thank god: my muse is back with a vengeance. during the past two days i've started three new songs, and all of 'em sound pretty smoove right now. y'know, the need to express myself musically is rather like having to take a shit, and circumstances being what they were, i had been denied the opportunity ever since i returned from california. so now, all i have to say is: ahhhhhhh.

last night was fun. me, mary and dimitri spent the evening at kings in raleigh watching merlin, the holy ghost and track rabbits do their respective things on stage in that order. merlin is a sabbath-influenced trio from greensboro that wasn't bad instrumentally (if you're into that kind of thing), but the guitarist's shouty hardcore vocal style kinda grated on my ears. i actually enjoyed the holy ghost's set quite a bit, as they kicked that les savy fav-ish artskronk that i just never seem to get tired of. the singer wasn't excellent, but the music more than compensated for his ian astbury/robert smith stylistic amalgam. the bassist sold me a 7", even though i wasn't planning on buying one as i don't own a turntable. but what can i say; i love supporting worthy causes. but let us continue: the track rabbits. came on stage, did a little cheerleader pyramid (yeah, you've got the right idea) and began chanting the following, in blonde highschool cadence: "brrr... it's cold in here. got to be trackrabbits in the atmosphere." they used this admittedly cool performance device as a springboard into their set, during which they came off as dianogah's evil doppelganger. y'see, both bands sport a dual bass plus drums setup, but whereas dianogah create quiet, nonthreatening post-rocky instrumentals, the 'rabbits sound like shellac and godheadsilo in a two-car pileup. lead singer matt gentling sloppily screamed his paranoid rants into the mic when he wasn't thrashing around the stage attacking his bass like a rabid animal. as i told mary after we departed early, that sort of theatrical rock insanity works far better conceptualized as performance art rather than musical performance. perhaps matt & co. will learn how to syncretize the two elements to superior effect next time.

the oft-repeated lateness lament goes something like this: "sorry i (we) haven't had time to update recently, life seems to have intervened." odd that i, for the first time in my life, should find myself in possession of what is commonly referred to as "a life." go fuckin' figure: my presence is actually sort of in demand these days. plus it seems like i'm always on the move. geez, things were far less complicated when no one gave half a shit about my whereabouts. anyway, enough about my recently altered beezwax:

i picked up some plastic discs the other day, and i'm gonna discuss as many of 'em as i can before i pass out from exhaustion. lessee: modest mouse's sad sappy sucker. decent, and a good mm value at 23 tracks, but don't expect moon and antarctica. this is raw and underproduced; and isaac's vox sound a little histrionic. so y'know, completists only and all that rawk. um. dizzy spells, the ex. i think these guys are danish. in any case, they channel the long-forgotten spirit of gang of four both musically and politically, and in my book that's a wonderful thing. so get that if you're into what i'm into, which is politicized highbrow artpunk stomp. yeah. so. dplan/juno. not particularly impressed with the plan's contributions, esp. not "crush," which sucked enough coming from miss page's prefab labia. juno's "non-equivalents" sounds just like all their hard songs: loud, reverby and utterly undistinguished. but the watery northwesterners do weigh in with a particularly hard-hitting cover of dj shadow's "high noon," which is by far the ep's best cut. so, we've got one stellar track, two mediocre ones, and one total loss. there's a candidate for digital piracy and burning if'n i ever saw one. but here's a bonus question: name another rock band that's covered "high noon," if you can. if anyone cares but no one answers, i'll tell y'all. but letting me know either way would require actual feedback, of which you slack motherfuckers seem deathly afraid. quequiera.

so. . . mogwai. live. thursday night. the cradle. dimitri and i arrived early enough to see a who's-who lineup of carrboro scenesters doing their best to look more-jaded-than-thou before the opening band took the stage. said band was bardo pond, a sort of psychedelic-post-something outfit featuring a female vocalist/flautist. dimitri described her as "janis joplin on valium," which was pretty apt considering her static, shoegazing performance. they did one song i liked, and the rest of the set was tolerable, i suppose. meh.

but y'know, all pretentious things must come to an end, and bp left the crowd appropriately hyped for the premiere scottish purveyors of post-rock, mogwai. having heard all of rock action twice and cody just once, i'd concluded that the band would probably be as low-key live as they were on record. wrong. dimitri, who is far better acquainted with the band's oeuvre than i am, informed me that the white-noise freakouts terminating the majority of the set's songs were new to him. i'm not talking mere dissonance here folks: the towering three-gtr assault completely overwhelmed my high-end cilia, rendering it impossible for me to pick out melodies or chord progressions. plus it was painful, cuz i was standing right under one of the main speakers. dimitri had originally planned to wait until after the show to give the band a copy of his sideproject demo, but he couldn't stand the noise either and so we split before the encore. so. if you like quiet, don't see these guys live. but i guess it could be a good test of one's high-frequency noise tolerance.

well, damned if this isn't the best webcrit scuttlebutt in awhile: freakytrigger is back in bizness. the relaunch festivities kick off with the freakytrigger focus group iv, which polled the music web-logging elite on various pop songs. specifically, we were asked to rate the tracks on a scale of 1 to 10 (i was the only group member who used the pitchforkian tenths place) and make a random comment for each one. moderator michael daddino submited 33 songs for our perusal; time constraints and lack of exposure allowed me to scrutinize only 24. of those, ten of my musings were chosen for the final collection of analyses. my comments on the following songs were published:

missy elliot, "get ur freak on"
eminem, "stan"
destiny's child, "survivor"
soggy bottom boys, "i am a man of constant sorrow"
eve, "who's that girl"
beenie man, "girls dem sugar"
hear'say, "pure and simple"
mya, "case of the ex"
s club 7, "never had a dream come true"
dido, "thank you"

also, i was honored to have my work quoted as the tagline for the s club 7 song. i personally consider that bit of crit the best of my submissions to the focus group. but overall, the whole thing is incredibly well-written and frequently hilarious, so do yourself the favor of reading all the selections.

your worst fears have been confirmed: i'm still around, and blogging. yes, the week-long hiatus you just enjoyed is now over, as i have returned to my hometown of durham, north carolina to spend the summer working at the wonderful university of north carolina. it took dimitri and i four days of driving at 12 hours per day to get from palo alto, ca to durham, nc. and all i can say is it gets easier every time.

unc is within walking distance of the triangle's two best rock venues, go! room 4 and the cat's cradle, so expect some show reviews in the near future. first up is mogwai, who will be NOT rocking the cradle on thursday evening. upcoming show info will be posted as i acquire the info. but right now i'm so tired i'm starting to hallucinate. . . what. . .? jawbox is reforming without kim and they need a new bassist. . .? sure, i'd love to playyyyyyyyyyyy-

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