Tuesday Space Rock Freakout

the Hawkwind classic, "Silver Machine".

and now there's me...

Hey Internets!

My good friend / one-time-nemesis / good-friend-once-again Justin asked me to be a contributor to this here blog and I am happy to accept. Who knows how often I will be contributing as I am involved in about a million different projects, but I will do my best to bring offerings of garage/psyche/weirdo/magic as often as possible.

In case you are interested you can find out more about my various projects by clicking these links:

Kindercore
The Buddy System
Grape Soda
The Action 5

There's more coming but those things don't have websites yet so I'll wait to spill the beans on those. Follow me on Twitter HERE

And now I leave you with one of my all time favorite songs by the great short lived garage/punk pioneers The Monks!!

Local Bands That Don't Suck: The Buddy System

here's a video from my friends The Buddy System (the drummer and guitar player used to be in my old band). the song is called "Horse Mountain". if you are easily upset by human on evil horse violence then this is probably not for you....if not then enjoy.

Horse Mountain from Lauren Gregg on Vimeo.

you can check out more of their animation and music over at Buddysystem TV.

Jangle Pop Will Never Die

i found this really awesome compilation of mid 80s British Indie Music but i don't wanna pay the ridiculous import prices. Rhino records needs to get off their ass and release this in the US.


tracklisting.

Disc: 1
1. Velocity Girl - Primal Scream
2. Sun A Small Star - Servants
3. Around And Around - Hurrah
4. Why Does The Rain - Loft
5. Vibrato - East Village
6. Pristine Christine - Sea Urchins
7. What Went Wrong This Time - Siddeleys
8. Anorak City - Another Sunny Day
9. Get Out Of My Dream - Clouds
10. Golden Shower - Boy Hairdressers
11. Ask Johnny Dee - Chesterfields
12. He Blows In - Raw Herbs
13. Paul McCartney - Laugh
14. You Didn't Love Me Then - Hit Parade
15. Like Frankie Lymon - Weather Prophets
16. Sunday To Saturday - June Brides
17. I Had An Excellent Dream - Dentists
18. Everybodys Knows The Monkey - Mighty Mighty
19. E102 - BMX Bandits
20. Tallulah Gosh - Tallulah Gosh
21. Cut Me Deep - Jasmine Minks
22. I'll Still Be There - Razorcuts
23. Therese - Bodines
24. Paradise Estate - Television Personalities

Disc: 2
1. Upside Down - Jesus & Mary Chain
2. Really Stupid - Primitives
3. It Always Rains On Sunday - Groove Farm
4. Black Country Chainsaw Massacre - Pop Will Eat Itself
5. Come Get Me - 14 Iced Bears
6. Sign On The Line - Fizzbombs
7. Anti Midas Touch - Wolfhounds
8. This Boy Can Wait - Wedding Present
9. Bible Of The Beats - Age Of Chance
10. Safety Net - Shop Assistants
11. Just Too Bloody Stupid - Close Lobsters
12. Dukla Prague Away Kit - Half Man Half Biscuit
13. Don't Slip Up - Meat Whiplash
14. I Could Be In Heaven - Flatmates
15. If I Said - Darling Buds
16. Poised Over The Pause Button - This Poison
17. Jack And Julian - Bachelor Pad
18. On Tape - Pooh Sticks
19. Flowers Are In The Sky - Revolving Paint Dream
20. Whole Wide World - Soup Dragons
21. Frans Hals - McCarthy
22. Like An Angel - Mighty Lemon Drops
23. Why Popstars Can't Dance - Big Flame
24. Baby Honey - The Pastels

What John Peel Is Listening To In Heaven

according to the late John Peel this is the greatest song ever written. i agree. The Undertones doing "Teenage Kicks" on Top of the Pops.

Name Droppers Of The World Unite & Takeover

being into music isn't just an interest…it's a fucking full time job for some folks.

