We Interrupt You NYE Celebrations...

... Because former Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S. Howard died.

(Why couldn't it be Rush Limbaugh, why?!?!?!)

I am so sorry for the world, what we have lost will never be replaced. One of my favorite guitarists of all time, I have been a fan of his since he was in Nick Cave's pre-Birthday Party project, Boys Next Door. Through the years I've followed his work closely and knowing that no more greatness will come from this man makes me very sad.

Why have so many people died this year? Ugh, cannot wait for it to be over! Less than twelve hours to go, thank goodness.

(Rowland S. Howard and Lydia Lunch on the cover of the 'Some Velvet Morning' single).

Wikipedia

Rest in Peace, Mr. Howard.


----------------
Now playing: Crime & the City Solution - Motherless Child
via FoxyTunes

It's that time of the year again...

Yep, the end of the year is coming and it's that time again when you hear me rant about the best (and perhaps also the worst) albums of the year. So brace yourselves cause here I go.

Personally, I think this year brought along a lot of good music but also a lot of shit. I mean a lot. Bands you wouldn't believe came up with crappy albums. Like, I thought the Decemberists' The Hazards of Love was a little too much. Well, not that they were mind-blowing before, but they just seemed to be going too far with the whole 'progressive folk' thing. As if that'd make them as good as Tool or something. Or that AnCo album... hell, wait up, I'll talk about that later.

So, here are my picks for best albums of '09 (in no particular order cause I suck at ranking shit):

Soulsavers - Broken
Um, this album featured Mark Lanegan (duh), Mike Patton, Will Oldham, Gibby Haynes and Jason Pierce. Need I say more? Don't think so.
Recommended track: Unbalanced Pieces

The Cinematics - Love and Terror
And here I was, thinking British indie had been rendered outdated. Well, technically it has. We still gotta give it to them Brits -- no one does post punk revival like them. Well, maybe Interpol does.
Recommended track: Love and Terror

Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions - Through the Devil Softly
This woman's voice is like a soft caress kissing every part of your body and sending chills up and down your spine. Ever see those toilet paper ads talking about how soft and fluffy the product is? Well, that's how I feel about Hope Sandoval's voice. Don't think that was a very good example, though. Very ethereal and minimalistic, relying mainly on Sandoval's TP-esque vocals. Heh.
Recommended track: Blanchard

Florence + the Machine - Lungs
Another female vocalist's ethereal-ish album, only this voice isn't ethereal and frail but strong and Black-gospel-singer-like (with a British accent, lol). Love how she mixes just the right amount of blues, pop sensibility and melodrama, and can still make me smile.
Recommended track: Cosmic Love

Ramona Falls - Intuit
I don't really know why I liked this. It's not even that good. This sounds very much like Menomena, RF frontman and sole official member Brent Knopf's day job, and I'm not a Menomena fan. So why do I like it? Because for indie rock, it sounds a little bit exotic, and that's enough for me. I'm so easy to make happy.
Recommended track: Melectric

Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
Indie at its best, this represents all that is right about music. Dark and melancholic, electronic and simple... I love Natasha Khan. You should love her too.
Recommended track: Daniel (heh, commercial, I know, but I have my reasons...)

A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
Well, this one was a given. I honestly could give two shits whether this album is any good or not, cause they're still APTBS and they're fucking face-meltingly AWESOMEEE!!! Helps that the album really is good. Best Jesus and Mary Chain ripoff band that will ever exist, period.
Recommended track: I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
There's nothing I can say that hasn't been said already about this album. Yep, Edward Droste is a genius, he's Jesus, he's gonna cure cancer. Yep. So I'll just shut up. The album's worth a shot anyway.
Recommended track: While You Wait for the Others

HEALTH - Get Color
They did get color. Seriously. Their brutal, insane, minimal, drumbeat-driven trademark sound seems to still be there, but layered with colors, melodies, less noise and sugar. Nice.
Recommended track: Nice Girls

Fever Ray - Fever Ray
It's Karin Dreijer Andersson, of course it's fucking brilliant! Eerie, bleak and somewhat mysterious, but sensibilized by Dreijer's quirky voice and cryptic lyrics. Damn, I miss The Knife.
Recommended track: Keep the Street Empty for Me

