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Here is some cool stuff:

Guernica Mag has some new stuff up.
This is a little behind but there is a great live recording of Nico Muhly up on the WNYC website.
Brandon Scott Gorrell has a good story up on InDigest (Did I already post that?)
Michael Azerrad wrote a beautiful, glowing review of the Signal Performs Steve Reich at LPR this weekend. It was awesome, I was there, I've fallen in love with Music for 18 Musicians.
Brad Liening wrote a poem that I like.
Meggie Elder also wrote a poem that I like.
Meakin Armstrong thinks Esquire sucks now. I do too.

Not so Grand Old Day

I went to Grand Old Day in St. Paul this year. It was my first chance to really see Grand Ave. turned into a middle of nowhere style carnival. Moderatly frightening. I work on Grand Ave. and had this year off for Grand Old Day, so I was hesitant to go because I've had to work it every year, and that is an awful expereience, we gave out free ice cream last year so I spent my whole god damn day scooping ice cream for sugared up, spoiled brats. Spectaular.

So really I was going to Grand Old Day to see some music. There are somthing like 7 or 8 stages on Grand for the day. Most of which are hosting bands that aren't worth seeing in a free concert, much less the outrageous five bucks they charge for a wristband to get into the "free" event. But the Dixies stage is usually a pretty good line-up. This years included The Dad in Common, The Alarmists and Tapes-n-Tapes. The Dad in Common was my real reason for going (i just picked up their newest disc "Various Moms," - awesome) But I was moving in my new roomate for most of the early afternoon (our living room is real comfy now) So I missed both The Dad in Comon and The Alarmists, but went to see Tapes-n-Tapes anyhow.

Now i've seen them four or five times now, and am continually being tricked by the prospect of seeing them again. i really like their first Ep and The Loon is a solid album as well. But they are fucking awful live. Their could be a number of reasons this is my perception. The first time I saw them was pretty stellar, at First Ave. with Stnnng!, Kill the Vultures and The Plastic Constellations. Good show, good crowd, good drinks, good times. But everytime since them I have progressivly liked them less and less. they write good songs, it hasn't diminished the value of their albums, but they have no energy at all live. Not that I'm looking for mosh pits and a band that's going to run on stage and start destroying everything (I had my run with S.T.U.N. and The Blood Brothers) but they just feel like corpses on stage. Given the mix at an outdoor show such as Grand Old Day is not where you should be if you're looking for a solid sound mix and a fun crowd. But Jesus, it's everytime, they always have a bad mix, there is always something that is standing in the way of them delivering a good show. So I'm going to try and do something for mysle fand I am publicly declaring that I refuse to see Tapes-n-Tapes again. Unless the improve their shows...

On the bright side of the show the premiered some new tunes. Which were supriosingly some of the best tunes they played on Sunday. So I'm not giving up on listening to them all together, I think just from hearing those songs that there is potential for a decent follow-up to The Loon, and maybe their extensive touring over the last year is influencing their writing and they are writing songs that are based more out of a live tradition. Songs that are being fleshed out through live performances and informed by their lives on the road. (That doesn't necessarily mean that it will be good, as is repeatedly shown a band that has a good major-label debut has to change their lives greatly to adapt to life as a touring band and between a different lifestyle and inter-band tensions it ruins many bands by a second album, but they sound like they are benefiting from their experiences).

Really, if you take anything away from this posting, let it be this: Don't Go To Grand Old Day (in caps, I know). It's like a carnival for yuppies. The Dixie's stage isn't bad, but damn I hate Grand Old Day.

Ode of Goodwill and Hank Williams

I was wandering the aisles of Goodwill a couple of weeks ago, as I am wont to do, and found myself looking through their rather meager selection of vinyl. I used to frequent the vinyl section, but we’ve kind of gone our separate ways, I’d moved on. You see it just wasn’t giving back. I would take my time, be gentle, flip gently, carefully through the ‘new arrival’ section, and even go through the rest of the shelves, just in case I missed something last time. But it just isn’t surprising me any more. It doesn’t excite that same light feeling in the stomach, the rabid butterflies of anticipation. There’s always Frank Sinatra live at some dive and Bing Crosby does Christmas vol. MMX and there’s always a copy of Déjà vu (not that I’m trying to rag on Déjà vu, but everyone owns it, that’s the issue, good album, I just don’t feel the need for more than one copy in my life right now) and (well, actually that’s not true, I own it on CD and vinyl, so two copies in my life…) (not that I’m that big of a fan of it, it’s a burned disc, and the vinyl was used, I guess if I had to really give a concrete opinion I’d say its ok, I get kinda bored sometimes on side 2) and Eurythmics, which is absurd, but check a Good Will, it’s there, you’ll find at every Goodwill, on CD and Vinyl. So anyway the vinyl section and I have a complicated relationship, and had kind of gone our separate ways. But for some reason I was drawn back. I began flipping through the ‘new arrivals’ and there it was. Hank Williams ‘The Legend of Hank Williams in Song and Story.’ Bam, period bitches. Fucking Hank Williams, period. I happen to like Hank Williams. And don’t have much on vinyl. I’m not huge on “Greatest Hits” kind of albums (you miss all the gems, like have you ever seen “The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest” on any Bob Dylan greatest hits? No. I rest my case) but in this instance, though a bit skeptical, I thought, “sold.” Turns out this album is fucking amazing. It’s Hank Williams Jr. narrating two full length records of his father’s songs. He tells anecdotes he’s heard from other musicians, tells the stories behind some songs, in short, if you gave me one word to describe this affair I would choose “fucking fantastic.” A new prize in my collection. Though it’s mostly songs you’ve got elsewhere in the Hank Williams catalogue, but it’s still a one-of-a-kind Hank Williams album. And it has two poems by Hank Williams read by Hank Williams Jr. that are so bad that they are, you guessed it, fucking fantastic. I don’t know where you would find this again, I’ve never seen it or heard of it before, but it’s a beautiful thing. There may yet be hope sweet vinyl section at Goodwill, yes, there may be hope for us yet.

