Confirmation of Everything I've Ever Known

Adding space as an adjective really does just make it... y'know, MORE.


Somebody needs to finish his book already.

For the Pseudo Ivy League Punters in the Audience

As Pete Townshend once said, "Sit down or stand up but shut up. It's a fucking rock and roll concert, not a tea party!"

So yes, my self important pretentious co-audience members who complained about everything before and during the Hold Steady's set tonight, shut up. Your sophisticated tweed jacket did nothing to cover up the personal failings of your shitty attitude.

But know this: I screamed a lot louder, jumped around a lot harder and sang way more often just to piss you off. And that, for me, made an already enjoyable evening that much sweeter. Because it's rock and roll, man, not book club.

more thoughts on where stories come from

Recently, I was forced to sit down and watch The Professional. Ultimately, while I found it to be an entirely enjoyable movie experience, I kept coming back to one thought: How is this going to effect this young woman's life ten years down the road?

I mean, can you imagine?

Trained to be an assassin and legally dead, what kind of night does that make for her college boyfriend when she has a few too many to drink and unloads her secret history on him? What happens if she's forced into a corner and has to resort to "old behavior?"

This is the big question I've turned over in my head in the months since I watched this movie. Tonight, I sat down to watch The Crow and felt the same familiar tug at the front of my brain. One of your best friends returns from the dead to avenge himself and his love. You're there to witness it all. It's got to have an effect decades down the road, right?

But seriously, screw that Crow: City of Angels crap. I slept through it once already when it came out.

things that i think about

Undoubtedly, I haven't had much time to work on music this year. I sincerely hope this changes soon as I've a few projects to finish, a few projects to start.

I was on a quick run yesterday listening to the new Tricky album (Mixed Race) when I could finally articulate what I want out of my next stage piece:

"I want it to sound like Aaron Copeland hanging out with Frank Lloyd Wright in some shitty underground dance club in downtown Chicago and they're doing death drugs."

I hope I never forget that.

So tired, blah...

So. In the last week, Jwest produced his first night of standup comedy, Vicki from the Old School produced a new human being (with help from her awesome hubby Robbo) and Bex finally made Seany an honest man (as honest as he's capable of being anyhow). Seriously, Congrats go out to all of them. They're all awesome.

This week we're gonna go see Ray Lamontagne and David Gray at the Santa Fe Opera House. Then we're gonna throw Tyler a bachelor party. Then a rehearsal dinner. And finally, on Saturday, he impacts Poor Cheryl's life like a meteor landing in dino-land.

So no book writing tonight. I gots speeches to write, yo!

what's on radio free pennington this week?

This week, I'm listening to random albums in their entirety. Which is my occasional way of returning to the album as an art form- beginning to end, a listenable wholesale piece of art.

I grew up listening to cassette tapes in my walkman. There was no real skip option unless you wanted to spend half your life holding buttons. Instead, you just listened to better music. That way, you didn't want to skip a thing.

Somedays, in this Apple media world, I really miss albums.

In the queue this week:

Annetenna by Annetenna- there were Ednaswap, they got sacked, some of them regrouped, made this kickass album and still got sacked by Columbia records. Goddammit.

Angles by Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip- beat hop as I refer to it. Dan Le Sac throws out various electro clash shapes for Pip to rhyme over. Worth it solely for "Thou Shalt Always Kill" and the Radiohead sampled "Letter to God."

Heaven is Whenever by the Hold Steady- more tuneful than previous records, the knee jerk reaction is to think of this as THS slipping soft rock into the set. Numerous listens unfold an album of simple truths, beauties and time providing, a new direction for the band's next few years.

LCD Soundsystem by LCD Soundsystem- the first record, as buoyed by "Daft Punk is Playing at My House." "Tribulations" gave me vertigo the first time I heard it. Literally. Now I find myself chasing the dragon.

No Line on the Horizon by U2- not my favorite record by any means, but I find myself returning to the songs I found so challenging a year ago. I like to listen to it at work a lot, too.

