the REAL matt wright

2005-03-12T19:39:00.000-08:00

Last night my first band ever had our first show ever. We're called Clap Amp and I'm not sure what we sound like. I told my mom I play "weird noises" on the synthesizer, so she can call it "dancey weird noises music" (also, she doesn't think I can actually play keyboards and suggested I switch to tambourine ; emasculating). People who saw us tell me we sound like "Nice Nice but dancier" or "um, experimental but fun" or my personal favorite "halfway between something I wouldn't like and something I would like, and I liked it". These were all my friends, so of course they're going to be complimentary, but it was still cool to see their reactions, especially since they were the first I've ever heard from anyone, ever. Steve thinks we rule, and that's huge (unlike Steve who is really quite slight).

I myself had a fucking awesome time and freeked the fuck out. My girlfriend says I was making faces she's never seen me make before. I caught flack for wearing shorts and flip-flops and dancing around like a hippy, but fuck that noise. It felt so amazingly good to bang my fists down on the keyboard and yell in time with each hammer drop while Ryan worked out the 1-2 slam beat and Pat got nutz with the feedback pedal. I predict many more house shows this summer. Stoked!!!!!!!!!

2005-03-04T13:34:00.000-08:00

I know I've kind of left you all hanging out there wondering DID HE GET HIS FREE IPOD? PLEASE TELL ME! and I'm happy to report that... I haven't. YET.

BACKSTORY: A couple months ago I finally coerced my girlfriend and boyfriend into signing their lives away for my entertainment, which brought my grand total referrals up to the holy FIVE.

The next step after this is the "verification" process wherein the Gratis Network bigwigs dig down and try to figure out whether or not each of my referrals are actually unique, if their personal info has been sufficiently coopted, etc. These bigwigs came to the conclusion that Kristen was not a real person due to her having signed up using my computer. I filed a complaint and they, amazingly, gave her full credit. An order was placed = iPod gland secreting crystal-pure excitement and anticipation. Gross.

Fast forward a month or so and I finally receive a little package labeled FreeiPods.com. I open it lightning quick, anticipating the hours of pure geek bliss to follow. And it's a t-shirt. This one:

fig 18: my american dream

There's also a piece of paper explaining how they're sending this t-shirt so I can show everyone how I stoked I am to have my free iPod, implying I should have it by now which, again, I don't.

A strained but polite e-conversation takes place between me and Gratis customer service (nice guys actually) wherein they finally reveal who they ship through (DHL) and I finally track my order. Turns out the did send it out but for some reason it was returned to sender. Which seems to mean that my free iPod is currently gathering dust somewhere inside Gratis world headquarters. I filed a Custom Service Inquiry at the site

3/4/2005 4:21:18 PM
klunko@yahoo.com wrote:

I just tracked my order at DHL and it says my order was returned to the shipper. I'm not sure why this happened, as there were no delivery attempts to my knowledge. Can you please check to see if my order came back to you and send it again?

Like I said, they're usually pretty quick to get back. But they haven't yet. Stay tooned.

2005-02-16T02:09:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to get really excited about the Blitzen Trapper CD release show, taking place this Friday at good old Berbati's Pan. I booked the whole thing myself, which I don't usally do. I'm very stoked about how the lineup came together - varying degrees of "artsy" and "poppy" overlapping in nice ways. These are three of my favorite bands in town on one bill and it feels good to be a part of that. Check out the long-winded press release I wrote for it here.*

Here's my first ever MP3-bloggy link:

BLITZEN TRAPPER - SUMMER TWIN

Here's the awesome poster, designed by the B.Trap:

fig 17: cum, join us.

Do get there early so you can catch the Graves, who never play out and are very talented in a low-key way. Just listened to their first album again this weekend, and yeah it's still very nice. The Kingdom are great too, and I'm not the only who thinks so - they just got signed to the only biggish label in town.

Steve and I (CUM LAZER) will be in full effect too, dropping poorly mixed heat between bands and afterwards. I'm hoping to instigate full-on dance party action before the night is out, which would would be a first for me in those vaunted Greek halls.

Sort of funny story: the wonderful lady who books Berbati's, Chantelle Hylton, took the liberty of putting us on the venue calendar as "special guest superstar deejay duo CUM LAZER!!". I thought that was cute. I also mentioned us in the press release for the show as CUM LAZER DJs - so as not to imply bandness. The end result? The "superstar" bit made it into all the calendar ads in the papers, and the Mercury listed us as CUM LAZER DJS (which sounds like the lazer coming back from the future to save the present). Thus my attempts to avoid confusion only create more weird ambiguity, which makes perfect sense. CUM LAZER: it's all in yr mind. TRIPPY!

Also, ramen actually smells really good after all the water in the pot has evaporated due to compulsive blogging whilst boiling noodles, some of which are now cemented to the bottom of said pot in an appealing brain-like pattern. They smell like mac 'n' cheese when you leave it in the stove longer than you're supposed to, which I do, because Grandma always made them that way. In short: I *heart* burnt noodles. Not sure about the band though (figure 18).

fig 18: burnt ramen (butchered hens rule)

*(I don't think I've mentioned this yet on the ol' blog, but I do music-related publicity for my (meager) living, and one of the things I'm doing right now is promoting this album. I booked this show and sent out a press release, hoping that local music scribes might take the occasion to get PUMPED on the Trapper and inform the public, thereby causing all of Portland to realize the pop genius lurking in our midst. The cynical/smart among you will be reading $$$ into my enthusiasm, but trust me: I feel this band, LOTS. They are indeed wonderful and they deserve to be heard. This is my mission.)

2005-02-14T01:11:00.000-08:00

Very soon now TRMW will be moving over to Urban Honking (here), and I'm really really excited about it. UrHo, as they call it, is a local Portland blog community of sorts, which also includes a show calendar and message board. It's a very special thing, with lots of great creative stuff going on. There's talk of Team Tinnitus moving over there too eventually. My music will stay here on Metem, where it belongs, but this rambling all-about-me stuff will be gone. Stay tuned!

Just got around to reading this (it's been shortcutted on my desktop for weeks) and quite enjoyed it. That last sentence is me to a T - it's almost creepy. Probably the only blog that's really managed the YobNik stance would be this one, which sets it apart from pretty much every other music blog out there.

