Nu Rave Brain Wave

Tomorrow I will be hitting up KXLU‘s studios on the beautiful LMU campus to be a guest on the great Mukta Mohan’s KXLU show. If you live in LA chances are you’ve seen Mukta at the best garage shows, DJing all over town, or heard her on the radio and I’m really honored to be a guest. Get ready to be horrified at my speaking voice, but who knows. Tomorrow, Tuesday September 19th between 9am and 12pm PST you can catch us either on 88.9FM or stream online via http://www.kxlu.com. I am working on an ultra rad playlist of my favorite music from this year and beyond.

Although I wasn’t as hot on their second record as I was obsessed with their first LP, Austin via Dallas’s Strange Boys are undoubtedly one of my favorite bands. I’m very happy to hear a new cut from their forthcoming third LP, Live Music, which will enthrall and captivate us all on October 25th via Rough Trade. Me & You sees them move into a more upbeat piano based direction that I think holds some of the classic songwriting standards that they have injected a definite modernity and stoic cool into, and a certain energy and tempo that was missing from the last LP. That said, this song has been in my head since the first listen & the cutesy feel good video is pretty excellent as well. This bodes well for this band to become one of my favorite things in the world all over again.

mp3: Strange Boys – Me And You

I’m in Amsterdam then London for 12 hours then Los Angeles so who knows how long it will be until I get my act together. In the meantime, listen to everything I’ve ever posted or, just finally get your mitts on this Lana Del Rey song, which might end up being one of my favorites from 2011.

mp3: Lana Del Rey – Video Games

Been religiously compiling my list of stuff I’ve really enjoyed this year, and here’s the best of albums, EPs, and 7″that I’ve enjoyed during the first half of 2011.

LPs
Monster Rally – Coral
The Beets – Stay Home
Mind Spiders – The Mind Spiders
The Babies – The Babies
Chain & The Gang – Music’s Not For Everyone
Bass Drum of Death – GB City
Shannon & The Clams – Sleep Talk
Sonny & The Sunsets – Hit After Hit
Hunx & His Punx – Too Young To Be In Love
Dirty Beaches – Badlands
Mellowhype – BlackenedWhite
Goblin – Tyler the Creator
Cosmonauts – S/T
TRMRS – Sea Change
Black Lips – Arabia Mountain

EPs
Thee Ludds – Fez Bowl
Ghost Outfit – Young Ghosts EP
Die Jungen – $
Carnivores – Chandelier EP
The Bell Peppers – Cooking With The Bell Peppers
Ty Segall – Ty Rex
Toto & The Bad Eggs – Wallet Droppin’
The High Drops – EP

7″
Man The Hunter – 7″
Bitch Prefect – 7″
The Growlers – Gay Thoughts 7″
TV Colours / Assassins 88 – Split 7″
Women / Cold Pumas / Fair Ohs / Friendo – Split 7″
Sex Beet / Human Eye – Split Scion 7″
The Beets – Time Brought Age 7″
Catholic Spray/Assassins88//TV Colours – Split 7″

Early this morning, I’m taking 6:45am, I read the Quietus’ article by Tim Russell on the ‘mediocrity’ of Bob Dylan’s live show. It actually fucking incensed me. Really, it did. So I thought I’d get out my thoughts, obviously in the same manner that this dude wrote this review: tired, cranky and starting before having actual coherent thoughts.

When I was at TCU in Texas back in 2008, my friends bought tickets to see three of the Bob Dylan at the HOB Dallas tour dates that he announced and told me they’d take me to one of the days. I was super excited. I had always been a Bob Dylan fan — I love to say that when I was like 12, “Sooner or Later” off Blonde on Blonde was my favorite song and it affected me, in what some might call a negative way. But since 2006, I’d become a really, really big fan. You know, that whole move out of the house, go to college, become someone — and loving Bob Dylan was a big part of that. In fact, at the time, I was reading his big collection of Interviews and marveling at his wit and his insanity.

So we went to see him. We got to the barrier on the left hand side, the one, incidentally Bob was facing — and he never looked away. Obviously. But anyway, so he came out and he played and I was fucking SHOCKED. I couldn’t hear him, his voice was fucking mangled — the words, which were the most important part of his songs for me at the time, were unintelligible. He pretty much only played keyboard, barely touched the electric guitar — and if I remember correctly, played one song acoustically. Then there was the matter of the instrumentation of these favorite songs of mine — they had completely changed. I didn’t even recognize ‘Girl From The North Country’ until 2/3 of the way through. Bob did not even acknowledge the audience (besides us, he shimmied at us, which is a FACT confirmed by strangers) at all or even speak outside of singing — which at the time really fucking ticked me off because hey, dude, I paid $60 to see you, you’re fucking Bob Dylan. Anyway, so I was pissed off after that show. Really pissed. Who did this dude think he was?!

