Only The Young Die Young

Only The Young Die Young

Cool New Bands: Crocodiles

Crocodiles are a band from San Diego who are members of the Jesus And Mary Chain is a Genre School Of Music. they also just released their first album Summer Of Hate and i kinda dig it. granted their shit isn't nearly as blatant (or awesome)a ripoff of the Brothers Reid as A Place To Bury Strangers...but yeah, they aren't trying to hide their influences either. but you know what...i am old and i don't give a shit about that anymore. so you are 20 years old and you got really into the Jesus and Mary Chain after you watched Lost In Translation and then decided you and your friend were gonna start and band than sounded like the J&MC's early stuff...i just don't have an issue with it. nobody does anything original anymore, if you know how to write a couple of catchy songs and you look cool then i'm willing to forgive and forget and give you a chance. Crocodiles are exactly that band. they've got a couple of good songs and they sound like shit i already listen to. will i like this band 2 years from now? probably not, but i might put 1 of their songs on a mix cd for someone and these days that's all i am really asking for. plus when you've got song titles as nihilistic as "I Wanna Kill", "Soft Skull In My Room", and "Young Drugs", well that let's me know that you get it.

Summer Of Hate - Crocodiles

Pitchfork hates it, so if you take their word is law then maybe this ain't for you.

the greatest songs of all time: "Ca Plane Pour Moi"

nothing like a little Belgian punk rock to start the day. i don't care where you are or who you are with, if you put on the Plastic Bertrand classic "Ca Plane Pour Moi" at a party then motherfuckers will start dancing.

The Rich Kids

formed by Glen Matlock when he got kicked out of the Sex Pistols for liking the Beatles, The Rich Kids were one of the first punk bands to really embrace pop. Matlock took his love of The Faces and 60s British Invasion and infused it with some 70s Glam and punk rock and came up with The Rich Kids sound. they only released 1 album Ghosts Of Princes In Towers which was produced by Mick Ronson, but the album is a fucking Power Pop classic. their first single "Rick Kids" was a top 40 hit in the UK but the band failed to achieve the same success as The Clash, Buzzcocks, and Sex Pistols and broke up shortly after. if you ever run across a copy of their record i highly recommend picking it up.


here are the albums most famous cuts:

"ghosts of princes in towers"


"rich kids"

New Bands That Don't Suck: Hip To Death

Hip To Death are some new band from the ATL that i've never seen before and know nothing about...but they sent me a myspace request and i kind of like their sound. reminds me of Suicide, J&MC, & about a hundred other goth bands from the early 80s....but more than anything these kids sound like Chrome, and Chrome is awesome.


HIP TO DEATH "Teenage Death" from John on Vimeo.


Check them out.

the greatest songs of all time: Psycho Killer

not trying to make a joke about this weekend's tragedy in Athens at all...but this song was far too relevant to not post today.



i hope everyone in Athens is staying safe and i hope the cops catch that motherfucker sooner than later.

on a random note, when are Vampire Weekend gonna get called out for ripping off the Talking Heads? don't feed me that Afrobeat line...it's pretty obvious from the preppy clothes to the guitar lines where those kids stole their act from.

random Sonic Youth post

it's kind of amazing how Sonic Youth had completely fallen off the map by the end of the 90s and then somehow has made a roaring comeback in the later part of this decade with 2 really strong records (Sonic Nurse & Rather Ripped) and now i'm actually anticipating their new album The Eternal on June 9th. if you go to this link you can listen to an mp3 of the albums 1st single, "sacred trickster" a short punky song that reminded me of something that would have been on GOO.

"Aint no party once we crash the party"

i need a good jam to start my weekend off right. Mobb Deep's "Got It Twisted" which uses a sample of "She Blinded Me With Science" combined with the kick of an 808 to serve up one of my all time favorite hip hop songs of the last decade.

The Greatest Video Of All Time

The Replacements "Bastards Of Young" a beautiful fuck you to MTV and their record label as well as one of the best anthems of the 1980s. awesome.