Stuff like this is why I like blogs (well, one of them); serious thought about music and how it relates to society, totally divorced from release dates and totally, wonderfully pretentious.

fig 16: beatnik, guitar, she-beatnik

2005-02-09T11:27:00.000-08:00

Woke up today, got in the car, and a billion tiny metallic noises took off. That was the CD player firing up where it left off last night, in the middle of the third track off the new Mahjongg album. All that banging and scraping was too much for the morning, but it was over soon, and the next track was JUST what I needed.

It's called "The Stubborn Horse" and it's wonderful. It starts like it should, with a horse neighing sample (for more equestrian sampling fun see: the Ponys), and kicks right into this dead simple and perfect little stones riff (really just one bent guitar string) accompanied by sighing synth pads, a bouncy beat, and a faux-Bowie singing something about how if you don't do this or that "this horse won't go".

That song had me smiling as I turned left onto Albina en route to the best coffee shop in the world (along with the other one). Amazingly, the next track was almost better. It's called "Thegg" and it 's got this stomping motorik beat with layers on layers of propellant guitar riffs with dubby feedback skree going off in the background. I parked the car and sat there like a dork waiting for the song to end. Some hip girls walked by and I triend to look busy with the cellphone, as opposed to just weird. The pay-off was a section of long 'n' fuzzy one-note riffage, closing out with some Make Up-syle boogieloo. It was worth it.

The opening phrase "nigger is the woman of the world" (thank you, John Lennon) is confrontational and seems to imply more "meaning" than the rest of the mumbled jumble-talk on this track. I'd call that phrase the only thing marring an otherwise perfectly blank jam out. I'm all for feminism in music, but back it up like John-o did if you're going to throw those words out there, because they're loaded. Maybe I should just listen to the lyrics harder but that doesn't seem like the point here.

All in all tho, two great incoherent art-rock messes. Everything else I've heard off the album has fallen flat in comparison; the next song starts out with the lyrics "Get high / Get stupid / Get AIDS" and that's just... stupid.

2005-01-29T17:39:00.000-08:00

Wherein I finally post something resembling my favorite records of 2004. I have a reputation for showing up ten minutes late for everything, so I suppose it only makes sense that I should be about a month late to the end of the year. But fuck it. As a music obsessive, I feel compelled to compile these annual best-of lists, even if I do feel a little conflicted about the whole thing, for many of these reasons. I've been waffling on whether or not to do it this year, but, after reading and enjoying other people's lists (click click click click click click click + magazines + emails), it only seems right that I should "give back", or something.

That decided, I started my list, and quickly found myself in the odd position of having only three two solid favorites for 2004. Which seems really weird to me. I heard shitloads of music last year; how can it be that so little of it left any real impression on me? I'm thinking maybe it has something do with listening to too much music (by the time I finally get around to downloading/buying that album I needed to hear there's five more in the queue, repeat), and something to do with spending a lot of time searching out old records. So what then, a top 2? Seems kind of anticlimactic.

Also, I have a hard time assigning rankings to music I like, and I'm lazy, and I like to avoid things I have a hard time with.

All of this leads to the semi-compartmentalized, not-really- hierarchical un-list you see below. I feel this format allows me to more accurately reflect the stuff I heard and how I felt about it, and prevents me from tossing in a bunch of stuff I wish I heard and half-like into something like the traditional 10.

In the end, the point of all this is really just to turn you the reader on to some good music I think deserves attention. This is what many of the lists I've read these past couple weeks have done for me; I hope this one does the same for you.

The Big Two:
Brooks Red Tape (Soundslike)
The Ponys Laced With Romance (In The Red)

Wish I'd listened to More:
Joanna Newsom The Milk-Eyed Mender (Drag City)
Kanye West College Dropout (Roc-a-Fela)
Animal Collective Sung Tongs (Paw Tracks)
Green Day American Idiot (Reprise)
Youssou N'Dour Egypt (Nonesuch)
Viva Voce The Heat Can Melt Your Brain (Minty Fresh)

Honorable Mention:
Cut/Copy Life Like Neon (Modular People)
Juicy Panic Otarie (InPolySons)
cry.on.my.console Rum Loving Bass Pirate
Soundhog As Heard on Radio Soundhog Volumes 4 & 5
boom selection
20 Jazz Funk Greats

Portland, Oregon (recorded, albums):
Strategy Drumsolo's Delight (Kranky)
Blitzen Trapper Field Rexx (Self Released)
Viva Voce The Heat Can Melt Your Brain (Minty Fresh)
Adelaide Adelaide EP (Self Released)

Portland, Oregon (recorded, songs):
YACHT "I Love a Computer"
YACHT "SHTML"
Blitzen Trapper "Pink Padded Slippers"
Dykeritz "The Fountain of Youth vs. Everlasting Life in Heaven"
Alan Singley "Seem To Have Forgotten" (anyone know the real name of this song?)

Portland, Oregon (live):
PDX POP NOW!
Nice NiceAlarmist CD Release Party (The Fritz)
The Snuggle Ups PORCH P*L*U*R 2004 (The Orange Room)
Wet Confetti PDX POP NOW! (The Meow Meow [R.I.P.])
Portland General Electro KPSU Fundraiser(Some Dude's House)Menomena, The Joggers, talkdemonic (Lola's Room)
Mirah PDX POP NOW! (The Meow Meow)
The Hunches The Triggers' Second-to-Last Show(Jasmine Tree)
The Triggers, Electric Eye The Triggers' Last Show (Berbati's)
Clorox Girls Easter BBQ Party (PRA House)
Easter Beer Hunt (Laurelhurst Park)

Wet Confetti, Knock It Closer, CUM LAZER Big-Ass Halloween Party (Katie's House)

Seattle, Washington (live):
The Girls Secret Bumbershoot Show (The Funhouse)

Killer Singles:
M.I.A. "Galang" (XL)
Air "Run" (Astralwerks)
The Thermals "How We Know" (Sub Pop)
Junior Boys "Belona" (KIN)
CASH "My My My" (BlackGround / Universal)
Mario "Let Me Love You" (3rd Street/J
Snoop Dogg "Drop It Like It's Hot" (StarTrax)
Jammin95.5

Killer Single + Best Video Ever:
Ludacris "Get Back" (Def Jam South)

Old Stuff I Found and Loved in 2004:
Swell Maps A Trip to Marineville (Secretly Canadian)
Swell Maps Jane in Occupied Europe (Secretly Canadian)
Caetano Veloso Caetano Veloso [1968] (Philips)
King Sunny Ade Juju Music (Mango)
Au Pairs Playing With a Different Sex (RPM)
Alice Coltrane Huntington Ashram Monastery (Impulse!)
Brian Eno Discreet Music (Editions EG)
The Monks Black Monk Time (Repertoire)
Plaid Booc EP (Warp)
The Seeds "I Can't Seem to Make You Mine"
13th Floor Elevators "You're Gonna Miss Me"