So I talked to my stepdad who was the one who really introduced me to Dylan and helped me see the light when I thought other rock ‘n roll “poets” were greater than he, due to the fact that I was a young fool. He put this into perspective for me using a few key points:

1. He’s 70.

Bob’s been doing this shit since 1961. Yeah. And he has not lived, what do you call it, a healthy lifestyle since 1961 either. So at 70, the fact that he’s been able to be constantly touring since 1988 (that’s the year I was born, y’all) after having lived the way he did for so long — it’s fucking amazing. We should be happy that he’s still able to do this. He is not sullying what will hopefully never be known as his “former glory”, he is an artist who has made a life and a career out of being what he wants, changing when he wants, and not giving a based fuck. So what his voice is deteriorated — he’s always been known for having an nasal, emotive voice rather than a classic one — why should we expect anything different from him now?

2. He’s been playing (some of) these songs for almost 50 years.

Hey, have you ever played a song on repeat for like, a couple days listening to it like, maybe 100 times? And then gotten fucking sick of it? How about listening/playing/practicing the same songs for 40 years? No, you’ve never done that? Oh probably because you’d get fucking SICK of it. Instead of berrating him for changing the songs, sometimes even making them unrecognizable, let’s marvel at the ability of the man to write a song so good, and so classic that it retains its power no matter how the instrumentation and tempo change.

3. He doesn’t owe you anything.

This is the same person we’re talking about who threatened to burn his own house down, to get those damn hippies off of his roof and out of his garbage. He doesn’t give a fuck. Not about what you think, not about your money, not about you want from him, not about anything. I think the thing Bob might be most offended about is being called ‘polite’ but I think that’s a separate issue. I doubt he’s ever been accused of that in his life. No matter whether you think, “You wonder why he does it really – he can’t need the money, and it can’t really be for fun, as he doesn’t seem to be having any” or if you think he’s having the time of his life: he’s doing these shows. And he’s doing ‘em whether you like it or not, because he doesn’t owe you anything. Who cares if you buy his CDs, see him live, saw any of the shit movies (except one!) about him, buy any of the books by or about him? Who cares? Not him, that’s for sure.

4. He’s Bob Dylan.

I could’ve probably used this video (that I made for this specific purpose — fuck you, YouTube cover versions) as my entire argument.

So, anyway if you can’t accept any of those things, don’t fucking go see him. And definitely don’t write a shitass article afterwords calling him mediocre and saying the people of Vietnam deserve better. Hey, fuck you! He’s Bob Dylan. He can, and will, and always has done whatever the fuck he wants. And if you don’t want to see it. Don’t pay $60 bucks for it, and definitely don’t go for free to review it and then write some shit review as if you don’t know any of the above. Because you do. We all know these things. Just thought I would reiterate that Bob is the best. And if you wanna shell out to go see him, you gotta know and be okay with the above.

ps. if you say Like A Rolling Stone is your favorite Bob Dylan song, nobody is going to take you seriously

We were immediately enamoured when we discovered Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Man the Hunter last October. Back then it was just a myspace, but we’re happy to say that Evan Doering is putting out Less For You b/w Dance With Me on 7″ via Ginkgo Records. The double-a side features the effervescently trashy soon to be pop hit, ‘Less For You‘, and below we have ‘Dance With Me‘ which is a great slacker-pop jam, just as trashy and fuzzed out as the flip side, albeit a little less frenzied — still, this is pretty awesome.

mp3 | Man The Hunter – Dance With Me

Anyone in Los Angeles/Fullerton (WHY?) should head on down to Burger Records to see a free show from the OC’s excellent Dahga Bloom and Night Beats. Show starts at 4pm at Burger Records (645 S. State College Blvd. A Fullerton, CA 92831) is FREE 99 and supposedly ever 5th person will “be getting a free unicorn ride to Neverland”. Sounds good.