The Replacements |MTV Music

Bands I Love: The Monorchid

"like if The Fall & Motorhead got together and started a punk band" was the best way i ever heard to describe the sound of The Monorchid. formed from the ashes of legendary DC punk group Circus Lupus, the Monorchid were only active for a few years and released 2 records...97's Let Them Eat...The Monorchid & 98's Who Put Out The Fire? (my favorite of the 2), both on Touch & Go. after they disbanded some of the members formed Skull Kontrol, the band recently reunited for the Touch & Go 25th anniversary show. Monorchid had a big influence on the artpunk scene of San Diego that in turn influenced just about everyone in the early 2000s...some for the worse. here's a live version of the song "The Warmers" off their album Who Put Out The Fire?

the greatest songs of all time: In The City

yesterday's anglophilia is back for a 2nd round.

one of the greatest opening lines of all time, "In the city there's a thousand things I want to say to you" plus an intro by Tony Wilson who makes a point of calling out elitist snobs. god, i fucking love The Jam.

Gimme Kiwi Rock Or Gimme Death

New Zealand, it ain't just the place where they filmed Lord Of the Rings....there's some great pop music in the Shire too. Bands like Crowed House & Split Enz came out of the 70s New Wave/Post Punk scene and had some sucess in the States and the UK and helped lay down the foundations for the 80s Kiwi Rock movement...a movement that was documented by the famous Flying Nun Records whose roster of influential bands like the Chills, The Clean, The Verlaines, Straight Jacket Fits, The Bats, & Tall Dwarfs helped give birth to the 90s/2000s Indie Pop scene that dominates underground rock today. So if you are a fan of bands like Pavement and the Shins then I highly recommend going back in time via the world of recorded music and checking out what was goin' on down in New Zealand in the 1980s. You won't be regret it.

My Top 6 New Zealand Rock Bands

The Chills "I Love My Leather Jacket"


The Clean "Anything Could Happen"


The Verlaines "Death and the Maiden"


Split Enz "Six Months On a Leaky Boat"


The Bats "North By North"


Tall Dwarfs "Nothings Gonna Happen"

noteworthy review (at least)

So I just came across this review in the latest Volcanic Tongue update. 

thought someone around here might dig the "sound"

Teepee 

Heal 

Floridas Dying #25 

7   

from tip of the tongue in update 19…  

"Buncha tracks of synth punk aggro from this one man drone/wave unit from Miami who cuts UK DIY snot with fuzz, drum machine and basement aesthetics to render a crude synth-punk take on Fall/Jesus & Mary Chain style garage. This guy is also a member of the excellent Electric Bunnies."   

hmm. i'd give it a listen.

I must digress here…

I have recently experienced a let down by the way of an impulsive buy.  

And now I converse with myself about this, not really saying anything you probably don’t already know… 

Digging the sound of words ≠ Digging the sound of the music they attempt to describe.

And yet… I am quite selective when it comes to my sources. I mean I don’t have the time lately to even get to read reviews and keep up with it all.  (and yet here I take the time to write this lengthy post)  

So when I do indulge… you know… I’d like to think I’m gettin the meat.   

So the review that got me was written about Cold Cave-  (i had seen their name a couple times before, and on the NoFunFest 2009 line up) - (I later hear that Aquarius Records is just totally won over by this band or some shit, some bias- and that bias- (heavy man) –because upon first listen, to my dismay, the shit blew.  

This kind of reaction is always intensified when following high expectations- or really any expectations at all when it comes to first listens.  But yeah… totally did not deliver.  as far as expectations go- not anywhere near the vicinity of a realm that I would have welcomed.  

The second track begins… my next impulse move follows.  Change the speed from its intended 45 to 33.  (my god.  slow that shit down.  or do something.)  To me, this interference helped (them and/or me), as a couple of songs actually became listenable, just more right (for lack of better words), his voice- much more interesting or rich and haunting.

As I sit here and write this account from memory, I’ll admit that I only listened 2 times through and it was maybe 3 or 4 weeks ago. I become aware that I might be speaking differently about the band and their record after a couple more GOs.  Most likely, I think I just wouldn’t be speaking about them at all.  

With certain gems and others- you just know they require more listens, that they are worthy, that you will be rewarded handsomely when it hits.  I don’t remember feeling this way about the record of mention.  Cant say I’ve had the urge.  And maybe it’s not a terrible record, just not my style- of late.    

But yeah, taking a chance… 

With the accessibility factor of today, is it just stupid? 

