tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26751013757965672262024-02-07T08:36:38.960-08:00Beneath The UnderdogLet Me Tell You About My Boat.Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.comBlogger146125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-28364501789524179632008-11-21T07:51:00.000-08:002008-11-21T11:56:27.508-08:00Paul Simon and Integration Vs. Visitation<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/muppet/images/4/40/Paulsimon.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 302px;" src="http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/muppet/images/4/40/Paulsimon.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />I've been having a hard time writing about Paul Simon's self-titled record. It's something that just snuck up on me. But not in a fast sneak, in a very slow and deliberate sneak. Where it had been nuzzled up in my lap for months and months, and I never noticed. It has slowly become one of my favorite albums. Which is an odd thing, because I'm not the hugest Paul Simon fan. I think he lost the wheel after a few albums into his solo career. I don't like <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Graceland</span>, I'm willing to give it another couple of chances, I just think his songs are best when they have some space for them to move their elbows around. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Graceland </span>is just too busy and cluttered. I don't know, maybe not, I'm working on it. <div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Paul Simon</span> is a horse of a different color, though. It's relaxed, confident vibe make it perfect for just about any time. Perfect for Sunday morning's breakfast, late late late Friday night's "just this one last record", weekday afternoon's laying around. The songs are well built, the melodies inbed themselves deep in your humming veins and your whistling capillaries. There something about a song like "Peace Like A River" that is just so open to interpretation. In Simon's hands it's the sound of being content, maybe. He's still gonna be up for a while. Is that an invitation, or a threat? Spoon have recently <a href="http://www.daytrotter.com/article/1322/spoon">tackled this song</a> and made the "I'm gonna be up for a while" line sound more threatening, especially when they start pounding away at their instruments after each little part. </div><div><br /></div><div>As I've had some time to think about it, taking a little lunch break in the middle of writing this, my problem with <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Graceland</span> might be the impression I've always had about it being a particularly egregious example of the 1980's musical colonialism. Some bands, well, one band, the Talking Heads, managed to pull this off integrating the music of other cultures into their music while maintaining their prevailing artistic themes. On <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Graceland</span> Paul Simon sounds more like a musical tourist. Paul Simon songs with South African music attached. (Some bands since have been more adept at achieving a positive balance of integration versus visitation, Sea And Cake and Vampire Weekend being two of the best examples.)</div>Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-60764319244891712712008-11-15T06:44:00.000-08:002008-11-15T08:14:14.591-08:00Things I'm Enjoying Now<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://oobleck.ifa.hawaii.edu:8080/where/images/orion.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 431px; height: 600px;" src="http://oobleck.ifa.hawaii.edu:8080/where/images/orion.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div>So, it's been quite some time since I last wrote a blog post, since June, in fact. I'm sure there are reasons I could give, outside of being terribly busy getting married, working, enjoying married life etc. But the fact of the matter is that my profession allows me a good bit of free time that I've just kind of wasted. After getting married, I invested all of my alone free time into being obsessed with the election. Which was awesome. Getting married and getting Barack Obama into the White House have been two high points of my life, two of the happiest days in my life yet. All in the same year, no less. </div><div><br /></div><div>Somehow, I've got to get back into blogging, with the election over, there's only so much information I can get about politics now. Unlike during those feverish months before, where I would visit Talking Points Memo four or five times a day. So here is my attempt to dry out from a bad case of Election Fever. A return to blogging, or more appropriately a dip of my toe in to the blogging waters.</div><div><br /></div><div>So to steal the entire premise of Nick Hornby's "Things I'm Reading Now", here are some things I'm enjoying now...</div><div><br /></div>1. Orion (The Constellation)<div>Orion hangs over my house in the fall and winter. Whenever I walk my dog, Bean at night, I see a few stars that break through the light pollution that comes with living smack dab in the middle of a mid sized city. But on my way back to my house, I see Orion hanging over the house, on his side. Something is so entirely beautiful about this constellation and it's reliability, hanging over the house I've shared with my wife for almost four years (we've lived together for much longer than we've been married two months in four days). It's been the longest sustained period of happiness in my life. Which brings me to my next thing I enjoy, which should have been number one, that is, if this list was in any particular order.</div><div><br /></div><div>2. My Wife (Amanda Given)</div><div>Being married is awesome. If only for the fact that I now get to call Amanda "my wife". And "the missus" and all other fun permutations thereafter. I can't say that things are so different from the almost four years previous. I've felt the same way about this woman since day one. My friend, Melissa recently asked me how long Amanda and I had been living together, and when I told her how Amanda and I got together in the end of February 2005, and moved in to this same house that Orion hangs over that April. She slanted her mouth and said "geez, that was a little risky," and I guess when you think about it, objectively, from the viewpoint of a passive narrator, that story sounds a little crazy. But I hadn't been so sure of anything in my life. I knew I'd spend the rest of my life with Amanda from that very moment we kissed in the empty bus station at 5 in the morning. "I had never been so sure about anything in my life," is what I told Melissa. And I meant it, and I mean it. I love my wife.</div><div><br /></div><div>3. <a href="http://www.avclub.com/content/topics/Popless">Popless</a> on <a href="http://www.avclub.com/">The Onion AV Club</a> and by extension minor league music, and it's ability to make an imprint on your life.</div><div><br /></div><div>At the same time I hatched the itty bitty egg that couldn't, <a href="http://thered-skull.blogspot.com/">The Red Skull</a>, Noel Murray started Popless, an excellent column on the always excellent AV Club with a very similar, though much more devoted premise. The Red Skull was made shortly before, when I really look at it, was the catalyst for the waning of my interest in blogging, Amanda getting hit by a drunk driver. I guess maybe certain things seemed a lot less important. Also, there was the Hatchet folding as an unintended side effect of that man's drunken, reckless, harmful behavior. So, I lost some of the motivation for my writing. Anyway, entirely too personal aside over, The Red Skull was my attempt to get some of the bloggers and other writers I knew to write about the old music they enjoyed, whatever it was, as long as it wasn't new. I only got the very game, and very great Marco to join me on my mission, and he did a much better job than I, in my opinion. The superior Popless and Murray have kept up with it's premise, exposing me to some things I'd slept on or reminding me how great some things were (The Who and Pete Townsend). My favorite part of each column, though are The Stray Tracks, where he picks out songs from his ipod that he wouldn't want to comment on the artist's entire output, but just on this one, great song. Ranging from bands like Thunderclap Newman, whose "Something In The Air" has been abused in snippet form in sixties/seventies movie montages for years. Hearing the full song for the first time was a revelation! What a wonderful song, what a great band! Then there were little bits by nineties indie-rock also-rans, like Unrest and Versus. Oh, how wonderful Versus were. Little indie songs with a guitar god busting out in the middle of these little songs to lay some knowledge on the cross-armed crowds. I've threatened it before, but a nineties version of Nuggets should be compiled, and it should be called "Lint". Almost all of those garage bands on Nuggets were on independent labels, which subsided until the mid eighties, and really flowered in the nineties. It should be done!