CUM LAZER's Fave Mid-to-Early Nineties Party Classix:
Skee-Lo "I Wish"
Montell Jordan "This Is How We Do It"
Freak Nasty "Da Dip"
Tag Team "Woomp! There It Is"
Salt n Pepa "Push It" (ok, late 80s)
Naughty By Nature "Hip Hop Hooray" / "OPP"

Steve Winwood Song That Nobody Realizes Is As Funky As It Is:
Steve Winwood "Higher Love"

NO, really. At the tail end of 2004 I performed kareoke to this song, as it is one of the few songs I know all the words too. My mom had a tape of it growing up, and I distinctly remember being left in the car, playing this song on repeat, memorizing the words, and singing my pre-adolescent heart out to it over and over again. I hadn't heard it for quite a while, but when the backing music came up it all came rushing back. And I remembered: this song has the wickedest pseudo-Afro synthetic percussion / fake-ass orchestral synth combo going on, like, ever! People don't realize this. I told my girlfriend as much, and now the phrase "nobody realizes how funky that song is" will live on forever as the supreme indicator of my complete and total music geekiness.

Here's to a geeky 2005!

2005-01-19T01:09:00.000-08:00

Just realized I'm mentioned by (fake) name over at Beats in Space, the radio show hosted by DFA-affiliate and all-around mega-hipster Tim Sweeney. No really, the twelfth link down here points to Metempsychosis and mentions my old production alias, Comma. So I'm cool now, guys, right? GUYS?!?!

I'll chalk this up to Richard Caraballo aka minusbaby, long time member of the Metempsychosis Krew and super-talented designer/photographer. Rich designed a past version of the Beats in Space site, maybe even the current one, I don't know. You can see the genius oozing out of Rich's brain here, in a good way.

fig 16: trmw (left) and mark rocking the human league

In other news, Justin Wescoat Sanders and Douglas Wolk have joined the PDX concert blogging action over at Team Tinnitus. This means we can now be two places at once, and still make it out for karaoke the next day (see fig 16). Watch out, Portland, the eyes of Tinnitus are upon you!

2005-01-12T14:28:00.000-08:00

Checking Pitchfork today I found the following horrible horrible Neighborhoodie. You may recall this is the same company that makes those HAWTHORNE, WILLIAMSBURG, etc hooded sweatshirts found on every other page of every alt-weekly in every city in which the term "hipster" has geospecific meaning. Seems the market for uber-dorky 'hood indentification clothing is drying up, and now they're touting cute hip/indie catchphrases. Hence this:

fig 15: ?????

What are these people thinking? Why does this exist? Did anyone stop to think how completely absurd it is to be waxing nostalgic over a not-really-genre whose only real point of unity was a complete and total hatred of nostalgia - in 200freaking5?!?! If, as I understand it, the people who constituted this movement were reacting against punk's slide into same-old-Rock, as typified by The Clash, then I can only imagine their distaste for any person who has ever said "punk's not dead", let alone worn this t-shirt. Of course, holding these people in such golden-age-ish high regard is probably some form of nostalgia in itself [turning finger toward self] but why would you buy this if you didn't? And why would you buy it if you did? There are bigger questions to be asking, but right now I just want to shoot mental darts at this person and whatever the fuck they signify. And I guess I just did.

2005-01-10T13:30:00.000-08:00

Trawling compulsively through the blogosphere last night, found some cool stuff:

This is an interesting post about some current grime-influenced dance music coming out of England, and it's potential merging with circa-93 IDM melodicism, and how cool that could be. Yeah, this is obscure to the max, but isn't that what blogs are for? I enjoyed the mp3 samples and descriptions of interesting music I would not have heard otherwise. I like blogs when they do stuff like this.

There is an interesting little meme going around regarding the roots of IDM, it's "social content" and "sonic form", and whether or not these are racist. Nice to see people talking about the social undercurrents underpinning various genres. This stuff is the meat that makes music fascinating for so many people, at least me, whether or not we're conscious of it. Here you will find Jane Dark aka Felizitas' original post, here is Philip Sherburne's response, and here is Simon Reynolds'. This, also, is what blogs are for.

My friend and housemate and sometimes editor Mark Baumgarten has started a blog and another one dedicated to live reviews. I will soon be joining Mark in posting reviews of shows and stuff. Collective brains and reportage on things you won't find in print = blogs.

So what is this one for? Hopefully the same things, and that bit about "music in context" or whatever I was babbling about a couple posts ago, but today we're just pointing the way. I think I'm gonna post something like a year-end list soon, and maybe a round up of good lists I found elsewhere. Perhaps my top ten top tens? That's also what blogs are for, and that's kind of why they suck sometimes.

2004-12-29T01:04:00.000-08:00

I'm writing this from Meadow Vista, California, USA, which is 15 minutes down Interstate 80 from Auburn, which is 1.5 hours down 80 from Sacramento. 80 spans the continental United States.

Meadow Vista is a very small town with a grocery store, a pizza place that doubles as the only place you can buy beer, a hardware store, a gas station, a coffee shop, and like three other little stores that are constantly going in and out of business because all Meadow Vista really needs is groceries, pizza, beer, and tools, and the freeway can bring them what they don't need.

I got money for Christmas; tomorrow I hit the mall.

I saw National Treasure at the new Regal Cinemas tonight, and it was actually pretty good.

Last night I watched Varsity Blues, stoned and drunk, with my brother and his friends, one of whom used to be the star quarterback at Colfax High, which is in Colfax, which is 15 minutes down 80 in the other direction.

My brother said the high school in Varsity Blues reminded him of Colfax, because both towns worship the football team like gods. I said that always weirded me out, forgetting the star quarterback seated to my right.

[awkward silence]

"I thought it was pretty cool."

The star quarterback is a really really nice guy.

I'm writing this from Mainstream America. I usually write from Portland, OR. Very different places, but people are cool here too.

Now, why is everything so fucked up?

fig 14: interstate 80 as it approaches the sierra nevadas

2004-12-15T13:05:00.000-08:00

Just realized I've been made famous over at the Hyde Park Records website, so hello to any of you who got here that way. Also, hello to anyone who gets here via my employee picks (scroll down) in the Portland Mercury, since I think they might be mentioning this blog.