The Horrors - Primary Colors
I am somewhat glad these dudes shed their horror punk outfit and put on something more approachable but still interesting enough to keep my attention. Instead of the exhausted, run-of-the-mill British post punk revival, they made something really gripping: garage rock with a little more depth but not too deep.
Recommended track: Primary Colours

Telefon Tel Aviv - Immolate Yourself
Ah, when did electro get so goth? This is so dark it scares me! Love these guys, always have, and I'm really happy their ambient shit got so cool.
Recommended track: M

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul
Not exactly what I'd expect from Sparklehorse, but since he teamed up with batshit crazy guy Danger Mouse (from New York, suckasss), this is a completely different, way more pleasant sonic experience than anything I'd heard from him. I'm not even gonna type the list of guest artists that contributed to this album, cause I really wanna go to bed, but all I'm gonna say is David fucking Lynch. Yessss.
Recommended track: Jaykub (featuring Jason Lytle from Grandaddy)

The Twilight Sad - Forget the Night Ahead
I know I said I wouldn't rank the albums, but I gotta say, this is my favorite album of '09. More mature than their debut, wall-of-sound-laden, lyrically despairing and terribly depressing, this album is nothing short of moving and amazing. Yanks a tear out of me every now and then.
Recommended track: (All of them, especially...) Made to Disappear


Of course, like last year, I am also going to include some honorable mentions that didn't quite make the very-best-of-the-year list, but are worth mentioning:

Julian Plenti - Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper
Heh, I so had no faith in this album whatsoever. Somehow I thought it'd be as big a FAIL as Julian Casablancas' solo album. Guess this just goes out to prove me wrong, yet again, and to reassure me that Interpol are fucking great. Two thumbs up to you, Paul Banks.
Recommended track: (Won't mention Games for Days, won't mention Games for Days, won't mention...) Only if You Run

The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love
Remember how I said APTBS will always be the best JaMC ripoff band to ever exist? I wasn't kidding. These dudes try, they sure do, but good JaMC ripping off can only be done properly in Brooklyn. I still like them.
Recommended track: Velvet

A.A. Bondy - When the Devil's Loose
Fleet Foxes meets Devendra Banhart, plus a much bigger country feel. Result: Much more pleasant than it might seem.
Recommended track: A Slow Parade

Clint Mansell - Moon (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture)
Yes, Clint Mansell did it again, with his glitchy genius soundscapes. Who would have thought that funky guy from PWEI could be so... er, deep?
Recommended track: Sacrifice

PJ Harvey and John Parish - A Woman a Man Walked By
Three words: PJ fucking Harvey. Twelve more words: Talent and elegance converging in a creative and powerful cannonball of poetry. Cause it's PJ Harvey.

Mew - No More Stories / Are Told Today / I'm Sorry / They Washed Away // No More Stories / The World Is Grey / I'm Tired / Let's Wash Away
Less dark than most Mew albums, it still has an element of nostalgia that grabs me and keeps me lulled for hours on end. Heh, love how their song structure and composition are rather special and unusual. Also, the title kinda kicks ass.
Recommended track: Repeaterbeater

Puscifer - "C" Is for (Please Insert Sophomoric Genitalia Reference HERE)
Puscifer is growing on me and I don't know if it's a good or bad thing. Probably good. Though miles away from the old, experimental, brilliant days of Tool, Maynard James Keenan has come up with a project that's both amusing and actually interesting so as to keep us distracted and make us forget about the fact that he promised new A Perfect Circle material for this year. Puscifer is hella funny, so I understand why he'd rather work on it than APC, since the latter is so dark and serious and Maynard is a happy fellow. Artwork is retarded but at least the music's good.
Recommended track: The Mission (feat. Milla Jovovich)

Warpaint - Warpaint
All-girl experimental/psychedelic band from Los Angeles whose debut EP was produced by John Frusciante, THE John Frusciante. What's not to like about them?
Recommended track: Elephants

Antony and the Johnsons - The Crying Light
Heart-breakingly exquisite.
Recommended track: Another World


There's more I'd like to put in the list but to keep it short and nice I won't. I'm just gonna cut to the shit, er... the underwhelming albums of '09:

Street Sweeper Social Club - Street Sweeper Social Club
They're much better live. I bet, had they included their cover of M.I.A.'s Paper Planes on the album, it would have been much better. Then again that would have been way too Rage Against the Machine, and that is so not what these guys are all about. Nope...

Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
One of those albums I really wanted to like. Hell, when it comes to '09 supergroups, I even liked The Dead Weather's Horehound quite a bit, cause I was motivated enough to enjoy their music it just grew on me. Other than a couple tracks that caught my attention for a minute or two, the whole album bored me. Oh ya, probably cause I hate Josh Homme.

Depeche Mode - Sounds of the Universe
I admit, Wrong is catchy as hell. Sexy as hell too. What happened to the rest of the album? I'm sure, had they just filled the disc with remixes of Wrong, it would have been exponentially better than it was with all the other, "less commercial" tracks. Whatever.

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Hipster shit for dirty hipsters. This album, along with a certain other I'll mention later (I'll give you a hint, it sucks and it's called Merriweather Post Pavilion, heh) suffers from chronic Vampire Weekend syndrome.

Massive Attack - Splitting the Atom EP
Hell, this was probably the biggest disappointment of the year, and it was only four tracks long. Granted, it's not horrible. It could certainly be worse. I'm just so used to Massive Attack blowing my mind, after such a long time waiting for new material from them I was expecting fireworks and eargasms all the way and instead I just got a smile and a pat on the head. At least they got Martina Topley-Bird.

Tegan & Sara - Sainthood
This is the kind of crap they feed tweens nowadays and then people wonder why they're turning out so stupid. Uh, duh! Definitely aimed for poser emo teenagers, I really don't get how these women could get so famous and earn themselves a reputation for being deep and mature when they make music like this. Ugh.

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Ahhh, I'm not even gonna talk about this. Why this album keeps popping up on every year-end list just boggles my mind. Why people keep falling for this kind of ridiculous shit just proves we humans are stupid.


All and all, this was a good year for music. Er, except for the fact that that this was the year that saw shemale mutant demon Lady GaGa ubiquitously infect the world with her poisonous, viral, gonorrhea-laden beats and tranny-on-crack-inspired outfits. She makes me wish the Mayans were right about the end of the world coming in 2012. Or even sooner, if possible. For those saying she is the new Manson, well here's the deal: at least Manson surrounded himself with the right people to make his music at least tolerable. Plus, believe it or not, he used to be a smart person. So take that, GagGag -- unlike you, he's not really a moron... it's just the drugs.

Oh... and let's not forget this little winner. Sorry in advance.

	Vampire Weekend - Horchata .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Ordinarily, this would be the end of my post. But not so fast! This year also saw the birth of my now-shamefully forgotten podcast, so what better chance to revive it than this! Hereeeeeehereee you'll find some of the tracks I've recommended above. If you check the older posts, you'll also find some nice tracks by some of the artists I've mentioned here. So give it a shot if you want. :)

So that's it. Your friend from the gutter is wishing you a happy new year full of love, smiles, puppies and rock & roll. Sayonara and we'll meet again in 2010. Here's hoping Lady GaGa will overdose on pig's blood before the year's over. One can only dream...


----------------
Now playing: The Zombies - Time of the Season
via FoxyTunes

Mandatory Post-Christmas Blog

I miss my music. I seriously do.

Oh wait, I don't think I've mentioned it here that I deleted all my music like a fucking retard a couple months ago!

Well yeah. Getting it back has been a bitch. I'm getting there. I've nearly cried of despair, lost my nerve and pulled off chunks of hair out of sheer utter fucking anger, but it's all worked out... sort of ok. For the most part.

What I mean is, sometimes I really feel hopeless and alone, like there's no one to help me and I'm gonna end up drinking bleach or something. Then out of nowhere the world sends some little ray of happiness upon me and everything seems slightly better. <Insert notorious Lisa Hannigan song I was obsessed with not too long ago>

Yeah, life ain't that bad, if you have the right people around you. Somehow they make the crap a little easier to bear.

So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.



----------------
Now playing: The Sisterhood - Jihad
via FoxyTunes

Christmas-y

I am sad. I will miss my girls. So much so I nearly cried today when I thought about it. I'm growing up. Thinking that we will separate sooner than I can count to 13567700 breaks my heart. I can't even write about it cause I am out of words to describe how utterly hopeless I feel that time will go by and the world would move round and round and one day I'll lose everything I have right now. It's happened before and it will happen again. It happens every single day. The weight of things forgotten and time consumed makes me nervous. I wanna be thirteen again.

Some seasonal nostalgia -- just what I needed. I guess I just hate the fact that my life is inevitably wasting away before my eyes and even though I am aware of it, I have not moved a finger to change it.