</div><div><br /></div><div>4. "How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?" by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings</div><div>The perfect Sharon Jones song. Back on Nov. 4 when the networks called it for Barack, the bar we were at went crazy, it turned into a dance party, and the song that kicked it off was this absolutely funky and absolutely appropriate number. This song will be played at every party I throw from here to eternity.</div><div><br /></div><div>5. My nephew William Sergio Becom.</div><div>Sergio has just recently joined the family, shortly after I did in an official capacity. Sergio is just about the most awesome baby in the universe. And man, do I want one for our little family over here on Gordon St. He's such a well behaved baby, though. He went with the family down to SC for a wedding a few weeks ago, and was a quiet little guy almost the entire time. He was calm as could be while a band played, uncles, cousins, mothers, fathers, etc. chattered on. I'm looking forward to playing with Sergio and all the other things that come with being an uncle, like staying up till the sun rises getting drunk with him many years from now on a beach week. </div><div><br /></div>Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-45878327667656393512008-06-10T10:16:00.000-07:002008-06-10T10:54:48.492-07:00The Shape Of Bagels To ComeIt's been quite a long time since I last wrote anything, period. I don't have a terribly glorious reason why, either. I spent a little more than two months of my free time with Grand Theft Auto 4. It was fantastic, an amazing video game from a series that has produced the best video games of the post-Nintendo dominance era. For the most parts, video games have fallen into this shooter/football game rut. The Grand Theft Auto games are pretty much the only ones that ever hold my interest for very long. GTA4, the 6th (or 9th, really) iteration of the series will end up for me, being one of the best entertainment experiences of the year. Up there with all the arty movies, and arty music. This being primarily a music blog, I am driven to make a parallel between GTA and the music world.<br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/K8MkVIe9xGc&hl=en"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/K8MkVIe9xGc&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Lately, I've dusted off my well worn copy of Refused's 1998 album <em>The Shape Of Punk To Come, </em>one of those watershed albums in a genre (hardcore) that I find often gets mired in it's own strictures and it's desire not to mess with a formula that's worked. It's been a problem that's plagued hardcore, and punk in general since it's inception. The high points of hardcore can almost make up for the homogeny of it's ilk, The Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Black Flag, Husker Du, all produced albums that are high points not only of their genres but of their generations. But it's telling that all of those bands moved onto something else, musically. Some with success, some not so much. Minor Threat begat Fugazi, <em>Land Speed Record</em> begat <em>Flip Your Wig</em>, etc. etc.<br /><br />The Shape Of Punk To Come was a grenade to the face for me in 1998. Amid the dreck that somehow teenagers I knew started calling hardcore (Korn and Limp Bizkit were called hardcore by the unknowing people I was hanging out with at the time). I saw the video for "New Noise" and my mind was blown. It's amazing to even think of a video for a song like "New Noise" even being played in 1998 let alone now, ten years later. I promptly went out and bought <em>The Shape Of Punk To Come</em>. This was punk? Holy shit, what had I been listening to. It was Epitaph, which was throwing all the seeds of this pop-punk emo shit, but I was totally falling for that shit while it was ramping up. And then <em>this </em>came along. So I started digging. I heard Husker Du, I found out what that clip of The Bad Brains that I saw a couple of years before was all about (I wrote a post about that about a year ago). The thing about <em>The Shape Of Punk To Come</em>, though was that it did about a million different things that it's predecessors didn't, or that they hadn't even thought was possible. Violins, vibraphones, upright bass, constantly shifting song structures, burbling techno passages interrupting songs. It's fiery, it's invigorating, it's fucking fun as hell to listen to in the car, all alone, windows down, screaming along.<br /><br />And sorry to get your hopes up about any return to blogging form, I'm hopping down to Florida Thursday afternoon, I'll be back Monday, with some pictures and such things.<br /><br />Also, I'd like to happily announce that I've lost 25 pounds. And not as in I was pickpocketed in London, lost 25 pounds.Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-14200915505228166142008-03-10T10:28:00.000-07:002008-03-10T11:02:11.116-07:00Crates & Crates: Twenty-Five Miles<a href="http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/%A5Artist%20GIF%20Images/Watts-103rd-St-Band-Nice.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/%A5Artist%20GIF%20Images/Watts-103rd-St-Band-Nice.jpg" border="0" /></a>The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band- <em><a href="http://rapidshare.com/files/98497308/01_Twenty-Five_Miles.mp3.html">Twenty Five Miles</a></em><br /><div></div><br /><div>One of the first moments in my long love affair with soul music started on a trip back from visiting my grandparents in Ohio. I was sitting in the back seat of a rental car, listening to my Walkman. I'd officially exhausted the tapes that I had, and was listening to an oldies station outside of Winston Salem. I heard a song that blew me away, and I couldn't figure out who it was for years. I just remembered the parts about "feet don't fail me now" and "I gotta walk on! ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah". On occasion I'd remember the song, and search madly for it, quizzing my friend Brian, who was (is) a walking encyclopedia of the type of soul music that would be on oldies stations, and he didn't know what I was talking about either. Years and years pass, haunted by this song, only remembering the urgency and gritty feeling of the song, and it's aforementioned lyrical tidbits. </div><div></div><br /><div>Then one afternoon, I bring home <em>In The Jungle, Babe </em>by The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. This was right after Amanda and I moved in together, so I'd say right around three years. It was a perfect find for my fledgling vinyl collection. The 103rd Street Band is probably most popular for "Express Yourself" (which isn't on this record). There's an amateurish nature to the band's recordings, Charles Wright's voice cracks like a drunken hobo, the band plays way too fast, but all that makes their sound all the more exhilarating. </div><div></div><br /><div>And on the second side of <em>In The Jungle, Babe</em>, I heard it. "Twenty Five Miles", even faster, even more urgent than I remembered it being. There it was, this moment that led me into loving soul music, this moment that I couldn't even explain to anyone, and here it was. I was so happy to finally hear this song that I'd been thinking of for years. </div><div></div><br /><div>So, years pass, I occasionally listen to the album now and again, and get slapped in the face by the greatness of "Twenty Five Miles". Today, I decided that it'd be good to bring this song to Beneath The Underdog, inspired by my "Compared To What" post from the other day. I decided to do some similar research on the song, to find that this wasn't the version I heard on the outskirts of Winston-Salem that night so long ago. I must have heard Edwin Starr's version, which was the original. Here was the line about "feet don't fail me now" which wasn't in the 103rd Street version. I think I like 103rd Street version more than I do Starr's, not to discount Starr's, it's just that The 103rd Street band tear it to pieces. </div>Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-39856276279389153012008-03-05T13:54:00.000-08:002008-03-09T10:21:11.466-07:00Crates & Crates: Compared To What<a href="http://fufustew.