When you can easily listen before clicking ‘add to cart”, even to some pretty obscure or small edition shit—with the addition of the word zip to your browser?  with the plethora of blogs?

Huh.  

There is something exciting about taking a chance though. worth revisiting/preserving somehow... in this day.  But, then again, this day...“exciting” and "worth" ring differently in this context- delivered in the context- of this economy.

... then i decide to look up that Aquarius review of Cold Cave's 12"...

ah

maybe a second READ of the review, in the first place, would have avoided me (and you) this rambling babble.  Sorry.

Bands I Like: Titus Andronicus

i saw these dudes open for No Age @ the 40 Watt last year and was blown away by how funa and energetic their live show was. they're the kind of band that reminds me why i used to be in band. i downloaded their debut record and it is pretty rad...they sorta remind me of Bruce Springsteen & the Replacements playing indie pop.

It's Better To Burn Out...

1 of the top 5 toughest guitar riffs of all time.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse doing "Hey Hey My My (into the black)"

New Cool Band: Volts

i was on the ole' myspace this morning (a place i rarely visit anymore) and came across the band profile of this group i am digging called Volts. i don't really know what their story is, they are from San Diego and remind me of late 90s art punks The Monorchid & Skull Kontrol with some of that San Diego hardcore scene thrown in (most notably Le Shok)...for all i know this band probably features ex-members of Le Shok or some other San Diego punk band i used to listen to. it also kind of reminds me of classic LA Punk bands like the Weirdos and Zeros...so yeah i am down with this, for sure.

if you dig snotty, sloppy, arty punk rock then check out Volts.

Dinosaur Jr. 2NIGHT @ the 40 Watt!!!

bring your earplugs kids, it's gonna be a loud one.

Local Bands That Don't Suck: World War 4/Moon War 1

It should be noted that I have no love affair with the Athens music scene. What was once vibrant and interesting has largely become irrelevant and our neighbors in the ATL have long passed us by, so whenever I do find an Athens band that is worth a shit I feel it's my duty to share.

This weekend I was wandering around downtown Athens and stumbled my way down to the Caledonia and discovered a new local band that's worth checking out. They're called World War 4/Moon War 1 (which is hilarious) and their sound is purely dude rock. They reminded me of Bad Moon Rising-Era Sonic Youth and early UnWound. Discordant guitar play and heavy clunky bass and loud, hard drumming. Nothing groundbreaking, but still more interesting than 90% of the shit going on in town. Best of all they understood the opening band rule: never play for more than 30 minutes and leave me wanting to see you again. Good stuff. Check em out.

Asher Roth is THE SUCK

Asher Roth...the newest craze for douchey fratguys and girls who'll dance to anything on the radio. White boy rapper with boat shoes. His single "I love college" is like eminem rapping over weezer's "say it ain't so" and that alone is enough for me to wish him out of existence. Some idiot said that his new album (which drops of 4/20 bra) is going to revolutionize hip hop. How do you revolutionize something that is dead? So the guy is a genius for writing 1 song that will get played in every teen comedy for the next 5 years and be played at every frat party for the next 2 decades...and for that I congratulate him, but I am unwilling to endure any follow up singles or acknowledge him as anything more than some lucky douche who wrote a novelty hit. Nope, I'm sticking with my original assessment, Asher Roth is THE SUCK.

Awesome Album Titles That I Wish I'd Thought Of

i could give a fuck about his music, but the title of the new Bill Callahan (not the dude who ruined Nebraska football) record is kinda awesome: Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle...yeah dude, me too.

it's the chance of a lifetime

"Motor Away" by Guided by Voices might be the greatest indie rock song of the 1990s.

i have a new band name...

KILLED BY ESKIMOS. it was inspired by tonight's Final Jeopardy question. It was the fate that befell some of the Hudson Mutineers. Who ever heard of violent Eskimos?

It sounds both aggressive and also ridiculous...so it could be used for a punk band or an indie pop group.

Now I just need an actual new band.

