19.4.08

Midnight Show

Do you ever feel like you want to scream for until you face turns blue and you eyes peel back and you vocal chords break just to get all the screaming out. Have you ever felt that eight hours of sleep isnt enough and that twelve hours of sleep isn't enough and that even though your body wont let you do it your sure that that twenty four wouldn't be enough and that you want to sleep for a month or six or a year. Do you ever want to do something destructive just so you have a good reason to hate yourself.

i took my babys heart beneath the chandelier
of stars and atmosphere
and watched it disappeared

18.4.08

Breaking the Girl

Mix 4/10 and 4/18

Side A
Way To Blue - Nick Drake
Leave Before the Lights Come On - Arctic Monkeys
Ventilator Blues - The Rolling Stones
The Day I Tried To Live - SoundGarden
Crown of Love - Arcade Fire
Blueprint - Fugazi
Jimmy Jazz - The Clash
Political World - Bob Dylan

Side B
Yer Blues - The Beatles
Doin' The Cockroach - Modest Mouse
Drive - R.E.M.
Bones - Radiohead
Love Buzz - Nirvana
Manic Depression - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Black Wave - The Shins
Breaking the Girl - Red Hot Chili Peppers

she meant you no harm

15.4.08

Unity

Charles Foster Kane: You know, Mr. Bernstein, if I hadn't been very rich, I might have been a really great man.
Walter Parks Thatcher: Don't you think you are?
Charles: I think I did pretty well under the circumstances.
Walter: What would you like to have been?
Charles: Everything you hate.


I've always thought this sumed up what it is to be punk (green day can go fuck themselves). Its the thing when an audience member yelled out 'judas' and dylan tuned and told his band to play fucking loud. Punk rock at its best is destruction to create and its honesty and its freedom. Unfortunately it doesn't usually get there.

p.s. 42 posts this year. party.

we aint no sect
no this aint no fucking faction

14.4.08

Universe & U

Next saturday is national record store day. A day where I plan to wake up bright and early, pack as much money as I can find into my pockets, grab my long list of albums I need, and go store hopping (after breakfast at the cafe). Theres going to be give aways and bands playing and even the once front man of the dead kennedys manning the counter at amoeba sf. http://www.recordstoreday.com/
P.S. the Adam Duritz quote is quite long but he talks about amoeba and mod lang so its worth it.

kt Tunstall
"Independent record stores are like a casino where you put down your money and you always win. How amazing to discover gems you didn't know about, to meet someone more passionate than you are, and to feel at home in a place you may never have been to before. I'm convinced they will never lose their place - Long may they rule."

Fat Mike (NOFX)
"If it wasn't for independent record stores, I would be a San Fernando valley real estate agent."

Adam Duritz (Counting Crows)
“I feel like I spent most of my life wandering the aisles of record stores. I used to love going to Amoeba when our guitar player Immy worked there and hanging out all day talking about records. I think that's what finally got him fired; there were always people trailing around after him cluttering up the store trying to soak up the Immerwisdom. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure it was when some kid came up to the cash register with a pile of records and Immy, who was sitting on top of the counter at the time, grabbed the pile, perused it, threw most of them to the side and said something like, "Forget these, you don't need them. These two are really good, that one is great. Now go to that rack over there and grab the new Gang of Four and the Pere Ubu album. That's all you need." It probably would've been cool if the manager hadn't walked up behind him just before he did it. Oh well.

The great thing about the best record stores is that the people who work there, like Immy, love music. They love to listen to it and they love to talk about it and they love to introduce other people to it. My favorite record stores in the world reside together on either side of a tiny storefront in Blenheim Crescent, just off the Portobello Rd in London. Minus Zero and Stand Out Records face each other across a three foot aisle and Bill Allerton and Bill Forsyth stand on either side of the aisle enthusiastically competing to play some of the best music you've never heard for anyone who dares come inside. Immy and I were directed there by friends at Mod Lang records in Berkeley (another stellar shop). They're only open a few days a week and they weren't open when we got there. Still, Bill A let us in. Four hours later, we staggered out under the weight of shopping bags full of obscure records by bands we loved but mostly by ones we'd never heard of. Bill A just played us record after record after record of amazing music and we soaked it up. We came back the next day to meet Bill F and it happened all over again. We literally had to buy extra suitcases. Now we're junkies. We never go to London without leaving at least 4-5 hours free to visit Blenheim Crescent and we NEVER go to London without an extra suitcase. I heard half of my favorite bands for the first time inside that little shop.

The fact is that there will always be good music. The only question really is how are we ever going to learn about it without guys like Bill Allerton and Bill Forsyth to play it for us.”

Nick Hornby, author, High Fidelity, Slam, (among others)
"Yes, yes, I know. It's easier to download music, and probably cheaper. But what's playing on your favourite download store when you walk into it? Nothing, that's what. Who are you going to meet in there? Nobody. Where are the notice boards offering flatshares and vacant slots in bands destined for superstardom? Who's going to tell you to stop listening to that and start listening to this? Go ahead and save yourself a couple of quid. The saving will cost you a career, a set of cool friends, musical taste and, eventually, your soul. Record stores can't save your life. But they can give you a better one."

Ian Gillan (Deep Purple)
"Buy real records in real shops, or I'll come round your house and scream at your mother.”

Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips)
"The 'cool' record store. It is where you can talk to people who are like you. They look like you, think like you and, most tellingly like the same music as you - the only comparable experience these days would probably be an art museum - an actual place where you can stand and simply be surrounded by your heroes."

you know I tell the truth
we are just the same

13.4.08

Lost in the Supermarket

I'm on the retreat and we had to take off our shoes for one activity or another and the girl next to me was upset that here feet were gross because she stepped in a muddy puddle with her flip flops. I couldn't tell really. She was disgusted by my socks because they were a bit brown. I explained that I had walked around in them without my shoes for a wile and that I hadn't asked to take off my shoes after all but she wouldn't get off it. I thought life is gonna hit her like a steam train but I guess it might not beautiful people can get away with anything. Then today after I got back I was at a recycling booth in berkeley and saw homeless and poor people screaming at each other for no reason. Someones gonna hit me for repeating the cliche of what ever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I've always thought whatever doesn't traumatize you makes you better. So there was the clean freak who was too sheltered and the sad people who had been thrown into the world and were no better for it. So is there anyway to be thrown into the world and survive it without being traumatized. And whats the healthy medium.

I wasn't born so much as I fell out