Sunday, July 31, 2005

Update

First off I am not holding off on the Pixies Album Competition because I'm hoping for more participation. I don't do promotion... which means I'm not going to get much participation. I can live with that. Anyway, I just haven't gotten to it. Because...

I picked up my harddrive from the FedEx yesterday. They tried to deliver it on Friday but as no one was home they just left a note. I was on my way - after rushing out - Friday evening when I noticed they had Saturday hours so I went afterwork yesterday. The great thing was I had something to ship elsewhere but no box. The person helping me at the counter pointed out that the package I was picking up came in a box... a box which just happened to be slightly larger than what I was shipping. Beautiful, eh.

Currently my Creative has two tracks on it: "Reformat" by Les Savy Fav and "Into the Woods" by Silkworm. These were my test subjects; it works fine. Soon 7,000 or so others will follow.

This makes me exceedingly happy.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Display of Power

When this blog started I had a link to Armed and Dangerous on my sidebar. I dropped it after a month or two because it had been two or three months since he had posted anything.

Then in July I found a quote and link in a post at Fancy Store-Bought Dirt. I went over and read the referenced post (and the other one that was up by that point) and promptly forgot about the blog. Well, it's certainly back up, with several rather interesting posts over the past two weeks.

I may disagree with this guy as much (if not more) than I agree with him... but it's still required reading. And maybe a reason to figure out how RSS feeds work, or, rather, how to work them.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Visitation

I am back, eh. I'm certainly not up for relating the trip as a whole... and won't be, partially because that's just not what I'm doing here. I can, however, throw up a few comments.

I liked Chicago. I was happy that the Field Museum was right near Soldier Field because it'd be nice to see the latter while still having the former be the reason for the trip. Eventually, however, we realized that the throngs heading the same way as us (a) did not represent standard Saturday afternoon Chicago traffic and (b) were going to the other Field for a soccer match. As I ended up wandering around several bookstores near the University of Chicago and eating good pizza I'm fine with it (even though as a result my queue grew during the trip rather than diminished as expected.)

One of the bookstores was Powell's which probably is, in fact, related to the Oregon Powell's.

Interesting was the U of C Seminary Co-op, though not really in a good way. They had a fantastic selection of new books (Co-op: Borders = Borders: Target)... but I didn't buy anything. I had a number of great books I've been looking for in my hands but didn't pull the trigger because I didn't need them right then. Amazon.com (along with Powells.com and others) leaves such a store a curiosity to me. If this bookstore were near me I'm sure I'd buy plenty from them but I wasn't expected to find this bookstore and was travelling.

I suppose I could order from them rather than Amazon... but I want to encourage Amazon to carry the more obscure titles and I'd have to investigate the whole seminary nature of the enterprise.

Yeah, all I'm going to get through is Chicago - with barely a mention of Medici's - even though that accounted for about 6 hours of the trip. Overall it was a good trip but I'm glad to be home.

In non-trip related news, it seems like I haven't missed any of Flax's 192-song tournament. This is a good thing, though it looks like "I'm Waiting for the Man" wouldn't've needed my vote for it to score over "Love and Happiness" which is refreshing. You can read the original rules and participate in the fun too. I think I'll go over there now and try to actually get my votes in for the set brackets listed from last Thursday.

Friday, July 15, 2005

Pixies Track 15

For Immediate Release: The Official Favorite Pixies Album of Force Power Paintball and Other Diversions will be decided via ballots sent in for the competition described (sort of) in the following text.

Folks: the deadline is 11:59pm Wednesday, July 27th. This isn't a deadline deadline... all I'm saying is that any ballots in before then will certainly be counted. Any after that might or, in fact, might not be. Counted.

After the initial post about the Pixies Album Competition and an Update there have been fourteen other posts much like this one but with different texts: Pixies Track 1, Pixies Track 2, Pixies Track 3, Pixies Track 4, Pixies Track 5, Pixies Track 6, Pixies Track 7, Pixies Track 8, Pixies Track 9, Pixies Track 10, Pixies Track 11, Pixies Track 12, Pixies Track 13 and Pixies Track 14. These posts include slightly contradictory instructions written in my effortlessly bad grammar. Currently we're down to the last two songs as Surfer Rosa and Bossanova failed to show up. Come On Pilgrim checked out long, long ago. The single Bam Thwok... ha ha ha ha. I crack myself up.