The Worst Album Of The Decade: The Stooges "The Weirdness"

okay so i know there are still over 8 months left in this decade before it's officially over and done with...but i challenge any artists out there to release a more pointless, shameful, and career soiling record than 2007's The Weirdness by Iggy Pop and The Stooges. as far as reunions go, i feel like it's fine to get together and play shows if you can still deliver the goods live...but when it comes to going back into the studio and trying to recapture that old "magic"...just leave good enough alone. it's probably for the better that Ron died so that they can't do a follow up album...that is unless Iggy pulls James Williamson out of obscurity (is he even alive? i have no clue.)

here's the review i wrote for this flaming pile of shit back when it came out:


i have entitled the following review: No Fun

so i bought the new Stooges' record when it came out, against the better judgement of my brain. let’s see, where do i start? uh, yeah this is hard for me.

the Stooges were one of the first "real" punk bands i ever got into in highschool after going through my early discoveries of the roots of Nirvana and all the alternative bands i was jamming out to at 14 or 15. i think Raw Power was the first thing i ever got and immediately realized how much more awesome The Stooges were than Greenday could possibly dream of achieving. is their a song more balls out awesome than Search and Destroy? i mean "i’m a Street walking cheeta with a heart full of Napalm" how fucking awesome is that? easily the greatest first line in any song that has ever been written. how better can you say, "i am a fucking badass" than that? Iggy was instantly my hero and everything i would ever judge any frontman by for the rest of my life. i mean Iggy Pop at the 40 watt with a bunch of dickheads from guitarcenter as his backing band is one of the best shows i’ve ever seen in my life, just watching a 50 year old guy in better shape than i will ever hope to be rocking out and leaping around and doing Raw Power pretty much puts to shame every fucking lame garage band that i’d end up seeing over the next couple of years.

when i first read about The Stooges getting back together i was originally excited, i mean the chance to get to see a reunited Stooges didn’t at all scare me off like it usually does when old guys who haven’t played together in 20 plus years (scratch that, 30 plus years) wanna cash in on the past, mostly cuz Iggy was so good when i saw him and i figured Iggy with the The Stooges would be like that but crank the awesome level up to 10…and from what everyone who has seen them at festivals and reunion shows has told me, they are still fucking awesome.

when i read that they were gonna go into the studio and record a new album, their first since 1972, well then i got nervous. i mean a reunion tour is one thing but new shit…well we know how that always goes. and so here it is, The Stooges have put out The Weirdness in 2007…just that title itself sends up a warning flare. oh shit, what am i getting myself into? the all Black Album cover is yelling at me "this is a spinal tap moment dude, run for the hills. go listen to Fun House, you don’t need this shit." but then that other voice is saying, "you only buy about 8 albums a year dude, this is one of your top 5 favorite bands of all time, besides if Sonic Youth and Mission Of Burma can still put out quality albums then so can the Stooges”
" and so i lay down my cash and bring it home…load it up onto the itunes (obviously we live in the future now and i can’t be bothered with cd players) and so i sit down and begin to listen to the Weirdness….and oh god, it’s so so so so so so....dumb. the Dumbness, i’ve redubbed it. and i mean i am a guy who appreciates stupidity in rock n roll. if you ever heard my old band you’d know that. but this, this is something else. this screams of the one thing that bites anybody who is older than my dad and trying to play rock music….out of touch, not that the Stooges ever needed to be in touch, i mean rock n roll is rock n roll….but come on, "I see your hair as energy/ My dick is growing tall as a tree" WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? are you serious? and songs about ATMs…this is beyond stupid. this is so much worse. it’s fucking lame. lame lame lame. oh god, why? and Ron Asheton…what are you doing? you played freakout free jazz on Funhouse and invented punk rock with "no fun" and “i wanna be your dog” and now you’re playing the weakest punk riffs this side of Lagwagon. seriously, this isn’t the Stooges, this is fucking pointless. "my idea of fun is killing everyone" come on Iggy, even Trent Reznor wouldn't commit something that fucking childish and retarded to tape. Iggy fucking references Dr. Phil on the song "mexican guy"....NO!!!!!!!!!! godfuckingdamnitiggypop! you have just George Lucased me.

i’ve listened to the record twice through and done a couple of run through on the stand out songs trying to find something worth salvaging…something that won’t make me puke in my mouth or would sound good on a mix cd hidden inbetween "tv eye" and "tight pants" but i got nothing. this just…well it Sucks. this album sucks. fuck.

on a scale of 1 to 10 this has got to be a 3....and it only gets that for a couple of choice freakouts and some killer saxophone on a couple of songs. if you LOVE the Stooges then avoid this like AIDS. seriously, i might delete this from my itunes and shelve this record hidden somewhere where i’ll never find it just so it doesn’t infect the rest of my record collection. oh Iggy, say it ain’t so. The Stooges are dead, long live the Stooges.

