potential book of the month

Have you ever wondered what Rat Scabies, drummer from the Damned, has been up to lately? His current going-ons may seem far-fetched, but as his neighbor of seven years, Guy Debored, documents in his new book, Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail, they couldn't be more real. As the title suggests, Mr. Scabies goes on a search for the holy grail which he dearly believes to be a golden cup that is, "Probably a bit bashed up, a bit dented." Impecable logic that can undoubtedly lead to a wide array of shenanigans.

This was recommended to me - I haven't had the chance to read it yet, but I will most certainly be stopping by the bookstore this evening.

tune time

sufjan stevens - Illinois (Come on Feel the Illinoise): The second in the '50 States' series, this album is getting tons of good press as the next big folk sensation, if there is indeed such a thing anymore. I'll have to say, I enjoy this one more than his previous two releases, Seven Swans & Greetings from Michigan. I've even given it a turn at the gym.

grandaddy - Excerpts from the Diary of Todd Zilla: Stupid name aside (apparently it was inspired by a vanity plate), this long awaited EP is meant to serve as an appetizer to a full length due in the fall. I enjoyed a good listen of this in my car this morning, and I thought to myself that I really should check these guys out live. Then it dawned on me that I had, twice, just not in the past 5 years. Good stuff here.

v/a - Indie Translations of Usher: Yep, exactly what the title implies. Seven unknown indie rock acts take on nine Usher songs. Novelty factor is a straight 10. Not being too adept on my Usher, this could pass as original material, that's how completely different the arrangemnets are. Save for the inclusion of 'Yeah', which I have a soft spot for and can spot a mile away - take that, and rewind it back!

the concretes - Layyourbattleaxedown: Hot off the sucess (!?) of 'say something new' featured in numerous Target adverts, we are now presented with a bunch of b-sides & covers. This follows in the same vein as their eponymous debut. "Miss You' by the Stones is my fave here.

rinoçerose - Schizophonic: The somewhat recent trend of peppering average techno tracks with has-been vocalists persists. This has guest vox from Mark Gardner (ride) amongst others. I'd rather listen to the new Daft Punk.

-ticking away, neph-

widgets

Anyone out there running Tiger are way ahead of me on this one, but since I mostly live in PC land this is new and exciting. I have just come accross Konfabulator which allows you to use widgets with a PC.

For those of you not familiar with widgets, they are essentially little windowy things that look really neat and seem to co-exist peacefully with your computron informing you of this or that. Got it? If not, perhaps you can quench your insatiable knowledge with what Apple has to say about the widget. As nifty as they seem, however, they will undoubtedly be the next fun thing to hack.

Widgets remind me of how I imagine Jeff Noon's blipverts to look, only they still only exist on a two dimensional plain. The fact that they exist at all also kind of kills that scene in Back To School for generations to come.

-nephonomics-

country blue grass blues

& other music for uplifting gormandizers

zen-ish

Had a relatively low-key weekend, which was exactly what I was shooting for. Spent my time unwinding from the last week of adventure, and repositioning myself for the much anticipated second half of the summer. This was accomplished by clocking in some time down at the pool. Not at jen's urban pool of reckless abandon (which is always a good time) mind you, but at one of the three exceedingly more casual (think occassional tumbleweed breezing by) pools that encompass my bungalow. Luckily someone left a neon yellow raft which I graciously floated upon. All that lounging made me lazy, so I stepped it up a bit today with a long jog. I also cleaned house, stocked the kitchen, read all of last months mags, and caught up with some TV, the last of which left me thinking that the hbo show Entourage is cool because they say things like "bubble koosh".