Doolittle - Gouge Away
Trompe Le Monde - The Navajo Know

Will this be unanimous? I feel like it should, in fact, not be... but that's just my contrarian nature, right? I'd like to hear someone justify their off vote here... but I don't expect it. Nothing against Gouge Away, but....


Rankings may be left in the comments widget or, for more secrecy - though I'll still consider posting your commentary unless you tell me not to - or whatever you may email them to me at mountmccabe at gmail dot com with Pixies in the subject field.

NOTE: No, I didn't actually make it before midnight. Enjoy anyway.

Pixies Track 14

Pixies Album Competition, take 14... or, rather, track 14: I'll list the track fourteens off the Pixies four albums. You are then to rank some or all of them. These rankings will count towards the determination of The Official Favorite Pixies Album of Force Power Paintball and Other Diversions. Feel free to rank other extraneous media (or, you know, whatever) as well. It won't screw up anything important. Feel much more free to include subtle and biting commentary.

Surfer Rosa - Brick Is Red
Doolittle - Silver
Bossanova - Havalina
Trompe Le Monde - Motorway to Roswell


Brick is Red isn't an instrumental, there's just no singing for the first half of the song. Havalina actually is an instrumental... except for the "Havalina"s. And some talk of Arizona. All this while TLM soldiers on.

Comments? Yeah, you've got comments. Send them to me via snail mail (ha!), email (mountmccabe at gmail dot com) or leave them here via the comments widget for all to peruse.

Pixies Track 13

Hey! Been trying to tell you... that there's some Pixies songs listed below. No 13, baby. Track, that is. I'm gonna rank 'em. Eventaully. You may too. You may also rank, well, whatever else. The thirteenth at the table works though your fifteen stone first footer needs to go a few posts forward.

Surfer Rosa - I'm Amazed
Doolittle - Hey
Bossanova - Stormy Weather
Trompe Le Monde - Lovely Day

I'm Amazed starts with more dialog but then it goes into an odd little song. It is time for stormy weather. Say that over and over, getting faster as you go. Try and tell me Lovely Day doesn't (have parts that) sound like Head On. And this isn't just because I'm trying to go, uh, all night.


Submit rankings via the comments widget just below this or to my email... which is mountmccabe at something or other. I'd say "most things" but there are several I've not signed up for.

Pixies Track 12

OK, it's actually like 11:35pm and I'm starting to regret... well, I dunno. The 15 seperate posts thing might not've been the best of ideas but... well, it's an idea. In case you got here by following some link and don't want to click through (or you happen to hit this page after this post is up but before Track 13's post is up and don't want to scroll down to see what's going on but do want to keep reading this to find out what's going on) then... ehh, keep reading. It'll make sense. It's about ranking these songs and anything else having to do with the number 12. It's more about making the funny and insightful comments I'm making because I'm trying to finish this because I want to sleep a few hours tonight and I still need to do other things before then.

Surfer Rosa - Vamos
Doolittle - There Goes My Gun
Bossanova - Hang Wire
Trompe Le Monde - Subbacultcha

Talk about deja vu. No, really. This isn't deja vu but we have seen a lot of this before... sort of. This competition has already seen a Vamos... though this one has a very different vocal performance and a lot of crazy soloing from Joey Santiago. We've seen There Goes My Girl... this is a essentially a recap of the chorus. Subbacultcha would've been here had I gone with the Purple Tape idea. Does the strong Hang Wire win by default? No? OK, fine.

Please offer your rankings of whatever via the comments widget below or to my email - with Pixies in the subject - which is mountmccabe at gmail dot com.

Pixies Track 11

Pixies Album Competition, take 11... or, rather, track 11: I'll list the track elevens off the four albums. You are then offered the chance to rank as many of them - and whatever else that is 11th in some sequence - you wish. The end result will be tallied for a bunch of fun stats including the grand prize, The Official Favorite Pixies Album of Force Power Paintball and Other Diversions (only the relative rankings of songs from the four albums will be used here.) Feel significantly free to include loads of hilarious and biting commentary.