Music Snobbery is something that most people of a certain demographic will take part in from their late teens well into their early 30s. for most music snobs it was likely that during college they would spend some time working for the local college radio station or at a record store honing their craft...or maybe even starting a band to help out in the endless cycle of trying to be cool and get laid....or if they were really lucky and had some rich parents or a trust fund they might even put out a record or two on their own label..this is the Mortal Kombat finishing move of Music Snobbery. this is essentially what happens to people who didn't like sports or weren't good enough to make their highschool baseball team. and this goes on and on until they stop caring as much about music because they either:

a)have a kid and have less time to devote to finding out about cool music or

b) get burnt out on trying to one up their friends and retire from music snobbery content with the knowledge that they have excellent taste and can no longer learn anything of true value.

back in the olden days before the Internets it was a very difficult thing to be a music snob, you had to read magazine articles and books about underground rock n roll to hear about new bands or "important" older bands and then you had to devote lots of time and money into traveling to out of the way independent record stores or ordering things through the mail without ever hearing it first. this made for some interesting discoveries (the raincoats, the wipers, the vaselines...aka anything kurt cobain listed as a major influence) or it could result in some really crappy cds that you couldn't sell at the used cd shop (free kitten, gumball!). and back in these happy times it really meant something to be able to namedrop some bands on other music snobs to let them know you were in the know and not a total poseur.

then something terrible happened: THE INTERNET. and everything went to shit and it was as easy as clicking on your mouse and downloading a song by some obscure band from Scotland that only had 2 eps and you could suddenly claim you'd heard them way before anyone else or whatever. the effort was now totally gone. but even though it has become much much easier to know about cool music, it's still important to be into the right cool music…especially if you are a person younger than 23 who is talking about music to a person older than 29. there are certain bands that you must be aware of if you are to ever shed the label of young poseur. post punk as a genre is really a cottage industry for a good name dropper to verse themselves in. liking the Cure and The Smiths don't count.

the top 25 bands to name drop if you are worried people think you are a poseur


1. Sonic Youth (although very popular at one time, you must always list them as one of your favorite bands)
2. The Nation Of Ulysses
3. Nick Cave (Bad Seeds/Birthday Party)
4. Gang Of Four (it's important to understand that all dance punk bands are gang of four clones)
5. The Jesus And Mary Chain (it's important to call bands out for ripping off the JMC)
6. Modern Lovers
7. ESG (also good to play their songs at dance parties to impress certain people)
8. Pere Ubu/Rocket From The Tombs
9. Mission Of Burma
10. The Fall/Wire (UK punk bands that stayed around forever and everyone likes to list as an influence)
11. Joy Division/New Order/followed by as many obscure Factory Records bands as possible (A Certain Ratio's always good)
12. The Clean/The Bats/The Verlaines (any indie band from new zealand as this is the birth of indie pop and that's what the Shins are)
13. Can/Faust/random German Krautrock
14. James Chance/No Wave as a genre in general
15. Hawkwind/early 70s proto-metal, space rock, obscure prog, etc...
16. This Heat/The Pop Group/unlistenable Freak Funk
17. The Gun Club/X/The Zeroes (other early LA punk bands as they are less popular than New York and London bands)
18. Suicide/New York Dolls/Television (70s new york city punk that isn't the Ramones or Blondie)
19. Swell Maps (important to note they influenced Pavement)
20. Captain Beefheart (although i don't know anyone who actually listens to them who isn't 40)
21. Pylon (unless you live in Athens...then it's not big deal)
22. The Sonics/the Monks (garage punk pioneers)
23. Neu!
24. Drive Like Jehu/Jesus Lizard/Big Black (thinking man's dude rock)
25. The Wipers/Raincoats/Vaselines (aka the Kurt Cobain obsessions)

Pulp - Babies

Virtually unknown in the U.S., but huge in Britain, Pulp were one of the defining bands of the Britpop scene. Led by frontman Jarvis Cocker, pretty much all of their songs were about sex. This track off the album His N' Hers is my personal favorite and tells the time honored story of spying on your girlfriend's sister boning some dude, only to be discovered and relunctantly forced to have to knock boots with her. Also: it has a catchy riff and you can dance to it; so enjoy.

Art Punks Attack

our band of the day is The Pop Group. a post-punk band formed in Bristol, England who fused their love of funk, punk, dub, and free jazz into something unlike anyone else ever before. Nick Cave proclaimed them to be his favorite band of all time. they released 1 incredible album, Y as well as another album i've never actually heard called How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? and one classic single "We Are All Prostitutes" for Rough Trade. they predate the No Wave scene but it would seem obvious that they had a major influence on James Chance. their sound could best be described as a combination of This Heat & The Birthday Party with Lee "Scratch" Perry producing it...so yeah, pretty fucking arty shit. if you're a fan of The Slits, James Chance & The Contortions, A Certain Ratio, Public Image Ltd., or the Liars then the Pop Group is for you.

if you can find Y, i highly recommend it. one of my truly favorite bizarre albums.


here's a video for the band's best track "She's Beyond Good & Evil" off the album Y. worst lip syncing EVER!!!

