Just a quick note to the three of you who visit every month. I recently overhauled the TUNES section of the site to serve as more of a curriculum vitae of the various bands I have been in, including my solo GarageBand nonsense. As more stuff becomes available from the archives (closet, boxes, friends) I will update that area. I will not put every single solitary piece of recorded music I have ever participated in…. there’s too much garbage, too much audio of us dicking around the studio, too many “alternate versions” of different songs… you get the idea. The section will act more of a Top Shelf look at stuff I’ve done. Thanks for reading. Thanks for listening. And keep checking back, cause that shit gone grow son.
Here is the set list from the M83 show at Music Hall of Williamsburg on November 23, 2011. Yes, it says Montreal at the bottom, BUT I found this on the floor of Music Hall of Williamsburg after the show, and the songs listed reflect the songs played at Music Hall of Williamsburg.
Growing up, Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine was one of my heroes. I outgrew him being an idol-figure years ago, but I’ve never stopped loving his music. Having been listening to them for over 20 years, their music never really struck me as being very ’satanic’; that quality was always the craft of bands like Deicide and Slayer. No, Megadeth always struck me as more politically oriented and allegorical. I’ve always carried a certain image of Mustaine in my head all these years, but he recently went on television and eviscerated everything I ever thought by professing his new-found devotion to Christianity. Watch the heart-breaking confession below.
What could be better than spending a beautiful Sunday at the Williamsburg Waterfront catching the sea air, marveling at the majesty of the Manhattan skyline, watching the boats, and admiring the bridges that link us to Manhattan? How about enjoying all of that while the dulcet tones of Todd Barry’s voice tickles your funny bones with his comedy. Yeah. Ages ago Todd was added to the Pretty Good Friends show happening at the Williamsburg Waterfront on Friday July 29th. He joins an already stacked roster featuring Eugene Mirman, Patton Oswalt, Kristen Schaal, They Might Be Giants and more. Doors are at 5:30pm and the event is absolutely free! Beer me! This was announced ages ago, but I am now just getting around to mention it. Or mention anything else for that matter. Am I the shittiest, most run-of-the-mill blogger ever to take to the keyboard?
Two things. First, I hate “top” lists. They are subjective, infuriating, inaccurate, and completely unessential. Second, my knowledge of music is very specific and rotates in a very small orbit. Which makes this post out of character for me. But it has to be done. I have to get it off my chest to the 10 people who read this blog. These are, for me, the best screams ever in recorded music. Feel free to add other contenders into the comments section! I am always looking for a good, blood boiling scream!
The Forms – The Seagull
As exhibited in this post on BrooklynVegan, the Forms and I go waaaaay back. As a matter of fact I think I am one of the first people to get his mitts on their debut masterpiece Icarus. The album is full of start-stop time signatures, soaring melodies, and some serious guitar noise. But within this disc lies one of the best screams you will ever hear. On the fantastic piano-oriented tune The Seagull, Alex Tween unleashes a vocal explosion that will blow the earbuds out of your ears. Listen to the whole song… shit, listen to the whole record, but pay dirt is struck at the 1:11 mark.
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Meshuggah – New Millennium Cyanide Christ
I cannot 100% remember if it was during this song or Bleed at their Irving Plaza show on their last tour when a guy next to me screamed “Aaaaggghhhh! I want to punch someone! I want to fucking punch someone!! I WANT TO KILL SOMEONE” and disappeared into the pit. Either way, this song packs one of the most relentless punches of any Meshuggah song. They chose a very funny approach to the music video for this song which somewhat deflates and charicaturizes the sheer brutality of the song, but I love it. This song is 100% balls, but for the death blow stay tuned for the 3:55 mark.
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The Who – Won’t Get Fooled Again
This is definitely the easiest, most common choice so it’s at the bottom of the list. The Who might be one of my most preferred straight up rock and roll bands of all time. For a four piece, they created such an ear drum destroying, earth shattering wall of volume. Roger Daltrey has got some SERIOUS pipes but the scream he let’s out towards the end of Won’t Get Fooled Again I think shocked a LOT of people for its unprecedented power. It still blows my mind that it was set to wax in 1971.
