couch dancing

i was commenting to newlin today that i wanted to listen to something i haven't listened to in a long time. but i didn't know what. i've been uploading photos from compound shows and for some reason i get kinda nostalgic when i do that, dunno why, some of these shows were only like a week ago. still, i try not to get caught up too heavily in nostalgia, sure i've mentioned that before.
moving on.
i was thinking about bands that walk the line between nostalgia and productivity and i was like, man, no one does that better than '68 comeback. doesn't matter how far back into music jeff & co reach, they still keep what they're doing fresh. dead friends seem like they just died with these dudes. i pulled out "a bridge too fuckin far" as i set bout my task of documenting compound shows on facebook and it felt perfect.
someday my prince will come:


http://www.myspace.com/68comebackfansite

i can't believe i've neglected writing about them: the demon's claws

i came across these guys in about 2006 then got to see them play at the last hozac blackout, also in 2006. they decimated me. this is closest thing i can think of to describing how they play: once i was hiking in the mountains around here and i was pretty high up and i was near a gravel slide and decided i wanted to take a short cut down. so i started making my way down this gravel slide and didn't realize how steep it was so i either had to slide down on my ass or run. since ruining a pair of jeans wasn't appealing i decided to run, and it wasn't so much running as it was giant leaps with no control. i was going so fast that each "step" was about ten feet apart. and there was no slowing down, and i was simultaneously in and out of control, and it was totally beyond my control. that's what i think of when i listen to the demons claws, once they start they can't control what happens. they're some of those folks who continue to prove sound is a physical force. i've been listening to their records over and over again the past few days. i kinda get stuck on their latest lp, "satans little pet pig", and have slowly realized i really want to rip off every song they do. i'm fine with that.

please head over to the nearest wrong side of town:


myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/demonsclaws

a new romance

i got a friend request on myspace for a band called younger lovers. very good. very gay. i'm in love. not gay love, but rocknroll love. so snotty. from oakland.


with any luck i can get this record and talk about it some more.

watch me fall first listen

so i'm writing as i listen to jay reatards "watch me fall " lp. i had hear ain't gonna save me a few times before so i skipped it. so far the record sounds pretty disjointed, not typical of what i've heard from jay before, i can't really compare it to any of his other stuff, tho, i'm not sure if that's an appropriate response for not understanding where the writing is coming from on this record, and i've heard from a few folks that it's quite a departure from what we're used to from him. i will agree. it seems like he's kept writing things in the same vein as the matador singles, which weren't my favorite, but there were a few good tracks from those 45's. while in some respects it seems he's trying to make the songs a bit more complex, it also seems he's stripped some things down, for instance, you don't hear much by way of basslines (which IMO were stand out on blood visions). i'm really not picking anyhting out on this record so far that says, wow. i hate saying it's mediocre, because there are glimpses of what could possibly be really cool, but arent quite developed like they were in previous endeavors (which are always in the back of my head when i think about jay's music). i think what i'm missing most from this record, a thing i've grown accustomed to on tard records, are killer choruses. maybe they're overthought? ok, rotten mind just came on, and i'm really liking it more than most of the other tracks. watching you is pretty good too, kind of a new song for jay (new in that i haven't heard him write one like that). maybe thats what this is. other ways of writing for him. i really hate hearing people go off on the new stuff like it has no value. most things have some sort of value. if he kept writing the same way since he started we'd have no lost sounds or nervous patterns or angry angles or blood visions. with respect to that idea i'm curious to see where he's going with this. i'm patient enough because of the things he's written in the past to see where this new phase takes him. i'm liking the end of the record more than the beginning, and though the first few songs sound disjointed and out of place i think the latter tracks are jay getting his legs. it's a calmer less seething more grown up jay on the b-side. as i'm thiniing about this transitional pahse i wonder if we'll ever get a combination of the old and new, which for me would be exciting. i'm kinda fascinated by this record only because it seems like jay can't sit still on an idea. i wouldn't call this a concept record if he's only messing around, but i would say the record is a re-orientation of his ideas, influences and methods. he's definitely looking back to a less angry or violent, but no less artistically potent, era of punk, non-american/british punk (maybe aussie /NZ stuff?). i think i hear a lot of the clean, adverts, tall dwarfs, veralines etc but with a more absurdist take on structures and stuff, or rather less of a dependence on typical american rocknroll/punk rock ways of writing that we're all used to. finishing up is "a whisper (there is no sun)". i had a tough time at the beginning getting behind this album, but i think as i think about it a little more the record will make sense. i hope this doesn't come off as apologetic, because i wasn't ready to like this, and i still don't know if i "like" it, but i do think its worth understanding. this record seems to require a bit more thinking through, and i'm fine with that.
here's jays website:
http://www.jayreatard.com/
scroll down a bit to listen to the tracks.

what? no way!

so i came across this little band a few years back from new jersey called titus andronicus, and at first thought i wondered about the name, like are they gonna sing all about shakespeare all the time? i got their first 7" from my buddy joe's label, shake appeal records, and i fell in love with t instantly, i didn't really hear much about them after that, but i think they may have put out a couple more records. regardless, i saw they had a hole in their tour and were looking to fill it, so i emailed them to see if they wanted a show here in provo and they took the bait. can't wait for this show. not your typical black lips rip-off band. i find a kind of catchy dissonance intheir music that i really like. i think these guys share members with VCR (remember the first post on here?) any way check these dudes out at the compound on sunday with so so glos (brooklyn) and locals big trub on sunday.
here's a vid for arms against apathy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM-F5X0Ik3w

here's the myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/titusandronicus

stooooooooooooopid party!

http://www.myspace.com/stupidparty

AT the come poind tomorrow night!
also with badd blood and ZE BUMMERVOOLF!

come to the party baby!!!!!!!!!!!
three dollarz!
starts at 8! at the compound! yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
tuesday sept 8!!!!!!!!11111

WOAH...BO DIDDLEY PROMO FROM 1966...

greg o posted this on the goner board!






so wierd. i love it.

"bubblegum bators"

in the interim between the dead boys and lords of the new church (and i guess the wanderers too) stiv bators did some solo stuff that was pretty damn fun, like really bubblegummy power pop. quite the departure from the snot the dead boys kicked out and not gothic at all. cool thing is, IMO, the solo stuff is as solid as anything else he did. dale from smashin' transistors (i stole the post title from him) was putting some of this stuff up on facebook today and it prompted me to try to find some more:

make up your mind


not that way anymore:


it's cold outside: