Multifarious
Posted on January 13, 2005 at 10:46 am | No Comments
Jumping right into it…
There’s an excellent Greg Dulli interview over here at Synthesis, which contains this teaser about the next Twilight Singers record…
… Dulli is currently returning to a more conceptual style with the next album. �I�m working on the next Twilight record right now and [the songs] all tie together, even to the point of borrowing lyrics from previous songs.� He enthuses that the tunes are feeding into each other at an earlier stage of development than any Whigs albums ever did, so the result should be an even more conceptually tight album.”
Ok, that’s got me almost giddy with anticipation.
Great Sleepyhead-related post over at Lacunae yesterday.
About this whole “Not One Damn Dime Day” spending-freeze that’s supposed to take place on the day of the inauguration? Well, Micki conveniently crystalizes my own thoughts on the matter over here. That’s not cynicism, Micki, that’s reality. Something our side probably needs to get a little more familiar with. Snopes shares their thoughts as well.
This abandoned escort service internal messageboard from 1998 is a fascinating read. Yet another reason to love the internet. Start from the bottom. Oh, Tabatha, what’s with all the ‘disappearing’? (via metafilter)
The end-of-year accolades continue to come down upon the creative pair of Brian Wood & Becky Cloonan, the duo behind AiT/Planet Lar’s DEMO. This time it’s Becky’s turn, as Ninth Art names her Talent Most Worthy of Wider Recognition. Yup, that’s about right.
See Your Video: It’s a Replacements video goldmine. Hold My Life directs us to the Twin/Tone site, where they’ve posted two sets of reeeaally early live ‘Mats video clips. Hot dayum.
The sad assimilation and destruction of TechTV by the behemoth that is Comcast/G4 is offically complete, as they accounce that they are officially dropping the ‘TechTV’ part of the ever-awkward G4TechTV name that came out of their ‘blending’ last fall. Now they’re just back to G4, and officially back to full-time suckage. (ok, except when Sarah’s co-hosting The Screen Savers. She still rocks.)
There’s some promising news to go along with that, though. Now that still-standing TechTV-geek Kevin Rose has been relatively muzzled on the retooled and de-fanged version of TSS (which has all-but removed it’s solid tech content and replaced it with usually-weak entertainment bits), he’s been motivated to resume production on his web-only tech show The Broken, as well as start up a new, yet-unnamed show. Good news.
Of course, G4 won’t let Kevin borrow their video equipment on weekends, like the much-friendlier TechTV would, so he’s forced to raise funds to buy his own camera, mics, and lighting gear. So check out the existing editions of The Broken, and if you dig it, pick up a t-shirt to help ’em out. Or, hell, just skip the shirt and give ’em paypal dollars. They deserve it.
For those of you that missed Conan O’Brien’s thoughts on Why the Red Sox Finally Won the World Series (as I did, thanks to the craziness around Christmas), here’s the link. So good.
Sasha Baron Cohen is at it again, causing a near-riot at a rodeo as his character, Borat. I cannot wait to see this segment when it airs on HBO’s Da Ali G Show.
I don’t think I have ever laughed as hard as when that Spring Break wrestling-boy jumped down into frame for Bruno in last season’s final episode, “Realness“. My god. Makes me laugh just picturing it.
“Near-Riot At The Rodeo” deserves to be an album title, does it not?
I wholeheartedly endorse the new beta release of Microsoft’s AntiSpyware utility. However, don’t let it stop you from using Ad-Aware and SpyBot alongside of it. Each one still finds nasties that the other two can’t. So help me, if Micro$oft ends up charging for theirs when it comes out of beta… making us pay to fix vulnerabilities that they themselves let happen… well, yeah, I’ll probably just bitch about it here. And keep on using the free ones.
Head over here for a live recording of Death Cab for Cutie doing the Stone Roses’ I Wanna Be Adored. (courtesy bedroom dancing. hey, maybe this post can help them get a higher hype ranking? I do what I can.)
According to Billboard, Mary Timony’s next album has a title, a label, and a release date. Ok, a release month. It’s called Ex-Hex, out on Lookout! Records, and in mid-April. Glad to hear it. (courtesy chromewaves)
So does anyone else think that Alias has officially become a parody of itself? That opening scene last night? Ridiculous. It was goofy enough back when Dixon posed as a club DJ, and now they’ve just gone too far. Methinks they didn’t jump the shark, but the shark may have swallowed ’em, chewed ’em up a bit, and spit ’em back out. Y’know, I’ve never found Jennifer Garner all that attractive, and now that someone has pointed out that Syd is looking more and more like a drag queen, I can’t get that outta my head.
I declare myself officially healthy. My hard-fought battle with the dreaded influenza is over, and I’m back in the game. I think it officially left my body last night when I watched the end of NESN’s rebroadcast of Game Six from the 1975 Red Sox vs. Reds World Series, as Fisk hit Fenway’s foul pole and sent us to Game Seven. Been waiting to see more than just a clip of that moment for a looooong time.
Supposed to get near 60 degrees in Boston today. Now there’s a mid-winter gift right there.
EDIT TO ADD: Looks like the 4AD reunion speculation was Dead Can Dance after all, which had already been confirmed a few months back… ah well…
[Live MP3s] Chisel Live in Vermont 1994
Posted on January 10, 2005 at 1:04 pm | No Comments
The first Burlingtonitus Fest took place in April, 1994 up in Burlington, Vermont, and we were lucky enough to have Chisel (Ted Leo, Chris Norborg, John Dugan, and, um, Poof Dog) in the lineup.
I’m slightly hesitant to let this set out into the world, only because the recording comes from on old vhs tape, originally funneled through the single microphone of a crappy videocamera, and by today’s standards sounds pretty freakin’ rough. The guys were also unveiling new songs, so the set was a bit loose at times. That said, I think the good outweighs the sketchy, and it’s worth hearing for Chisel fans and Ted followers. Plus, hey, there’s a Jam cover. So here it is, warts and all…
Chisel
live at Burlingtonitus I
April 16th, 1994 at 242 Main
Burlington, Vermont
[ download set as one .zip file ]
01. My First Resume
02. Sunburn
03. Bliss
04. Waffle House
05. Little Gidding
06. Chiefs
07. Start! (Jam cover)
08. 1 in 10
09. 3 O’Clock High
News of Mary Timony‘s next album & tour should be appearing any day now (“early 2005” was the last word), so in the meantime, grab a couple of unreleased mp3s over at her site. And stop by Poison Moon, the ultra-complete Mary T. fansite.
Speaking of fansites, More Cowbell has started up a place called Us Kids Know for fans of The Arcade Fire. (courtesy chromewaves)
I’ve been trapped in the house by a nasty flu for going-on four days now, finally dragging myself into work against my better judgement. I used the downtime not only to finish up Half-Life 2, but to dive deep into Podcasting, figuring out the best application for downloading (so far, it’s DopplerRadio, no question), and seeing what’s out there for good, solid Podcasts. So far, lots of noise, not enough signal.
But I was very happy to discover that Brainwashed has their own Podcast. Hosted by Jon Whitney, there’s a bunch of good music to be found in there. I’ll also have to take some time to listen to the few Boston-area Podcasts listed over at Boston Online.
If you’ve been Podcast-shy, it’s easier than you think to get up to speed. Just download Doppler, find some Podcast addresses, and plug ’em into it. Audio files will be downloaded to your machine (and synced up to your iPod or other audio device) when you specify. Simple.
I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a weekly Podcast, an hour-long chunk of music & assorted randomness, maybe even tied into ExploitBoston!, spotlighting Boston bands and touring bands coming to town. Or maybe just stuff I like. Like I have the freetime, though. Hmmm. Sooz, we should chat again. 🙂
So the long-rumored, makes-me-nervous Ian Curtis biopic is full speed ahead. And it’s in very good hands. From World in Motion:
“Celebrated rock photographer Anton Corbijn � most renowned for his work with U2 – has been confirmed as the director of the movie. It is his first time as a film director. Deborah Curtis, the widow of Ian Curtis, and former Factory Records boss Anthony Wilson will both have executive producer roles on the film.
The film�s working title is �Control� and is based on Deborah Curtis� touching book account of Ian�s life �Touching From A Distance�. A film documenting Curtis� life had been planned for a number of years, but Curtis� family had never been happy with the proposals until now.”
I’ve always loved Corbijn’s eye, so I have no doubt it’ll look great, and he’ll also have something to prove if he’s hoping for a career in directing, being his first film and all. With Curtis’ widow involved, I’m pretty optimistic about the story, too. Fingers are crossed.
Y’know, of all the shocking and heart-punching images that have come out of the tsunami disaster, none showed me the true impact more than this one. Go there, then click the ‘After’ button at the top. Absolutely insane.
Steve Williams (guitarist for My First Days On Junk, Magic Is Gone, Colin Clary & the Magogs) has published his first book, “Fight For Your Frequency“, 144 pages of collected poetry. The description…
“26-year-old introverted shoegazer with no self esteem seeks the best girl in the world. Must have own headphones.
Fight For Your Frequency is more than just a volume of poetry. It’s a cautious love letter, shy and introspective. And even though the topics of reflection are often written about (love, self-doubt, getting the girl) Steven Williams attacks these subjects in his own thoughtfully unpretentious way. From a cross-country trip with a girl with wind blown hair to springtime Sunday evenings, you’ll fell like you’re in the middle of a pretty song that you never want to end.”
You can buy it from Barnes & Noble here, Amazon here, or direct from the publisher here.
Big-time parental congratulations are in order for John & Audrey, who welcomed little Evelyn Demers Cahill into the world just one week ago, on January 3rd. Mom, baby, and dad are all well, and getting used to, as John put it, “sleepless, poopy nights”. As Sailor says, that’s rockin’ good news.
Heads up: I’ll be doing some serious housecleaning here on the ‘Nac in the next couple weeks, removing a ton of pictures and audio files, so it may be your last chance to download many of the mp3s listed here and here. If you miss out on something, I’ll still be trading for live & rare discs over here.
And, lastly, a big happy birthday shout-out to my mom, the she who begat the me. If all the traffic to this place disappeared, I know she’d still be the last one reading.