June 26, 2008

La Plebe - Mi Tierra
Skankin' Pickle - It's Not Too Late
The Aquabats - Cat With 2 Heads
Slow Gherkin - I Only Smoke When I'm Drunk
The Siren Six! - Burn
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Satori - Finding Your Place
The Slackers - Henderson Swamp
Bad Manners - Sally Brown
Fishbone - Ugly
Sugarhill Downtown Orchestra - Home Made Song
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Bomb The Music Industry - Depression is no Fun
Common Rider - Signal, Signal
Toots & The Maytals - Pressure Drop
Rx Bandits - Apparition
Hepcat - Yoko Zuna
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Blindspot - Right Field
Blue Meanies - Johnny Mortgage
Mu330 - Baby Rats
Operation Ivy - Yellin' In My Ear
Fruity - Cinderella Boy
Shiina Ringo - Mayonaka wa Junketsu
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Alkaline Trio - Help Me
Alkaline Trio - For Your Lungs Only
Ging Nang Boyz - Trash
Lemuria - Pants
Little Mercury - I'm Not & You're Not
Jimmy Eat World - A Praise Chorus
The Thermals - An Endless Supply
No Age - Here Should Be My Home
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Minus the Bear - Let's Play Clowns
Boris - BUZZ-IN
Unwound - Unauthorized Autobiography
Bangs - Sweet Revenge
Blue Hearts - Chernobyl
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The Night Marchers - I Wanna Deadbeat You
Superdrag - My Day Will Come
The Cherry Tempo - Treble Is High
The Buzzcocks - What Do I Get?
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Andrew WK - Party Hard

Bullet (not the Misfits song)

I never knew that there was more to this than just rumors, but here is the California High Speed Rail Authority website, detailing their plans and ideas for routing and financing the bullet train that will be able to travel from San Francisco to LA in just an approximate 2 hours and 40 minutes. With the prospect of a drive to LA from San Jose looming ahead for me, the idea that I could cut the trip time in by a third and do it for cheaper has me very excited!!! (Note: a projected 2020 completion date has tempered my excitement a bit)

I am McLovin

I watched the movie KIDS last night for, believe it or not, the first time ever. Aside from being totally depressing, I was struck by how much Telly from Kids looks and talks just like McLovin from Superbad. This only exacerbated the feeling in my mind that Telly looked like a total dweeb, so I couldn't understand why he was such a mack in the movie...

Afterward I felt validated (but still kind of depressed) when I did this search online and found this.

We Versus The Shark

Here's a cool interview that Carrie Brownstein did with We Versus the Shark. I saw them at SXSW as well (different show though) and they are truly good dudes.

June 19, 2008

Special Extended Show with guest DJ V-Dogg

Track Star - West Coast Weather
Stephen Malkmus - Phantasies
The Unicorns - Ghost Mountain
Television - See No Evil
The Hold Steady - Stevie Nix
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Little Mercury - You're Not & I'm Not
Lemuria - Get Some Sleep
Alkaline Trio - Help Me
Underground Railroad to Candyland - Don't Expect For Me To Sleep
No Age - Cappo
The Thermals - I Know the Pattern
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No Knife - Your Albatross
The New Trust - Absence Makes the Heart Go Wander
Sparta Locals - Ougon Wave
Minus Bear - Fine + 2 pts.
The Dismemberment Plan - The City
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Just A Fire - Hot Export
Calling All Monsters - Western Style Town
Built to Spill - Sidewalk
Death Cab For Cutie - No Sunlight
Superchunk - Her Royal Fisticuffs
Superdrag - Carried
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My Korean Friends - Wait Outside These Walls
Magnetic Fields - California Girls
Frightened Rabbit - I Feel Better
Cursive - Some Red Handed Sleight of Hand
Unwound - No Tech!
Afrirampo - Akan Kono Mama Kaesanai
Molotov - Here We Kum
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NOFX - Linoleum
Going Steady - Kakenukete Seishun
Toys That Kill - Moon=Ghettobird
La Plebe - Runnin'
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Lawrence Arms - 100 Resolutions
Dillinger Four - Smells Like OK Soda
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Ging Nang Boyz - I Don't Wanna Die
The Muffs - Oh Nina
Leatherface - Dead Industrial Atmosphere
Reggie & The Full Effect - Food
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Where Have All the Rudeboys Gone?
Nerf Herder - Nosering Girl
The Crypt Keeper - The Crypt Jam
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Polysics - XCT
Operation Ivy - The Crowd

Reviews!!!

Here's a review I wrote of the S/T EP by Mass of the Fermenting Dregs (yes, that is a very weird name):
http://keikaku.net/reviews/178

I also reviewed Blotto for the same site a while back:
http://keikaku.net/reviews/176

Enjoy!