No One's First and You're Next by Modest Mouse- it meanders a bit but offers subtle joys left off other albums. "Satellite Skin" and "I've Got It All (Most)" do that scrappy underdog emo thing they do so well down to a tee.

No Said Date by Masta Killa- the debut from the admitted ninth member of the bunch. Old school Wu-Tang with cameo's from every one in the Clan, there's beauty in simplicity. Especially when RZA rides shotgun on "School" and "Old Man."

Room on Fire by the Strokes- like the first album except tighter and better written. True, nothing on the record punches with the immediacy of "Last Night," but I could listen to this nonstop for a year. Wait. Already did. My last year of college.

Powder Burns by the Twilight Singers- Greg Dulli seems to churn out one self loathing masterpiece a decade and this is the last one's. Unlike the Afghan Whigs' Black Love, this album turns inward as Dulli comes to jesus with himself. But never more hauntingly so than "Bonnie Brae" or "Candy Cane Crawl."

This is Happening by LCD Soundsystem- by far the most listened album in my head so far this year, I keep thinking back to James Murphy's comments about the band being a forum for his commentary on music. Moreso with each album, it seems to become more of a commentary on his feelings about his age and its relationship to music. I put "Home" on repeat and ran for three miles the other day. It was haunting.

Streetcore by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros- Joe's final hurrah, it was full of barn burning rockers like "Coma Girl," "All in a Day" and "Arms Aloft." But that shouldn't betray the beautiful simplicity of Strummer's take on "Redemption Song" or the post 9-11 lament of "Ramshackle Day Parade."

Strangers by Ed Harcourt- the sound of Harcourt firing on all cylinders, he balances rockers like "the Storm is Coming" and "Born in the 70's" perfectly with gorgous down played moments like "Only Happy When You're High." Nothing beats the morose sexiness of "Black Dress," though.

Tedious Bliss by Feels Like Sunday- admittedly, I've been playing this one a lot lately. Spurred on by how much I miss their presence in Albuquerque and the fact that Joni was always a gutsier singer than I could ever be, this is my favorite "you had to be there" sorta moment. "Photographs" still slays me all these years later.

Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem- because you never forget your first one.

thank you, A.L.H.

You owned a promo copy of the Grosse Pointe Blank soundtrack, vol. II. Maybe you just don't love it like I will. Maybe you needed some extra scratch. Maybe you needed some extra space. Maybe you were burnt out on being a dj or college music journalist or whatever.

I found your cd used online and now it is mine. Sadly, I've waited years for this. I am a simple but sick man. With an awesome music collection.

Poetry in Emotion

Was out tonight hashing out ideas over a possible new project and it's unbelievable the things you remember in the moment. How is it possible, I ask myself, to forget the good that comes of a night out on the patio with drinks and a friend and a million stories to tell. These nights out at the pub are tantamount to an oil change for the writer brain.

Which reminds me of Bud Brixey. Bud was my mentor in academic decathlon oh sooo many years ago. The one thing Bud taught me that no person could ever replace: the true meaning of poetry.

"Prose," he said, "Is words in the best order."

Simple, yeah?

"Poetry," he continued, "Is the best words in the best order."

And that was Bud's genius. Because poetry, by those standards, could jazz you about anything. A person blogging about the sublimeness of sushi could stir my soul just as much as Langston Hughes.

But only if it's the best words in the best order on the subject.

So maybe it's time to put a little more poetry out there into the world?

serving notice

Hello all. Today seems like just as good as any other day to remind you all to remind the world that you're brilliant.

Give 'em love, truth, beauty. Whatever. Give 'em hell if you want. Just give 'em something to talk about in hushed and excited tones.

first report from santa fe's 8 july 2010 Hold Steady show

In what was neither the first nor the last occurrance of this happening, I jacked a concert poster. I've done this so many times its not even funny. This one, however, I think I shall have framed.

The Whigs were great. The Hold Steady were prolific and incredible. On behalf of Santa Fe, New Mexico and Santa Fe Brewing Co., I just want to apologize.

More on that later. With video. Phenomenal incredible video.