A while ago, we introduced you to Joesph Pruitt, of the fantastical Family Tree’s who most certainly released one of the best songs of the year, and his solo project Son of Rams. His work in Family Trees has a beautiful hazy, summery sound which Pruitt ditches in Son of Rams for something more wild. Each song off of his Frolicks In The Pink EP (which you can get for free, and his other Untitled album, too, at his website) is a great little (they’re all short and catchy as fuck) weird-psych jam featuring some sick guitar. My favorite right now is ‘Boost Up’ which is best played loud — which is a fast and furious, wicked guitar ripper with Pruitt’s almost irritating, incredibly sprightly vocals. If after two listens you’re not yelling “Boost up the room” or doing some kind of weird voodoo doll dance to the solo, I’ll be damned. This dude has a ton of talent and both his bands are definitely ones to watch. Snoozing not allowed on this rad stuff.

mp3 | Son of Rams - Boost Up

The Great San Franciscun, words I don’t utter too often, Ty Segall is returning to the UK at the end of this year for at least one show. I hope to god it’s more shows, and one of them happens to be in Brighton, but I’m not holding my fucking breath on that. Brighton is done musically. This is a fact. But onto the important information. Ty’s returning to play the Camp Basement which is somewhere I don’t know, The City Road, or something, but you best believe I’m going to be there on December 11th and since ticket’s are super fucking cheap at only £6 which you can get from We Got Tickets, I’ll probably even pay for this show. This is an epic do-not-miss show.

Ty Segall @ Camp Basement, London | December 11th

mp3 | Ty Segall - Universal Momma

Photo Courtesy of | Chris Becker Jr

So last week, I went to New York for a few days out of mainly spite for this English weather that I completely forgot about, but also out of decadence withdrawals. However, this show at Santos Party house last Tuesday was also a big draw. Hi, do you see the lineup? It’s fucking amazing. It’s been a while since the show and I was pretty hammered (who does $7 for whiskey shot/beer?) so this is probably going to be (like everything else I do) the most unprofessional review ever.

Fergus & Geronimo was the only band on the bill I hadn’t seen before and I want to like them very much due to the fact that they hail from Denton, TX. I obviously didn’t know that they underwent some lineup changes (two added members, if I’m correct) and moved to Brooklyn. I wasn’t sure if it was just because they were the openers and hardly anyone was there, or if they had an off day — but the set was pretty meh. ‘Girls With English Accents’ was one of my favorite songs of the summer and is such a total sweet jam — it ended up being the best song of the set, and the total highlight for me but the rest didn’t work.

Happy Birthday are one of my favorite bands of the year. I think it’s because King Tuff is the epitome of cool and two of the best songs of 2010 are on that record. Live, Happy Birthday are give and take. In big venues, where nobody is super fucking excited to see them (see: Galaxy Room Backyard at SXSW, this night @ Santos Party House) they’re just medium. I think they’re one of the best live bands in a small, sweaty bar made to fit no more than 50 (see: Tin Can Ale House, San Diego). Unfortunately this was not one of the times. King Tuff is probably one of the most enjoyable performers that I’ve seen in quite some time — he just is a hot mess of awesome. ‘Girls FM’ is a lot less enjoyable when one person is pogoing around, ‘Perverted Girl’ is just flat out one of my favorite songs of the year and set-closer ‘Subliminal Message’ always leaves things on a better note than when they started. Looking forward to seeing them next month in London.

Sex Beet are probably the best band in the UK right now. This was their first ever show in America, but from the looks of it, things will probably go well. The whole crowd went into grateful punk spasms during their obviously not-long-enough-set. Super highlights include the two incredibly titled ‘I’m In Love With You (So Shut The Fuck Up)’ and ‘Nice Hair/Nice Titties’ which are as raucus and dirty as you can imagine. Best part of the set was for sure my favorite song, ‘Stay’ which if you haven’t heard already — get as soon as possible. Good things are coming to this band if not in the UK, then for sure in the US.

The Oh Sees. Ah. What do I even say about the Oh Sees? Both times I’ve seen them play have had the strangest sense of time – like, it feels like they play forever (in the best way imagineable) yet by the time they’re done you always end up wanting more. John Dwyer is a crazy motherfucker. They ended up playing to an extremely packed, sweaty crowd who just went pretty much wild for them. Apologies for the worst couple reviews ever, I got pretty drunk. Basically, this show was completely worth the 7 hour flight it took to get me there.

mp3 | Fergus & Geronimo - Girls With English Accents
mp3 | Happy Birthday - 2 Shy
mp3 | Sex Beet - Stay
mp3 | The Oh Sees - Tidal Wave