People

I think that Andrew Jackson Jihad are the bestest thing since the last thing in life that I thought was best (which means that they are super best, nahmahsay?). One thing that kills me, however, is how horribly they are misunderstood by the masses. Let's start off by checking out the lyrics to "Bad Bad Things" below:

Do you remember me?
I killed your family
And now I am going to kill you too
I made your brother bleed
I made your father scream
And I made your mother say those things that she said to me
She said, "Do with me what you want, but please don't hurt my family, don't hurt my family
Take my pride, take my life, take my body but don't take the ones that are close to me.
Oh, do with me what you want, but please don't hurt my family, don't hurt my family
Take my pride, take my life, take my body but don't take the ones that I love."
And I continued without mercy
So I looked into your eyes
And I saw a reflection
Of a coward that you and I both hate very much
And then I grabbed the knife
And I let the blood out of your throat
And I smashed those tiny mirrors inside of your skull
And I got to thinking
If I don't go to hell when I die I might go to heaven
If I don't go to hell when I die I might go to heaven
If I don't go to hell when I die I might go to heaven
If I don't go to hell when I die I might go to heaven
Might go to heaven, but probably not

Does this song promote murder? Is this song about something that AJJ want to do? NO NO NO NO!!! It's a song about a murderer with no soul, integrity, or shred of respect. I will admit that it's a shocking song, but it fits in with AJJ's overall lyrical scope, which will readily admit that the world is a horrible, nasty place at times, but that we should live life to the fullest and be nice to each other in spite of it! Though it may be of little solace to the victims, there is the notion in the song that the murderer has to live with his own self-hatred, and what is the ultimate goal in life but to be happy with oneself?

Some guy named Scientistrock reviewed the AJJ album for punknews and said this:

The simplicity of the music allows the vocals to come to forefront on this record. Bonnette’s nasally warble fits the music pretty perfectly. He passionately delivers lyrics that are sometimes disturbing, sometimes uplifting, but always clever and honest. On first listen, the songs are hysterical. But with repeated listens, laughter turns to contemplation. Bonnette explores motifs as varied as the duality of human nature, his own troubled past, the ethical implications of drug use and burning houses, all with a mix of sharp sarcasm and meaningful insight. Take, for instance, the following line from “People II: The Reckoning”: “There is someone in your head waiting to fucking strangle you.” That line is inherently funny (it almost always elicits a chuckle from me), but the song as a whole demands you pay serious attention to it. And that seems to be the trap that Andrew Jackson Jihad gets stuck in. Most listeners (at least, most people I’ve shown this to) have trouble getting past the humor.

Apparently his circle of acquaintances are equally dense as some of mine are as well (not all of you, sorry!). Overall, Scientistrock's review is pretty spot on about how clever and inspired AJJ are lyrically, but I will disagree with him when he refers to singer Sean Bonnette's "somewhat twisted world view" later on in the review. Is it twisted to acknowledge the inhumane and cruel elements of life but choose to remain optimistic and friendly in spite of said fact? Judging AJJ by the utter desperation of certain select songs is really irresponsible, since those songs fit in with their overall oeuvre of sad vs. happy songs as the temporary sadness that will ultimately be overcome by the human spirit, as this song below, "Jesus Saves", demonstrates:

There will come a day when our cells won't regenerate
and everyone you know will rot away, rot away
Your friends and enemies and all your family
we will all be buried in the ground, in the ground
So make the most of it.
Life's too short to fuck with.

Once an hour a day I get very sad
Once an hour a day I get depressed
When that hour is over I start to feel okay
because I'm reminded I'll rot away, rot away.

I don't have much time to hang out here and cry
and though that may feel nice I can't do that everyday

I've had a lot of friends and they've done a lot of drugs
and those drugs made my friends rot away, rot away
They say that Jesus saves but Jesus doesn't care
because he is in a grave, in a grave
Let's be our own God, take care of ourselves and the ones that we love

The ending lyrics are super shocking, totally bucking the Christian tradition so prevalent in our country, but more than the shock, the lyrics that follow are downright amazing when they suggest that we take the fate of humanity into our hands and that we love and care for our fellow man as if it were a mandate of some inate human code, not just some religious commandment.

Amen, brothers, AMEN!

Updatezors

Oh HEWWO!
I made a flickr account. You can see it here:
http://flickr.com/photos/bobbaloo5/

There you can see some photos I took of Bomb The Music Industry at the Asian Man Records tour stop in San Jose, June 6. What a tight show. I'll be posting video from the San Francisco and San Jose shows when I have some time. (I missed my radio show last week because I was at the San Francisco stop).

Which leads me to today: I'll be missing my radio show to see another show this week! Sooo... see you next week loyal fans! The online streaming is back online again at kscu.org.