Last.fm

So today I joined Last.fm. I was just online and wanted to listen to some music and thought, hey why don't I finally check this out and listen to some internet radio. I turned on my Last.fm player and was listening to the Black Keys and reading the news on the BBC and saw in their entertainment section that Last.fm was just bought out, yesterday, by the CBS Corporation. I don't know why this is so disappointing to me. I mean there is the standard feeling of not wanting something interesting like internet radio to get in the hands of the corporations, who'll utilizing ads, etc. etc. But I don't even really have any attatchment to Last.fm. I like the concept but I'm not really all that impressed with the selection of music on here. (If you don't know about Last.fm it's internet radio, except you set-up your own station, you tell the player what music you listen to and it reads what songs you have on your itunes or winamp and creates a playlist for you based on your musical interests. a great concept, excecuted with a hint of mediocrity)

Anyhow, I was disappointed by this news and I don't know what that says about me, because it really doesn't matter.

I hope I don't suck.

Fuck it, a digression on a week of rediscovery

All week I've been sifting through stacks of loose discs lying around in milk crates, on my bookshelf, and in my closer. These are the cd's I quit listening toor never listened to, from times when I thought it would be a good idea to burn twenty discs at once, listen to two of them and throw the rest into a pile for 'later listening.' Which is where they are now. The stacks accumlate, swallow a couple of my favorite discs and store some that I'm luke warm on. They are inevitably lost for a couple months to a year, when I clean my apartment and try to figure out something to do with all these stacks of cd's.

I sifted through a pile or two such as this early in the week and made some re-discoveries that I've enjoyed all over, regretted ever owning and a few that remain there so I am not shamed when people look through my collection. But the point of this lengthy introduction is that during this process I rediscovered The Squirrel Nut Zippers 1997 album 'Hot.' Some, unnamed, people I work with have given me shit for listening to it and other people have placated me with their smiles and nods in my car. (In my own damn car) But fuck it. I didn't accept for a while that I could still like a good swing/jazz album like this and that's how it ended up in the pile on my bookshelf in the first place. I'm not going to music snobbed into a corner.

I like this is album. It is good. For many reasons:
Katherine Whalen's uncanny resemblence to Billie Holiday. Solid solos. They don't get too 'swingy,' you know, in the way you remember Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, even at their best (see their cover of 'Minnie the Moocher'). But it mostly leaves the stale, musty flavor of the late 90's and nu-metal lingering in your mouth like a dirty sanchez. BBVD aged like milk, metal or ska, The SNZ are more like your proverbial wine. Great harmonies, fun, playful songs (remember 'Hell' and then remember that the rest of the album belittles that track, its raw) but you probably don't remember any of this and if you know me, you're probably surprised that I'm defending this. I don't care. It's good. I'm not ashamed that I was listening to it all week. That's all.

I'm losing hope...

So this afternoon I've been paroozing websites that are discussing the impending doom of internet radio. If you aren't up on this here's the story: on March 2nd the Copyright Royalty Board decided to up the cost of royalties for internet radio providers, retroactivly and increasingly until 2010. I don't know if you listen to internet radio but I do, and this will effectively destroy small internet radio providers. stations like those available through college campuses across the country and Live365 will not be able to afford to continue running. This will leave the internet radio in the hands of the same people destroying the airwaves, stations like AOLradio will be the survivors (Jesus don't let it happen) if they even decide it's worth continuing. This also means increased advertising online (Jesus, ditto).

the other end of this is the artists will recieve more money, not much, but the reports say it will be around a couple hundred extra dollars per year. which seems insignificant, but it is surely significant to many artists. But the artists who will benefit from this extra dough are not going to be played as frequently as they are now.

Congress is catching on though. Senators Brownback and Wyden are introducing a bill (H.R. 2060 which you can read HERE) If this legislation doesn't go through your favorite internet radio stations are going to have to start accepting advertising or are going to start needing donations (god bless NPR but we all know how fucking annoying fund raising drives are). So write or call your representatives and get support for H.R. 2060. So if you want to know more about this (since I'm just skimming the surface) check out Last Plane to Jakarta for a blog post about this, or RIP Internet Radio for an article by Pitchfork, also visit Save Net Radio <- this is the best site for information, they are spearheading the movement to save the airwaves. As a host of an internet radio show I think that this is really important, (check out our site at the Local Point for info too)

And while you're at it (Pitchfork linked this in their article) here's a little reminder about who is running our country, we're in good hands, they are so in touch with the people MC Rove