Surfer Rosa - "You Fucking Die"
Doolittle - No. 13 Baby
Bossanova - Blown Away
Trompe Le Monde - Distance Equals Rate Times Time

No, no, we were just goofing around. No, no, number 11, baby. I don't have anything to say about (not being) Blown Away. Yes, yes it does... even if Black Francis seems to get sleepy as the track goes on... plus Earlimart has covered this live.


Please offer your rankings via the comments widget below or to my email - with Pixies in the subject - which is... something.

Pixies Track 10

They got a track they call, number 10. Oh my golly, what I wrote in Pixies Album Competition about what Surfer Rosa's entry for track 10 was incorrect... though I'll let you decide if that was purposeful or not. You can also guess what I'd say if you choose the wrong answer.... anyway, here are what the albums have to offer in their attempt to win the title of The Official Favorite Pixies Album of Force Power Paintball and Other Diversions.

Surfer Rosa - Oh My Golly!
Doolittle - La La Love You
Bossanova - The Happening
Trompe Le Monde - Space (I Believe In)


Where did his wood go? Whistling and people saying "I love you." A song you'd swear was actually on Trompe Le Monde if you didn't know better. Finally does anyone actually know a Jefrey?

Pixies Track 9

We're done with Come On Pilgrim so this should go quicker now, yes? Heh.

Surfer Rosa - Tony's Theme
Doolittle - Crackity Jones
Bossanova - Down To The Well
Trompe Le Monde - Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons

A song about a superhero and another crazy, early, track. Bossanova offers one of it's hardest tracks and, well, TLM does what TLM does, another great, straightforward guitar song with strong melodies.

Please offer your rankings via the comments widget below or to my email - with Pixies in the subject - which is mountmccabe at gmail dot com.

Pixies Track 8

Sitting here wishing on a cement floor, just wishing that I knew which Pixies album was the best. See, that's what this is about (not really: it's about hearing other perspectives on these songs, but that can't be ranked and tallied.) This being the Pixies Album Competition. There are rules and even an update where I introduced new factors (which'll easily factor out.)

If you happened to have missed the descriptions for the previous tracks... then... wow. I'm going to list five Pixies songs. Each is a track 8. Then you give me help, give me hell... I mean, rankings for these songs. And another track 8. Or, you know, whatever. Rankings are fun. And since only the four songs from the four full-lengths will count towards the deciding The Official Favorite Pixies Album of Force Power Paintball and Other Diversions... it's no skin off my back. Won't you please run over me?

Come On Pilgrim - Levitate Me
Surfer Rosa - Cactus
Doolittle - Mr. Grieves
Bossanova - Dig for Fire
Trompe Le Monde - Letter to Memphis

Are you looking for the mother lode? This is an exceptionally strong bracket for me. The David Bowie cover is cool. Dig For Fire might be my second favorite from Bossanova. The TLM song (LTM) is easily forgotten but it's got a great guitar sound. That's what I think. Do you have another opinion?


Oh well. Write your rankings on your dress and send it to me. Hey, if our places were reversed I'd send it right to you.
UPDATE: Email or the comments box will be fine, too. I suppose.

Pixies Track 7

Pixies Album Competition, take seven... or, rather, track 7: I'll list the track sevens off the Pixies initial EP and four subsequent albums. You are then offer the chance to rank 'em, or at least those with which you are comfortable. The Come On Pilgrim tracks are more optional than the others - the whole ranking thing being optional - as they won't count towards deciding The Official Favorite Pixies Album of Force Power Paintball and Other Diversions - for that bit only the relative rankings of songs from the four albums will be used. Feel free to rank other random media (or, you know, whatever) in your comments. Feel so free to include copious amounts of hilarious and scathing commentary.

Come On Pilgrim - I've Been Tired
Surfer Rosa - Where Is My Mind?
Doolittle - Monkey Gone To Heaven
Bossanova - All Over the World
Trompe Le Monde - Palace of the Brine

The COP track is the one you should think of when you want a soft verse/explosive chorus model. The SR track is one of their most well known. The D track - about environmentalism, evolution, both and/or more - is more brilliant than good. The B track is the longest Pixies song at nearly five and a half minutes but it still never blows up. The TLM track is 4 minutes shorter and about sea monkeys.