So merry Christmas. Gonna have my Christmas latte now.


----------------
Now playing: The Jesus Lizard - One Evening
via FoxyTunes

Long Overdue A Place to Bury Strangers/Dead Confederate/All the Saints Concert Review

Okay kids, here I go. Checking some of the last few blogs on here, I realize I never made any mention of my trip back to NYC (other than that last minute shame of a post hours before the trip), much less of the APTBS show I planned on attending. My bad. I did, though, see them on Oct. 29th. So, given that I'm obsessed with publicizing every minor aspect of my sad little existence --and this one counts as a big one-- I'll just blog about it.




I arrived at the Bowery a little too early, as I miscalculated and left about an hour before time -- show would supposedly start at 8. There was nobody outside, so I took a walk. Came back about thirty minutes later and three old dudes were waiting outside. Just three people. Three old dudes who spoke about me in Puerto Rican and didn't even stop to consider I could understand them. Dumb fucks. When they finally let us in, at about 7:45, the only people inside were the old dudes and I. For a moment there I didn't think anyone would show up. Then someone came through the door. Then someone else. All alt-looking people, NY hipsters -- the worst kind of hipster there is. People like this:


(Sorry it's so blurry, it's not like I asked the funniest looking, Einsturzende-Neubauten-t-shirt-wearing, emo-fringe-bearing, anorexic hipster to pose for a pic so I could make fun of him later on my stupid blog, ya know?)


Countless minutes later, at about 8:30, they let us upstairs. Still, there weren't more than 30 people in the whole place. I took my place on the front row and waited... and waited... and fucking waited. People slowly started to populate the rather small venue, either taking seats upstairs or sitting on the floor downstairs like I was. As we all hopelessly waited for the band(s) to take their positions onstage, and watched as technicians plugged shit in, rushed on and off the narrow stage carrying equipment and water bottles, it occurred to me that it was too late and I should be home. It really wasn't that late, it was about nine something, but damn, was I tired. I was tempted to leave, hop on the J and go back home, sleep off the backache and wake up fresh. Just then, I saw that drummer dude from All the Saints come out. So I had to stand...

I had heard very little about All the Saints before the show. I got their second album when I found out they were opening for APTBS, and I wasn't disappointed. Their set was pretty simple, a small drumkit, a mic on the left for the bassist and a mic on the right for the guitarist/vocalist. The whole thing reminded me of the cover of Philosophy of the World by The Shaggs, and I really wasn't sure what to expect from those dudes.



Heh, I didn't think that much noise could come from those instruments. I couldn't hear a damn word the dude sang, and I could hardly make up the songs they were playing, but they were energetic and played well enough to have me banging my head a couple times. Props to the drummer who despite his intense sweating managed to do a great job.



As soon as they left, a stampede of roadies stormed onstage and began setting up the place for Dead Confederate. I considered going home again, as my feet felt like they were being crushed between glass and a ton of bricks, and my back was no different. I dropped my bag and coat on the floor, feeling instant relief, and as soon as I looked back up, I found a familiar bearded figure standing by the stage door. I took a second look and realized it was Kyp Malone, from the seminal Brooklyn indie/hipster band Tv on the Radio. I glanced at the girl/boy/speed-taking person next to me, and he/she/they replied: "Yep, that's him." The moment I snapped out of it and attempted to take a picture, the dude went back inside, to never come out again. But I did see him and that's enough for me.

The stage was way more crowded for Dead Confederate. There were lots of mics, a bigger drum kit, like two keyboards, one on each end of the stage, and a whole lot of cords and cables and amplifiers. There were six funny-looking people onstage, and I had the feeling the lead singer hadn't washed his hair in weeks.



To be honest, these guys didn't impress me at first listen. I picked up their albums not so long ago but I didn't find anything particularly remarkable about them. I knew they'd be better live. I wasn't wrong. They killed!!! After the minimalistic show All the Saints put on, my expectations for Dead Confederate weren't high at all, but they bitchslapped me with their blinding strobelights and deafening guitar sound. I don't know how they managed to turn their simple, stale rock into such an amazing psychedelic experience live. I was blown away.