Now that you're here, you might be wondering what this site is all about. The answer is mostly music, but not just music. You generally won't find record reviews here. What you hopefully will find is occasionally insightful observations, centered around music but placing it in context, be that geographical (Portland, Oregon), historical, or personal. These peripheral but, to me, equally important parts of the music experience are often overlooked in offline music writing, probably in the interest of space and, uh, you know, describing the music itself. I'll leave that part to the pros, and get right to the fluff.

About the linkers: The reason I have a Hyde Park Records t-shirt despite never having visited Chicago is dorky. I "virtually" met the man behind HPR, Derek Erdman, after I posted a link to his website featuring the entire Desperate Bicycles discography in mp3 format (also, this is rad). We got to talking about the record store he was opening up, he sent me a t-shirt, a picture was taken, and the rest is not-really-history. Derek seems like a pretty rad dude, the store looks awesome, and I'm all for more independent shops, so more power to him and it and amen.

fig 13: hyde park records, chicago

The Portland Mercury is an alt-weekly here in Portland, OR. They have a regular Employee Picks column wherein experts in various fields dispense insider knowledge (sex shop worker lists porn/toys, wig maker lady lists wigs, etc), and they asked me to do the honors for this week. This is something I've been secretly craving for years (another is getting an I Saw U, put I'm pretty over that), so you can imagine my excitement. Hopefully my picks aren't too hopelessly obscure, and I don't look like a total geek. Is it just me, or does my head look lumpy?

In conclusion: this makes me happy, this cat is awesome, DIY FREE IPODS.

2004-12-13T15:55:00.000-08:00

Thinking back over this weekend's activities, I can't help but be reminded of how fortunate I am to live in the soggy lefty cultural paradise that is Portland, OR, USA. This was one of those weekends where every night there's fifty great things to do, and choosing is the hardest part. Best of all, these are often local homegrown type things that could only happen here, or at least only will, bestowing a sense of pride and place that feels both totally un-2005, and just awesome.

Case in point: Friday. We started out the night at the Portland premiere of Matt McCormick's new documentary/art film Towlines. Centered on the existential plight of humble-yet-majestic tugboat - always pushing others to sea, never making the voyage, etc - the film was full of beautiful imagery and colors. It came across like a series of perfectly composed photographs, but moving. Matt seems to favor dark, muted tones and wide spaces; buildings, giant ships, the ocean.

fig 9: still from Matt McCormick's Towlines

McCormick's childhood friend and fellow Portland resident, James Mercer, who is also the exceptionally talented songwriter behind the Shins, provided the score, matching the tugboat theme with suitably slight and transcendent acoustic guitar interludes. Very nice, as was the hilarious American Nutria, narrated by none other than Calvin Johnson. And here I thought nutria was the plural of nutrients.

Mercer played an acoustic set after the films, but we had to run, over to the newly renovated Bossanova (ex-Viscount Ballroom), to catch the Arcade Fire. Now, this band has been hyped like crazy, with everyone screaming album of the year and such. I'd heard the record a little bit before the show, and was a little skeptical. It's mostly that (1) I'm a nasty person, with an immature predisposition for disliking what others like and (2) I'm not so into hyper-melodramatic music, as a general rule. I'm not sure where that last one came from, but it probably has something to do with falling hook line and sinker for all that peak-by-numbers progressive trance stuff in high school. One can only sustain so many epic buildups and breakdowns before distrust sets in, especially if one is not on ecstasy.

figs 10, 11: the arcade fire on ecstacy

I should probably drop that shit; the music is impressive, especially the part about trying to create a new sound instead of simply cobbling together the requisite record geek signifiers and looking cute (see: rock music in 2004). Still, part of me thinks this band is the musical equivalent of the Oscar-winning movie starring Denzel Washington, set in the Holocaust, featuring at least one tragically gifted, mentally disabled person, released right at the end of the year (that last part is true); those string sections and genre-hops scream "Look at me, I'm the album of the year!" Which is a pretty petty reason to dislike an album, so the jury was still out when I arrived at the show.

And I enjoyed the show. Those kids have energy and they get excited. More power to them, right?

After that we headed over to Dunes for Suicide Club, the weekly dance night that is the project of Nathan from the Gossip/Die Monitr Batts (whose new album is sounding good, btw). He plays the kind of stuff Steve and I like to play when we do CUM LAZER (Pop-Rap dance hits, dance-punk, etc), but he probably has a better record collection. My only requests are that he fade the one song out before the next song comes in if he's not going to beatmatch (which is really freaking hard, and I can't do it either, so no diss there) and maybe that he play a little more of that freakier "mutant disco" I read about on the flier. Maybe he did play this stuff earlier, but we got there really late, and he wasn't.

fig 12: looking east from mt. tabor, portland, oregon

My point being: that's an awesome night! What a cool town, right? All of it was totally local, except the Arcade Fire, but the huge number of people who turned out for that show bares evidence to another local treasure, that being a large musical-loving populace out of proportion with this city of less then a million.

The rest of weekend was equal good: Saturday saw Steven Stapleton aka Nurse With Wound's only US appearance (disappointing but still, pretty cool that it even happened) and Friday saw the Cancer Fags (sinister and satirical gay-ish house duo) and the awesome lesbo party rap troupe Scream Club. I'd talk about these but this is already quite long, and my attention is wandering.

Anyway, yeah, I like it here.

2004-12-07T17:37:00.000-08:00

Last night I saw some crazy shit, shit I want to write down before I forget it really happened and start thinking I dreamt it (which will happen in about two hours). What I saw was Stephen Malkmus (of Pavement fame) and the Jicks (of Malkmus fame), concluding what I'm guessing was a high-paying gig that they didn't seem too excited about (the Lucky Strike cigarettes service industry appreciation party) with 3 priceless covers:

1. Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun. I thought this was a joke, and it was, but they meant it too. Never thought I'd see Mr. Pavement mouthing those immortal words, kicking up memories of adolescent nicotine fiends, 13 year old rebels swirling around at the 8th grade dance, back when this song somehow seemed dangerous, like those 60's documentaries on VH1. It was like junior high, but more ironic, which is to say: AWESOME.

