Me a Slacker? No!!!!

So I was accused of slacking off by a so called friend. And so I'm gonna type this up while I'm waiting on Mikey to get out of the bathroom. How's that for productivity? I been listening to a lot of Dylan lately. Shocker I know but it's true. And I'm realized that he's pretty good. I'd recommend his stuff. If you don't like it then die. But the guy is a poet and what not. So why don't more people try to write songs like him? Well one reason is that they can't do that. They don't have the talent, the knowledge, the wit, the drive, the enviroment, or any of the other billion great things that occured at one time while he was churning out unbelievable stuff. The other thing is that most song writers respect the man like he is the second coming; some believe he is actually is, while more still think his presence is more important than that long-haired Jew. So why copy something that can't be replicated? Why copy the archetype? Why copy Dylan? Well Mikey's out of the bathroom so I'm gonna go take a shower.

Where the fuck have albums gone?

I haven't really written anything interesting in the past few weeks, and it seems that everyone else is slacking off as well. Because of time constraints, the most I can write is either a reply or a link to a site that brings up some discussion, which is always cool.

This particular article was the first I read from the Charlotte-area monthly print Amps 11. It's a really cool story that I enjoyed reading because it was something I am passionate about--buying records. Check it out.

CASH

I've been listening to Johnny Cash and Hank Williams for about six days now non-stop (with a little Dylan sprinkled in there of course.) And I've come to the realization that Johnny Cash is IT. You know what it is; we all have different ideas of IT ; it's where you can't explain it to anyone who doesn't understand and to some one who does understand you don't have to say a word.

There are several reasons not to like Johnny Cash. 1. He's old. 2. He's "trendy." 3. He was just the subject of a major motion picture. 4. All the songs sound exactly the FUCKING SAME. 5. He's "country." 6. He hung out with Rick Rubin. But none of this matters when those songs start up and the patented boom chick a-boom sound moves and that freight train of a voice rolls on down the line.

I bought At San Quentin one day out of the blue (I guess I did know that it was a "classic album" but otherwise my Jesus Lizard and "My Black Ass" loving ways did not prepare me for "I Still Miss Someone.") I listened to that album sitting in the car waiting on my sister get out of the Bank of America right down the road from my high school. (I think I had skipped school that day for no real reason; life changing though.) I had the shittest pair of headphone that ever existed and they kept cutting out and one side was way louder than the other. But when HE says "Hello I'm Johnny Cash" before he kicks into "Big River," I got chill bumps and they stayed there for most of, if not all, of the hour long album.

I don't know where I'm going with this; I never do. But there's no reason to try to explain. Like I said earlier: either you get or you don't and if you don't I'm not gonna waste my time. That picture should say it all.

Fuck Yeah. Part Two.

Last night we went to see Sparklehorse. But the opener stole the show for me. I walked in while he was half way through his first song but when I heard that resonator a-playing I was hooked. His finger picking was extraordinary, his singing was impassioned, his demeanor was relaxed and his lyrics were dead-on. All of this smashed together in one tight package made for the most moving live music experience I’ve ever felt. I saw Shellac at the same venue about two weeks ago and they rocked sure, and 400 Blows kicked some ass, the Blood Brothers did “Under Pressure,” X sounded like they’d stepped right out of 1980, Big Business slayed but none of them came close to what Tyler Ramsey did last night: he created music that could only be summed up with one word. “Beautiful.” I got teary eyed at one point. Straight up emotional shit. He was fighting against the barroom crowd and the clinking of empty beer bottles and assholes talking; he’d just sing louder and more passionately to get his point across which was falling upon mostly deaf ears. He was totally bumming people out (mostly kids who only heard of Sparklehorse on a NIRVANA chat room.) Which leads to my theory you can bum out scensters (you know the kids who are emotionally detached from everything except maybe some fashion trends and their favorite coffee shop) two ways. One is to be super fucking heavy (and no Underoath is not heavy), which I saw on full display at the aforementioned Big Business/Blood Brothers show. All the hipsters waiting to see Blood Brothers were bummed the fuck out and kept yelling stupid shit like “MAIDEN” and “PLAY SOME SABBATH.” Neither of which are funny or even clever. The other way to be a buzz kill musically is to be super fucking pussy, which is what Tyler Ramsey was doing last night. Songs about lost girls and time machines and finger pickin’ instrumentals are not what a guy who just showed up to drink a beer with his buddies wants to hear but that’s what they got and so did I. And thank god for that since this ranks as one of the best weekends in recorded history…for any one… ever. And I didn’t even mention Sparklehorse’s set or record shopping for three hours, or great pizza and terrible tea, or countless cigarettes or the night before or keggers or the road trip it took to get there or being sick or everyone actually being happy at the same time for once or listening to Meat Puppets and Radiohead on the trip up or port-a-johns or Asheville in general or some guy wanting to fight me because I disagreed with him or singing “Happy Birthday” or…OH Fuck I don’t remember anything else. Oh man, what a plan.

