stroke Album for Chris Knox Out Tomorrow!

Pitchfork has an interview with Chris (by Shane Carter of The Straighjacket Fits & Dimmer) up today: 5-10-15-20: Chris Knox

Go here or to your local record store to get the record!

Amazing

Amazing win for USA hockey tonight...strange saying something positive about a Buffalo Sabre, it pains me actually, but Ryan Miller is playing out of his mind, stopping 42 of 45 shots tonight. Rafalski going nuts as well. Really best of both worlds (as a 'Canes fan) getting a goal for Staal but seeing the US win an incredibly intense hockey match. Having said that, i think there's a lot of hyperbole in the analysis of this as "one of the most important games ever" for Canadian hockey etc....not even an elimination game! obviously a lot of hockey to be played yet, and Russia looked pretty great beating Czech Republic.

MSNBC is right now trying to demonstrate how disappointed all Canadians are but it's difficult because everyone on the street is acting so drunk and happy and... not disappointed.

Friday Listening

The Kinks - Everybody's In Showbiz
Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM
Richard Hawley - Lady's Bridge
Government Issue - Complete History Vol 1
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
The Clientele - Bonfires on the Heath (coming to the US next week!)
V/A - Casual Victim Pile
Pantha du Prince - Black Noise

big hockey match on Sunday! should be fun.
have a good one!

Tracey Thorn + Merge!

You may have already seen the announcement that in May Merge will be putting out the NEW TRACEY THORN ALBUM! Yes, caps = excitement. Having been a fan for 25 years it's amazing to get to release Tracey's record here in the US and the record itself is surprising, engaging, and excellent of course. What's not surprising is how great her voice and her songs are. Tracey has a website and Tweets frequently and hilariously as well.

also listening today:
Sandy Denny - Sandy
Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM
Taken By Trees - East of Eden
The Baseball Project
The Isleys - Brother Brother Brother

Have You Seen This Man?

Olympic hockey starts today, and i still can't figure out why Hurricanes favorite Jussi Jokinen is NOT on the Finnish Olympic hockey team. He is the leads all Finnish-born players in the league in points this season...and while it's great that his teammates Ruutu and Pitkanen are on the team, why no Jussi!?

On the Radio

local gal made good (and now living in the big city) Tift Merritt was back in NC recently and was kind enough to have me on her interview show The Spark, which she records for Marfa Public Radio...we talked about writing songs and listening to songs and record covers and all kinds of things, check it out here!

listening today:

The Damned - Strawberries (i first heard this record when i was in high school at a hardcore show in Durham at this Rasta place where they had shows...HR was playing (the Bad Brains had recently broken up, not for the last time). his band was amazing, and the guitar player sat in their van by the door of the club listening to the song "Dozen Girls" from this album over and over again, just rewinding the tape)
Fucked Up - Couple Tracks
Max Richter - 24 Postcards in Full Colour
Meat Puppets - Up On the Sun
Tracey Thorn - Out of the Woods

On Tap

some great stuff happening in these parts in the coming week... this weekend at UNC (tonight and tomorrow night) is Young Jean Lee's play The Shipment. monday night Touareg rock stars Tinariwen are at Memorial Hall, should be amazing. wonder if i can make it from there to Tortoise at the Cradle in time?

next week at Duke Dean and Britta are bringing their "13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screentests", to Page Auditorium. local boy and drummer extraordinaire Lee Waters (you may have seen him with Camera Obscura, Essex Green, his own band Work Clothes, or heard him playing on Portastatic records!) is on board for that show as well.

Coming off an excellent OT win v Sabres last night (it always feels good to beat Buffalo, and you'd never know from the atmosphere in the RBC that one of the teams was essentially just playing for pride) 'Canes play NJ on saturday and will have rookie Justin Peters in goal (coming off his own win last weekend, in his first NHL appearance). We've lost Nicky Wallin and Matt Cullen to trades this week, sad though not surprising. Ray Whitney liable to be next, after the Olympics. Still, Carolina has not thrown in the towel and it's fun to watch some no-pressure hockey.

Friday listening:
Heatmiser - Mic City Sons
Toy Love - Cuts
Depeche Mode - Speak & Spell
Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane
Reigning Sound - Too Much Guitar
Hot Chip - One Life Stand

Tuesday Listening

Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians - Gotta Let This Hen Out!
Robyn Hitchock - I Often Dream of Trains (In New York)
Hot Snakes - Audit In Progress
Tony Williams - Spring
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
Marvin Gaye - Here My Dear
Shout Out Louds - Work
Replacements - Sorry Ma...
The Kinks - Arthur

also it's fun to watch this:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Sarah Palin Uses a Hand-O-Prompter
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

Color Balance

Took advantage of a snow day this week to check out the new Felrath Hines exhibit at the Ackland, beautiful color field type abstract paintings, perfect way to get away from the freezing rain coming down this weekend around here! Fascinating life story and absorbing work. The work pictured here, "Escape," is not even my favorite but i can find few images online to share here.

Friday listening:

Hot Chip - One Life Stand
Let's Wrestle - In the Court of the Wrestling Let's
David S. Ware - Go See The World
Tunng - Good Arrows
Eric's Trip - Love Tara
Doris Duke - I'm A Loser
The Fall - Complete Peel Sessions (Disc 3)

Ltd SCORE! Boxes Available Now!

we have a limited number of complete SCORE! box sets over at Merge...beautiful package, great curators, great music and still all for charity of course...when they're gone they're gone!

Wednesday listening:

Four Tet - There Is Love In You
Bill Withers - Still Bill
Shout Out Louds - WORK
Bill Evans - Moonbeams
Irma Thomas - A Woman's Viewpoint
Andrew Hill - Live at Montreux 1975
Everything But the Girl - Everything But the Girl

Oscar Nominee Joe Klotz!

Congratulations to Joe Klotz, old friend and co-director (with Phil Morrison) of the Portastatic video for "San Andreas" -- Joe is a 2010 Oscar Nominee for Best Film Editing for his work on Precious!