2. The Ronettes - Be My Baby. For this one the drummer and Malkmus switched places. Totally cute.

3. The OC Theme Song. Didn't recognize this one at first, then the girlfriend clued me in. Like, woah. The godfather of indie rock tips his hat to the poster-show of the nu radio-friendly indie revolution. Half expected Doc (from Back to the Future) to show up and cut this short due to serious space-time continuum rupture type shit. The only reason I can think of for his non-appearance (besides that one about movies being fake) is that Malkmus didn't really know the words. I don't either but I'm pretty sure they're nothing like, "The ocean, it sure smells likes fish." Funny, funny shit.

2004-11-30T01:37:00.000-08:00

In other PDX DIY news, Nate Preston of the infamous and ambiguously spelled Die Monitr Batss pointed me (and a couple hundred other people) towards this awesome webpage which allows you and me to receive FREE IPODS. I never do this kind of thing, but my lust for the iPod has been growing steadily, even as my income has steadily shrunk. Please take pity on me and click here, sign up for

Blockbuster's new sub-Netfllix subscription service

the eFax free trail offer, recieve credit the next day, and cancel (see 3rd comment below for details). PLUS!! you'll also be doing your part to dismantle global capitalism. Mr. Preston explains:

"I need a free iPod. If anyone else was considering doing this, PLEASE!!! sign up using my link below. Know the drill? You sign up for one of those stupid offers, then cancel. Get five friends to do the same thing and they cancel. They repeat the process. Then their referrals repeat the process. It's a pyramid style money generator. If done correctly you'll get your free iPod in a few weeks. If everyone does it correctly? The infrastructure of our entire civilization will collapse because all available resources and manpower are suddenly diverted into producing and processing billions and billions of iPods. So it's not just about me."

Please. JOIN US.

PS: I promise my next post will not involve a pyramid scheme found on a mailing list. Really.

2004-11-18T23:43:00.000-08:00

I don't know much about Rick Ele, save that he sends very long, informed emails about obscure noise bands to the pdxdiyshows mailing list, and hosts a radio show on KDVS in Davis, CA. When I was growing up in smalltown Auburn, KDVS was like a beacon in the darkness, beaming weird music into a land of seeming normalcy (exploding meth labs and violent, drug-crazed youth notwithstanding). It's nice to see the freak flag still flying there, and Rick has a hand on the pole.

His radio show "Art for Spastics" broadcasts every Tuesday from midnight to 2AM (that's dedication!). Styles include "garage/scuzz-punk ineptitude, knuckledragging thug-rock of the lesser primates, high-falutin jackoffnoise, glitched-out electro booyar jamz, art-damaged skronkrawk, mis- appropriation of 'Neo-No-Wave' & hella contrived subgenre names", which I'd say describes most of what's interesting in underground rawk right now - and, er, booyar jamz. I listened to Rick's show today, and it's great, and you can hear it here.

fig 8: this is way too appropriate

Speaking of good descriptions of nebulous movements in modern music, I found this one over at PostEverything.com's Sackbut Blues webzine:

"We usher towards the door the received wisdom of the Beatles/Stones/Hendrix/- Who/Bowie/Clash timeline of music and turn instead to one that runs from Edgard Varese, through Stockhausen, The Dream Syndicate artists, Reich and Riley, the Velvet Underground, garage rock (the first time round), Kraftwerk, the Krautrockers and - yes, some of them, really - the English prog rockers� Roxy, Bowie (ok, he can join in - but only until 1977), Miles Davis's and Herbie Hancock's jazz/rock/electronic fusions, Wire, The Fall, industrial, synth-pop, No-wave, Sonic Youth and the Blast First bands, hardcore, acid house, techno and the Warp Brit-bleep and �Artificial Intelligence� series, and onward� to the future!"

That's a geneology I've been vaguely aware fo for a while now, and it certianly connects the dots between a lot of the music I've sought out over the years. Seeing it spelled out explicitly like this, it makes sense. It also gets me thinking. The connection is real, if debatable, but where does it come from? The word "mindset" comes to mind, but feels a little vague.

Personally (he says to his e-diary), I'm reminded of when I first discovered the twin beacons of IDM and rave culture, around the same time I found KDVS, and the feeling of raw newness that music gave me. I'd never heard anything like it, and neither had anyone else. These people were creating culture anew, turning away from the past and present, looking towards a future of their own making. I've been parsing the above sentence ever since.

I suppose this ideal resonates best with those who feel a little uncomfortable in the present, who wouldn't mind a little fantasy, a little float up up and away from reality. Ambiguously straight and dorky, I was definitely one of them then, and still am (awesome girlfriend notwithstanding!!). Without getting too emo here, maybe "alienation from mainstream society" is the tie that binds. I don't know, but I do know most of my musical heroes have been relative weirdos. See figure 9. It's not easy being green - so why not be "artsy"?

NOTE: There's a whole 'nother discussion to be had here about the intertwining of identity and aesthetics (I define myself as "weirdo" hence "weirdo music" is the ideal), but that's another day, or lifetime. In the meantime, I'm reading this and this.

fig 9: what's on the other side

PS: Also just found out that one of my favorite weirdos, Colin Newman, of Wire fame, has just released an EP with his new band Githead, and it sounds pretty rad. The album is released on swim~ records, Colin's label. In keeping with the interconnectedness theme of this post, I remember checking up on that label's website when I was first getting into electronic music, before I had any idea what Wire was/is. Trippy!

2004-11-11T10:49:00.000-08:00

This morning I dreamt I was in Brian Eno's house. And Brian Eno had a really cool house. It was really big and modern, with high ceilings and wallpaper*-modern interior decorating.

Eno himself was a really nice guy. He didn't seem studious or detached like you might expect (see: another Eno dream), but down-to-earth and warm.

He had this study area, littered with books and things, which he let me explore at will. I remember finding this little art/craft piece made of red construction paper, with other pieces of construction paper glued to it. Eno had folded it real clever, so that these long brown pieces which were supposed to look like wheat stalks (and, of course, did) stuck through a small opening that was supposed to symbolize the surface of the earth.

fig 7: a modernist house, like brian eno's

He had some other books that looked kind of like my discreet math book from college, which I guess makes some sense. I suppose it also made sense that Eno had a study, and not a studio.

Eno then took me up to this diner he'd had built on one of the top floors of the house. On our way we passed through a series of small interlocking rooms, put together like some weird, futuristic spacecraft maintenance tunnel, or something weird and futuristic like that.