At this point, a mass of skinny-jeans-clad hipsters had taken over the small setting. Everyone was waiting for the headliners, who, in all actuality, didn't play any longer than the two previous bands. A blonde girl with her totebag full of beers swam through the crowd and took a place next to me, and a pair of Japanese dudes with funny haircuts soon joined her. She and the speed-taking-person next to me started drinking the beers and some cheap whiskey she had in a paper bag. Soon enough, the staple of all rock shows made its appearance, finally, after I wondered why it'd taken them so long to pull it out. That's right, pot. A Place to Bury Strangers came out and that's when the show got started.



At this point, I'd forgotten about my backache and exhaustion and was letting go, partially high off the pot smoke that was oozing around me. I was getting into it, really, until some fat kid no older than fifteen had the brilliant idea to start thrashing around to get some sort of indie/noise/alt-rock moshpit going. I, being as weak as grass, totally fell right in the arms of some dude who thankfully kept me from falling flat on my ass and making a complete idiot of myself. Then I tried taking a picture but my camera did something weird and stopped taking decent pics, and I remember thinking it was the pot that made my camera malfunction. I swear, that's the first thing I thought.



The dudes started off with some stuff from the new album, which makes sense since they just released it and are playing shows to promote it. (duh) Keep Slipping Away, one of my favorite songs from Exploding Head, was like the third song they played, which really got the hipster kids next to me going, and the blond girl screaming "louder, louder, louder!" and banging her head like a maniac. They played some stuff from their self titled, which I was really pleased to see. Another Step Away was a standout, but I expected that anyway cause that's a kickass track. Their trademark wall-of-sound style, combined with the amazing lights show and the screens made for a delightfully insane experience. I felt dizzy for a while there, like I was in some sort of drug-addled nightmare, or like I was living in the world of madness from Pink Floyd's The Wall. It was crayzeeeee!!! But alas! Thanks to my fucking camera being a total pothead, I spent most of their set trying to get it fixed so I could take pictures of the greatness my eyes were witnessing. I do remember that the blond chick started hugging me at some point, and pushed my bad under the stage. That was pretty weird. Then bam! Out of nowhere, a guitar pick flew across the stage and fell on my hair.



I was able to take some normal pics towards the end, but I had already half-missed most of the show. What I didn't miss was when that Oliver Ackermann dude (lead singer) grabbed some poor guitar and ripped it to shreds before our eyes. It was all so surreal I felt as if I'd taken some speed from the individual next to me. I was in excruciating pain throughout the whole 10 min or so it took him to destroy that innocent guitar, but at the same time, I was enjoying it with the delight of a child in awe at the M&M store. When it was over, I was out of breath, about to bite off a piece of my lower lip. That was so punk rock. It was so beautiful, and it was over. In a way, I was happy it was over, cause I was honestly dying, but part of me wanted to stay and watch the dude destroy that guitar over and over again. Cause, fuck... wow...

Finally, I resisted the uncontrollable urge, that iron-strong arm pulling at my loins, to make a stop at the gyro place right by the Bowery door, and went right down inside the J train station once again. I got home at 2:30 and collapsed.

It was sooo worth it.

Hi

Hey, it's me. I'm sorry I totally forgot about this blog, I've been busy having a life that for the first time in years does not include Trent Reznor in any way. I'm pretty happy actually, just sitting back, having a cup of tea and typing up this thing on my TOTALLY AWESOME NEW COMPUTER!!! and reminiscing about my life before my 21st birthday.

That's right, I'm an adult now.

Of course, I'm back from NY, where I had an amazing time for a change, and am currently dealing with some godawful third-world shit that's driving me and my dog insane. Wish I could go back, but I'm hell-bound, locked in a grimy dungeon with a hippie dog humping my leg and no electricity.

Ok, so I'm tired and have other shit to deal with right now so I'm not gonna blog about how awesome these past couple of days have been. I'm just gonna post some pictures cause I'm such an attention whore. I'll elaborate eventually. Or maybe I won't.



Birthday woman w/carrot cake. Happy day.



Meeting my future employers @ the UN lol...



A Place to Bury Strangers. Fucking AWESOMEEE!!! (BTW, I should mention I saw Kyp Malone backstage during the All the Saints/Dead Confederate intermission... and I GOT A GUITAR PICK!!!)






Grandma.






Halloween.


(Heh, I haven't listened to any music in centuries. WTF?)

Shit, I forgot to mention...

I'm going to New York tomorrow.

That should be pretty fun.

kthnxbai.