Next Friday

AH shit!!!! Athens, Georgia better look out....We Doin' It Again!!!

next Friday...April 3rd, yours truly and DJ Kenniebloggins, will be DJing @ the Caledonia Lounge during, inbetween, and after the bands (NMG/EXCALIBRAH/CASSAVETES). cuz it's CRUNK & DISORDERLY PART 2: Electric Boogaloo. another night of 70s & 80s punk rock mixed with a healthy dose of Southern Hip Hop and 90s Gangsta Rap. if you always felt like Lil' Scrappy and The Geto Boyz were more fun to listen to along with the Misfits and Black Flag then this is your sort of thing.

Springsteen does Suicide

file this one under strange covers you'd never imagine hearing:

Bruce Springsteen doing the Suicide classic "Dream Baby Dream"


it's actually not really that strange as the Boss has long shared his love of the proto-punk/electronic pioneers. apparently Springsteen was really into the No Wave scene when he was first starting out and he's even stated that Nebraska was heavily influenced by the first Suicide record.

that time Courtney Love yelled at me

many moons ago my old band was on tour and playing a show in LA. the show was mostly a disaster, as we were opening for Lou Barlow and were forced to play way early in the night before the show really even was supposed to start (i mean seriously this was in 2002. Who the Fuck Gave A Shit About Lou Fucking Barlow anymore?!) and nobody really saw us other than this lawyer dude who tried to be our manager and all in all it was one of those waste of time shows that makes you wish you had the night off. anyways we were about to start a short leg of our tour with Har Mar Superstar & The Gossip...two groups we were excited and happy to be opening for. anyways after the Lou Barlow suckfest we headed for Hollywood to meet up with Har Mar who was having a CD release party at the Roxy. the party was fairly surreal for me as it included Fred Durst and that dude from Puddle Of Mudd who thinks he's Kurt Cobain, a passed out 17 year old Jack Osbourne, and Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. we stayed at the party for a while, got drunk, talked about our upcoming tour with Har Mar, laughed at Fred Durst getting kicked out of the party for being a dick, and then eventually decided to head out and make our way to San Diego which was where our tour was about to start.

anyways as we were leaving the party we discovered that our van was being blocked in by another van with a big EPIC records logo emblazoned along the side. someone jokingly made a comment that someone famous was probably inside...to which a moment later an obviously intoxicated Courtney Love came bursting out of the Van clutching an equally drunk Kelly Osbourne. i yelled, "Holy Shit!" and our guitar player, Ryan, pulled out his camera and took a quick snap shot of the famous drunkards. this caused the intoxicated Courtney to turn in our direction and begin shouting at us. frozen in terror we stood still as the henious woman beast spewed forth a couple of insults our way before suddenly asking us is we were a band. we acknowledged that we in fact were. she then mockingly asked if we were one of those "THE Bands" (aka The Strokes, The Hives, The Vines, The Every New Band In The Year 2002), to which we shamefully acknowledged that we in fact were. she then made comments about us having nice "heroin mullets" (no such mullets were in existence...hell i was the only one with long hair) and then asked where we were from. when we told her that we were from Athens, Georgia her tone completely changed and she became strangely nice and interested in us. she spent five minutes explaining to us that she loved Athens, was friends with Michael Stipe (a fact we were already aware of) and then began making reference to the fact that she was hanging out with Kelly Osbourne and calling her "Sweet Leaf genes". then she asked us for a demo tape (which we didn't have), told us not to let Michael Stipe produce our record, and then stumbled off into the night on her way to the party we had just left, leaving us with an amusing story to tell our friends and a picture to help us cherish the bizarre encounter.

here is said photo...notice the perfect Sunset Blvd sign in the background that helped fully sum up the surrealness(is that even a word?) of this event for me (we made copies of it at Wal Mart and chose the American Heroes border because we felt it was a fitting tribute to the woman who drove Kurt Cobain to kill himself). sorry for the shitty quality...i had to take a photo of the photo with my camera phone because my scanner is broken.

Adventureland has a pretty rad soundtrack

So the Adventureland soundtrack plays like a mix cd i would have made for my girlfriend in highschool. i mean The Replacements, Husker Du, The Velvet Underground, and Big Star? that's pretty killer. i kinda wanted to see this movie before, but now after seeing this tracklist i am totally sold.

Adventureland - Various Artist...