Please offer your rankings via the comments widget below or to my email - with Pixies in the subject - which is mountmccabe at gmail dot com.

Placeholder

OK, real-time has caught up with my falsified time stamps. This is my cue to say oh kiss the world, oh kiss the sky... I mean to say I need to leave for dinner.

Tracks 7 through 15 should be up late this evening, providing relief and distraction while finishing up packing (aka gathering clothes and other important items, putting them in portable carriers, taking them out because I forgot my shoes, etc.)

And here's the last part: I'm planning on getting rid of this post... but ehh.

Pixies Track 6

Pixies Album Competition, take 6... or, rather, whatever: I'll list stuff. You then have the opportunity to do other stuff. The Come On Pilgrim tracks are more optional than the others - the whole thing is, of course, optional - as they won't count towards deciding The Official Favorite Pixies Album of Force Power Paintball and Other Diversions - for that bit only the relative rankings of songs from the 4 albums will be used. Feel free to rank other extraneous media (or, you know, whatever) in your comments. Also feel free to include tons of hilarious and biting commentary to make up for my current lack of inspiration.

Come On Pilgrim - Nimrod's Son
Surfer Rosa - River Euphrates
Doolittle - Dead
Bossanova - Ana
Trompe Le Monde - U-Mass

We have a much-maligned song from TLM (cf Thom Yorke's take on"it's educational!"), Black Francis singing from "out here on the Gaza strip," and several songs with lyrics consisting of quasi-biblical references and another quasi-(surf)-ballad from Bossanova.


Please offer your rankings via the comments widget below or to my email - with Pixies in the subject - which can be found in earlier posts.

Pixies Track 5

Pixies Album Competition, take 5... or, rather, track 5: I'll list the track fives off the Pixies initial EP and five subsequent albums. You are then offer the chance to rank as many of them as you can comfortably do so. The Come On Pilgrim tracks are more optional than the others - the whole thing is, of course, optional - as they won't count towards deciding The Official Favorite Pixies Album of Fivece Power Paintball and Other Diversions - for that bit only the relative rankings of songs from the five albums will be used. Feel five to rank other extraneous media (or, you know, whatever) in your comments. Feel even more five to include five tons of hilarious and biting commentary.

Come On Pilgrim - The Holiday Song
Surfer Rosa - Gigantic
Doolittle - Here Comes Your Man
Bossanova - Is She Weird
Trompe Le Monde - Head On

If Surfer Rosa and Bossanova (and Come On Pilgirm, I suppose) were allowed a bye I'm sure one would be used here. In my mind Kim Deal's Gigantic could take the others with Black Francis' arms tied behind his back... but I know some folks somewhere must like Here Comes Your Man and you gotta love a JAMC cover. Add on top of that my favorite song from Bossanova and the fact that I still have no idea what holiday that song is supposed to be for... and you have a tough track to win. Well, unless you're gigantic, like our big, big love.


Please offer your rankings via the comments widget below or to my email - with Pixies in the subject - which is mountmccabe at gmail dot com.

Pixies Track 4

Pixies Album Competition, take 4... or, rather, track 4: I'll list the track fours off the Pixies initial EP and four subsequent albums. You are then offer the chance to rank as many of them as you can comfortably do so. The Come On Pilgrim tracks are more optional than the others - the whole thing is, of course, optional - as they won't count towards deciding The Official Favorite Pixies Album of Force Power Paintball and Other Diversions - for that bit only the relative rankings of songs from the four albums will be used. Feel free to rank other extraneous media (or, you know, whatever) in your comments. Feel even more free to include tons of hilarious and biting commentary.

Come On Pilgrim - Ed Is Dead
Surfer Rosa - Broken Face
Doolittle - I Bleed
Bossanova - Alison
Trompe Le Monde - The Sad Punk

Alison does not always come paired with Dig For Fire. Other than that, though, this is a pretty morbid group which I'll name extinction.


Please offer your rankings via the comments widget below or to my email - with Pixies in the subject - which is mountmccabe at gmail dot com.