The WENR

Awesome shit, guys! So the shows for the WENR (winthrop radio, but with an "e") kick off tonight with Brophy's show from 8-10 PM. You can listen to the program online at www.birdnest.org/winr or tune in to channel 99 (if you live on campus).

The WENR schedule:

Sunday: Milo Jones 6-8 PM
Monday: Incassi 8-10 PM
Daniel Moore 10-12 PM
Thursday: Matt Brophy 8-10 PM

Good Job, Dorks

So I just got back from Dinkins, where I recieved a letter from my sister that contained details about her upcoming haircut and our family's new computer and other exciting news. While over there the MTV VMA (that stands for Music Television Video Music Awards for those acronym challenged) were playing on the big screen that no one seems to ever be watching. ( By the way what the fuck does MTV know about music (they know about pop star's private lives and who's fucking who) or music videos (they play their video blocks late at night and the videos that do come on TRL are only minute and a half clips with those annoying cheerleader rejects screaming over top of the new 50 Cent.) They should just have a reality show award show and get it over with.

But anyways...Ok Go were on there, which is cool because they're all indie and shit (nothing screams "indie" like Target commercials and vintage suits.) So Ok Go performing their newest single; what's wrong with that right? That's the problem right there. They weren't performing anything but the new dance from their new video. Holy Flaming Buttholes is right, Batman.

Their newest video is them dancing around on treadmills ("It's all one take. AMAZING!") so the ad wizards at MTV decided to have them come on and do the dance in front of a live audience. Let's just say I didn't sit throught it all; only about 35 seconds actually but I'm praying to God one of them (preferably the cute singer or maybe the fat bald one) fell flat on their face or got a shoe string caught in the treadmill. But since I'm sure they've practice that dance more than they practice getting their songs in order or even fixing their hair really fucking nice, there is no way in hell anything went wrong.

So my message is this: STOP FUCKING DANCING. WRITE GOOD SONGS. If you write good songs, then you don't have to dance. You're not Madonna, you should be concerned with kicking ass on stage, not doing ballet moves.

Boris and Sparklehorse Weekend Extravaganza!!!

Okay, guys, so Daniel came up with this great idea to go see two shows at two venues next weekend. The first is Boris, a Japanese noise-metal band, who will be playing at the Orange Peel with Pearls & Brass on Friday, September 8th. The second, but certainly not least, is Sparklehorse, who will be playing at The Grey Eagle Tavern @ 10 PM on Saturday, September 9th. There is an early show @ 7 PM featuring Jay Clifford (Jump, Little Children) and Meghan Coffee (which costs $10 extra).

Tickets for both Boris and Sparklehorse are $10 a pop in advance. We could look for a shitty, cheap hotel room if everyone's interested, which will probably run another $30 (I'll look online for some shit). The total cost, not including food and gas, would probably be about $30 per person if split at least 3 ways.

If interested, please post. I will be willing to drive, as always, so let's get our asses out to the show!