The Just For Laughs Festival is coming to Chicago in a little over two weeks and it definitely deserves mention. OK, it’s actually the Twix Presents TBS Just For Laughs Chicago. The festival takes place from June 14th – June 19th, 2011 at venues all over the Chicago area. NYC prides itself on being a comedic epicenter, and it definitely is to an extent, but as a city we do not have a festival that comes close to something of JFL’s magnitude. I mean, we have the New York Comedy Festival, Sketchfest, and the The Del Close Marathon, but these shows happen at different times of the year and at the end of the day they are to small and fucking niche. Highlights of this years JFL include:
And that is just the “Hey, I recognize those names” shows I randomly yanked off the schedule. There are so many more shows on the schedule you’ll faint. Check Out The Complete Schedule.
The first and only time I ever saw Bon Iver live was on October 16, 2007 as part of BrooklynVegan’s CMJ showcase at Bowery Ballroom. It was an extraordinarily powerful set performed to an extraordinarily empty room. There was me, The Rosebuds (Bon Iver’s upcoming tour mates), BV, and a handful of other stragglers. But the set was absolutely transfixing and those of us who were there were definitely taken aback. After his set I was able to meet him backstage and gush about how ridiculously moving his set was and he kindly handed me a self-released copy of For Emma, Forever Ago. For some reason, even though his set was one of the most profound live-music experiences of my life, I never listened to the CD (still have it though), never saw him live again, and never really followed his career post-2007 CMJ; a career which blew up at a pace I could simply not comprehend.
Innnnnnywhoozle. That’s in the past. Let’s look to the future. On June 21, 2011, Bon Iver is set to release his new album Bon Iver and hit the road on a massive tour with the Rosebuds. You can get his first single ‘Calgary’ totally free if you head on over to BrooklynVegan. It’s really, really, really such a great tune. Tour dates below, fool. Continue reading ‘Get Bon Iver’s New Song ‘Calgary’ FREE’
Every genre of music has certain legends within it that have defined and shaped said genre in ways that live on forever. Whenever one of these legends passes on it’s sometimes a major shock because often times you have forgotten they even existed as their impact began decades before. Lloyd Knibb, who passed away on Thursday May 12th 2011, was the drummer for Ska founding fathers The Skatalites. He began playing with them at their inception back in 1955 when recording studios began to pop up in Kingston, Jamaica and was an active member all the way up to his death last week. Knibb literally developed the famed Ska rhythm. Reggae, Two Tone era Ska, Third Wave Ska, and other splinter Ska genres wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for Lloyd and his bandmates getting together over 55 years ago.
Skatalites’ instrumental recordings are usually what musicologists point to when tracing back the history of ska — and much of that was due to Knibb’s syncopated beats, which were faster than the tempos of the traditional R&B music the band was trying to replicate. In fact, history tells it that the band was really just attempting to recreate American R&B in Jamaica and Knibb — with his jazz and swing band background — jazzed up the tempo unintentionally…at first, anyway. – Spinner
Really really sad news. I have seen the Skatalites a million times over the years and they always maintained the loosest, most genuine old-school sounds in the business. The height of my Ska fandom occurred while I was in high school in the mid-90s and grew in the mid to late 90s when I was living in Boston. Knibb, who spent his later years in Hull Massachusetts, had a son named Dion who played with Boston-area Ska greats Dion Knibb & The Agitators, one of my favorite bands of the era who I have also seen a zillion times. Lloyd may be gone, but his presence will live forever in the genre he helped create.
Let me keep this short and sweet. Jimmy Pardo is bringing his pants-shittingly amazing podcast Never Not Funny to the Gramercy Theatre on Saturday June 18th, 2011. I know this blog doesn’t get that much traffic yet, but if you are reading this be advised: GET TICKETS NOW. He has a massive NYC listenership and I know tickets are flying off the shelves as you are reading this. Guests are TBD, but that doesn’t matter. Trust me on this one, you. This is comedy for people with hungry brains. Ugh stop reading and get a ticket already ya stupid dumzo.
Jesse Thorn did an absolutely phenomenal interview with my personal deity Werner Herzog. We all know that Jesse is a true expert at his craft, but this interview really cemented his reputation in my mind as one of the best interviewers in the biz.