The diner itself was really cool. It was all beige and metallic, also looked like something out of wallpaper*, but, as Brian Eno explained to me, was actually modeled after an old-school diner he'd frequented in his youth. He told me this really funny story about that diner, but I can't remember what it was about, just him laughing.

fig 8: a diner, like brian eno's, but less modern

There were other people at this diner, some of whom looked like families on vacation. It was as if Brian Eno's home had become some sort of tourist destination, like Graceland or something, which I seriously doubt is the case. I wanted to ask Brian Eno who these people were (there must by a perfectly logical explanation, right?), but he just kept on telling stories. I remember looking him square in the face, and his face being blurry, like a heat mirage.

This whole time the first track off Music for Airports is playing. This struck me as slightly vain, but understandable. After all, as Brian Eno explained in the liner notes to his ambient albums, and in interviews, he created this music to serve as a kind of aural wallpaper, so of course he'd be decorating his own home with it.

After a while I realized the music wasn't coming from my dream at all, that my housemate had woken up and was playing it while he made breakfast. So Brian Eno's not so vain, after all.

2004-11-10T01:30:00.000-08:00

Just got back from the show. The bands were good!

SUBTLE: Hadn't heard these guys before, but I'm told they're a conglomeration of Anticon and Mush people, including Dose One and Jel from Themselves. I expected something pretty low key, but this turned out to be a full-on band, with sax, flute, electric cello (!), glockenspeil, samplers, drums, synths, props, the whole 9. Really great music too, kind of space jazz hip hop hybrid something. Dose One was out front sing-rapping most of the time, emphasis on "performance". He gesticulates with lazer-sharp precision and flamboyant(ly gay?) grace. His nasal delivery sort of grates, but he's got rhythm and style and what I could make out of the lyrics sounded interesting. I want to hear more of this.

fig 5: subtle / frog eyes poster as it lies on my floor. designed by the very talented tyler stout.

FROG EYES: No fakers here. The lead guy is possessed of a manic energy which manifests in falsetto squeals and heavy breathing, and the band plays their instruments well. The songs are URGENT. Like watching someone in the midst of some life-changing insight, overpowered, before words like "inspiration" or "nervous breakdown" make sense. Good shit! But Greatest Band of All Time? The Anticon crowd seemed skeptical.

fig 6: frog-eyed cucarachas

ENTRANCE: Anybody who

(a) dresses like a hari krishna, but isn't one, in 2004
(b) performs 1960's-oriented rock music, in 2004
(c) sits cross-legged on stage at any point during set, in 2004 (only applies when (a) is present)
(d) throws tambourine off stage really hard nearly maiming innocent bystanders and generally acts like a spoiled brat, anytime

has to work pretty hard for my respect, in 2004. Somehow the dude in this band almost kindof did. He can play a mean guitar, and wails like he means it. But then he sulks like a baby between songs, and the drummer looks bored.

2004-11-08T23:28:00.000-08:00

Just realized I've been linked over at the wonderful 20 Jazz Funk Greats mp3 blog. Thanks guys/dude! Seriously 20JFG is possibly my favorite of these newfangled mp3 blogs (blogs where people post mp3s and write about them), because it is most in line with my tastes (weird shit with energy to it, roughly).

I've been reading too many blogs lately, kind of going out of my mind with all the excess information they present. The others I'm digging are Fluxblog, probably the most famous of the bunch, focussed generally on Euro pop and catchy stuff, and the new Sticker Shock, a sort of blog supergroup (like Genesis!) curated by some mighty high profile critics. I also enjoy lacunae, the project of Douglas Wolk, a very talented music writer and fellow Portland resident (also one of the nicest people you will ever meet). Douglas selects music originally released on 7-inch vinyl in the '80s and '90s, and adds some endearing this-is-what-I-did-today commentary.

fig 3: new music

I love these things, because they help me sort through the constantly expanding mass that is new music, but sometimes they give me a kind of info vertigo. I realize I am struggling to keep up with what is actually just the tip of a very big iceberg, and I can't keep up, and I'm the kind of obsessive person that gets upset about these things. Every now and then I'll find something that completely blows my mind, and I'm like "YES! This is why I read these things!" But then I get to thinking about how for each of these obscure wonderful things I find, there are many more that I'll never hear, not too mention the many mediocre things I will hear along the way. It's too much.

Still, better this than porn, right?

I'd also like to post the flyer for the Halloween show, which I am so proud of.

fig 4: the REAL cum lazer

When Steve and I first came up with the name CUM LAZER, it was supposed to be our band, mostly because more than anything we wanted this wonderful name to infiltrate the local culture (remember, we are dorks). The band didn't happen (yet) but we have managed to get these words into the consciousness. Seriously, here it is, CUM LAZER, next to two bona fide real bands, and good ones too! And we're also DJing the Rogue Wave show this Friday, a truly amazing, VERY REAL, band. VIVA CUM LAZER!! Next up: MATT WRIGHT.

2004-11-01T22:54:00.000-08:00

A while ago I posted about these so-called "obscure English post punk bands" I've been listening to, and one of them was Desperate Bycycles, which it seems are also sometimes spelled correctly, like Desperate Bicycles. Anyway, just so happens that I've stumbled upon their entire discography, available for free, here. As the man who put it there, Derek Erdman, says: "Man, I sure am awesome to people who spend a lot of time on the internet." Thanks Derek.

ALSO: Dude, this is rad!

HALLOWEEN: Was insanely fun. The house was decorated to the nines, complete with an entire front room dedicated to this elaborate demented doctor's table display thing. Two bands played, Wet Confetti and Knock it Closer. I heard a little bit of Knock it Closer, featuring Liam from the Snuggle-Ups, whose CD release show with the Thermals was completely awesome the night before. Knock it Closer if a little more rocky, less PLUR and more angst, sort of like a faster Cure. I was upstairs DJing when Wet Confetti came on, so I heard their set as a loud grind beneath my feet, which was kind of surreal.

Figure 2: Everything goes pink. Figure 1 is below.

After that the CUM LAZER (that's me and my friend Steve's DJ "collective") was in full effect. The house was packed to the gills, with people spilling out onto the street. We had a fog machine and many many technical mishaps. For a while the speakers were making loud fart sounds, the kind that eat up all other frequencies when they hit and make the crowd go whiney. Once we cut the bass it was all good for a while, then mysterious electrical/wiring problems started popping up, whereby the sound would just inexplicably cease. Happily, shaking the speaker wires like voodoo sticks seemed to please these evil sonic demons.

