Very Close to, if not actually in, the CD player:
stream full album ° seen/heard ° buy
seen/heard ° listen ° preorder
seen/heard ° listen ° preorder
stream full album ° seen/heard ° buy
Fake Phil Collins Sex Tape!
‘member Emmy the Great? From a couple weeks ago? Of course you do! Why, you haven't been able to stop remembering her! It's starting to worry people!
Well *poof* she's got a New York date: Sidewalk Café, this Wednesday, 9/26. Tomorrow! She won't have a full band behind her, just her geetar and a pair of back-up singers. We'll take it.
That's the only U.S. date currently scheduled. Sorry, rest of America.
Here are a few songs from live radio performances, to whet yer want. Suicide, car crashes, whatever the fuck it is Black Francis is on about. Good times, happy days.
Emmy the Great - MIA (Live from BBC Maida Vale) (mp3)
Emmy the Great - Edward is Dedward (Live on XFM) (mp3)
Emmy the Great - Two Steps (Live from BBC Maida Vale)(mp3)
Emmy the Great - Where is My Mind? (Pixies cover, Live from BBC Maida Vale) (mp3)
Seriously, that's some lovely stuff.
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I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but there's a whole lotta Muzak worship going ‘round. Not the fun, tortured, Ariel Pink variety, either. It's like we'd gotten used to the gradual stink of every Lite-Rock impulse that's arisen over the past several years (Remember when there were people who called Death Cab emo?) and suddenly we're standing knee-deep in loose stool. I blame any band that's ever name-checked Fleetwood Mac as an influence; a real slippery slope, there.
God, remember when the forty-year-old guy at the record shop said you just had to have that first Thrills CD? Rat bastard.
A huge diarrheic wave of shit rock is on its way to flush away the complacent motherfuckers who crave the turdtacular record collections their parents' parents couldn't give away at rummage sales. Wouldn't it be great to see Loggins & Messina (Together once more at last again!) and Lewis & Sennett (Shame on anyone, anyone, who fooled themselves into thinking that Jenny Lewis solo album was any good; it was, at best, the third-best fourth-rate country-themed pop star side project to come out last year.) clogging up McCarren Park Pool, next summer? Let's live every weekend like it's a Vampire Weekend, every night like it's Manilow night! When the movement's grabbed everyone by the Seals and Crofts, you'll see hipsters scarfing down pre-chewed avocado wraps, berating anyone who only has The Best of Bread, because DUDE you have to download the whole discography to feel the full non-impact.
Edgier bands will have the balls to explore full-on Easy Listening. And these guys will form MushaBOOM!, The World's Greatest Heavy Metal Tribute to Feist.
It's as if the world is trying to make me appreciate those couple years when every band sounded like Gang of Four.
If Soft Rock is the Next Big Retread - and WhamBamStarlandVocalBand, signs are gesturing (gently, dear listener, gently) that way - the world could (and will) do worse than embrace this nifty bit of smoovness:
Kay Hanley - I Guess I Get It (mp3)
Bless former penpal and pussycat Hanley for making this track - a demo from her unfinished new album - available for download through her myspace. When the record comes out I'll gravitate toward "Work is for Suckers" (duh, c'mon), but this'll be my windows-closed belt-along favorite. I think it's an axed-up Carpenters song - "Yesterday Once More," maybe?
(Redd Kross - Yesterday Once More (Carpenters cover) (mp3) (buy))
Okay, maybe not exactly that.
Hanley's verses are okay ("tonic and gin" or "crazy train" are sore-thumb phrases), and the rhythm section verges on parody. But "I Guess I Get It" works because there's a bit of resignation to it, already; because she can effectively reign herself in; because USA Mike's Lennonish solo at the end adds needed twang; because the building bounce of the chorus - that uh in "Doin' what you should is not a easy thing" is a major selling point - is undeniable.
The ending just needs a quart more punch - torch that shit, diva it out, Bette Midler this motherfucker - and it could be arm-waving showstopper stuff. I want to taste the running mascara.
I like this Hanley number. As for the rest of the oncoming schmaltz... Go on, dullards, do yer crappiest. Just gives me another reason to hate Life, and that's pretty much what I live for.
It'll all be over once the recession hits. And the backlash should be amazing.
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Speaking of steaming heaps: I'd gathered, going into the season, my Rams would have another 8-8 year. Now it's looking like they'll be lucky to make 4-12.
It's amazing, how big this team can't come up. They're awesome at amassing every stat except the one that counts. Week 2, they had 392 total yards of offense... and 16 points. This week, they dominated time of possession, 32:46-27:14... and lost 24-3. They are unable to do anything other than move the ball between the 20s. Pathetic.
The one solid acquisition they made in the off-season was kickoff-returner Dante Hall. St. Louis' special teams are traditionally among the worst, and at least Hall would help one aspect, right? He did, the first week; his 84-yard return helped set up a touchdown. But the next week... he muffed a fair catch, setting up the winning score for the 49ers.
He's hardly the only one turning over the ball. Steven Jackson, who fumbled twice all last year, fumbled twice the first week (giving this awesome Michael Mann Nike commercial an inadvertent punchline). Marc Bulger has only fumbled once, and he didn't have any interceptions until this week... when he had three.
Bulger has 651 yards passing... and two touchdowns on the year. He was re-signed in the off-season for big $$$; big mistake. As I've said before, he is a losing quarterback. There's no leadership there. He's not driven, the team's always playing catch-up, never motivated unless they have to be. Kurt Warner - and some people thought this was one of his faults - always tried to make something happen. It was okay when Warner'd have three interceptions in a game, because he'd have five touchdowns the same day. Nothing happens with Bulger's offense. It's miserable seeing a team with Jackson, Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt have so many three-and-outs. I could complain about the defense, but truth is that, were the offense vaguely functional, the D's doing enough.
The Rams have lost the first three games of the season to not-good teams (Carolina, SF, Tampa Bay). Think the defenses they'll be facing in Dallas, Baltimore, Seattle, and Pittsburgh aren't licking their chops?
Orlando Pace's latest injury probably means his career is over. If I were him, I certainly wouldn't be in a rush to get back to this team.
But hey, congratulations to ex-Ram Kevin Curtis, who tied an NFL record with 205 receiving yards in the first half of Philly's rout of Detroit on Sunday.
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Here, because people are Googling in: Nickel Creek's Chris Thile and his band Punch Brothers (*) are playing a show at the Baggot Inn on October 5th. Tix are $20; I don't see any advance purchase info, so contact the box office.
(*) This is the band formerly known as The Tension's Mountain Boys/How to Grow a Band... though whether they'll be playing TMB material (that complicated longform bluegrass suite Thile was composing) or H2GaB material (stuff from Thile's solo records, covers) I've no idea. Tune in next week, when the outfit will be called Punch Brothers in a White Wine Sauce.