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/swisscrop.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://fufustew.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/swisscrop.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Les McCann & Eddie Harris- <a href="http://rapidshare.com/files/98048451/01_Compared_To_What.mp3.html">Compared To What</a><br /><br />Went record shopping <strike>today</strike> a few days ago, and picked up a few really great things. I found what has been a holy grail of sorts for me since I've had a record player, The Swiss Movement by Les McCann and Eddie Harris. It has what is hands down my favorite soul-jazz song, "Compared To What". I first heard a few seconds of this song in Casino. Just this short burst of Les McCann shouting "GODAMMIT! Tryin' to make it real compared to what!" to kick off some scene with Robert Deniro walking through the Casino. It's literally like five seconds before the song fades out, and I was captivated by the anger, frustration, and soul in those five seconds. I didn't hear the full song until years after once we hit the mp3 age. And damn, it's even more impressive than those first few seconds I heard. The lyrics almost read like a lost Dead Kennedys record, ranting against nearly every facet of society, even taking on Christianity, which for the time must have got them their fair share of hassles.<br /><br />As I was reading over the liner notes to the record, I realized that this song was actually written by someone else beside Les McCann. I had always assumed that this song was half improvised, the anger and vitality of the song is so real that I just assumed that it came up from McCann's boiling guts. It turns out that the song was written by Eugene McDaniels. Eugene McDaniels was a lite r&b singer who soured on America somewhere in the sixties and turned deeply angry and political. He never recorded this song himself, as far as I've been able to find, though he did give it to Roberta Flack to record at around the same time as this recording. Flack's version mellows out the anger, and while good, has nothing on McCann and Harris' version.<br /><br />So I decided to do some research on McDaniels, he had two albums in the late sixties and was fired by Atlantic reportedly on the say-so of Spiro Agnew. The two albums Outlaw and Headless Heroes of The Apocalypse. They're semi-funky and pretty damn good, from what I've heard of them so far. The lyrics are great, and you can easily draw lines from "Compared To What" to songs like "The Lord Is Black" and "Supermarket Blues". It's too bad that there isn't a contemporaneous version of "Compared To What" by McDaniels. Though I think it really would be hard to top McCann's.<br /><br />The rest of The Swiss Movement is a great, raw soul-jazz album. McCann doesn't sing outside of "Compared To What" which is unfortunate. The album was recorded live at a jazz festival in Switzerland. McCann and Harris just got together and played without any practice, they just got together and busted out this amazing live album. McCann's piano chords chop out dramatic tension while Harris' saxophone bleats out little solos that he's making up off the top of his head. And in comes the ringer, Benny Bailey. A Cleveland expatriate living in Switzerland, who inserts these amazing trumpet lines into songs whose style he's never even played before. He was more of a "serious" musician, playing for the Swiss radio orchestra. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time.<br /><p>I'm extremely happy to have finally gotten my hands on this record. I've spent years looking for it and have finally gotten my hands on what I've been looking for here. And I was not disappointed at all. And as with all good albums worth their salt, this has sent me on a new quest, to get my hands on those two Eugene McDaniels records. And probably some more McCann records with his singing.</p><p>Check back tomorrow or Monday for some stuff from this warped Bob Dylan bootleg I found for a dollar a while back. </p><p><br />Also bought:<br />Badfinger- Magic Christian Music<br />Paul Butterfield Band- s/t<br />NRBQ- At Yankee Stadium</p>Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-84142097447665213412008-03-03T20:33:00.000-08:002008-03-03T20:47:00.529-08:00BadfingerSo, I spent the afternoon scouring the shelves of the reputable and slightly less reputable shops in town that sell records for anything from the original Badfinger lineup. I was smacked in the face yesterday by the greatness of "No Matter What", as I documented in yesterday's post. I was bound and determined to find anything from "Magic Christian Music" to "Head On" but I came up pretty much emptyhanded. (I did see Magic Christian Music at Nice Price, but skipped it in the hopes of finding No Dice or Straight Up at Schoolkids, which I didn't so, you could say that was a mistake.)<br /><br />So, I just finished downloading a handful of songs off of Soulseek, just to satisfy my curiousity about this band. To see if they're as good as that one 7" was. So far, so good. So far in my research about the band, I'm not seeing the kind of rhapsodizing about Badfinger that a band in a somewhat similar position (albeit with a lot less money behind them) Big Star. Not to discount Big Star. It's just that Badfinger are just as good if not better in some aspects, and seem completely overlooked. So, once I get my hands on one of their albums, look forward to a write-up about it over at The Red Skull.Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-89446969979482755372008-03-03T14:41:00.000-08:002008-03-03T15:07:37.786-08:00Scientology Vs. The Beatles<div><a href="http://staxrecords.free.fr/Isaac%20Hayes%20by%20Bill%20Withers.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://staxrecords.free.fr/Isaac%20Hayes%20by%20Bill%20Withers.jpg" border="0" /></a>Isaac Hayes- <a href="http://rapidshare.com/files/96845625/01_Something.mp3.html">Something </a></div><div><span style="font-size:78%;">(this is a twelve minute song, so it's a bigger sized file, just to warn you)</span></div><div></div><br /><div>Isaac Hayes is many things, a composer, a Scientologist, a chef, a singer, the man wrote some of the best songs from the Stax label, and man, he could turn someone else's song on it's ear. Today's download is Hayes' take on George Harrison's "Something". A song that made it's rounds in the r&b world (another notable cover is by Ray Charles). </div><div></div><div> </div><div>Here Hayes tacks on an extra nine minutes to the original three of The Beatles version. Female back up singers, electric violin, and big horn sections push the song into the outer reaches of soul music. Chants of "the girl has got something" are the only things to vaguely remind you of where the song started off. It all comes crashing down on itself at the end, the band reaches this euphoric state chasing after the screeching electric violin. It's as if even the band forgot where it was, until the guitarist fades out with that familiar reverbed part at the end of the original. </div><div> </div><div>By the way, I'd appreciate any feedback on how this whole mp3 thing is working out. Are the downloads fast enough? Are they actually working, for that matter? </div>Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-15775749505201586362008-03-02T09:42:00.000-08:002008-03-02T18:13:10.726-08:00C-Sides Part Two<a href="http://naturalistic.net/media/tinytim.