The Weirdness - The Stooges

New York Dolls - Personality Crisis

Johansen/Thunders are the American Jagger/Richards. It's a crime these guys never made the big time.

Dinosaur is Coming

just a quick reminder to the Classic City, Dinosaur Jr is coming to town next week on 4/20 @ the 40 Watt, so blaze up and go get your face melted off by J. Mascis' powerful guitar solos.

at the .50 second mark the greatest guitar solo of all time kicks in. enjoy.

French Horns always make me think of METAL

Lucifer's Friend were a German prog band that had a huge influence on the English metal groups of the 1970s. This song is called " Ride In The Sky" and it fucking rules.


I've been listening to a lot of early 70s proto metal lately like Captain Beyond, Hawkwind, Sir Lord Baltimore, and Rainbow ...and of course Sabbath...it makes me wish I hadn't quit smokin' pot years ago.

French Electro Punk Mayhem

Ah, Metal Urbain...how I love your simple french punk rock tunes. This song is called "Panik" it was their 1st single back in 1977.


Metal Urbain were among the 1st punk bands to exist in France and were the 1st band ever to release anything on the famous Rough Trade label. They combined their love of the Sex Pistols with German electronic music to become the 1st electropunk band thus inspiring future generations of industrial rockers like Big Black and rock bands who would use drum machines like the Jesus & Mary Chain on Automatic. Metal Urbain released 3 singles and 1 record before breaking up in 79. You can get all their early stuff on a comp called Anarchy In Paris that was released in the US back in 2004. I recommend it for any fans of early punk/post-punk or just musically oddities.

greatest fucking songs of all time: Mississippi Queen

by far the greatest swamp boogie, hardrock, driving in your 1970 GTO with the windows down and stoned out of your mind, song ever fucking written.

Bands I Love: PANTHERS

Brooklyn, New York's Panthers fall into that category of bands that never will be huge...but are totally fucking rad and you should love them anyway. my old band toured with these cats in the UK back in the summer of '03 and got our asses handed to us almost every night. the Panthers are a post-hardcore supergroup that feature members of Orchid, Red Scare, and Turing Machine. their sound would be described as Nation Of Ulysses + 70s Spacerock (mostly Hawkwind & Captain Beyond) with a healthy dose of Jesus Lizard thrown in for good measure = your favorite dude rock band of this decade. they've got 4 releases under their belt, but the 1st album is kind of shitty. the best starting point for them for any new fan would be their 2003 EP Let's Get Serious...which features a 5 song sampling of some of their best work.

Let's Get Serious - Panthers

my first Metal band

The River Bottom Nightmare Band, motherfucker!!!

Two Cool Rock Chicks Listening to Neu!

...that was the title of a Ciccone Youth song, which I had no clue what it meant back in 1995 when I bought the Whitey Album. It wasn't until I read this book called the Secret History of Rock N Roll that I discovered the wonders of German rockers Neu!

formed after a split with Kraftwerk, Neu! are the namedropping hipster's favorite krautrockers. they influenced Johnny Rotten, Joy Division, the Sheffield electronic scene, Eno & Bowie, Negativeland, Tubeway Army, Sonic Youth, Radiohead...and probably Falco too. this is brief live footage of Neu! playing their song "Hero" off Neu!75...this song was highly influential on the British punk scene.

Cries and Whispers

New Order have the rare distinction of releasing more "greatest hits" compilations during their career than actual albums...and mostly it's because they are a band who works best in singles than in records. very few of their albums could actually be called classic, other than Power, Corruption, & Lies i don't even know if any really qualify. but as far as flawed yet great albums go, Movement is be far my favorite New Order record. recorded after the death of Ian Curtis, it's the sound of a band that is still very much Joy Division and not really sure where to go next with their sound. opener "Dreams Never End" sounds like a b-side to "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and the cut "Doubts Even Here" sound like a lost track off of Closer. Rhino records rereleased the album last year with 10 bonus tracks. collecting all of the singles & B-sides the band recorded during their first year together, including the final two songs that Joy Division wrote ("Ceremony" & "In A Lonely Place"). it's a great document of the post-punk era and with some of the singles we get a first hint (especially "Everything's Gone Green" & "Temptation") of the greatness that is to come.