Pixies Track 3

Pixies Album Competition, take 3... or, rather, track 3: I'll list the track threes off the Pixies initial EP and four subsequent albums. You are then offer the chance to rank as many of them as you can comfortably do so. The Come On Pilgrim tracks are more optional than the others - the whole thing is, of course, optional - as they won't count towards deciding The Official Favorite Pixies Album of Force Power Paintball and Other Diversions - for that monstrosity only the relative rankings of songs from the four albums will be used. Feel free to rank other extraneous media (or, you know, whatever) in your comments. Feel even more free to include lots of hilarious and biting commentary.

Come On Pilgrim - Isla de Encanta
Surfer Rosa - Something Against You
Doolittle - Wave of Mutilation
Bossanova - Velouria
Trompe Le Monde - Alec Eiffel

Black Francis singing in Spanish set to wild and chaotic (more so) Joey Santiago guitar against "Something Against You", and what was one of my early favorites (Wave of Mutilation), what might be considered an attempt at a ballad (Velouria) and a song I once thought included the lyrics "little lifeboat, little lifeboat" even though it didn't make no sense.


Please offer your rankings via the comments widget below or to my email - with Pixies in the subject - which is mountmccabe at gmail dot com.

Pixies Track 2

Pixies Album Competition, take 2... or, rather, track 2: I'll list the track twos off the Pixies initial
EP and four subsequent albums. You are then instructed to rank as many of them as you can comfortably do so. The Come On Pilgrim tracks are more optional than the others - the whole thing is, of course, optional - as they won't count towards deciding The Official Favorite Pixies Album of Force Power Paintball and Other Diversions - for that I'm only using the relative rankings of songs from the four albums. Feel free to rank other extraneous media (or whatever) in your comments. Feel even more free to include hilarious and biting commentary.

Come On Pilgrim - Vamos
Surfer Rosa - Break My Body
Doolittle - Tame
Bossanova - Rock Music
Trompe Le Monde - Planet of Sound

COP offers a shorter version of a song found on Surfer Rosa (the only song found twice) and then four songs all within 10 seconds of two minutes long. Will Black Francis shouting "Tame" for a minute be enough to top the shouting climax to which Planet of Sound builds? Will everyone forget Break My Body and Rock Music even though they have as much strained shouting as the others?

Please offer your rankings via the comments widget below or to my email - with Pixies in the subject - which is mountmccabe at gmail dot com.

Pixies Track 1

Pixies Album Competition, take 1... or, rather, track 1: I'll list the track ones off the Pixies initial
EP and four subsequent albums. You rank as many of them as you can comfortably do so. The Come On Pilgrim tracks are more optional than the others - the whole thing is, of course, optional - as they won't count towards deciding The Official Favorite Pixies Album of Force Power Paintball and Other Diversions - for that I'm only using the relative rankings of songs from the four albums. Feel free to include extraneous media (or whatever) in your rankings. Feel even more free to include hilarious and biting commentary.

Come On Pilgrim - Caribou
Surfer Rosa - Bone Machine
Doolittle - Debaser
Bossanova - Cecilia Ann
Trompe Le Monde - Trompe Le Monde

Bossanova takesa non-standard route and opens with an instrumental... though it is an loud and aggressive song none-the-less. Will that be enough to make a dent against lots of Black Francis screaming? On a side note, you're so pretty when you're unfaithful to me.

Please offer your rankings via the comments widget below or to my email - with Pixies in the subject - which is mountmccabe at gmail dot com.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Update

It was recommended that I include Come On Pilgrim into the competition. This has pluses and minuses... but I shall refrain from granting this EP full inclusion. I shall, however, allow votes for it. Hell,I shall encourage them. They shall not, however, count towards the official results.

Points are given for comparative rankings so it doesn't matter what extraneous material is included.

Therefore when voting please feel free to include the songs from Come On Pilgrim for the votes for tracks 1 through 8 - I'll even list the songs and cover them in the notes when posting. You can (also) include other collections of approximately fifteen as well - the 15 song live set on the Pixies DVD, tracks on Destruction by Definition, films directed by Stanley Kubrick, years of your life... whatever - ranking them against the Pixies tracks.

The plan, then, will be to report the Official final total, an overall total (including absolutely everything receiving points) and whatever else seems interesting.