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://naturalistic.net/media/tinytim.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Badfinger- <a href="http://rapidshare.com/files/96615382/02_No_Matter_What.mp3.html">No Matter What</a><br />The Box Tops- <a href="http://rapidshare.com/files/96616089/01_Sweet_Cream_Ladies__Forward_March.mp3.html">Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March</a><br />The Arbors- <a href="http://rapidshare.com/files/96616905/01_The_Letter.mp3.html">The Letter</a><br /><br />Earlier this morning I was documenting my journey through my soon to be father in-law's stack of 45s, and I promised to return with more about what I found in there. It's a kind of weird idiosyncratic selection, though it hews towards the lite rock side of things, with a few novelty records thrown in. All together, I culled twenty songs from quite more records than that. Outside of what I've already discussed in the previous post, I was absolutely floored by Badfinger. Why have I been sleeping on this band. I've heard "No Matter What" before, but damn. Hearing it again, I'm just floored by how good this song is. It's just a flat out pure pop song, powerful and compact. Immediate research is pending, I'll probably swing by Amanda's store and pick up whatever I can find of theirs. Though I'm slightly weary because "No Matter What" is actually the b-side on this 7". The a-side is a meandering song that screams "CONCEPT ALBUM!" called "Carry On Til Tomorrow". <div><br /><div></div><div>A b-side to The Allman Brother's "Ramblin' Man", "Pony Boy" is flat out transcendent for a band like The Allman Brothers. It's a Dickie Betts number, so it's much more country and not so jammy. It's langorious and relaxed, it just unfolds perfectly for a Sunday morning with coffee and an oatmeal themed breakfast bar. </div><div></div><br /><div>The last one I'll mention is Tiny Tim's "Fill Your Heart" covered later by David Bowie on Hunky Dory. It's the b-side to "Tip-Toe Through The Tulips", but far less gimmicky by a mile. Tiny Tim cuts out the fluttering affectations of the latter and sings in an almost baritone. Which is much closer to his actual voice as I learned from an interview with him on Fresh Air I heard a few years ago. </div><div></div><br /><div>I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon putting records onto the computer. Right now I'm doing the Eccentric Soul record Belize City Boil-Up, which is a flat-out amazing compilation of funk, soul, calypso, and reggae informed music from Belize. After that is this fantastic Issac Hayes record with a twelve minute long cover of "Something". It's one of the craziest Beatles covers I've ever heard. (Look for that and more mp3 downloads coming soon!)</div></div>Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-15358172869061452192008-03-02T08:17:00.000-08:002008-03-02T08:50:31.725-08:00C-SidesI'm spending this morning working through this stack of loose seven inches that we got from my future father in-law last year. At the time I think my stereo was out of commission, so I couldn't listen to any records. They got shelved to the side and I put off digging through them for a while. Not all of it is exactly gold, some stuff is terribly dated, or just terrible. Like, say, I can't fucking stand the Stone Poneys. Bands with poor grammar only get a pass when they're excellent. Sorry, Linda Rondstat. There has been a few pieces of gold scattered about, though. Like an excellent lite-rock cover of "The Letter" by The Arbors. They slow the song down with a latin-tinged loping acoustic folk guitar and smooth, sedate vocals. Halfway through the song, it drops everything and starts with some ELO style harmonizing then stumbles back into it's original setting.<br /><br />And speaking of The Box Tops, there was an excellent late period 45 of theirs that sounded like a lost Big Star session. Until I dug into The Box Tops further than "The Letter" I couldn't make a connection between The gruff urgent man behind that song and the much smoother voice behind Big Star.<br /><br />Let's see, what else is there, a condensed version of the theme for "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly". Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs, "Wooly Bully" which I always forget how great and fun that song is. It was a disappointment to hear the b-side being such a blatant rewrite of the a-side. Either that or maybe Sam The Sham just didn't have any writing chops. I was hoping that he'd be more along the lines of Screamin' Jay Hawkins, whose discography is filled with things even more fantastic than his one hit.<br /><br />Right now I'm listening to this fantastic Supremes song called "Put Yourself In My Place", which I think might have finally sold me on The Supremes. I've spent years on the fence about this group, at first, rejecting the group outright because of how smooth they were. Especially when I first got into soul music. I've always preferred the grittier soul music, Otis Redding over Marvin Gaye, etc. But man, just on a basic level of song, The Supremes' songs were built like The Colosseum, simple but huge, impressive, and enduring.<br /><br />I'll post more about the songs as I listen to them, at this point, I've covered everything I've listened to this morning, so I'll return with more soon. I'm also going to try posting some of these songs online so you can download them.Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-77261247104880046902008-02-23T12:15:00.001-08:002008-02-23T12:18:47.652-08:00I've Had This Dream Before<p><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/V3GbzvisUE8&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/V3GbzvisUE8&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object></p><p>To further illustrate the greatness of the internet, I was randomly surfing around, saw a local news piece on the "Chapel Hill scene" from the nineties, which led me to a clip of Ian MacKaye chiding the D.C. city council, which led me to a clip of James Brown and Little Richard playing Wheel of Fortune together. Not as entertaining as it could have been, but still, it's completely worth it to get to the very end.</p>Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-9321401127869807682008-02-22T13:08:00.001-08:002008-02-22T13:21:49.979-08:00ENGAGED!<a href="http://lh4.google.com/jeffery.given/R7840I7YtoI/AAAAAAAAA1w/8emiGqyXQXQ/IMG_5625.JPG"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://lh4.google.com/jeffery.given/R7840I7YtoI/AAAAAAAAA1w/8emiGqyXQXQ/IMG_5625.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffery.given/WeReENGAGED/photo#5169913365645538946"></a><div><br />Yesterday was a pretty great day, people. Amanda and I woke up down in Holden Beach, walked out onto an impossibly cold beach and took a short walk, surveying the strange mud colored sand that they were using to widen the beach, the wind was refrigerating our extremities. In other words, I wanted the weather to give me a hand with what was supposed to be an idyllic place for me to propose to Amanda on our third anniversary. Well, you go to war with the army you have... I proposed as we were approaching the walk through the new, extremely soft sand (we'd sink to our ankles at certain points). I wonder if any of the workers driving the dumptrucks and backhoes saw me down on my knees. </div><div><br /><embed pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="400" height="267" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fjeffery.given%2Falbumid%2F5169913318400898673%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss"></embed><br />The weather didn't necessarily improve once we got into Wilmington. But at that point it didn't matter. We got into our fantastic hotel room at The Stemmerman's Inn on Front Street. We walked the streets of downtown Wilmington for a while and then had a fantastic dinner at Deluxe. Which I highly recommend to any readers out there looking for a nice dinner in Wilmington. I had a lime and wasabi (strangely enough, wasabi is not in blogger's spell check) encrusted Mahi Mahi with scallop fried rice, winter vegetables and a chili coconut sauce, which was fantastic. We went there on our last anniversary, and will probably go there whenever we've got some money to blow on great food whenever we're down there.