I'll go back/if you ask me

Songs in my head:
"Little Thoughts" by Bloc Party
"Like Eating Glass" by Bloc Party

This past weekend saw some of the Deep Ellum Arts Festival, the Incredibles and four hours of kickball. Friday, we saw most of Radiant*s set and thought they were pretty good. Like a more accessible version of Interpol, there is a lot of dreamy guitar pop in their sound. Saturday, instead of trying to wade my way through all the people going to see this movie, I stayed in and watched this movie. Another fantastic addition to the pantheon of smart and funny movies dressed up as kids' movies, the Incredibles gets my approval. Hearing Chasing Amy's Jason Lee in the role of a villain was great to hear again (he was so good as a baddy in Dogma). Sunday, FOUR HOURS of kickball meant some sunburn over the few spots I didn't cover with sunblock. However, a funky suntan means way less to me than the all the fun I had in the warm and windy weather. It was so windy that our rubber bases kept flying around the field. Twas very interesting trying to run to a base that blew away as you ran towards it.

Over on the Sound Opinions' message board, there is a thread about Greg Kot's story on Pitchfork and MP3 blogs. One blurb that sounded fishy: "Josh Rosenfeld, co-owner of Seattle-based Barsuk Records, says one Texas record store initially refused to stock one of his releases, Travis Morrison's 2004 release "Travistan," because it received a 0.0 review from Pitchfork." Makes me wonder if this one Texas store is in Dallas . . .

Nick Mason of Pink Floyd talks to Rolling Stone about his book and other PF-related things.

Chrome Waves made mention of this blurb about what might be on the Sin City DVD. Sounds very cool. Now if I can only find the time to see this movie in a movie theater, in the evening, in a good cinema with no knuckleheads behind me. I may have to wait a few weeks for that . . .

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It's a Long Way Down

There was a time when I listened to Ryan Adams' music practically all the time. Back in 2001, as I finished college and tried to navigate post-college life, the double dose of Whiskeytown’s Pneumonia and Adams’ Gold led me to everything else he had made before. It was countrified rock music that spoke to me in a deep way, mainly on the musical front. I don’t tend to really pay attention to lyrics, but I connected with Adams’ lyrics about being young and perpetually heartbroken. I thought some self-inflicted mental pain about awkward and failed attempts at relationships put me in the headspace to relate to songs by Adams, as well as Bright Eyes. There was so much time and energy spent on anger and sadness directed at myself for things not working out, so I found solace in songs like “Harder Now That It’s Over” and “The Rescue Blues.” As it turned out, there was a pattern in my life: if I had a little taste of a feeling of sadness or anger, I could relate to those who had it

I ain't got no crystal ball

I've never been a big fan of Sublime's reggae-punk-ska, but I feel bad for their hardcore fans. Billboard reports that a four-disc box set featuring previously released and unreleased material is on the way. How is this a bad thing? Well, the number of posthumous vault-raiding collections greatly outnumber the band's proper releases. That usually isn't a problem, but the quality of them is very suspect. When they were together, the band recorded three proper albums, Robbin' the Hood , 40 Oz. to Freedom and Sublime . Sublime would be the band's breakthrough record with the mainstream, but that success was very bittersweet. Shortly before its release, frontman/guitarist/songwriter Bradley Nowell died of a heroin overdose. In the following years, the effects of apparently a bad record deal have yielded compilation after compilation. Here's the rundown so far: Second Hand Smoke (1997) Stand By Your Van -- Sublime Live in Concert (1998) Sublime Acoustic: Br

Best of 2021

Last year, my attention span was not wide enough to listen to a lot of LPs from start to finish. Too much went on in 2020 to focus on 10-15 albums, so I went with only a couple to spotlight. Well, 2021 was a little better, as I have a list of top four records, and a lot of individual tracks. (I made a lengthy Spotify playlist ) So, without further ado, here’s my list of favorites of the year: Albums Deafheaven, Infinite Granite (listen) Hands down, my favorite album of the year. I was not sure where Deafheaven would go after another record that brought My Bloody Valentine and death metal fans together, but they beautifully rebooted their sound on Infinite Granite. The divisive goblin vocals are vastly pared-down here, as are the blast beats. Sounding more inspired by Slowdive, the band has discovered a new sonic palette that I hope they explore more of in the future. It’s a welcome revelation. I still love their older material, but this has renewed my love of what these guys do. J

Theme Park Experience

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