I promise i will write back

Hey dudes, Its been a really busy couple of months i have been bro'ing down and drinking.
Went to a lot of shows, some good some bad. Working on music listening to a whole ass load of metal and getting really ridiculous old school baseball caps and flipping the bills up(i know you are saying right now, he is a douche). I could go into great detail of all this- but maybe i should start at the present, or not.

This weekend has brought in more drinking and dice playing than usual. I mean i normally get ripped and not do anything productive besides talk about my current musical obsessions and make stupid and inane remarks about various things i despise and then stumble home and some how get my pants off. No instead a got a weekend of dice, a birthday crosstown dash and a clipped beaks show and the bears and more beer at an open mic. Not to significantly different in the grand scheme but it was a welcome change from the bar to bar nights i have been having lately.

Dudes's its maiden

And We are not getting any younger

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
- Hunter S. Thompson




I realized today that i am only going to get older and it scared the living shit out of me. Like i was mortified that i have wasted 2 years at this fucking shithole of a job and havent got as so much as a step closer to what i want as a career, which is predictable and the worst part is i have to now grip the steady fact that i wont ever live off of playing and making music... This is not fun to deal with i am 23 i have an expiration date on this lifestyle, no one likes a failed aging musician. Youth is fleeting and the worst of it is its spent being poor and depressed. i am trying to enjoy it then shit like this happens and you work with an ass load of i want to be famous music types and spend most free nights when you are not practicing drinking and trying to numb the realization that there is no light at the end of the tunnel. It really hit me last night when a friend of mine from NYC told me its sad to see bands that you love never ever going to make it and if they break up there screwed back to the day job. he works in music publishing. I am not privileged, nor did i choose to the day job route and i have to either make it by hard work and some strange force of luck or give up and admit defeat. Either way everyone has the right to make art has the right to play on a stage i don't get to decide what the world likes and dislikes. So i just got to do what i like and hope it sticks but each day i know my time is coming to quit, to understand it was just a pipe dream.

And now its raining

Well, i have a little time to squeeze in a little entry


In the midst of the seemingly summer bender i have decided i need to sober up for most of the week and stop going out every fucking night. I need to get some work done and start recording i came to this conclusion in between the fact i am almost bankrupt(seriously i am one paycheck away from selling all i own) and i havent played a real show since july so i need to get my act together. Smog kinda helped clarify that need i was think i like making all kinds of music. i hope i can keep my head straight long enough to do this right. in honor of folk and the like here are this weeks recomendations:

Smog- any and all of it
Silver Jews- again shit is brilliant
The Ohsees- Sucks blood and the cool death of island raiders- This band has made low key shit really rule again the tastefullness just oozes out i really believe that this is the future of folk seriously check it out.
If you really want to get all fucking hippy look at these:
Devendra Banhart
Tyrannosaurus rex (not T.rex thats marc bolans electric shit)
and if you wanna get uber sad go listen to Elliot smith

I will see you guys later

Congradufuckinglations

So they banned smoking in Il on jan 1 2008, which really pisses me off for two basic reasons 1. I smoke, and its chicago
2. I am Taxed out the fucking asshole just for a pack. lower the taxes then i am cool with the ban but if not at least let me die with other smokers in my favorite dive bar. its really horrible that this is what passes as top priority. Not kids needing to learn in schools, not better public health care nope lobbyist are so fucking concerned with a smoking ban they forget tat most bar workers are smokers. also they forget that this is fucking frivolous. what the fuck ever i hate america and i hate cunt ass repulicans and special interest groups fuck off all of you

Well If it sucks, at least you didn't write it

So, I have been spending a great deal of the past two weeks trying to figure out a decent way of reviewing the Battles record "Mirrored", the first review of this blog....and have come to some conclusions: J.R. Nelson is awesome at writing these things, and where to get really awesome tight pants, again many thanks to J.R..