-zen-osh, nephiliate-

synergy

toonies

ween - Shinola, Volume 1: Twelve songs from leftover studio sessions over the past several years. As most ween is timeless, this could very well have passed off as a brand new disc, had I not a heard few of these tunes already, such as 'Gabrielle' & 'The Rift' from the C&C demos, 'Someday', which was a discarded WP track, and 'Big Fat Fuck' which is a classic orginating from somewhere only brown knows. If you like wEEn at all, this is essential. But then again so are all their other works - they could shit on a plate and I'd prolly buy it.

elbow - Leaders of the Free World: Cookie cutter nu brit pop in the same veign as such non-visionaries as the Doves or Keane.

dandy warhols - Odditorium or Warlords From Mars: Named partly after their nifty new studio in Portland, Odditorium, this one furthers the issue that I don't really get what these guys are trying to achieve. These guys seem to want to be taken seriously, but it's really hard when they don't have much depth (I'm still a bit jaded from wathcing DIG! perhaps). This time around someone found a trumpet and learned how to play strangled goose noises and enjoyed it enough to include the cacaphony on almost every track.

broadcast - Tender Buttons: Just like with their first release, I have trouble getting into this oddball trip hop outfit from Birmingham, UK. The music sounds like it is trying to catch up with itself the whole way which makes for a rather unenchanting listen.

the new pornographers - Twin Cinema: Neko Case fronted band who occassionally sounds similar to, but not quite as good as the Shins. This band has lots of buzz, but no sting.

I Like It Vol. 2 - Four Music Lovers Present Their 3 Alltime Favourite Tracks: Exactly what the title describes. The "music lovers" in question are frequent Compost contributers Trevor Jackson, Pole, Richard Dorfmeister, and Trickski. It's always interesting, but not always as rewarding, to find out what inspires or influences certain artists. This comp, much like the recent Choice comp by john digweed, has both gems & throwaways.

-tossed, neph-

turn on the bright lights

I recently forgot to mention that we also swung through Times Square on our sunday travels through nyc, taking in the MTV studios, Sullivan Theatre, the Swatch shop & Virgin Megastore. Monday morning we set off to see Yankee Stadium, then travelled south to Canal Street and back up through Central Park, before settling in on the MoMA. It was a bit crowded since the Met was closed, but I saw some great works by Mondrian, Kandinsky, Picasso, Matisse, Pollack, Warhol, Cézanne & Pissarro, and Van Gogh's Starry Night, one of the few famous pieces not a part of his Amsterdam museum. There was also a great showing of modern design & poster art which I also thoroughly enjoyed. From the MoMA, we headed to Little Italy for a great din. Desert came in the form of shopping around the East Village & Soho (stops included Stussy, Paul Frank, Quicksilver, the brand new Addidas store, Diesel, Urban Outfitters, Burberry - where we got the nastiest looks, and a bunch of other random boutiques) before visiting the soon to be long gone CBGB's. Later in the evening we went to the Spuyten in Brooklyn, and partook in a mouth watering meat & cheese plate longside several different kinds of beers from all over europe we had never seen before. Had an early flight back to denver, and got home in time for a quick nap before heading to Red Rocks with Paul to see Mark Knopfler, which was a nice cap off to a splendid vacation.

set:
Why Aye Man
Walk of Life
What it is
Sailing to Philadelphia
Romeo & Juliet
Sultans of Swing
Done with Bonaparte
Song for Sonny Liston
Rudiger
Donegan's Gone
Boom, Like That
Speedway at Nazareth
Telegraph Road
encore:
Brothers in Arms
Money for Nothing
So Far Away

-neph-

back in the new york groove

I struggled my first day back in c-rado, all this dual end candle burning over the last week left me feeling a bit under the weather. A solid block of rest later, and I'm feeling much better, thank you for asking.

The journey back east started with our midnight red-eye flight getting delayed until 6 in the am, so of course we stayed up Justin Case something changed - it didn't. We arrived in NY around 11.30 and got a ride to Westport, CT from Derrick, picked up our tuxes, and then witnessed J&D's actual marriage at town hall. That night the guys drove to Dylan's house in Southbury for the bachelor bbq which consisted of kegs, horshoes, and a bonfire.

