| Tuesday, May 15, 2001 06:27 p.m. PST |
| wow. i just finished listening to leaves turn inside you for the first time, and i must say that what strikes me most is the way unwound's new sound incorporates their old incarnations into a unified collection of songs much greater than they've ever produced. as you've probably heard by now, the record isn't nearly as abrasive as their previous work, but don't let anyone tell you they've gone soft. justin hasn't screamed a single line yet; in fact he's captured the dreamy, reverby indie-lull perfected by bands like my bloody valentine and kilowatthours. mbv is a frequently referenced touchstone on leaves, as are blonde redhead (in their quieter moments) and juno. you'll find string sections and keyboards scattered throughout the record, but fortunately they're adeptly woven into the mix, exerting their influence so subtly you won't be able to imagine the song without them. fans of the distortion-and-feedback workouts of fake train and challenge will find little of that here, but i daresay you'll find something much richer, well-composed and satisfying.
insound also sent me some blonde redhead, sweep the leg johnny, mercury program, and two copies of the new juno (but they only charged me for one according to the invoice). i suppose i'll talk about those records when i listen to them, which'll be soon. for some reason, accessing insound's site produces the following message: HTTP Error 403
403.6 Forbidden: IP address rejected
This error is caused when the server has a list of IP addresses that are not allowed to access the site, and the IP address you are using is in this list.
Please contact the Web server's administrator if the problem persists.
so i don't know what the deal is. you try it. |
| Sunday, May 13, 2001 02:58 a.m. PST |
| i publicly announced i wasn't going to do it. i privately swore i wouldn't do it. i myself believed i'd never do it. but several days ago, i did it. i finally caved in: i opened my fool mouth and spoke to her.
and after i did so i felt great. it wasn't so much because of any monumental triumph evident in the conversation, i simply felt incredibly empowered and self-satisfied. even then i realized that my high spirits were a conditional consequence of her reciprocation of my platonic overtures, but i was too buzzed to care. i've spoken to her several times since then, and have concluded that she's an incredibly sweet girl with whom i share multiple interests. i so wish i'd met her earlier. . . but what the hell, it's pretty rare that i find people i like, so i'm happy nonetheless. we'll see if she still think's i'm the shit after hearing my music.
burning airlines, beauty pill, and the oxes arrived yesterday. pitchfork was right; mr. robbins & co. are having a tough time coming up with an album's worth of memorable songs; but j.'s lyrics are as pointed and obtuse as ever. and the best songs rock with studied urgency; be sure to witness "outside the aviary," "paper crowns," and "dear hilary." hmmm. the beauty pill ep is slightly less immediate; but initial impressions implicate "rideshare" as my track of choice. it's a bit more eclectic and much lazier (musically) than smart went crazy, but i think i'll warm to it soon. and the oxes? i don't think i can say anything about those guys that hasn't already been said. they're much better than the champs, in fact they're the best mathrock combo going since don cab threw in the towel, their live show is already legendary, and the record is supernecessary. but i get the feeling y'all saw those particular kudos coming a mile away. |
| Friday, May 11, 2001 04:15 p.m. PST |
| my days of shamelessly violating intellectual property laws are over. this morning i received an email from stanford network security telling me to cut public access to all my copyritten digitalia. i did so, and now that i'm on thin ice with the man, i'm a bit skittish about running p2p apps even for legitimate purposes. that is, of course, assuming that such services actually have legitimate purposes. in any event, there'll be no more daylight theft of any stripe for me.
in his review of the dashboard confessional's latest, pitchfork reviewer john dark disses blogging in general, probably because of all the attention the record's been receiving in the indie-blog community. in addition to soundly lambasting the record (which i haven't heard) and broadly stereotyping weblog owners, he manages to come up with a provocative question: "what makes you bloggers think people want to read about your mundanities?" now as a psychologist, i'm acutely aware of the dangers of making general statements about the way 'everyone' thinks that are based on one's own opinion. and of course, this is exactly what dark does, as he deplores "the taint of self-indulgence" that for him supersedes such trivialities as, say, quality of writing, aesthetics of design, and congruency of interests. so that's all well and good for him, but my webstats tell the story of a different demographic, one that keeps coming back week after week. i would never presume to guess why any one of my regular readers (let alone all of them) reads this page; all i know is that you do come, for some reason or other. thus i assume that someone gets something out of what i do, and that's enough to keep me writing. for the time being anyway. |
| Tuesday, May 8, 2001 09:55 p.m. PST |
| a brief ps on my failed romantic aspirations, for the two of you still interested: i do desperately want to speak to her, but i refuse to. it's a lose-lose situation: in the unlikely event she digs me, i'm heading back to the east coast in six weeks, and if i'm rejected, that's another crushing blow to my already brittle ego. so 'tis a no-go. of course, the audience is quite welcome to give me encouraging advice to the contrary.
all you hardcore bill maher fans out there saw my dear mother on politically incorrect monday night at midnight. i would've announced it on here, but she only told me four hours before the fact. i know that's no excuse by itself, but i was also studying for a midterm. she held her liberal, soulful own on issues of education and religion with the likes of christopher titus (of fox's titus), one of the actors from nbc's "the practice," and a religious fanatic chick who directs a conservative "family-oriented" organization called the eagle forum. i was quite proud of her, as were my housemates. maher kinda ran out of time at the end though, and the last few minutes were curtailed to make way for whatever came afterward. titus repeatedly held my mom's cd up as part of his surrealistic loud libertarian comic schtick, but 'twas good exposure nonetheless.
i placed a couple of insound orders last night, one from the annex and one from the main friggin' store. among other things, i picked up all the new desoto stuff (burning airlines, juno, & the beauty pill), the mercury program, unwound, a couple blonde redheads, and the oxes. the rock should be here in a few days, considering the ridiculous amount i had to spend on standard shipping, and at that time the propanganda will continue. |
| Sunday, May 6, 2001 10:00 p.m. PST |
| being the civic-minded individual that i am, from time to time i like to give back to the weblog community; to pay tribute, as it were, to the dozens of individuals who've made wolf 359 the robust institution it is today. to that end, i bring you the following true-life public service message, entitled "life cycle of a crush."
way back in the beginning, all was common courtesy. back then i didn't notice that she was (and still is) firmly on the subtle side of stunning, and all the more so because of her unassuming personality. i introduced myself as the guy you talk to about computer-related issues, but beyond that i didn't notice much special about her. a couple weeks later i found myself mentioning to a friend that i found her attractive, intriguing and mysterious. of course at that point i was still kinda whatever about the whole thing. but last night (this morning, really) a bald revelation came to me in a dream, and desire bitchslapped me for the first time in years.
the dream consisted of 3 acts. the script for each act was more or less identical, except for her actions. in the first act she spoke to me and told me what a great guy she thought i was. we held hands. i think i may have had my arm around her; it's all starting to blur now. needless to say, i was freakin' elated. act 2 was pretty boring; we had a dry, neutral conversation about some idle topic or other. no romantic content, but i wanted to tell her how i felt pretty badly, i seem to recall. in the final act she told me i was annoying and useless, and by extension, there was no relationship potential of any kind between us. the pain was exceptionally exquisite.
i woke up whipped and cursing my horrible luck for experiencing such realistic visions of three possible futures. the desire started out strong, but attenuated throughout the day as i conceded the impossibility of starting up a conversation. and now, the infatuation has completely exited my system. elapsed time: 9 hours, 11 minutes.
and if you believe that you're even more gullible than my dream-self. i'm still getting over it. the fact that she lives here in the house rather exacerbates the problem, but hey, i do only have five weeks left, and the off chance that she may read this and recognize herself. . .
ok, psa over. more piss, bile and acid next time. |
| Thursday, May 3, 2001 11:02 p.m. PST |
| i'd be surprised if there were any indie-rock types out there that haven't yet purchased anything from insound, the net's premiere vendor of independently rocking merchandise. for those of us without local access to a decent physical music store, it's a bona fide godsend. and now that saul goodman's has closed up shop, insound really doesn't have any viable competitors.
so all this gushing is just to explain that i am unspeakably grateful for the service that insound provides to John q. Indie-Rock. however, i did say i was going to bitch today, and here's what about: what's with dichotomizing the inventory, people? i really don't understand the point of having a "main store" as well as an "annex." why not reduce the cognitive strain and sell everything in one store? i can't even extrapolate the criteria for placing a product in the annex. they sell vinyl in both divisions, so it's not disc material. for a long time i thought it might be a label thing, since the annex tends to contain mainly lesser-known indie bands on smaller labels. but then, many of the more popular indie bands have items available in both the annex and the main store, so that can't be it either.
of course, the preceding discussion is completely moot. whatever the reason for splitting the inventory, the public would be much better served by a single store selling everything insound has to offer. i'm tired of constantly having to split 8-cd orders in half because some discs are in the annex and the rest are in the main store. that's the difference between getting all the music you want at one store and having to make two stops because the first place didn't have something you were looking for. and i know all y'all can relate to that particular scenario. maybe i should submit a formal complaint, because the system as it is is pretty lame. but as usual, i bet i'm the only one who noticed. |
| Wednesday, May 2, 2001 12:28 a.m. PST |
| quoth the blogger, "victory is mine!" not that i look my peers for validation or anything, but today i was invited to partake in the fourth freakytrigger focus group. participation in said group entails rating and commenting on 33 songs compiled by focusmaster and ft contributor michael daddino. two slight problems for yours truly: 1) all the selections are radio pop songs (outkast, dido, crazy town, etc.), and 2) as i've mentioned previously, i'm not really a critic. however, i refuse to allow either of those minor conditions to affect my submission to the group. it took me this long to attain official (well. . . you know what i mean) recognition, and i'm not gonna let a little thing like label politics stop me from brandishing my opinions like twin sabres. yeah, that's right. . . twin sabres.
also, i sorta want to beef about insound, but i'm too tired right now. so, unless i think of something better to bitch about, that's what i'll do in my next entry. |
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