Also in the interest of sleep the 15 ballot posts will not be up until later. They will, however, certainly be up before I leave for Chicago.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Pixies Album Competition

On Saturday I am flying to Chicago. Not terribly long after arriving I shall be driving to Michigan. Several days after that I shall be driving to Ohio. Monday the 25th I shall be flying home from Cleveland.

This will most likely mean that there won't be any blogging 'round here until the 26th or even later. To keep visitors entertained, however, there shall be a competition.

Unfortunately you may not participate unless you are an album released by the Pixies. Come On Pilgrim... not so fast. Surfer Rosa, please stand up. I see Doolittle in the back; and yes, that's you, Bossanova, despite the fact that you're trying to avoid eye contact. I suspect Trompe Le Monde is ditching today... but you're in anyway. Death to the Pixies? Not a chance. That DVD? I don't even know how that would work (interactive menus vs Bone Machine... hmmm....)

I have recently proven an inability to comparatively rank the albums of the Pixies. I jokingly offered the time-tested method of cumulative track-to-track-to-track-to-track rankings... which, mentally, snowballed into this.

There will be 15 seperate posts, one for each album track. The first post (which probably won't be up until tomorrow) will list the four songs (Bone Machine, Debaser, Cecilia Ann, Trompe Le Monde) and a few flippant phrases where I hint at where I'm leaning but my personal votes will not go up until after I get back from my trip. At any rate this is where anyone who stops by is invited to offer their own rankings and/or witty remarks.

I am counting each CD track which means that Surfer Rosa's entry for track 10 is dialog and Bossanova offers instrumentals at both 1 and 14. After great internal debate I have decided to not allow either Surfer Rosa or Bossanova to position their empty which means that the only entries for track 15 are Gouge Away and The Navajo Know.

I will listen to each of the four tracks directly before finalizing my rankings; I recommend that you do so as well. I'll even offer a Rhapsody playlist shuffled just so. This is merely a recommendation, partially because I have no way of policing this (Coast Guard?) and will, of course, count any rankings I get via either the comments box or email (mountmccabe at gmail dot com - and as I often get oddly worded/structured messages please put the word "Pixies" in the subject so I don't try to parse your rankings as text.)

I will tally all rankings received by 11:59pm Wednesday, July 27th. Entries later than that might be included but no promises. Last place (on each ballot) gets one point, second to last gets two, third to last gets three and fourth to last get eight thousand five hundred and thiry seven. I mean four.

The album with the most points wins and will be proclaimed The Official Favorite Pixies Album of Force Power Paintball and Other Diversions (TOFPAoFPPaOD for short...er.)

Sunday, July 10, 2005

ArthurFest 2005

At a recent show some friends pointed me to ArthurFest put on by Arthur Magazine. This will be September 4 & 5 in the Los Angeles metropolitan area somewhere. The seven artists (of 31 currently listed as playing) I knew were enough to convince me that this would be worth the trip... especially since I know other people from Phoenix who are planning on going.

The show is going to be the following bands plus 16. The only artist I knew not represented below is Brad Laner; Rhapsody has neither Medicine nor Electric Company nor - wow... Rhapsody does have Lusk's album but I never knew Brad was in that band (with Greg Edwards of Failure and Autolux)... I'm going to have to hear me that album... and kick myself for not looking into them earlier (I always saw that album at used CD shops while looking for Lush or Luscious Jackson or... other Lus... bands.)

OK, that sentence was a mess. I appologize and will refrain from attempting to recover. The point is there's no Brad Laner... but I'm not sure what he's going to do anyway.

At any rate check out the following; I will be. I have done some research to figure out what songs to pick (well, for the first five I just kinda grabbed something recent-ish.) The line-up sounds very spacy, drony, nosiy... which means I'm stoked.