<br /><br />Well, anyway, enjoy the pictures, and have a great day. I just want everyone to know that I'm extremely happy. </div>Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-7962302543227575502008-02-08T09:55:00.000-08:002008-02-08T10:29:26.139-08:00The Dopest, Most Illest Fucking Thing I've Ever Heard<a href="http://www.boston.com/ae/sidekick/blog/davidleeroth.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.boston.com/ae/sidekick/blog/davidleeroth.jpg" border="0" /></a> One of my great Internet pleasures over the past year has been <a href="http://www.thehoodinternet.com/">The Hood Internet</a>, a blog from a couple of DJs who have been reviving the mash-up. Pitting indie rock tracks against contemporary hip-hop and r&b. Sometimes it's been sublime (the pairing of <a href="http://www.thehoodinternet.com/2007/04/r-kelly-vs-broken-social-scene.html">Broken Social Scene and R. Kelly</a> being my favorite), sometimes not so hot (Panda Bear and Black Rob).<br /><br />A few days ago, <a href="http://www.thehoodinternet.com/2008/02/van-halen-vs-notorious-big.html">they topped themselves</a>, and anyone else who's ever made a mash-up. (Though that pairing of "Highway To Hell" and "Sexx Laws" was pretty dope, whoever did that.) Putting David Lee Roth's vocals from "Running With The Devil" over the beat of Biggie's "Hypnotize"... damn. I just wanted to share this with y'all.<br /><br />While I'm recommending mp3 blogs, I'd like to send a shout-out to <a href="http://www.soul-sides.com/">Soul Sides </a>and <a href="http://bywayof.net/captains_crate.html">Captain's Crate</a>, who have been expanding my horizons with some <a href="http://bywayof.net/captains_crate/link.html?http://bywayof.net/captains_crate/2008/01/holy_grails_of_bizzarro.html">crazy Japanese funk</a>, the Colombian funk of <a href="http://bywayof.net/captains_crate/link.html?http://bywayof.net/captains_crate/2007/12/">Phiripos y Los Caribes</a> (my favorite from the two sites so far), and assorted lost soul songs. Soulsides pointed me to this amazing pre-Endtroducing DJ Shadow clip where he ingeniously makes an Eddie Brickell song into the funkiest thing you've ever heard. Which unfortunately is no longer available for download on Soulsides' blog, and not for sale on Shadow's site. So... soulseek maybe? Or I could drop it on a mix CD for you. Anyone want a mix CD? I'm pretty good at making them. Anyone know how I could make an mp3 blog myself, and I can give everyone a mix CD they could download themselves? I don't know how these things work. Anyway. I'm going to try and write about a soundtrack for <a href="http://thered-skull.blogspot.com/">The Red Skull </a>now, have a good day.Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-73512411068366795112008-01-30T11:35:00.000-08:002008-01-30T11:41:52.163-08:00Goodbye, John Edwards.<a href="http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/070726/070726_edwards_hmed_12p.hmedium.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/070726/070726_edwards_hmed_12p.hmedium.jpg" border="0" /></a> John Edwards just announced he's leaving the race, and I'm sad to see him go. I've always been a big believer in Sen. Edwards, from the quick responses to my letters when he was in office to his fight against poverty, I've never felt that there were any false notes from him. (The Iraq vote being the one glaring mis-step, which he apologized for unlike someone else I know.)<br /><div></div><br /><div>I'm almost certain that he'll endorse Obama, either that or he'll endorse no one. I can't see him endorsing Hillary at all. Just based on watching the campaign closely since last winter.</div>Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-43185047835074154592008-01-29T10:10:00.001-08:002008-01-29T10:53:55.061-08:00Heart's Gone The Color of Coca-ColaThere's been a spat of activity over at the <a href="http://thered-skull.blogspot.com/">Red Skull </a>blog lately, two new posts from Marco, one new one from me.<br /><br />I've been going back and listening to some of the music from the turn of the century that I absolutely loved to see if they still stick. Four albums in particular have stayed in basic rotation for the past eight years, (in order of most played) Queens Of The Stone Age <em>R, </em>Mclusky <em>Do Dallas, </em>At The Drive-In <em>Relationship of Command, </em>and ...Trail Of Dead <em>Source Tags & Codes</em>. These four were in constant rotation in my CD walkman when they came out. The Queens album has aged the best, I think, mainly because it's a timeless album. I can see myself driving kids to the museum or the baseball fields whichever they end up choosing, listening to <em>R</em> and skipping over "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer". They may never again reach the heights they achieved here and on <em>Songs For The Deaf, </em>but as long as I have those two albums, I'll be all right.<br /><br />I went on at length about <em>Do Dallas</em> over at <a href="http://thered-skull.blogspot.com/">The Red Skull</a>. <em>Relationship of Command </em>has lost some of it's sheen to me only because of how the members of this amazing band completely dropped the ball once they split up. Sparta ended up being real boring, and The Mars Volta, well, I can only listen to one of their albums every three years. They aimed for outerspace and landed on some over the top planet where Rush fans live. The tension between the two creative forces in the band, the post-punk and the weird outerspace music is what made At The Drive-In so compelling. And listening to this album again, it's as exciting as it was listening to it in Derrick's truck as he unexpectedly drove us into a field where the Target in Wake Forest would later be, the high grass hiding the large gashes in the dirt beneath us. Putting us on two or one wheel(s) at a time.<br /><br />I have a feeling that <em>Source Tags & Codes</em> will end up as one of the best albums of this decade, it's a perfect statement from a band whose ambitions would soon outweigh their abilities. After this album And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead collapsed under their own momentum. Poised to be a Sonic Youth for the new millennium (there's a phrase I haven't used in a while), Trail of The Dead lost the reigns. I hold out hope with every new album they put out, but I think all is lost for these guys. It's a shame, too. It's interesting listening to this album now and seeing it as the most influential album of the lot. Trail Of Dead's sweep and scope informed the Arcade Fire and numerous other bands of the moment.<br /><br />While I was writing this, I noticed that each of these bands has ended up disappointing me in the long run, <em>Era Vulgaris</em> was a half baked attempt at regaining their fun side which QOSTA abandoned for the interesting <em>Lullabies To Paralyze.</em> Mclusky broke up, and I haven't heard anything from their new band Future Of The Left yet. At The Drive-In broke up and followed their respective muses to less interesting ends. And Trail Of Dead, well, they made one perfect album.Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-71614786064035084932008-01-26T08:16:00.000-08:002008-01-26T09:00:29.490-08:00Motherfuckin' Hillary ClintonI think I've made it pretty clear throughout my blogging history that I'm an Obama man. To me he's clearly the best candidate the Democrats have had since... well, Bill Clinton. One problem among many that I have with Hillary Clinton is that she assumes she should have the presidency based solely on her "experience" as a Clinton. I believe I posted a video a while ago where Meredith Vierra broke that "experience" story into pieces. Essentially pointing out that Hillary's "experience" as First Lady included visits to foreign countries with Sinbad.<br /><br />So, it dispirits me when my blogging compatriot, <a href="http://themidpt.com/">Marco</a>, is a Hillary man. As is the case with about 65% of my replies to his blog posts, this one ran a little long, so I transferred it over here.<br /><br /><a href="http://themidpt.com/?p=215">In his post</a>, Marco was talking about Michelle Obama (and the Obama camp in general) have reacted to The Clinton's attacks of recent.<br /><br /><em><blockquote><p><em>But you know what? If Obama wins the Democratic nomination, you<br />can bet the Republicans will do this and much much worse. Hell, they’ve<br />already started bullshit rumors about Obama being some stealth terrorist or some<br />shit. They will probably be aided by a complacent media, always eager to<br />show they can take down a Democrat. So really, unclutch your pearls.<br />Get excited when the real mud starts to fly.</em></p><p></em></p></blockquote><p>Okay, so, I'll agree with you on the whole oh "woe is me" reaction. It's working out for Obama though, the media is buying his framing of the situation, so that works for my man. I do however have a problem with the Clinton's "attacks". Some to most are unfounded bullshit. i.e. when they attack Obama for voting "present" on pro-choice bills that came up in Illinois. A little background on this and you'll see that was NARAL and Planned Parenthood's directive for these bills to vote "present" to force more moderate democratic members to vote yes.<br /></p><br />The Rezco thing reeks of small time bull crap that the Clintons and any other person with a law degree running for office occasionally runs into. Add to that, Hillary was on the board at WalMart. So, who's worse? One slumlord or America's slumlord?<br /><br />The excuse of starting baseless attacks against a fellow democrat just because someone in the other party would do it is bullshit. But then again, I guess that she used the same mindset when voting for the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act (twice), and the Kyl-Liberman act.<br /><br />And this brings me back to experience. This is the experience Hillary is touting. She's been hawkish as all get-out. Now, where is this coming from? Is this being an actual war-hawk? If so, Hillary is dangerous as president. We might end up in Iran or Syria if she follows this muse for real. The other possibility for the motivations to her experience is that she's an opportunist whose rhetoric matches the direction of the wind. That's not exactly leadership material to me. Either she's steps away from running with Joe Lieberman as her VP and making Iraq the 51st state or she's flaky as all get out.<br /><br />I guess the most important question is, will she actually get us out of Iraq? Or is that just something she's saying to get into office?<br /><br />Bill and Hillary are playing this scorched earth game, where there's no way that anyone else could get the nomination based on the impression that they wouldn't be there to help in someone else's general election campaign. It's them or no one. It's a chicky drive with the voters and the party, and it's shameful.<br /><br />We're still boys Marco, I just can't get with you on this Hillary Clinton thing, sorry.<br /><br />I did read your post about Amy Winehouse though. That shit is tight, I didn't want to believe it when I first heard it. A portion of me still doesn't completely believe it. But you should check out Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, their new-ish album <em>100 Days 100 Nights </em>totally owns the Winehouse record. Here's a little taste of awesomeness.<br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8ouI5KcyHfE&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8ouI5KcyHfE&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-11030907629241764622008-01-05T08:56:00.000-08:002008-01-05T09:33:12.466-08:00OBAMA!<a href="http://obama.senate.gov/img/superman.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 343px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 230px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" height="193" alt="" src="http://obama.senate.gov/img/superman.jpg" border="0" /></a> Oh, what great news we got the other night when we heard that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Obama</span> won the Iowa caucuses. Though the caucuses are total bullshit, where votes are garnered with cookies, as I'm told. Then again, I can't be sure if that's just East Coast liberal condescension for the rubes out in Iowa. "Oh, isn't it cute that in their antiquated ceremony they drag people to different sides of the room with the lure of home-made cookies!" Either way, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Obama's</span> got himself some momentum heading into New Hampshire, where he'll trounce Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.<br /><br />I can't help feeling bad for Edwards, who was my choice before <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Obama</span> announced. I really couldn't stick with him when the most exciting politician I've ever seen joined the race. I'm pretty sure <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Obama</span> made me cry in 2004 when he gave that keynote <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">speech</span> at the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">DNC</span>. So, sorry, John Edwards, I think you'd make a great vice president, if you're up for second banana a second time around.<br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MNCLomrqIN8&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><br /><br /><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MNCLomrqIN8&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/56-m8wx1mwo&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><br /><br /><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/56-m8wx1mwo&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br />Weirdly, speaking of Vice President, Mike <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Huckabee</span> when he was on Jay Leno the other night (SCAB!) he said he really liked <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Obama</span> and compared himself to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Obama</span>. Is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Huckabee</span> doing some kind of weird political jujitsu where he's aiming to be some <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">whacko</span> Andrew Johnson.<br /><a href="http://gigaomnimedia.com/images/jinglealltheway.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://gigaomnimedia.com/images/jinglealltheway.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />P.S. I found this clip of Hillary's "experience" being dismissed by that lady from The View. Hillary Clinton, traveling the world, breaking down barriers, getting experience with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Sinbad</span>. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Pssh</span>! <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Sinbad</span> can be out-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">whacky</span>-faced by the governor of California! And he calls himself a statesman!