Despite these setbacks we managed two of our better sets ever, one uptempo for before the cops came, and one blunted-but-funky for the post-cop late crowd, before the cops came again. Hits of the first set included Freak Nasty's "Da Dip", Salt n Peppa's "Push It", and that perenial hipster favorite "Hey Ya". There was some rock too , but I only remember the Cars. Hits of the second set included "Spill the Wine" by War (one of my favorite songs ever), "When Doves Cry" by Prince, and "Galang" by M.I.A. (one my favorite songs right now, which really belonged in the first set).

I've never deejayed a vibe as unique and perfect as that during the second set. People drunk and beaming, in great costumes, finally able to talk and move without fear of being crushed. Low lights and very low volume. People conversing and dancing, at the same time. A delicate crescendo from near nonexistence to near exuberance, interrupted by the cops at just the right moment (again). Dude, it was rad!

2004-10-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

At this moment I am sitting in my basement office at Berbati's Pan, listening to Vetiver, and doing everything in my power not to work. Like typing this.

Yesterday, Yancey Strickler, music journo and editor at eMusic, posed (roughly) this question in his blog: "What is it that makes timeless songs timeless?" This is a big question, and I'm not ready to take it on (remember, I'm writing out of laziness) but I do have an anecdote, and a digression:

Yesterday, the same day I read that question on Yancey's blog, I did some intensive headphone meditation on the second Swell Maps album, A Trip to Marineville, which has just been rereleased by Secretly Canadian. Quoting my own comments, from other people's blogs, in my blog feels like the ultimate in meta-onanity. But again, LAZY. My comment:

"Midway through there is this medley consisting of three seamless tracks, the last being an epic reprise of the first. The tracks are Full Moon in My Pocket -> BLAM!! -> Full Moon in My Pocket (Reprise). I can't put this feeling into sentences (although I guess I'll have to try for the final review). So I made a chart (a map?). Here it is:

It's something to do with willful absurdity and joy in the face of existential dread, boredom, and heartbreak. Midway through Full Moon, Jowe Head (the singer) sneezes and extends the sneeze into a long drawn out, almost sung tone. Then he starts babbling gibberish like a crazy man. This is divine playfulness." - Matt Wright, Yesterday, Nowhere

That last link is a reference to "In Defiance of Gravity" a wonderful essay by Tom Robbins which appeared in Harper's a couple months back (sadly the only thing I could find online was that excerpt). Basically, Robbins in proclaiming the merits of ridiculous behavior during tough times. This is a concept that I just love. I think this is my mantra. This is why, on Hollywood Boulevard two weeks ago, the stars I seek out are these:

1. Kermit the Frog
2. The BeeGees
3. Olivia Newton-John

This is why I love bands like the Beatles, the Kinks, B-52s, Devo, XTC, Beefheart, Zappa, Os Mutantes, T.Rex, the Pixies, Ween, Beck, Deerhoof, Brainiac, and Juicy Panic.

This is why, this Saturday, I will be DJing with my friend Steve, under the name CUM LAZER!!!, dressed up like a giant pink whoopie cushion (fig. 1).

figure 1

2004-10-11T16:32:00.000-07:00

If ignorance is bliss, Soulseek is outright agony. Lately I've been picking through some of the more immaculate collections to be found on said service, obsessively queuing in pursuit of obscure British post-punk bands like Desperate Bycycles, Rip Rig & Panic, Flying Lizards, Au Pairs, Orange Juice, Bush Tetras. I've also done a little reading, and waayyyyyyyyyy too much Allmusicing. It's fascinating music, and twenty five years after the fact (most of this stuff came out 1979-81) much of it sounds like nothing I've ever heard. But in some cases it sounds distinctly like something I have heard, recently, and this brings me to the "agony" part.

The more I dig into this period, the more I understand what these bands were trying to accomplish with this weird music, the more I want to hate this "new" retro post-punk movement, as typified by bands like the Rapture, Interpol, the Futureheads. Because what made this music so vital in the first place, and makes it stand today, is that each of these bands committed themselves to tearing down the musical status quo, rejected the past, and attempted to create NEW SOUNDS. Cherry picking through history, finding a fantastic post-punk band, and simply updating it for the "indie" demographic (FUTUREHEADS : XTC, INTERPOL : JOY DIVISION (but you already know this), FRANZ FERDINAND : ORANGE JUICE + XTC) is the antithesis of this approach. Yet still this movement continues to be marketed as "post punk" and continues to attract young, capable musicians.

What's worse, the press is absolutely eating this shit up. The Futureheads album has an 83 rating on Metacritic, which, according to the site, indicates "universal acclaim." For example:

The group's edgy, fast-paced New Wave 2K brand of rock recalls the sharp, nerdy delivery of XTC, the impassioned focus of the Jam and ping-ponging hooks reminiscent of the Vapors. - ShakingThrough.net

Right. "New Wave 2k". Three old bands clumped together = critically acclaimed new band. Seems this reviewer, and the rest of the increasingly un-critical rock press, was too busy checking off the boxes marked "old band critics like" to realize this album for what it is: a really good mix tape, circa 1981.

To summarize: WTF?!?! Where are the voices calling out in opposition, demanding NEW SOUNDS, rejecting NOSTALGIA?

Here's one:

"I don't try to follow the masters; I try to ask the same questions they asked." - Robbie Basho

Thanks Robbie. Too bad your dead.

2004-09-09T14:22:00.000-07:00

Still recovering from a very fun weekend spent Bumbershooting in Seattle. Went up with my roomies, hung out with M. Matos a lot, and finally got some kind of feel for the place. Seattle seems like a pretty cool town, if you know where to look. Here are some highlights:

Kiki & Herb: I think this may be the best thing I saw all weekend, including the mega rock and rap stars. It's this insanely over the top cabaret act, which sounds horrible in concept, but is actually very smart and deeply moving. The performance consists of showstopping vocal and piano numbers, spliced with playful banter in which the characters (mostly Kiki) detail their tragic personal histories (child molestation, dead babies, drugs addiction). At first you think these horrible lives are a joke, but they're not. As the show goes on they're fleshed out to the point that you realize horrible lives like these do exist, and it's not so funny. Then they'll break into these bravado pop montages (think Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer into Smells Like Teen Spirit, with a coda from Mrs. World) which are both absurd and totally vindicating. Fucking genius. And they're doing their last show ever on the 19th.

The Girls are so RAD!