I can't really beat around the bush on this record - it fucking rocks, which I understand is the most neanderthal statement I can make about this, but when something fucking rocks it does. I mean, I don't think many people will go, "Hmm, that guitar riff on Led Zep's 'Black Dog' was a great example of blues distillation in the early 70's..." Why? Because that's the sort of shit I discuss when I get really trashed and want to piss someone off or when I am slightly buzzed and really value that other party's opinion, not when some poor and probably very lonely stranger accidentally finds this thing and well, decides that he would rather die than hear more of that.

It's a lot like this record; you can take it on face value. It's chock full of riffs, loops, crunchy guitars, big drums and non-obtrusive vocals. Showing every facet of a good rock record and very fulfilling to listen to in a lot places like the bus at 9 am when you are wondering what a complete mindfuck working on something you care absolutely nothing about is, or when you are about to spend the night on the town and you are getting psyched up, or doing some "extreme sport"* and lastly I am positive some douchebag DJ in Greenpoint has mashed upped "Leyendecker" with Lil' Wayne and is spinning it in some fucking club with a clever name like Aux or the Blue Banana.

The choices on this record can be a bit confusing, not like the way you feel about Alec Baldwin Vs. the voice of Alec Baldwin when he is doing voice overs, more like why did they choose so many jubilant chords and many playful arrangements (Crap, I am doing it...must not be that guy...) . The overall robo feel makes this a great zone-out record, the points of break down and build up actually made me forget that I probably look really ridiculous nodding my head and dancing like a Hippy that totally took one too many tabs and starts wearing a white robe and is in some weird freaky cult. The manipulation of sound is something these four guys are very keen on, in fact I didn't see it coming. I thought the band would kinda stay in their experimental fuck-the-song attitude, but then they do this which is a very accessible and complex record, there no slouches to say the least. Also there is this almost sinister feel to it. Then I start to fantasize I am in some cool movie. Then I snap out of it and feel real silly. I guess I could say a lot more about this record and the band that has already been said. However, just to throw this out there: it always reminded me a lot of some of Steve Reich's compositions.




*I wanted to add some 90's antiquated reference because I think they're ridiculous and need to be pointed and laughed at like when you see all this crap about coked up celebs.

Ok We are Changing this up

Allow me to now formally introduce to you that i will start blogging about albums and shows and entertainment news now so beware .....it starts tommorow!

A review of the battles record Mirrored

So here we are again, last time i was ranting about the LB show, since then i went to NY which was cool i liked it there to get drunk and walk around somehow i don't have time to do that any more..... The band i am in is going through changes trying to find its voice, Kelly stepped out of the band. Now its me and O man. Bike was stolen which is a first for me but not in that good way. Seamus had to go to the vet big time and had to have an operation. work sucks. bought moped cant get it to run yet. Seamus recovering he makes me happy so does kellstar so life is still good.....all good

Waiting in line to ride the skies

150 people can only get in+ an ad in the reader and an update on load records = a lot of disappointed people. I was not one of them. I saw the return of lighting bolt to Chicago with a mind boggling amount of younger kids mostly 18-20. normally i wouldn't take this into account except i find the difference between that one year to 21 sometimes makes all the world. Don't get me wrong it was a great show but something was a miss, maybe it was because it was in the basement of a university or maybe it was the drunk 19 year old named Chris who by the time of the show was drunk always trying to crowd surf or for that matter the other 149+ men trying to swallow lighting bolt like the abyss and as a result both of the Brians having to push off college kids almost falling or completely falling on the pedals or the drum kit. there was now way for him to jump off anything or even move the kit. he tried and got only got about one foot. several times he asked them to back up to no avail, just a sea of sweaty kids that smelled like sweat, coffee, cheap booze and cigarettes. Or it might have been one of the opening bands k.k rampage that were awful and cocky trying ever so hard to offend people that they took to spitting on a girl and acting like he would hit someone with a mic stand (also note a swastika on the arm of the shirt he was wearing of his own band and also note at their merch table he was extremely worried that the other shirt that they were selling would have this. in short he was only acting.) but instead showing what happens when you idolize a lack of maturity and musicianship. Or that LB mostly played thier newer stuff and did so in this sort of nervousness that showed as soon as they sat down that this at any moment could be a god awful indie disaster. or maybe its that the bassist doesn't like large crowds and that crowd would make me extremely weary if i were him and i don't mind crowds. They played extremely well their songs are much better live and despite these factors put on an amazing show.


also i am going to new york in less than 24 hrs no work for a week . fuck yeah

Fuck You old man winter, Fuck you!

negitive temp, analog trouble, and whatever else

So Its been so cold in chicago i think there is a class action lawsuit against lake michigan for its "effect" on the city its pretty drastic, i know. Aside from the usual it has become more apparent i need a computer at home its pretty sad being in the equivilant of 1985 with none of the perks of that time period. also if you are into stocks cheap beer is up 2% bars are down 5%. as for the hunt for the ever more unicorn like cheap analog synth i have returned no results i have attempted many times to search for said elusive beast and yet always miss it, its laughing at me constantly that and i might have to claim jihad on ebay for fucking up the gear market worse then gary busey mug shot. also kelly and my farfisa are at every increasing odds with each other and i am starting to get worried for the farf at any moment i know it my have a run it with a bat or some strange incident down a flight of stairs which is to say like all hicks south of the mason dixon "it had it coming..". My mom and my step dad came into town over the weekend, which was nice sometimes and nerve racking for the other half. at one point my mom wanted to see the famed buddy guy's legends club whci was more sad than under wellming, i have never seen so many crackers in one room outside of a sports bar or a tuppeware party. that and the blues in chicago has taken a turn for the reaper which is heart breaking to say the least. but its was what the crowd thought was blues just like in the 60's when john hurt was passed of for the blues. sometimes it's best to give up my notions of what is this or that and just take in the situation enjoy the fact that i wouldnt normally get caught in such an awkward moment with my mom there or being completely sober . Or that the people playing the music on stage need to play it so they get paid, it wasnt art this was pure entertainment. nothing wrong with it lots of music is just that now not everything needs to be some grandiose refelction of inner turmoil or meditations of losses and gains. and things change it used to be that Rock and roll was just supposed to be about as real as paid for advertisment for 24hr weight loss drinks. now its a whole nervous system interwing with so many statements and values in just that one genre its amazing just like buddy guys god forsaken red and white polkadot suit(how the fuck did he wear that). i think i might have succeded in really wasting your time. lastly i need to really emphasize that the hype that i have created in the band i am in is really my fault and should be kicked in the shins by gilbert godfried while he goes on and on about him "accidently" having intercorse with a cow that he mistaked for woman and later became suspicioous that the cow was a man dressed as a woman..(yeah something obcene and absurd*).. Which reminds me that i got to see some dali bronze scupltures that inspired many thoughts. one was; jokes on you to be willing pay 300,000 bucks for an authorized reproduction of me making fun of the art world while i was really doped up. and right then and there he goes and pants a picture of a donkey wearing assless chaps and drinking beer**.

ha



"where the hell did i put that peyote"


*fuck yeah a double whammy. thats like getting drunk and not having to pay for it!
**yes i ment the pun i thought it would be in the true spirit of the surrealist

Jesus did not have to deal with Florecent lights and...

A shitty postal service also a whole generation of people being told that they are better than the next guy and being demanding is polite. Oh and common sense is like the howdy doodie Show. Also inflation is rising more than our birth rate which is only messing with our real estate and that inturn is making it harder for me to live above the ever climbing poverty line which is taller than me. And evidently making a living in the music industry is like being homeless and trying to test drive a ferrari. Oh and when did i think i was so special like i was exempt from it, that was just dumb. And i feel like i was lied to at my college they said i would have career placement for life, they have never helped me find a job. why did i feel like i could follow my dreams...its hard for me not to lose hope and suspect that i am doomed to the tech equivalent of a burger flipper. Whatever i am just down on my self. dont deserve sympathy i think i am not even going to keep this up for more than a week. fuck it.