<br /><br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ddgom0QWvLs&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><br /><br /><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ddgom0QWvLs&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-27179292169367295582007-12-31T15:40:00.000-08:002007-12-31T16:15:29.704-08:00Beneath The New Dog<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffery.given/Bean/photo#5149459043151637362"><img src="http://lh3.google.com/jeffery.given/R3aNt3x563I/AAAAAAAAAzk/7rps2-v4voM/s400/DSC_0459.JPG" /></a><br />This is Bruce Springbean, our dog. Bean for short. Our friend rescued him and we just had to take him in. Someone abandoned Bean, but now he has a warm and loving home. Which is very exciting for us, not so much for our cats, though. Bean is a full blooded Shih Tzu, he's two years old and unfortunately very underweight. We brought Bean home the day after Christmas, so he's been a big distraction from what I resolved would be an active time for blogging. Sorry about that, I've made plenty of declarations of this week or that week being the big comeback, very similar to my pronouncements towards the end of poker games at work, you know, ringing in a hollow fashion.<br /><br />I can't really trace the reasoning behind my, well, I wouldn't call it a writer's block, but that's kinda what it is, isn't it? You know, I want to write, it's not like I have ideas and can't figure out the words for it, I just haven't had any ideas. Though I've stumbled on a few over the holiday. Some stuff that I wanna write about for <a href="http://thered-skull.blogspot.com/">The Red Skull</a>, namely a review of The Temptations' <em>With A Lot Of Soul</em>. An album I've had for a long while, and whose majesty I realized once I picked up a weird contemporaneous album <em>Temptations In A Mellow Mood</em> where they play without their strengths stranded on an album of showtunes and standards. <em>With A Lot Of Soul</em> is a showcase for the greatest singer the Temptations ever had, David Ruffin. The material is solid throughout, which is a surprise compared to some other Motown albums from the same time that were top loaded with singles and filled out with schmaltzy left-overs.<br /><br />I'm also going to try and write about Nuggets II, which out of the three Nuggets boxed sets is the hands down best. That'll be an undertaking for sure, though. It's a huge boxed set that I've only gotten halfway through yet. I got it for Christmas from Amanda among other great things, most notably an Xbox 360, a USB Record Player, and an amazing Eccentric Soul record, "Belize City Boil-Up". "Belize City Boil-Up" is a survey of a music that was greatly affected by a mix of Calypso, Reggae, American Funk and Soul music, and Mexican music due to it's fortuitous geographic location.<br /><br />Well, I'm gonna stop this awkward writing and hope that I can get back in the swing of things. I want to mention that I was inspired to get my ass back into gear by Marco's gigantic output as of late with his best of 2007 posts over at <a href="http://themidpt.com/">the Midpoint</a>. Well, I'm heading off to ring in the New Year. Unfortunately there won't be any pictures anytime soon, I kinda broke my camera, it's fixable, but that's not gonna happen quickly, unfortunately. I'll probably borrow my brother's camera for the Yo La Tengo concert on the 10th, I would have loved to take my camera to that show though, being more compact and I think it takes better pictures. His camera is no slouch by any means, my camera's just very versatile. So, happy new year, you can look forward to suffering through my resolution to get back into writing more.Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-81246170877109559812007-12-21T13:20:00.000-08:002007-12-21T13:23:48.199-08:00Hairway To StevenSo, I'm having trouble getting my shit together to write an actual blogpost. I've been working my ass off at work, hopefully the rest of my customers have finally headed out of town for Christmas, and I can get home early and relax for the next two nights. <br /><br />This video has been making the rounds, I first saw it on The Onion AV Club's Videocracy. But it's a perfect cover of Stairway To Heaven by an Australian Beatles cover band. Prepare to have your mind blown.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3WfoccRna6I&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3WfoccRna6I&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-23062441261152588392007-12-18T19:27:00.000-08:002007-12-18T19:30:10.188-08:00Christmas is soooo close.Actual blogging coming up tomorrow, for now, I just thought I'd share this video with you. <br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PPC-1iUrw2k&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PPC-1iUrw2k&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br />I'm writing a piece about Christmas music tomorrow.Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-41911087807044903312007-12-13T07:56:00.000-08:002007-12-14T12:04:08.228-08:00The 5 Most Disapointing Albums of The Year5. Queens Of The Stone Age- Era Vulgaris.<br />After spending years making smart, sexy, and near perfect hard rock albums, QOSTA finally collapsed under their own weight. Lacking in charisma, hooks, and interesting ideas, Era Vulgaris is the half baked skeleton of a good album.<br /><br />4. Wilco- Sky Blue Sky.<br />Getting tagged "The American Radiohead" has to be something you'd want to avoid. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to make albums like Sky Blue Sky. Which isn't a bad album. A little too slick for my tastes, but an enjoyable listen. It just happens to come from a group that I've viewed as one of the greatest bands of the past twenty years. It's just all so underwhelming.<br /><br />3. The Shins- Wincing The Night Away.<br />I saw this coming, just not so soon. The Shins rode their AM pop tendencies all the way into being a boring band.<br /><br />2. The Good, The Bad, And The Queen- The Good, The Bad, And The Queen<br />Again, not so much of a bad album, as it doesn't measure up to it's possibilities. Paul Simonon from THE CLASH, Tony Allen who drummed on all those amazing Fela Kuti albums, and Damon Albarn, I was expecting a modern day London Calling. All I got was this downbeat reflection on working class England.<br /><br />1. The Hold Steady- Boys And Girls In America.<br />That's right, I said it. This album BLOWS. I know this album came out in 2006, it sat perched atop many "Best Of" lists. I didn't get buy it until after it was reccomended so highly, in 2007. So, there's a bit of fudging here, but this is my chance to air this out in public. After reading the breathless reviews of this album, one could imagine The Hold Steady were riding down on golden chariots from Valhalla to single-handedly saving rock 'n' roll. Instead, what you find is the most god awful cheese guitars crashing all over sub par pub rock. These guitars aren't reminiscent of any actual rock group I could think of. It's more akin to the fictionalized sitcom rock group, Jesse And The Rippers. Boys And Girls In America is the most dreadful album I've heard, ever. And my Grandma made me listen to a late period Gloria Estefan album once.Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-90825932119595894802007-12-08T11:01:00.000-08:002007-12-08T11:23:56.473-08:00The Voices In My Head Are Telling Me To... Use Febreze?<a href="http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/pd_headache_070808_ms.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/pd_headache_070808_ms.jpg" border="0" /></a> <div><div>Well, this is it. Time to give up, the advertisers of the world have just flat out won. They've got their doomsday device, they've flipped the switch, and there's no coming back. <a href="http://gawker.com/news/the-future/schizophrenia-is-the-new-ad-gimmick-329133.php">Gawker</a> has pointed out that A&E is using <a href="http://www.internationalrobotics.com/iaapapres.html">hypersonic sound beams</a> (scroll down for product description) in their new advertising campaign. Basically, these speakers shoot sound beams that play inside of whatever surface it strikes, meaning your skull. </div><div></div><div> </div><div>They're currently using this gimmick for a show about ghosts, beaming ghost voice<a href="http://www.internationalrobotics.com/webfiles/IAAPATECHsb02.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://www.internationalrobotics.com/webfiles/IAAPATECHsb02.jpg" border="0" /></a>s into your head. This only being the begining of course. Soon enough, you won't be able to walk down the street without jingles rattling around insdie your dome. Then, let's say the government makes this practice illegal. You step into the district attorney's office to complain about the sounds in your head. How crazy are you going to look. </div><br /><div></div><br /><br /><div>To me this sounds like horrible news. </div></div>Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-46487948416481312652007-11-28T10:20:00.000-08:002007-11-28T10:55:34.868-08:00There Is No Mention of Rod StewartI caught a part of this story which Marco posted about last week while Amanda and I were in Jersey Mike's. To encapsulate for those of you who haven't read Marco's post, this guy calls up 911 in Texas to report a robbery in progress. This isn't happening at his house, but at his neighbors. He tells the 911 operator that he's going over there to shoot these guys with his shotgun, and does it. The kids who worked behind the counter were laughing at the tape of this guy on the news, I think there were gun shots in the background once he walked away from the phone, but I could be inserting that memory myself. I felt chills run down my spine, and had no impulse to laugh. Is laughing wholly inappropriate here, or is it just me?<br /><br />It reminds me of the scene in <strong>No Country For Old Men</strong> where Tommy Lee Jones is reading an article about some serial killing couple in California, he quotes the end of the article, "neighbors were alerted when they saw a victim escaping the house wearing only a dog collar". Tommy Lee inserts that they didn't think anything was wrong when they were burying people in the backyard, though. The deputy laughs, and tries to stifle it. Jones tells him it's okay, he had to laugh himself.<br /><br />Has it gotten so bad that all we can do is laugh, and then laugh hysterically, at such a tragedy. Or am I just being to uptight, having been on the line with 911 myself so recently?<br /><br />That night has affected me so deeply. It's affected both of us very deeply, and we're still dealing with it. I've had this simmering headache that keeps resurfacing, and my eyelids have these consistent little twitches. Every time Amanda is hurting, or anxious, I think that I could have pulled her more out of the way, that I could have dropped her off in front of the Jackpot, instead of her crossing the street with me.<br /><br />After my initial attempts to break through Bruce Tedder's door, I lost anger towards the man who hit Amanda. I felt bad for him, thinking how this night would have changed his life forever, in a way wholly different than the way it changed Amanda's or mine. How he was probably in a part of town he didn't know too well, and didn't realize the street he was on dead ended into a parking lot. Then we found out this was going to be his third DUI, and I lost compassion toward him. We received a copy of the police report, saw his blood alcohol level was over twice the limit, and I had no more compassion for this man, none whatsoever. An arrogant bastard who didn't learn his lesson the first two times he got in trouble for drunk driving. Who didn't care, this reaches beyond his bad luck, his not knowing any better, and into hubris, where he deserves everything that happens to him now.<br /><br />Then last night, Amanda and I were watching one of the most ridiculous movies we've ever seen, <strong>Dreamcatcher</strong>. In every scene, the preposterousorosity level just ratchets further and further. It operates in a bizarro universe where Tom Sizemore is the straight arrow and Morgan Freeman is the loose cannon. Aliens invade in viral form and then explode out of your ass, and that's only the begining. I'm getting off point though, early in the movie, a character crosses the street and is hit by a car. It was quick and violent, and then there was silence on the other end of the couch. I look over and tears are filling the eyes of the woman I love. And I know who's to blame for this. I know his name, I know his face, and I hate him now.Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-11509871772042211792007-11-16T08:57:00.000-08:002007-11-16T09:02:06.250-08:00Amanda Was Hit By A CarLast night, my girlfriend (whom most of you know) and I were standing on the corner, waiting to cross <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Hillsborough</span> Street. A drunk driver came barreling towards us, I pulled Amanda out of the way in time for her to only be hit on her side, she escaped with minor injuries. Thank God. She walked out of the hospital last night, and I really haven't slept since.<br /><br />In some happy news, the article on the <a href="http://wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/2052836/">local news channel's </a>website says Amanda is 18. Sweet.Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-31162568534144496872007-11-12T09:54:00.000-08:002007-11-12T10:20:44.807-08:00An Inconvenient Hoax<div>Yesterday while visiting my parents, my dad brought up the subject of global warming (I think he's still under the impression that Reagan was right about the cow farts). He brought up this recent study that proved <a href="http://209.85.129.104/search?q=cache:MlB2YPFSjHAJ:www.geoclimaticstudies.info/benthic_bacteria.htm+Carbon+dioxide+production+by+benthic+bacteria:+the+death+of+manmade+global+warming+theory&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=uk">Global Warming was caused by bacteria</a>. I found this hard to believe, and told him I'd look it up the next day and figure out how to refute it. (Details about how the authors were intimidated by the politics of scientists etc. were red herrings of conservative hogwash)*. </div><div></div><br /><div>A quick Google search of <a href="http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GFRC_en__207__207&q=global+warming+bacteria+">"global warming bacteria"</a> quickly pointed me towards what I thought was the case. It was a hoax. <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/2007/11/12/global-warming-bacteria-hoaxer-owns-up/">Not only a hoax, but a prank,</a> as the author, David Thorpe puts it, "it was meant to show that some sceptics will uncritically grab any evidence casting doubt on most scientists’ view that <a href="http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report.html">human activities are the main cause</a>."</div><div></div><br /><div>Thorpe made up the scientists who participated in his "study". A quick and easy search of the departments at The University of Arizona shows you there's no "Department of Climatology". Also, the fake authors were not employed by the University. I couldn't find a reply to this incident from UofA, though I don't necessarily blame them, I thought it'd be an interesting thing to read. </div><div></div><br /><div>*Speaking of conservative hogwash, comedian Rush Limbaugh was fooled by this. Not a hard thing to do, no doubt, but even Rush's "scientist" <a href="http://www.weatherquestions.com/Roy-Spencer-on-global-warming.htm">later apologized for it</a>. I couldn't see if he himself retracted the story, you need to be a member of Rush's website to even see any content, and I'm just too good for that.<img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://theambler.com/images/gore.jpg" border="0" /></div><br />Al Gore and Stephen Hawking, still smarter than Rush Limbaugh.Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2675101375796567226.post-79318186960734221522007-11-06T10:14:00.001-08:002007-11-06T10:16:41.274-08:00The Red SkullI've started writing my CCR overview over at <a href="http://thered-skull.blogspot.com/">The Red Skull</a>. I'm doing an album a day. Well, The Red Skull is up and running O-fish-ally. Just thought I'd let you know, now, I'm gonna go waste time in front of the Playstation with Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories.Toothpaste Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03876989120692559996noreply@blogger.com0