Thursday, June 6, 2002 -- 02:39 p.m.

Don't it make ya feel sick.

-Nate

Thursday, June 6, 2002 -- 11:50 a.m.

Pitchfork sez: "It would, after all, be a sad thing if Shadow took a sad shot at Xeroxing his debut. But what would be sadder is if people dismissed this album just because it doesn't live up to the strength of its groundshattering predecessor. The Private Press is more solid an album than anyone dared expect from an older, wiser DJ Shadow, and though it won't be televising another revolution, I'd be lying if I said its celebratory pleasure centers didn't communicate directly with my own." Such a thing is, apparently, only worth a 7.0. Silly Pitchfork.

-Nate

Wednesday, June 5, 2002 -- 09:50 p.m.

Daniel Rf. puts Kraftwerk on the same level as Hitler and he talks shit about Richard Hell, but he linked to me ("the obnoxious older brother who never loved me that I never had") so I might as well give him a plug for some godforsaken unknown reason.
I got that Eminem album this evening and if you expect me to go in-depth about it you're batshit insane. I will say, though, that every generation gets the Lenny Bruce they deserve.

-Nate

Wednesday, June 5, 2002 -- 07:00 p.m.

I have no idea what was going on in DJ Shadow's head when he put together The Private Press, but for once this is a "what were you thinking?!" that's not so much a demand for justifying something preposterous than it is a need to dig deeper at the roots of a work that seems like it will be one of those gradual revelations. It is a record I jumped to conclusions over at hearing miscellaneous MP3s, but with the newly-purchased CD sitting next to my keyboard staring up at me with its Gorey-visualized-by-a-Gilliam-animation cover and a couple listen-throughs on a warm June evening it's shot straight up to the top of my Best of 2002 List.

Said list also includes, if you're curious: Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Clinic's Walking With Thee, maybe Blackalicious' Blazing Arrow though that's still sort of tentative, El-P's Fantastic Damage, that Best Bootlegs In The World mix, N*E*R*D's In Search Of..., The Chemical Brothers' Come With Us and, in the special 'The Limeys Had It Last Year' category, Super Furry Animals' Rings Around The World. Not much rock-out superbadass guitar action or super-canonized populist Top 40, but it's not my fault it's been a good half-year for indie weirdo stuff. (And what the hell- I'm saving an open slot for The Eminem Show, just in case.)

-Nate

Tuesday, June 4, 2002 -- 11:22 p.m.

I have a new mix up and it's completely unthemed. Crazy, innit? Anyhow. QCPM 1980 is coming up soon, and it'll be different. Think collaborative Instant Messenger-carried double-team analysis. Who will be the mysterious partner in music reviewing crime? OMG IT IS A SEEKRIT. Find out later this week.

Also, a battle for the ages (pref. ages 4-9).

-Nate

Monday, June 3, 2002 -- 10:27 p.m.

I... uh... erm... guh... gronk. Yeah.

-Nate

Monday, June 3, 2002 -- 07:15 p.m.

HOTT NOOZ on the Beck front: The track listing to his upcoming record, which is as-yet untitled so let's just call it Mutations II: Colder Brains. I am geeked.

Also: ...the hell?!

-Nate

Sunday, June 2, 2002 -- 12:35 a.m.

Some of you out there might one day succumb to the temptation of "Googling" my name. Lord knows why. Well, aside from a few various points of interest- postings on web boards related to professional wrestling (which is my token "stupid" interest); five year-old submissions to episode capsules for The Simpsons; custom-made add-on cars for the Need For Speed series of auto racing games; miscellaneous music crap- there will be a few odd references to "furry". This is a sort of lengthy diatribe about a problematic issue that has nothing whatsoever to do with music, and if you're only here to read about what I think of Dexy's Midnight Runners or whatever you might want to skip this entry. It's kind of a catharsis.
I used to draw cartoon animals. Sometimes I still doodle them on occasion. Nothing wrong with that- for the better part of a decade, that was the main gig for Matt Groening (my #1 influence). I used to draw whimsical stuff- weasels on skateboards and turntablist jackals- as well as a brief period of Akira and comic-book-influenced cheesy "action/drama" stuff which mostly involved anthropomorphic wolverines in racing jackets beating people up or whatever. It was something I started in junior high and just kept doing throughout my teen years. Seemed like a harmless pursuit.
Then I stumbled across what Something Awful and Portal Of Evil have made one of their biggest, most deserved targets for ridicule: "The Furry Fandom".
I signed onto a couple of the MUCKs, screwed around, did stupid crap, met a few decent people, met more than a few weirdos. I started posting my art on a PG-rated "furry" archive, did a few commissions, started posting on the newsgroups. It eventually took me about a month to learn that (a) there were a lot of people that liked drawing cartoon animals doing really, really fucked-up things and (b) I didn't like what they did and (c) they didn't like me. I posted some smartass flames, acted like a moron, learned who to avoid, and talked on the MUCKs with various like-minded malcontents about how it stunk that us normal sane regular-folks fans of Walt Kelly and Life In Hell had to deal with people who drew giant hermaphroditic dragon crush-fetish porno. Still, whatever- some of these cool folks were going to something in Albany called "AnthroCon '98" and even though I knew there would be some crazies there I decided to take the Greyhound to New York's capital and meet some people. I hung around with a few various people- the cartoonist who moderated the art archive I posted to; a misanthropic illustrator who I talked punk rock with; a girl about my age who had a smartass sense of humor and shared my irritation with the guys who dressed in ugly mascot costumes and had unhealthy relationships with stuffed animals. This latter individual started up a movement-in-theory; bunch-of-people-writing-stuff-and-doing-not-much-else in practice group called "The Burned Furs", who were dedicated to trying to make the fandom look less perverted. I went along for the ride, posted stuff on their website, made jokes at the expense of various practitioners of bestiality.
This is why, on the first page of a google search for "Nate Patrin", you will find me listed as "an obviously disgruntled dead-head who most likely follows the Burned Fur movement because it's 'his kinda gang' to hang out with. Beligerrance must become him, and he's openly a ranter of things around him." (Except for the "dead-head" part this assessment is pretty much right, and considering the alternative to being 'beligerrant' is, in this case, getting turned on by animal porn then I am thankful to be 'obviously disgruntled'.) The whole page is here if you want a larf.
Eventually I got tired of the whole scene- outgrew it, really- and gave up on the whole cartooning thing. I stopped posting to the art archive and eventually had all my art taken down from it. I disappeared from the furry MUCKs, instead opting to hang around with the small circle of friends I'd met there in a different chat room with zero "furry" influence. It was a somewhat embarrassing phase I went through, and I'm glad it's over.
You know, maybe this entry was about music after all.

-Nate

Saturday, June 1, 2002 -- 10:41 p.m.

Inspired by Jody Beth Freezing To Death's k-rad Phony Telephonia mix, I've devised my own "theme" mix devoted to the internal combustion engine- or, more accurately, the vehicles they propel down the street at alarming rates of speed. (This is my poncey-fancy-britches way of saying I made a mix filled with car songs.) It's right here.

-Nate