ShortWaveRockin

I wanted to post this on WhatIDoInMyBedroom, but I forgot how to log in. It’s been a while. This works well with Tigs’ compulsive buying of weird things. A Wata Skateboard. That’s right. Boris skateboards.

The recent listenings of Tigs has inspired me to weigh in on what I’ve been listening to. I’ve been listening to too much music lately, actually. More than usual. For new stuff that is new to the whole world and not just me, I’ve got a few bands. First is Cymbals Eat Guitars. What a fucking great band name. Lately I’ve been on a rampage about band names and how most of them suck. I like seeing how great the difference can be. Disparity, is that the word? It’s usually the bands with the best names suck, but recently I’ve come across some with the opposite (i.e. the London Souls- who aren’t even from London, but they rock- i’ll let it go). Cymbals Eat Guitars are from Staten Island. The band’s myspace says its a Lou Reed line, talking about recording the Velvets. And this makes sense, because they’ve got the Velvets in their dirty Staten Island blood. Why There Are Mountains is a debut. The album is good, but the first song is incredible. They’ve got the loud/quiet thing down perfect. Swirly guitars. Weird story lyrics. People have been saying Pavement and Neutral Milk Hotel, but I’m not very well versed in those bands (ask Tigs). I think of it more like if the Flaming Lips tried to play a Pixies song. That’s a good thing.

Only once in my life has an opening band I’ve never heard before blow my brains out. It was about 6 years ago- Comes with the Fall opened for Jerry Cantrell. I saw Burma destroy the Pixies, but I knew all about those guys before getting to the show. Last night I went to see the London Souls and this brooklyn band called Chewing Pics came on. Let’s get back to band names. The Chewing Pics? Guitar picks maybe? I chew mine. Pictures? Gum? I really don’t get it, though I wasn’t bothered by that during their set because I didn’t know the name. Which was probably better because my mind was free to enjoy the show more than I’ve enjoyed any show in months. I got their EP Tarantula which is not that great, but that’s because the almost naked Asian kid with big glasses who shreds on guitar wasn’t in the band when it was recorded. Now that they have him, they should take over the world.

I just got the Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers album A Fish Hook An Open Eye and its probably going to be called the best album of the year by a lot of online blogs and such. It’s great. She’s from Beat the Devil and I think everyone in her band is a dude now, which makes the hooker thing kinda funny. Aside from the hot lead singer of Chewing Pics, Shilpa Ray is the best chick lead singer in a band. That’s right.

Shilpa’s Lyrics are about killing people, watching law and order and other stuff I really can’t follow:

We watched Law & Order ‘til the shame grew numb, while the drummer danced with the Devil in his Underoos

That’s all for now. I need a break. My eyes started bleeding last week because I spend too much time typing on a computer. Death machine! I know you’ll get the best of me. Which is why I planted a virus in you to go off and spread to other computers the first April 1st after I die, or go blind. Whichever comes first.

I haven’t really had the chance to listen to a lot of music in the last month or so, so I’ve been starting to catch up. It’s tough when you get into lulls where you just don’t want to listen to anything, or the only thing that you want to listen to is some old Madvillan and DangerDoom stuff, marking you even further as a total nerd. Anyway I’ve picked up some new stuff, I haven’t been able to listen to it enough to make a real review out of it, I’ve only listened to these albums once maybe. So when I say that the new Decemberists sounds exactly like the last Decemberists, you can take that as an insult or as a compliment. When I first listened to Crane Wife a few years ago I couldn’t stand it at first but after some repeated listens it began to grow on me, like a fungus of sorts. I can honestly say that my first reaction to Hazards of Love is exactly the same. I can’t stand listening to the album. As much as I grew to enjoy Crane Wife I can’t get beyond how uninspired the music on Hazards sounds. But, again, this isn’t a fair judgment of the album since I’ve only made it through one listen so far.

Next I listened to K’Naan’s new album Troubadour. After enjoying the previous album Dust Foot Philosopher and seeing again that Christgau recommended the latest work I picked it up to and have very much enjoyed it. K’Naan is a great story teller first off. He recants about his childhood and enjoying listening to rappers rhyme flow without understanding the words. But the stories are only a small piece of pie, with the beats filling in the rest. I’d try to describe it, but I’d sound like (read: am) a poser so I’ll just say take a listen for yourself.

I’ve listened to the latest Living Things album a few times now. At first I wasn’t too thrilled about the album, it seemed a little too produced and synthy at first. I don’t think I like it as much as Ahead of the Lions/Black Sikes in Broad Daylight, but it’s growing on me.

Finally I have been listening to a lot of Buck 65’s latest project, titled Dirtbike. A challenge to himself to create 3 separate albums in 3 months, a bold attempt. I can’t get enough of the albums. I wish that the discs were split up by tracks, but he’s giving all three away for free on his web site as a download, so why not. Canadian rap, fuck that, music at it’s finest. At least I think so.