Movement [Collector's Edition]...

and staying the New Order zone...here's a video for the song "Crystal" off 2001's highly underrated Get Ready aka the video that The Killers took their band name from.

New Order - Crystal from sinner on Vimeo.

a little INXS to start the day off right

i've been listening to the Adventureland soundtrack on Lala.com obsessively the past few days. i never knew that "Don't Change" by INXS was such a rad fucking song.

The Best Song Ever About Robots Rocking

Kraftwerk can eat their heart out...Daft Punk own the robot-verse.

i wonder if this is what Cylons listen to?

the greatest songs of all time: Pale Blue Eyes

in honor of me falling in love with the movie Adventureland this weekend, i open today off with my favorite sad song of all time, "Pale Blue Eyes" by The Velvet Underground that is used perfectly in this film.


when i was in highschool i used to have this mixtape called Soundtrack To An Imaginary Film that was a 90 minute tape that included all of these songs i loved that i wanted to use for a soundtrack of a coming-of-age movie...this is back when i had hopes and dreams of becoming a writer/director. it was full of sad bastard cuts like "Pale Blue Eyes", "Unsatisfied" by the Replacements, "Just Like Honey" by the J&MC, "The Love You Save May Be Your Own" by Joe Tex, etc... at the time, none of those songs had been used in anything...and at this point nearly 15 years later i think almost all of them have been in a movie by now.

Things That Should Not Exist: Dinosaur Jr. Nikes

actually, i should probably file that under things that are so weird that they are awesome.

Hot Rock Chick: Niagara

Niagara of Destroy All Monsters thinks you should listen to more good music...like her band.

Bored - Destroy All Monsters

I Heart The Swell Maps

2 great late 70s punk cuts from the Swell Maps. along with the Television Personalities, they created the template for low-fi indie rock back in the late 70s that birthed bands like Guided By Voices and Pavement.
"let's build a car"

"midget submarines"


easily one of my favorite unheralded bands of the British punk movement. A Trip To Marineville is the bands best loved record, but i actually recommend the early singles/bsides/and rarities comp International Rescue, because it's got some better songs.

International Rescue - Swell M...

the greatest songs of all time: Waterloo Sunset

of all the great Kinks songs ever written, this one is my favorite.

Another Reminder About This Friday

The Zeros Live 77

one of my favorite 70s punk bands, The Zeros (who got nicknamed the Mexican Ramones). this is live footage from some San Diego TV show in 1977. awesome.


their debut is a classic, if you don't own it then you should probably do something to change that.

Don't Push Me Around - Zeros

Some Truly Amazing/Shitty Album Covers For You On April Fools Day

Rick James is holding down that top spot for worst fucking album cover ever, hell the back cover might be even worse.


you knew that Kenny Loggins was really Jesus, right?

gay/classy/really gay



my Southern roots are showing here.


trying to pick my favorite Manowar album is a lot like trying to pick the best Beatles song...it can't be done. so instead i will share 3 of their gifts to the world of album cover art.

How Did I Live My Entire Life Without Ever Knowing About Aldo Nova?

last night i was watching VH1s 100 Greatest 1 Hit Wonders Of the 80s and somewhere in the 80s they dropped "Fantasy" by Aldo Nova on my ass. HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!! this video is amazing. i instantly recognized that this song is the theme song for Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory show and to this point i thought it was some joke song that was written just for the show. to say that this video is fucking amazing would be doing the words fucking and amazing an injustice. not only does this video take 1 minute and 25 seconds to kick in, but it features a helicopter, a guitar that shoots lazers out of it, and the most wicked ass guitar solo ever. enjoy the shit out of this.

the greatest songs of all time: Some Velvet Morning

one of the truly bizarre pop songs of all time. covered by Nick Cave, Slowdive, and Primal Scream...but nothing touches Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra's original. "Some Velvet Morning".