ArthurFest 2005:
1. Pattern Recognition - Sonic Youth
2. Jumpers - Sleater-Kinney
3. Have Love Will Travel - The Black Keys
4. He War - Cat Power
5. Fireplace - The Olivia Tremor Control
6. At Her Open Door - Dead Meadow
7. Let The Church Roll On - T-Model Ford
8. Antlers Of The Midnight Sun - Comets On Fire
9. The Manifestation - Six Organs Of Admittance
10. Dimension - Wolfmother
11. You May Be Blue - Vetiver
12. Onement - Growing
13. Seven Angels - Earth
14. The Fish - Radar Brothers
15. Enemy - Modey Lemon
16. Lavender Diamond-Emptiness Is A Conductor - Lavender Diamond

Note: Yes, today is an anomaly. I shall neither begin averaging several posts per day nor begin focusing on Rhapsodyblogging.

Sixty Minutes

I figured I'd see how blogging of playlists via Rhapsody works. This one consists of artists I saw live in June (plus two from early July since I doubt I'll see any more shows.) Most non-local bands I saw are here, Tilly and the Wall, Matt Mays, Be Your Own Pet, Hot IQ and Enon are, off-hand, the only ones missing (they currently do not have songs available via Rhapsody.)

June 2005 Shows:
1. Dis-connect The Dots - Of Montreal
2. Arriving Somewhere But Not Here - Porcupine Tree
3. Independent Thief - Kathleen Edwards
4. Gone Darker - Electrelane
5. You Alone - Street Dogs
6. Give You Nothing - Bad Religion
7. Next Year - Jessica Fletchers
8. This May Hurt (A Little) - Dressy Bessy
9. The Early Years - Sparrow
10. Eat This City - Thunderbirds Are Now!
11. Southern Born Son I Imagine Alive For Real - The Double
12. First Few Desperate Hours - Mountain Goats
13. Go Away - Go Betty Go
14. Drummer boy - Scout Niblett

Drummer Boy

Friday night was dinner with friends at Tasty Kabob and then a few doors down to Stinkweeds for Scout Niblett.

This was a late show, Wonderful Wednesday started at about 10pm; Scout Niblett came on around 10:40 and played for about 40 minutes.

I haven't been listening long enough to know, really, but text I've come across used Scout Niblett as a person's name; Emma used it more like Cat Power: "We are Scout Niblett." At any rate it was Emma playing guitar and singing (and playing the drum kit for Pom Pom) and Jason Kourkounis playing drums.

For those not familiar the music is a sort of agressive alt-folk full of quiet, almost precious but eerie sections dispersed with brutal attacks... at first glance it reminds one of early PJ Harvey. It's rather simple music with great emotional range.

My favorites were Pom Pom and the closer, Drummer Boy (from I Am, which is the album Rhapsody has.) The turnout was better than I expected for a record store show, 40-50 people. I was in a good position, standing behind a display of 7" singles... which I only barely refrained from flipping through. (Yes, my concentration level sucks even for something as compelling as a show this fantastic.)

The best news is that they are coming back to Phoenix on August 18th, playing at Modified.

For those not in Phoenix that show is part of a reasonably complete US tour beginning July 25th at Salt Lake City.

Monday, July 04, 2005

Carmody

I picked up a recommendation to read something - I wanna say the Riverworld series - by Philip Jose Farmer sometime, somewhere. On one of my latest used book-buying binges I picked up Father to the Stars... not part of the series but it still looked interesting.

After I read the first "chapter," however, I realized that I was largely mistaken. Or, rather, various clues I took to mean that it was a bizzare and inventive form of quasi-novel were misread. It is, rather, a collection of five short stories published in the 50s and 60s focusing upon a John Carmody. The stories are relatively inventive if a bit simple. Carmody is, at times, a mildly interesting character... the further he moves along in his religious order the less interesting he gets.

When I first realized that they were short stories - after the second "chapter" was mostly unrelated to the first... and I looked more closely at the non-text parts of the book - I was surprised that the stories were presented in an order other than that in which they were published. After reading the earliest stories this made much more sense. the first story, "Attitudes," is neither representative nor terribly good; "Father" is long (90 pages) and not that interesting either.

As a side note, yes, not pay much attention to the back cover and front flaps and whatnot does makes me look pretty stupid... but I tend to prefer to not know anything about a book before I start it other than that I want to read it. The delay between putting a book on a want-list and actually reading it helps in this endeavor.

In this case not knowing much about the book backfired. The first story, "The Night of Light," was odd and compelling and worth reading; the others, however, were less adventurous and generally silly... nothing of the sort I'd read again or recommend.