Retroactively

When I was 12 I heard this band for the first time. I didn't understand it, and I moved on.

A few months later an older girl who I had a crush on, and lived on my street had a copy of it. I mentioned that I heard one of the songs on it, but I thought it was weird. And she said, "Oh no, this is really good." I listened to the entire album, and I still thought the song about dogs and sweaters was really weird, but I liked a lot of the rest of it.

My brother and I didn't hang out very often outside of family functions. He was almost 3 years older than me, so a year later when he was going to the American Theater, which to this day I have no idea where in St. Louis it was(it's long since closed), to see this band, I asked him, begged him to take me. He relented only after I said, for my birthday- originally he was going to take me to see Sponge and Letters to Cleo on my actual birthday. So we changed plans.

It was my first concert without adult supervision. It was magical. During the slow song, I looked around the venue, and everything was moving in slow motion. Cool.

When their second album came out, I bought it the day it came out, and on my first listen, the last song made me cry. I went to school the next day and talked about it with the girl I was into at the time, she bought it too.

I saw them on that tour, I was shoved up against the stage. Only my friend Cameron in front of me. To my right there was a punk rock girl, black hair, bangs, dark eyeliner, spiked bracelet, and a 7-11 button up shirt. It was spectacular.

I saw them one more time, they opened for No Doubt. I didn't go to see the headliner. Their opening set was epic. It was loud, it was fast, at the end they destroyed their instruments, it was the most amazing 45 minute set that I have ever seen. The whole time, I was conscious of that moment for the band. A couple of them already had other projects. The bassist had a project he fronted that had a weird moog throwback hit on MTV. On the stage, he was mesmerizing, and just oozed charisma. After the show I said to my brother, "At some point he is going to want to be a front man, and that's going to end the band."

That's exactly what happened.

They had two fantastic records, and I got to see them 3 times. Even before Conor, they were my gateway drug.

Four years later I was in Santa Fe going to college. I was sitting in the cafeteria my first week, when a striking blond with pink tips saw my shirt and said that they were playing a show in Albuquerque. She said I should go with her and her redhead friend. I couldn't make this up.

We drove an hour to get there, and we got a little lost in Albuquerque itself, but we got there.

The original bassist was gone, but everyone else was there. It was a great show, but it wasn't the same. The swagger was gone. Even the music suffered. That slow song from the first album, the one that made everything in slow motion, it has a loud meandering bass line, and he sped through it. Played it too fast. It was a lot of fun regardless. For one more night, I had one of my favorite bands back. I was up front again, and I knew all the words.

That band was weezer. They've retroactively damaged their earlier work.

MUSIC: UUVVWWZ - UUVVWWZ

Once upon a time, a new album on Saddle Creek Records was filled with folky angst and heartfelt, and at times over the top, lyrical sensibilities. Not anymore.

Lincoln, Nebraska's UUVVWWZ(pronounced double you, double vee, double double-you, zee) have not been a band for very long. Apparently their Saddle Creek debut is the first nine songs that the band has ever composed together and it's certainly a great start.

Lead singer Teal Gardner's pipes shine throughout, and the Deerhoof and Yeah Yeah Yeahs comparisons are obvious throughout. But where their sound really comes together is when they add their blues influence to their rambunctious rock sound. There are definitely four or five songs here that are worth your time, and apparently they put on one hell of a live show.

MUSIC: MewithoutYou, "It's Alright" alright.

MewithoutYou's latest release has a long title, "it's all crazy! it's all false! it's all a dream! it's alright". For our purposes, the title can be condensed to just, "it's alright."

It starts off well enough with, "every thought a Thought of You"(emphasis theirs). Which includes the following stanza:

"no one here to believe but You,
everyone else is bound to leave but You,
when we swear, my love is real, we mean,
I like the way you make me feel,"

Which, out of context of the album has to be the most self deprecating, non belief of love that I have ever heard in music. It seemed rather refreshing.

That is, until you listen to the rest of the album and look at the liner notes. "You" is capitalized, because it's a pronoun for Allah, God, Yahwe, et al.

All in all, the album(which is entirely acoustic) comes off as an odd mix of Neutral Milk Hotel, old testament Sunday school ethics, and some sort of child's tale about insects and plants.

It's the best christian rock album I have ever heard.

That's probably not a compliment.

FCC you got nothing on me

The FCC has certain guidelines for broadcasting content on the public radio airwaves.
The FCC is sort of the modern version of the puritans. They allow certain "bad" words to played at certain times, but no "bad" words that have to do with sex.

For example:

Between the hours of 10pm-6am DJ can play a song that includes the phrase, "Fuck you" or "Fuck Off." But, a DJ is never EVER allowed, regardless of the time, a song that includes the phrase, "I want to Fuck you," or "Let's Fuck."

When I informed my friend Molly of the "Fuck You" vs "I Want to Fuck You" conundrum she deadpanned, "the latter seems much nicer."

MUSIC: 69 Love Songs to be released on vinyl.

MERGE Records continues to celebrate their 20th anniversary in style.
On June 23 they will release The Magnetic Fields classic album 69 Love Songs on vinyl for the first time.

"This vinyl reissue is beautifully packaged in a 10" slip case box with three double gatefold sleeves and the original booklet in 10" size!" That's 6 10" records.

And it's limited to just 3,000.

So, classic album on vinyl for first time, check, in an interesting format and pretty packaging, check, and in limited production, check. Vinylphiles rejoice!

slow to update....

I broke my computer. Seriously. So I have been slow to update. It will continue to be slow, but I will update from time to time until things calm down a bit.

Music: This Week's New Releases

The most interesting release this week is Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavilion which was only released on vinyl. The CD version comes out on January 20.

The vinyl release appears to be gone. Well, from Seattle anyway. The stores that received shipments sold out the day they put them on sale, and a few of the smaller retailers did not even receive their orders. Amazon.com and Insound are listing long waits for the out of stock record.
Even Domino(their record label) lists the album in their online store as, "currently unavailable."

Seriously, way to go Animal Collective!