Tag: music

  • While you were out (protesting)

    The war has already started. The Pentagon was leaking all over the place yesterday that we already have special forces inside Iraq. For example, the Washington Post reported: U.S. Special Operations troops are already operating in various parts of Iraq, hunting for weapons sites, establishing a communications network and seeking potential defectors from Iraqi military…

  • More iTunes format tests

    before: Birdcage from the album “Shmo’s Sampler” by Stew and the Negro Problem after: Stealin’ (Instrumental), Grateful Dead (Birth Of The Dead – The Studio Sides) Pungee, The Meters (Look-Ka Py Py) Midtown (Instrumental), Tom Waits (Rain Dogs) Exquisite Dead Guy, They Might Be Giants (Factory Showroom) OK. Now to post and test the search…

  • Camper back together for real

    It now appears that the one-time Camper Van Beethoven reunion shows last fall were some kind of dry run for a more substantial reunion. Look at all the tour dates listed at the Cracker site. The show I saw was a great nostalgia trip for me and it seemed to be an almost religious experience…

  • Stormy Monday

    I stood out back in the shed listening to the wind pick up and drive the light rain against the walls and fences and trellises. Rose bushes lash the windows even now. The cat and I agreed to go back inside. Working on a longish blog entry about losing my wallet in New York and…

  • I often dream of air raids

    Robyn Hitchcock daydreams as this week’s celebrity guest diary at Slate. Link courtesy of She’s Actual Side, Nationwide, Believe. Given that she has now outed herself as a Robyn fan, and her blog name gives away her TMBG allegiance, I am going to go out on a limb and guess that she is also a…

  • The other one

    Between the sets of last night’s The Other Ones show at the Kaiser Auditorium in Oakland (details to follow), Robert Hunter played for about 40 minutes, just his voice and his tricked-out electric guitar. A lyric stuck with me. …I hear the cries of childrenAnd the other songs of warIt’s like a mighty melodyThat rings…

  • Believe it or not

    I just burned my first music cd ever. With many technological advances I am the consummate late adopter. I like to let other people beta test the new techne at premium rates and jump in when the thing has proven itself and become consumer-easy. I waited till I bought a computer that could burn cd’s…

  • Do the pink robots win?

    Last night I saw the Flaming Lips open for Beck and then back him for the second half of his set. Good show, interesting alchemy. I have all of Beck’s records except his most recent one. And I only have the most recent Lips record, but I’ve listened to it a lot and plan to…

  • Top 100 albums of the '80s

    I haven’t found much to argue with in Pitchfork’s Top 100 Albums of the 1980s, but then I’m also a huge Pixies fan. Let me put it this way: if not for Doolittle, there would be no Pitchfork. In other words, the influence of this record is so vast that, fifteen years on, it has…

  • Pete Townsend reviews Kurt Cobain's diaries

    “Hope I die before I become Pete Townsend,” wrote Cobain in his diary. Pete doesn’t seem offended so much as saddened in his review of the just-published journals of the suicidal muse of the ’90s. It is desperately sad for me to sit here, 57 years old, a huge chunk of life still ahead of…

  • Jam Master Jay, R.I.P.

    Jam Master Jay, né Jason Mizell, was shot by two gunmen at a NY recording studio, cops say. He was 37.

  • Beck with Flaming Lips tonight on Conan

    My old buddy JG turned me on to Flaming Lips (finally) and when they added a second Beck opened for and backed by the Lips show, we got tickets, so I’m psyched about that. Yoshimi reminds me a little of OK Computer, but it’s hugely catchy and grooving. I can’t remember the last time I…