The Girls: Caught these guys at this nasty-ass club right near the Seattle Center called Funhouse. We went knowing nothing save for the fact that this was a Dirtnap Records showcase, and Dirtnap is an awesome Northwest punk rock label. Turns out the headliner is the Girls, who are playing a secret show under the name Spaghetti and the Meatballs (they'd played Bumbershoot that same day, and probably signed something saying they wouldn't play anywhere else). Let me just say, these guys fucking rule, for a couple reasons. 1) Costumes: They came out in speedos/tighty-whiteys and weird toga/headdress hybrids, lost the togas by the third song, and the bassist ended up completely naked, shaking his grody cottage-cheesey ass in the audiences face. 2) Music: Sort of a strange hybrid of the Cars, Devo, Roxy Music, and every generic drunk-as-shit, three-chord punk rock band ever. The underlying theme is that they always give you what you want (riffs, dance beats, synth lines), exactly when you want it. 3) Energy: I haven't seen a band this pumped to be playing / drunk in a long time. And the best part was I had no idea who they were till show was over. Legendary.

Other highlights were Public Enemy, American Music Club, Built to Spill, Nas, Popular Shapes (their last show ever apparently), Matt Jorgensen + 451, Brother Ali, and some other stuff I'm forgetting. The Pixies were a highlight too, but they seem to have lost some energy since their first reunion shows, and Frank Black's voice lacks the nasal shriek that sounded so amazing on their old records. He sings almost every song straight. But Kim Deal sounds like an angel.

First Bumbershoot = SUCCESS. Next up, MusicFestNW. Fuck.

2004-09-01T01:32:00.000-07:00

My new friend, and my old friend Emily Prince's fiance, Shaun O'Dell has an art exhibit opening up in Seattle at the James Harris Gallery in Seattle. Click. With art I tend to go for stuff that displays a high level of craft - lots of little lines and marks, details - so Shaun's stuff is right up my alley. It just so happens that I will be in Seattle this coming weekend for Bumbershoot, which means I'll get a chance to check out the exhibit as well, which is rad.

Sean O'Dell - Prophesy Extraction at the Confluence of Kykuit, The Western Medicinal Compact and the Southern Decline of a Blind Consensual Chiming (detail)

ONE THING THOUGH: Shaun is in urgent need of a musician or musicians to play the opening, which is tomorrow. He's friends with the Devendra Banhart (sp?) / Vetiver / Joanna Newsom weird folk posse in San Francisco (Emily actually created the artwork for Newsom's album) so anything in that vein would be awesome. If you or someone you love would be up for this please e-mail me post haste, or however that saying goes.

Speaking of Joanna Newsom, this video is really nice, and so is the music.

2004-08-29T23:17:00.000-07:00

Today I did something I haven't done in a very long time: I put on my headphones, laid down on my bed, closed my eyes, and listened to an album, in it's in entirety, for the first time. I used to do this a lot, in high school, and every now and then during the semester I lived alone in college. It's pretty amazing how differently you hear an album when you listen to it this way, and it's crazy how rarely I allow myself to do so. Why is it that we always feel a need to be doing something else when we hear music, be it drinking, washing the dishes, talking, whatever? I think it's like staring at the sun: music is powerful, we're afraid it might burn us.

The album I listened to tonight was Medulla, Bjork's new one. In case you've somehow avoided the pre-game spin, this album was made using only sounds created by the human voice, with the occasional synth or piano, and lots of digital editing. But I don't really want to talk about that. I actually don't want to review this album. I just want to offer up some thoughts.

It's amazing how far outside the sphere of pop music Bjork is working these days. The music on this album is so experimental and abstract, I wonder how the press can possibly digest it. I mean, how is Joe Pitchfork supposed to react to a piece of music that has nothing to do with rock, pop, hip hop, and only a thin connection to electronica? Instead this album references the very dawn of Western music, when the tonal system wasn't really in place yet, and Europeans were just fucking around with the sounds they could make with their mouths in attempt to express the infinite. I'm talking about Hildegard of Bingen, plainchant, motets, really fucking old music. Bjork has explained this album as an attempt to get back to the roots of music, and it sounds like she did her homework. I urge anyone who takes an interest in this album to seek out that stuff, then listen to Bjork as she takes these ancient harmonies, digitally multitracks ten tiny versions of herself singing the parts, and lets Matmos chop up Rahzel's beatbox accompaniment. The word "postmodern" comes to mind, as does Meredith Monk; I can hear my music history prof's head exploding as I type.

Emotionally this album is wide open and raw. I got chills listening to it, often. Bjork has a knack for expressing the twin peaks of wide-eyed, seeing-the-world-in-all-its-glory wonder and wide-eyed seeing-the-world-in-all-its-complete-and- utter-fuckupedness despair. I bought her last album, Homogenic, about two weeks before September 11th, and from that day on it has sounded like a funeral. That album hit on the sadness that sensitive people feel when they come into contact with life's shittier realities, and 9/11 and it's aftermath - yeah. It was like Bjork had seen the future and was already crying. I've barely listened to it since the towers dropped.

Bjork says this album is a response to those tragic events. It's interesting then to listen to this, her actual response, and compare it to what seemed like her response in the first place, and will always feel like it for me. I hear more chaos here, an acknowledgement of the dark possibilities that can drop out of the sky at any moment. I hear it in the gnashing, grunting vocal sounds she's using, sonic representations of a the pre/pan-civilization human impulse to violence / the part of humanity that creates the shitty stuff / war. She surrounds herself with these nasty, ugly sounds, builds them into a baroque chorus, and sings over them. I guess this is how we live right now.

This is why Bjork is an amazingly talented musician: She's created an album that hits me square in the gut, gets me thinking about the big picture of what's going wrong in this world, and how I relate, and she's done it without any heavy-handed political sloganeering, half the time without any comprehensible lyrics. The sounds themselves and the lyrics that I can make out are not comfortable, and these should not be comfortable times. It's political music because it confronts the listener with a world-level despair for humanity and what we're doing right now - and what we're doing right now is killing each other, and we've been doing it for a long time, and it's sad- at a time when most people, or at least most Americans, or at least I, would rather turn away.

I'm not sure if I can listen to this again. It's like staring at the sun. Or a dead Iraqi.

2004-08-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

OK, Blogger is all fixed now, so back to our regularly scheduled self-indulgence. You'll notice there are now little envelopes at the bottom of the posts now. These let you email any post to whoever you want. Pretty slick, eh?

There are a couple delayed posts below too, including one about David Byrne and Patti Smith.

the REAL matt wright

3/4/2005 4:21:18 PMklunko@yahoo.com wrote:

3/4/2005 4:21:18 PM
klunko@yahoo.com wrote: