And I Reiterate Myself. Shouting Fire. In A Burning Theatre.

what i'm listening to right now: I've Got My Mind Set On You by George Harrison

I haven't posted anything political in a while. Not sure as to the exact reason, but I'm back at it again. This is an ad from John Edwards. I'm an Obama man still, but Edwards is no slouch. Plus, Obama kinda dropped the ball with that whole Myspace thing. If you haven't caught wind of this yet, this guy ran an Obama myspace page for two years. It was an unofficial site, and had gathered almost 160 thousand "friends". Getting that many supporters is huge. So, some people from the Obama campaign approach this guy about getting the rights to the myspace domain. He wanted like, $50,000. A paltry sum. Especially over two years. Getting 160 thousand supporters from say, a media consultant, making commercials, hosting expensive dinners, etc. That would run into the hundreds of thousands if not more. Well, Obama's people balked, and forced him out of the domain. Telling myspace that he was posing as Barack Obama, and that the real Barack Obama wanted his domain for himself. This is politics as old muscling in on the politics of the future. It's bad publicity, and something like this, if not resolved, could lose Obama the support of the netroots. Which, in turn, could cost him the nomination. Let's hope this gets straightened out, this guy gets compensated, or better yet, hired by the Obama campaign.

But where did I start out? Oh! The commercial. Really great stuff. Edwards has some really good people working for him. He's definitely a second choice for me, but not one that I'd be uncomfortable with at all. He smart, got his head on his shoulders, stands for something... Richardson wouldn't be that bad, either. He seems that he's a part of the Clinton political machine though. Not that I hate on Bill. I love Bill. Best president in my lifetime. Granted, that counts for all of four people, but, still, pretty damn good. NAFTA, I didn't like so much. Oh, but anyway, I was saying that Richardson seems to be a piece of the Clinton house. He was certainly a player in Clinton's administration. And I wouldn't be surprised if there were backroom things going on where if Hillary didn't get the nomination, Bill's hedging his other bets towards Richardson. I don't know. I'm not even sure where I'm going with this. So I'll stop. I just want the war to be over. That's the most important thing to me. I want the war to end.

Not Mentioned In This Post: Alabama, Oranges, Grapes, Powerbars, Warm Dr. Pepper

what i'm listening to right now: Am I A Good Man by Them Two

I've been spending most of my sick day today downloading music off Soulseek. Is that an admission of illegally downloading music? I guess it is. Maybe I should scratch that. I really wanted to hear "Something Else By The Kinks" without getting up and going to the record player, so I downloaded that, and some songs by The Toadies. I was approaching this with trepidation as much as you are kinda recoiling from the thought of '90s post grunge/major label cash grab/teenage angst flashbacks. But I was kinda convinced through a mix of nostalgia and an excellent review of it I found while going through the Cokemachineglow archives. (There's also a positive review of Blind Melon's Soup that vindicated it's inclusion on my Top Ten High School Albums.) And I'm glad I was convinced. It's great. Damn. I'm really surprised by how well this has held up in the ensuing thirteen years. It's all pile driver rocking that bands today don't seem to have a handle on anymore. The last Strokes album did something similar, but to a weird conclusion. It didn't seem like they were supposed to be doing that stuff, the whole way through, it was like "Really, you're rocking this hard? Are you in the right place?" Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Then, I found what I'm going to be spending the majority of my disposable income on. The Numero Group has been releasing this series of compilations under the moniker of Eccentric Soul. They're compilations of long lost soul recordings, all the rewards of crate digging for obscure records without all the dust and actual crate digging. I've downloaded a few samples, and I've been completely blown away. It's some fantastic stuff, I'm particularly smitten with the first track off the Deep City Label disc by Them Two. It's smoky soul, like if Marvin Gaye stepped in for either Sam or Dave, and put some string drenching Philly soul behind it. The few tracks I've heard off the Twinight album are even more impressive. A sort of Chicago answer to Motown, with an amazing house band and a stable of soulful singers.


So I'm gonna go and buy these albums, unlike the Toadies or the Kinks album that I downloaded today, both of which I own in a different format (vinyl and cassette respectively, though I couldn't tell you where that cassette might be, if I in fact still have it). See, RIAA, I use downloading as a road map to what I'm going to buy. If you would just go into my living room and see all of the stuff I've bought, and measure that against what I've illegally downloaded, I think you wouldn't mind it so much. At any rate, I don't think the labels I try to support are even involved in the RIAA anyway, so maybe they're just mad that I won't buy they're ten thousandth Elton John greatest hits collection, or maybe something from that emo band that stole their name from Milhouse's superhero movie sidekick persona.

Kings' Last (Great) Show

what i'm listening to right now: Synthetic Flying Machine by Neutral Milk Hotel
this is an image from montonix's myspace page, i'll have pictures from the concert that I took up in the next couple of days.Two nights ago, I went to the what was the last great show that King's will ever have in it's hallowed, greasy hall(s). A triple bill of Un Deu Troix, Montonix, and town heroes, The Rosebuds. Un Deu Troix were pretty good. Passable female led indie rock with good basslines. Nothing to prepare any of us for the ensuing chaos.

Monotonix were crazed. Coming all the way from Tel Aviv, Israel, they literally set the place on fire. Flames shooting off of the cymbals and a flaming ring of toilet paper on the floor set us up for an act that I would not have wanted to follow. Monotonix's lead singer, Ami Shalev was a cross between Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman, not the cartoon, and with more stubble, and glassy, drunken eyes) and Iggy Pop. At one point, he set even himself on fire. The band played on the floor instead of on the stage, from here, Shalev ventured out into the crowd, singing from the booths at the back of the club, and deep within the crowd. Shalev climbed into the rafters, and forced the typically armcrossed indie kids into holding hands and dancing ring around the rosey style. For the last song, Shalev broke down the drum kit piece by piece, giving a cymbals, kick drums and hi-hats to various members of the crowd, leaving the drummer with just his tom-tom. Then he took that and the drummer chased after it.

I really didn't think that there was anyway that The Rosebuds could have matched this set. Especially considering that the last couple of times I've seen them, they've been lacking in the energy that they've been known for. A mix of low expectations, and how absolutely great they were made this one of the best concerts I've been to in years. They've finally become accustomed to their new material and played with abandon. Towards the end of the show, they brought us all up onto the stage to sing and dance along with crowd favorite, "Drunkard's Worst Nightmare". During a rare performance of "The El Camino" Ivan inserted lyrics from Tom Petty's "Walls" into the end of the song. I'm still not sold on their new album, and that could change. But the direction they're heading in on the stage now points to a much more exciting fourth album.

Speaking of albums by local bands that i'm not sold on: The Annuals. So far it's done nothing for me. What's the big deal. And I think they maybe played two shows in town, if that before they got the big internet fellatio. Maybe i'm just drinking the haterade instead of the Kool-Aid on this band.

I'm gonna miss Kings. It was (is until the 7th of next month) the only venue of note in Raleigh. It's been nice being able to see quality shows without having to drive back from Carborro at the end of the night. Hopefully it finds a new space and doesn't have to change itself to much to fit into a new spot. It's character has invited wide and varying shows, everything from a rare Shellac show, Renelvis, and Th' Legendary Shack Shakers. It served as the homebase to at least two of the best bands this area's had since Superchunk, The Rosebuds and Cherry Valence put on some of the best shows ever there. They've hosted wrestling, talk shows, and the jewel in their crown, The Great Cover Up. I've had bottles tossed at me by a fake Hasil Adkins, I almost moshed to a fake Minor Threat, and I gained respect for a fake Eddie Money. I'll miss you, Kings.

I'll go to the final show on the 7th. Birds Of Avalon and Black Taj (and special guests). It should be great, but the hangover from the show two nights ago will probably make that night fuzzy in comparison.