Drove back to Westport after some killer sub action at Mikee's. People started arriving from here & there as we gathered ourselves for the rehearsal dinner. The actual rehearsal was like a sauna, since the AC at the church was not on so much. Dinner at the Red Barn provided the refreshment we needed with a luxurious seafood buffet. After speeches by Barre and myself, we headed back to the Inn where Jay was waiting with the obligatory case of Piels Light. After a brief gathering in our room, we cashed out.

Saturday was the big day. The groom and his entourage of groomsmen spent the afternoon at a brew pub watching the Sox / Yanks game, until we had to go and get tuxed up. Dylan provided all the groomsmen with a nice silver flask loaded with pitron, which certainly helped take the edge off, especially when faced with the minor crisis of the wee rinbearer's shoes being 8 sizes too big (we decided shoeless was the way to go).

Arriving at the church, me & Jason served as ushers making sure there wasn't too much dilly-dallying in the foyer. The ceremony itself was very elegant and went off without a glitch. Jacquie looked beautiful in her gown. We gathered afterwards in the courtyard for photos then made way to the beach near Longshore for more photo ops. Cocktail hour began outside at the Longshore before moving inside for reception dinner which was fantastic. Many of the guests I hadn't seen in as many as 16 years and it was great cathcing up. The dance floor was constantly filled, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

An after party at the Westport was eventually greeted by the cops, luckily most everyone had already went their seperate ways for the night. Sunday was the fairwell breakfast which was also a big hit. Around noon it was off to return the tuxes, gather up a bunch of random things people had left in their hotey rooms, and head to the train station bound for NYC.

leaving new yoOOOrk

Well I'm actually still here in the city but I've had that song stuck in my head since I arrived at JFK last week. The wedding and all festivities & activities associated with it were a rousing success and pretty much a wicked good time. More on that later though, as my post wedding visit to NYC is currently fresh in my mind.

Took the train with J&D immediately following the fairwell breakfast in Westport, CT sunday. We parted ways at Grand Central, they were off to St. Kitts for some honeymoon action, and I was greeted by my good pal Joe B, and it was off to take in the Big Apple of which I had never(!) taken a bite out of.

I was pretty wiped from a full plate whilst in CT, so we started with a breather at Joe's swanky loft in Brooklyn. After some brief rainage, we ventured out for some fallafel action near Washington Square Park at the now legendary Mamouns, sipped maté drinks at Teany, and then hit up local record stores of interest - Satellite, Breakbeat Science (which we almost missed because the sign out front said 'store'), and Jammyland. All that walking around made us both parched & famished, so we partook in some mangoberry margs in the St. Marks area, and picked up some slices and a sixer of Brooklyn Lager on the way back to Joe's pad. We needed to rest up for our big day today, which isn't over yet...

-humidified, neph-

practice

We're back now from the rehearsal dinner, and my what a time(!). Right now I'm wondering the hotey on the prow-elle for a GD snack machine armed with only a 10 spot. Arrrgh matey, the captain lives...

-spleh-

spores

Posts may be sporadic over the next week, as it's off to CT & NYC for wedding festivities and various other sundries!

-flight approved, neph-

reviewnalage

the warlocks - Surgery: Bobby Hecksher, one of 60 or so former members of the BJM, now fronts his own 3-ring circus. Settling on a staff of seven, the Warlocks latest (3rd full length overall, I believe) delivers a staunch dose of shoegazey rock, which gets better as it gets louder, and is finding heavy rotation in my voit.

portastatic - Bright Ideas: With 3 releases since the last superchunk album, it seems as if Mac is focusing all his energies solely on this longtime side project. The result is less acoustic than previous efforts with full band arrangements all courtesy of Mac. It serves to tide me over until the next increasingly unlikely Chunk disc.

silver jews - Tanglewood Numbers: Usually perceived as merely a Pavement side project, this is actually David Berman a full time band for David Berman. In fact, Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich were notably absent on the Jooos last release, Bright Flight. They are back for this one however along side an unknown female, and serve to change up Berman's rather monotinous baritoOOOOone. Perhaps the best Jews disc yet, but still painfully mediocre.

101ers - Elgin Avenue Breakdown (Revisited): Re-issue of Joe Strummer's pre Clash work. Half studio and half live material which, not surprisingly, sounds markedly like early Clash.

mount eerie - No Flashlight: The new nomicker for Phil Elverum, previously referred to as The Microphones. Sounds just like previuos Microphrophones material - difficult, minimal & sparse.

a hawk and a hacksaw - Darkness at Noon: Second full-length from former Neutral Milk Hotel drummer and current multi-instrumentalist, Jeremy Barnes. Another strange audio scape, sounding akin to a soundtrack for something in New Orleans or from a long time ago that's broken or dead.

-jammed, neph-

dig dug

Last night I picked up a documentary I'd been meaning to see since its release, sometime either last year or earlier in this one called Dig! It's essentially a tale of two bands if you will, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and their long time pals The Dandy Warhols. One rife with internal conflict & seering genius, the other a bunch of major label dandies with barely an ounce of stomachable creativity (clever cloggery aside - the band names provide us with extremely accurate insite into their inner workings). Admitedly, I really didn't have much previous experience with either band. I do remember distincly when the Dandy Warhols hit the scene with their major label debut years back, and I couldn't for the life of me imagine what the fuss was all about. My experience with the BJM was that I had an opportunity to see them perform, with the original incarnation mostly intact, but something suddenly came up and I never gave it another thought until just now. So perhaps it was this unknown, Anton, portrayed as an enigmatic muse that was more easily palatible than his major label loophole buddy, Courtney, that fronted a band I had already written off years ago. Just to make sure, I aquired full discogs of both bands later that night, and gave them mostly thorough listens today. My percieved potential of personal enjoyablity held form - the contrived complacency of the DW could barely hold a flame to the reckless proficiency of the BJM. I recommend deciding for yourself, because from what I've gathered, most that are fans of one, also enjoy the other. Whatever the correlation may be for you, this is a great documentary (you could very well dislike both bands - who knows). I suggest waiting a day or two, if at all, to watch the bonus dvd worth of material shot after the original theatrical release. Like most other "bonus" footage, it tends to have a bit of a sobering effect on the grandiosity of the main feature.

disc 1 - two thumbs up.
disc 2 - skip.

-tambourine man, neph-

sick file

Took a day off yestah to recoop from what was apparently, and thankfully, just a 24 hour thing. Didn't do much - slept, watched Dodgeball and a bunch of reno 911 & stella eps I'd taped, which was enjoyable enough despite feeling rotten.

roger's water

It seems that me and everyone else has been digging through the crates to satisfy their pink floyd jones leftover from their all too brief Live 8 reunion. Just today I've listened to The Final Cut and Animals. It may be time to bring back the folk side project I started with jay, Roger's Water. We initially formed after all the excitement surrounding the Division Bell tour eleven years ago.

-bell curve, neph-

4th & 40

Whew, long weekends sure can take a lot out of you. Hit up all of the usual boulder haunts with robert & angie friday, as angie had yet to witness the mighty power of the death row.

Mellowed at jen's denver pool saturday, before venturing off to trendy night spots with Y's in their name (tryst, mynt). The pool was once again a partying madhouse, this time with 2 kegs and about twice as many people. That night I spiked up all my hair with this stuff janelle had called My Bad. Hilarity ensued.

Headed up to Rollins Pass with the 3rd Street production crew, ken, and robert & angie. We were forced to camp a bit lower than we had planned due to a snowed out road. We managed to find a great sight away from everything, and were pretty much set up when the hail, snow & rain started and lasted the next 6 hours or so. Throughout the glorious weather we managed to keep our fire going, and continue with our horshoe tourny. A nice bonus was finding the bottle of tequila from the last time I went camping at Lost Lake still rolled up in my sleeping bag. A food highlight was the dutch oven prepared peach cobbler - yum. An unfortunate event was the sidewall tear ken got driving out the next day.

On the 4th we grilled out with nathan & michelle who had just returned from an italian vacation, then jacq, dylan & I caught the fireworks display at Folsom Field which had one of the best finalés I have ever seen.

-nephed-

pilly