Say what you will about crazytrain Adam Green, but the boy can write sad songs better than anyone else. His surreal (and sometimes disgusting/disturbing) lyrics manage to perfectly describe existential pain. Sometimes when I feel like I wanna get all Emo, I play 3 killer tunes from AG's 2nd album Friends of Mine, 2003.
"I wanna choose to die/and be buried with a Rubik's cube/and sleep inside the big blue buildings/as the sweet disease drives through." Yeah, I think this means he wants to make a choice to die without having to actually do anything about it himself... instead he'd want to just die in his bed in some big blue building without exerting any effort. But to want to be buried with a Rubik's cube? I guess that means he wants to know there is a solution to the problem and hopefully he'll finally fucking get it once he's dead. I feel that!
The opener alone is enough to make you want to cry. "Picture a place that's far from danger./A nicer place to cash your chips/I'm not the one holding you hostage/squeezed in between my lips./We're not supposed to be lovers/or friends like they'd have us believe./We're not supposed to know each other/accept my apology."
But it's the end that gets me every time. "Picture a person you've forgotten/kissing your brother or your friend./Picture a wounded entertainer/cutting his hair again." While we can all get what he's talking about in the first part: you'd want to kill your brother or friend for making out with one of your old lovers, it's the last lines that I find most poignant. Everybody knows that one of the best things to do after a heartbreak is to go crazy, cut and dye your hair, get a whole new "look" and get on with it. Poor Adam.
The most gut-wrenching of all is Bungee. I don't know why. Adam talks about incest and the Clap and Indian chiefs and priests, but there's something so disorienting and devastating, almost as if it's straight out of a nightmare, about "she went bungee jumping/one fine day/off the cliffs of our friendship/and at the bottom she stayed./when they told me/that her body was found/an astronaut drowned/in the long island sound/i tripped down the stairs/in my basketball shoes/and paddled downstream/in my father's canoe." I think it's the juxtaposition of something so tactile like "basketball shoes" with the metaphorically dead body of the girl and the dreamlike strings of the music.
The video below is pretty bad, but unfortunately Adam doesn't usually perform "Bungee." So instead watch and see how fun he is and how much German people are obsessed with him.
On Saturday night Dr. Dog (Philly, represent!) played a free show at Prospect Park. Hipster heaven. Boys in skinny jeans heaven. JJ twittering every sight he saw heaven. I can't run out of good things to say about seeing a show at Prospect Park! People smiled. People recycled their aluminum beer bottles. The sound was awesome, and there was even a rainbow... as Lox said, a Pride Parade-timely sign from God that gay marriage is AWESOME and should be legal!
He CAN'T stop: TWITTER CRAZE.
So These United States opened. We missed their set except for like 2 songs, and they seemed pretty folksy to me. Then Phosphorescent played. Great stuff but not my cup of tea. However for the venue and general crowd mood, I enjoyed it.
(BTW WE RAN INTO CAROLINE SHADOOD WHO HAS A COOL BLOG: check it out! She's an Advocate alum and super cool.)
THEN the crew began bringing Dr. Dog's trees up on stage, and JJ and I were lucky to get seats. Dr. Dog played for about an hour, and they mixed up the newer songs from Fate with some of my old faves like "The Pretender" (love it when Toby sings) and "Oh No." Toward the end of their set, they brought a 13-yr.-old dog (I think named Max?) up on stage because as Scott McMicken pointed out, it was "a family affair."
Another amazing night with ultra-talented and hard-working Dr. Dog. I think this was the 7th time I've seen them, and it breaks my heart how much I love and adore them since Andrew, Kyle, and I saw them open for The Racs way back when in 2006. Dr. Dog consistently KICK ASS and TAKE NAMES. They had me at "Die Die Die," aka the song of my life.
It turns out cigarettes can’t kill you
cause when you didn't come back
every time that I thought of you
I smoked a whole pack
I was up to about seventeen packs a day
I was refueling too
about every hour or so
I drank a bottle of white mule
I wasn't thinking about turquoise
I wasn't thinking about gold
I wasn't thinking about thinking
or about getting old got to be so I didn't care if I was leaving or loving
oh, what I was and what I was becoming
I don't want to in your arms
I just want to die
don't want to die in your arms
I just want to die
and like a marionette doll
oh, manned by a fool
I went into the chicken shed
started looking for tools
well I worked for a month
built some sky and some clouds
and I built some myself some angels
with trumpets so loud
well they blared hallelujah and I knew I was done
I walked through a golden gate with pearl inlays
saw a never setting sun
well I knew I was dead
I couldn't do no more harm
well I built myself a heaven where you died in my arms
Last night I stayed up way late watching Milos Foreman's awesome Czech New Wave film Loves of a Blonde, 1965. In contrast to the ultra-serious, nihilistic French New Wave (Godard flavor) Loves of a Blonde has a sense of humor that permeates the sad plot: the romantic follies and triumphs of Andula, the young factory worker looking for love as a means to escape her boring life.
I wish I looked exactly like Andula, played by Hana Brejchova. But instead of bleaching my hair again, I turn on the iPod and DANCE.
I love the Dead Trees. I rave about them all the time to anyone who will listen because they kick ass, and they're better than so many of the opening bands that start things off at MHOW with either 56 people on stage with tambourines and kazoos or a gaggle of boys in too tight pants and ridiculous hairstyles. The Dead Trees can actually play their instruments and sound a little bit country, a little bit Pavement, and a lot a bit rock and roll. They've really only gotten better and better since the first time I saw them open for AHJ 2 summers ago.
Favorite Flavors
The Dead Trees also never tire out, apparently, because they noted last night that this was their 43rd show opening for Little Joy, and guess what: guitarist Matt Borg and bassist Todd Dahlhoff play with Little Joy too. Double-setters, gotta love em. Stamina. Jack Dishel of Only Son also played w/ LJ.
She's hot!
Little Joy: Rodrigo Amarante has more happy charisma than anyone ever, and his live voice sounds just as great as his voice on record. Binki Shapiro's cute as a button, and all the girls want to be her and all the guys are in love with her. I haven't ever been to a concert where everyone in the crowd smiled the entire time, and I've never been at a show where the house lights were up the majority of the performance.
Matt Romano, maraca man.
Best part of the night was the final song "Brand New Start." Fabulous Moretti (recording with the Strokes NOW-- yessssssssss) came on stage with Regina Spektor and Mike and Noah from DT and 2 of the guys from The Teenage Prayers (and don't forget everyone's favorite Matt Romano has been playing drums the whole time). So imagine everyone singing, crowd included, and just absolutely happy to be there. Little Joy = the perfect name for this band, but they could get away with an upgrade to LOTTA JOY if they wanted.
So my friend Adam Sullivan is about to embark on a cross-country tour to promote his new record I Have Never Been Fond of Falling From Heights (Swan Dive Into the Atlantic), but before he leaves NYC he's set to play a show at Googie's Lounge (above the Living Room: 154 Ludlow, 8:30 PM) on July 10. Everyone should head out for a relaxing night of music from the new CD, which you can buy at iTunes if you're so inclined.
I think one of the best qualities of Adam's music, as verified by Lox after Adam's National Undergound show last week, is that his songs are incredibly cinematic. So when you're listening to his set list, you feel like you're on a journey with a character straight out of a Nick Hornby novel. This guy likes music, girls, and enjoys feeling sad for the benefit of creativity. When Adam sings in "Quiet In The Cab" about wanting to either go to New York City with his new love or go with her to London, you really feel that sadness of separation in the pit of your stomach. Sometimes you meet someone and you like them a lot but physical circumstances make moving forward absolutely impossible. Or like in "Waitress," sometimes you meet a crazy girl at a diner that doesn't just want to serve you pie. Those are the moments that Adam writes about. Sometimes mundane and sometimes potentially life-changing, nothing escapes his pen or piano.
Adam also likes to drink cognac and enjoys pouring 4-finger-glasses of straight bourbon for his friends. So maybe if you go to a show you'll be lucky enough to get drunk with him later.
He's working on a new bunch of songs, as always, and you can always go to his website or Myspace to check out what he's up to.
And if Lox and I ever get around to writing our screenplay, you can probably bet that "I Don't Love You" will play over the broken-hearted/frustrated montage of the two main characters pouting in their separate beds. It just fits!
So you meet someone, and you think you might kind of be interested, maybe. Want to know how to find out in 5 seconds or less what kind of person you're dealing with? There's one key question every girl needs to ask: Beatles or Rolling Stones?
You see, this question establishes the philosophical position of this new boy that intrigues you for whatever ridiculous excuse for attraction. (Giant goon? Snaggle tooth? Fingerless gloves?) It also chops the bullshit time in half, so you don't need to waste your night trying to decipher this guy's visual code and create a drunken mirage of him in your head. While an American Apparel head band betrays a penchant for hipster accessories and causes the need for a quick gay-or-not-gay internal inventory, that head band isn't going to tell you all that much. And while a dime-a-dozen button down (yawn) probably means he works a boring job that you don't understand and plays golf, I've seen a button down (maybe two?) act as a cruel foil to the truth of what lies under it. (Those few are the ones who totally defy the laws of logic behind my magic question, so we can leave them out of it.) Point is, what you see isn't always what you get, and what you see doesn't nearly tell you what you need to know.
So why roam thru the crowded basement bars trying to figure out your prospects in this scavenger hunt manner? We aren't twelve anymore, and there's no candy. All you have to do is ask the only question that matters: Beatles or Rolling Stones?
This question beats "What's your favorite band?" because the answer to that question can be serendipitous or the worst-case scenario "I like everything." Beatles or Stones forces the dude to make a stand, and like a true or false question on a Scantron test, he can't ever really erase the mark once he's made it.
Answer: ROLLING STONES
Okay, the Rolling Stones basically stand for pure sex. Mick Jagger's mouth is one of the most iconic images of desire that America's got. So if your guy chooses RS, you're probably going to get laid! Good for you. Contrary to popular belief, RS boys are not complete cultural philistines; they just happen to like real, hard rock and roll. (They know it's only rock and roll, but they like it.) RS guys are usually pretty damn sure of themselves, if not out and out cocky, and they like to party and play and go for it. Like a Renaissance poet, Jagger begs every girl to just go to bed with him, if for nothing else than for the fact that the world could end tomorrow in a massive nuclear blast or an ozone depletion tsunami. So I would say if you want someone spontaneous, secure in his existential reality (yes, the world really could end tomorrow) and probably really, really fun, then this is the guy for you. But don't expect anything the morning after with an RS guy. You may never see him again. Don't even think you could be the exception to this rule. Mick Jagger left Bianca Jagger for Jerry Hall, and Bianca Jagger is probably the hottest woman to ever walk the planet in Halston and fabulous heels. "Tiiiii-iiii-iiiiime is on my side," after all, so there's no reason to settle down. Or, “don’t expect for it to last forever/it never does/but it sure beats talking bout the weather/it surely does.”
Answer: THE BEATLES
The Beatles boy is used to sweet, lovely, melodic structures that are so familiar to him that they've actually become a part of his existence. He believes in love and spirituality (and maybe even the two together!) and he wants to be considerate, polite, and kind to every girl he meets. He enjoys working on a team, probably has a gaggle of guy friends that he spends all his time with, and has a hilarious, goofy streak. He will buy you drinks, walk you to the subway, get your phone number, and actually call you. He will want to make out with you, and he'll want to take you to bed too, but he won't necessarily do it on that first night. There's a time and place for everything, and "all you need is love," so he's more apt to just let the world do its work and see what happens. Of course for every "Michelle" there's a "Why Don't We Do It In The Road," but I'm pretty sure those two young lovers were in a long-term, committed relationship. He also mourns his past loves and has a LOT of feelings. ("For No One" is probably one of the saddest songs ever written.) He aims for emotional maturity and creativity. Another point scored for the Beatles boy is he has intellectual goals and is open to new things (see: George Harrison and religion.)
So take your pick. You can get a quick fix with RS guy (which could lead to something more, you never know) or you can take it slow with Beatles boy. Anything could happen really, but in my experience, in every case, you can get as close to the bottom of a personality that you can get in the shortest amount of time with that one little question.
Of course you should have a strong sense of your own answer before he spits his out, and it's okay if you go Stones-Stones, Beatles-Stones, or Beatles-Beatles. At least you'll know what you're getting yourself into, whether you're listening to "Heart of Stone" or "If I Fell."
And obviously some people don't follow these types to a tee, but I'm pretty sure if a guy tells you he likes the Beatles more than the Stones, you have a sensitive soul on your hands, and if he picks Mick and Co. over Lennon/McCartney, he's going to care about getting what he wants out of the situation more than anything else, even if he is a nice guy.
We like what we like for a reason. I'm a Rolling Stones girl, myself, but I'm much more complicated than that.
Week #3. So much for summer happening. At this date, these tunes should make you want to go swimming in the freezing cold Atlantic, but I'm afraid they're a little less joyous than that. June's been a bust, but there's another week and a 1/2 so maybe something will change. Until then... try to listen to as much Japanese Motors as you can to get that California fresh feeling, and throw in a little bit of Adam Green's Kokomo (double Kokomo if you can stand it) to get your summer started.
Self-Taught Learner: Lissy Trullie
My Mistakes Were Made For You: The Last Shadow Puppets
Unattainable: Little Joy
Devil Inside: INXS
Meeting Place: The Last Shadow Puppets
Don't Watch Me Dancing: Little Joy
Shoot the Poets: The Cribs
Fernando Pando: The Virgins
Regrets a Paradise: Japanese Motors
Rocket: Albert Hammond Jr.
Love Is A Losing Game: Amy Winehouse
Under Control and Salty Salute (Live in Santiago): The Strokes
Roger Federer posted this picture on his facebook profile today. He's ready to rock Wimbledon and get his 15th Grand Slam title. Wimbledon happens from June 22 to July 5. You got this!
Courtney Love and I have always had the same taste in men. I don't know what this says about me, but it scares me to death on so many levels because it's true.
Common knowledge: in the early early 90's Courtney Love dated Billy Corganbefore she met Kurt Cobain and married him.
In 2004 Courtney Love released a song on her solo album America's Sweetheart called "But Julian, I'm a Little Bit Older Than You," about none other than Julian Casablancas. CRAZY. She screams over and over again, "Oh, baby, I know where you live!" Hide, Jules, hide in the closet.
While promoting same said solo album, Love told Rolling Stone: ""I have a magic pussy. If you fuck me, you become a king. I'm a kingmaker." "Jack White, you're worthy of my pussy," she declares later. "He's a classicist, he's confident, he carries himself well. If we passed each other in an airport, he's the kind of guy who could just grab me and make out with me without saying a word."
Now, NME reports that Courtney will reform Hole for her next studio album (which she's been working on since 2006) and she's still getting songs from Billy Corgan (Mr. Cracked-Out Crazy Himself). Wonder if these two will publicly battle again? Billy, please please please refer to yourself as a Svengaliagain so Courtney can demean you to the press. Former Hole and Smashing Pumpkins touring bassist Melissa Auf der Maur will also return to Hole for this project, which probably half of the universe bets will never materialize.
But the worst part of this NME interview: "She revealed that she is still acting as indie shrink to Ryan Jarman (“I told him, ‘You know what selling out means? It means there are no tickets left for Madison Square Garden!”)."
WHY? WHY? WHY? Leave Ryan Jahhhman alone! I noticed a little while ago that CLove was a top friend on The Cribs' Myspace, but I honestly thought they were joshing around. Do they read her Twitter? Because that shit is crazy.
I guess Courtney's still got it. Must be her "magic pussy." Just keep her the fuck away from Alex Turner.
THE CRIBS will return with their 4th studio album on September 7 (UK date). The album is titled Ignore the Ignorant, and the first single is called "Cheat on Me."
Click here to watch Ryan talk about a fan who wants to get a tattoo of his face. "I'm into the band being a cult, ya know what i mean?" I am dying for his orange cardigan: adorable.
Simple Kind of Life: No Doubt (yes, repeat from last week.)
Ripped Knees: No Age ("If I'm an island/then you're the darkest sea.")
Five on the Five: The Raconteurs
Single Fins & Safety Pins: Japanese Motors (perfect for summer)
Skeletons: Tiny Masters of Today
Kids: MGMT
I'll Be Your Mirror: Velvet Underground
She's a Rainbow: The Rolling Stones
I'll Stick Around: Foo Fighters
Drain You (From the Muddy Banks of Wishkah version): Nirvana
Fuck and Run: Liz Phair
Novotel: Adam Green
All Apologies: Nirvana
Rape Me: Nirvana
Heads up to all thrifty music fans: Virgin Megastore @ Union Square STILL has an 80% off everything sale going on, and it will be up for the next 2 days. So if you are in the mood to really look thru a strewn chaos of CD's and DVD's, you should go and find some great deals. Everything is literally $2.
- Eat tapas like you’re a Spaniard… keep it moving, if you’re good you will be able to hit at least 10 bars. Keep in mind this is an afternoon activity
- Check out Parque Güell in Barcelona
- Watch Soccer aka football
- Take a siesta
- Fall in love
- Learn Spanish with a lisp
- Drink cheap wine in the street
- Hangout in a beach town on the Mediterranean (only for those who love fish and seafood)
- Explore Reina Sofia and El Prado; two art museums not to be missed
- Visit Granada, my fav city and where I’ll be moving this fall
Matthew Fox plays Dr. Jack Shepard on “Lost,” and as the sexiest and most important character (sorry, Sawyer) on the show, he’s the only actor so far to have learned how the series will end at the conclusion of Season 6. And he makes it sound pretty good:
Fox says Lost creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse will prove they knew where they were going all along when the show ends in “an incredibly powerful, very sad and beautiful way. I think it is going to be pretty awesome.”
The only castmember to know what that crazy smoke monster is and how the show ends said, “I think it is going to be very satisfying and cathartic and redemptive and beautiful. I’ve talked to Damon pretty extensively and every time I talk to him it’s sort of surprising how moving it is just to talk about it.”
Fox also revealed some details to how Season 6 will transition from Season 5’s confusion to a more linear story arc, but it gets spoiler-y for anyone who hasn’t watched Season 5, so that’s after the jump.
The sixth season will begin with an examination of what happened after Juliet seemingly detonated the hydrogen bomb. As usual, Fox said, “It’s very surprising and probably fairly confusing initially to the audience.
“Like, a third of the way in [to the season], I would guess we are going to [settle] into one time frame, and it will be very linear—no more flashbacks, nothing. It will be on the Island and sort of a final conflict to the end,” said Fox.
He assured fans that all the crazy storylines introduced in earlier seasons will be resolved and that the conflict between Jack and Locke (Terry O’Quinn) “will come head to head” this season, but he wouldn’t divulge more than that.
All right, sounds good. But I’ll be disappointed if I don’t get to see the Smoke Monster fight the polar bear in a wormhole. *
*This post is directly copied from the site Warming Glow. View the original post here.
Thanks to Dan for the heads up. 2010 cannot come soon enough!!!
Sometimes the internet doesn't ruin lives; sometimes the internet produces small miracles.
Yesterday we finally found out WTF is the story behind the Rogue Wizard. If you remember I posted the original Craigslist post here. And a good thing too, because the post was flagged and removed from the site (but the post is now up for Best of Craigslist!) Then Lox, JJ, and I made the video (don't mind my hideous witch laughter in the background) and I posted it here.
Since that time we've pretty much boarded the rogue train and kept going. The "inside" joke just grew. Here's Lox with the Rogue on what we like to call Rogue Wizard Blvd.
And this is me, barely alive after a rogue attack.
So it turns out that blogger/hilarious person Goodbye Wren created the Rogue and blogs about it all. Even though I really wish this shit were real, I feel a little better that my Con Edison bills and cell phone are safe. For the full story on Hamdy Bey and his wizard brigade, go here: THE ROGUE.
Last night I had a dream that Rebecca and I were looking at apts with Bob Dylan (circa 1967) acting as broker. Of course he showed us a gorgeous 2-br suite in the Chelsea Hotel. We decided to take it, but then changed our minds at the last minute upon conviction that the place had to be swirling with ghosts. Pretty sure I dreamed this because of the Spring 2009 video from Charlotte Ronson's campaign. I can't embed it, but you can watch it here. It's pretty much all I want in life (minus the whole living in Chelsea part) and Donald is the stuff dreams are made of.
This super cool dude creates Simpsons characters out of LOST characters. Obv my faves are mental-breakdown Jack and sensitive, book-loving Sawyer.
Fox.
Wolf.
Yesterday on SiriusXMU I heard a song by Vox Jaguars. Of course I fell in love with the Cobain/Toby Leaman craziness of the vocals and the No-Age-mixed-with-Japanese-Motors sound. So typical. But if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and dance dance dance. These boys say: "we are wild, 2 of us are in college and 2 of us are seniors in high school, playing from our souls, and pouring our energy out like a lightning bolt."
Arctic Monkeys are pleased to announce they will be releasing their as-yet-untitled 3rd album on Monday 24th August 2009.
Produced by Josh Homme in the Mojave Desert and LA, and with James Ford in Brooklyn, the album features ten new Arctic Monkeys songs.
The tracklisting is as follows:
1. My Propeller 2. Crying Lightning 3. Dangerous Animals 4. Secret Door 5. Potion Approaching 6. Fire And The Thud 7. Cornerstone 8. Dance Little Liar 9. Pretty Visitors 10. The Jeweller’s Hands
The album will be available on CD, vinyl and via digital download.
