leak of the week

Shine.

it's a fine day

Yesterday brought the passing of legendary chemist, Leo Sternbach, at the ripe ol' age of 93. Leo is best known for inventing mother's little helper, the most prescribed drug during the years 1969-1982, and still fairly popular amongst housewives, desperate or otherwise.

-blue note-

keep your nose clean

weekly review section

flotation toy warning - Bluffer's Guide to the Flight Deck: After listening to the wolf parade album nearly to death, I've switched gears and have instead been caning these guys' bittersweet epics that taste like a Black Heart Procession & Sigur Ros sandwich on fresh baked Radiohead. Delicious.

why? - Elephant Eyelash: Anticon vocalist does indie-ish rock bit. Kind of cool in bits and pieces, but it's mostly weird for weirdness's sake.

the orb - Okie Dokie It's the Orb on Kompact Disco: Right on. More elastic band dubisms, with one weird vocal track. Similar sounds on board from Bikes & Trikes.

the magic numbers - s/t: Poppy indie rock with some decent meandering guitar bits. Fairly straight forward, but occassionally monotonously so. They also share an unsettling likeness to the most annoying thing this side of Mates of State, and that would be the Fiery Furnaces.

the joggers - With a Cape and a Cane: These guys most certainly have a hearty collection of Fall records, because the lead singer sounds a lot like Mark E. Smith at times, only with a few less marbles in his mouth. This endeering tribute coupled with a cross between the agitated guitar dischord of Polvo & the janglyness of Pavement makes for decent potential, but eventually falls short on consistant delivery.

the rosebuds - Birds Make Good Neighbors: Do they really though, with all that constant chirping & cooing? Having had birds roost outside my last dwelling's bedroom window, I most certainly disagree. Husband and wife team up on their second Merge release. I dig this, it reminds me a little of Rogue Wave, who I have recently oozed accolades over. Pleasant, but just dark enough.

-bird on a wire-

non-stop

Gotta play a little catch-up here. Pulled a 1/2 day friday, so I could help work the floor for Third Street at Nascore. Had dinner in denver afterwards, and did some front porch lounging at angie's apartments/dorms well into the night. Worked the show with doug & jewels again on saturday, then headed to broomfield for abra's bbq/game night, where the guys clearly dominated play despite noble efforts from the ladies crew. Opted out of nascore duties on sunday since john had returned from vietnam, and spent most of the day sleeping/watching football (go pats!).

Last night, headed back to denver with lauren to catch the franz ferdinand show at the fillmore. They played a solid set of mostly material from the first album along with some of the newer tunes. Had the good fortune of shooting some pool at the atomic with devin & kim beforehand. It was great to see devin again - good times will most certainly be had.



And leading into this weekend, could the AL East penant race be any more GD stressful? I think not...

-causeway-

reach

-up-

show me where it hurts

Hey baby, I'm Pimp-Aid, the pimp adhesive bandage. Peel off my protective srtip and stick me on you. Shalom!

ummm...

...what?

wednesday reviews

tenement halls - Knitting Needles & Bicycle Bells: Rock *A* Teens frontman's new band. This has an entirely different sound than the Teens, but something's still off, much like it was with the Teens.

blood on the wall - Awesomer: Real basic (in a good way), heavy drudge. It'd be called grunge if we were in 1993. I think the new term might be 'stoner rock' or something ridiculous like that. Kind of reminds me of Goo or Dirty-era Sonic Youth a little, but the tracks are shorter. 'Mary Susan' is a stand-out track.

calvin johnson - Before the Dream Faded: Standard issue Calvin Johnson, the baritonal madman behind much of the K records ouvre.

acid house kings - Sing Along With the Acid House Kings: This sounds just like the pleasant enoughness of Kings of Convenience, but with a female singer in the fold. Kind of like listening to a muscle relaxer.

amorphous androgynous - Alice in Ultraland: FSOL switched to their alter ego at some point after they released their last album, The Isness. Why the name change? I can only guess that they realized they weren't pushing the 'future sound' anymore as evidenced by this Primal Scream-ish retro affair rife with that pyschedelic guitar lingering around from the overblown Isness nonsense. This album starts off promisingly enough, but then plummits to the Isness's depths of psychedelic pomp and circumstance by way of assinine vocals. Not a total surprise - after all Dead Cities kind of signalled the beginning of the end years ago.

arab strap - The Last Romance: A break up album, if ever there was one. Here we see a bit heavier side of Malcolm who is not even the least bit subtle about this love on the outs.

boards of canada - The Campfire Headphase: At least the Boards have managed to pick up FSOL's slack. This is pure ambient goodness, a bit less rigid than Geodaddi. Kind of like listening to a cloud, or squeezing the Charmin.

-figured out (almost)-

the original clever clog

I guess Sweden became "smoke free" at the beginning of June, and Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail, decided that my former school mate, Josephine (and her friend), were worthy of symbolizing this momumental occasion:



"Non-smoker Josephine Kolare, right, smiles happily as her friend Caroline Granberg puts out her cigarette at midnight in Stockholm as Sweden’s ban on smoking in all bars and restaurants went into effect."

-puffed-

something in the air

On friday, abra was my brave companion for the first of built to spill's two night stint at the Gothic, sight unseesn (or sound unheard I guess would make more sense here). We had a great dinner on the way into town, where we then picked up the Cheeseman crew and away we headed to Englewood. The show was fantastic - the triple guitar threat was back in play from their spring tour, and they squeezed out a newbie as well as a few oldies I'd never heard them play before, and they debuted a sick new cover of the beatles classic, 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'. Unfortunately I had some tape mishaps later in the night, and lost the entire night's recording (insert boo face here).



-friday setlist-
{new song #1 - dark & heavy like the evildoers almost}
center of the universe
time trap
reasons
you were right
made up dreams
distopian dream girl
some things last a long time
revolution
don't try
I would hurt a fly
virginia real around the fountain (halo benders)
in your mind
while my guitar gently weeps

Saturday we cooked out at the Cheeseman apts before the show. Our plan we had made the night before to have fun with Mike Johnson t-shirts came into fruition, and the second night's tape came out wonderfully.



It appeared as if the band took care of some long overdue shopping that day. These were the first two shows of the tour, so they likely had some fresh cash burning a hole in their pockets. Doug was wearing a new t-shirt (the past several times I've seen them, he's always had on this busted ol' black one). Brett Netson even shaved and bought a new strat. After the show, one of the barbacks approached me and said he was patched out of the board both nights, so with any luck we'll be hearing those reels pretty soon too.



-saturday setlist-
Get A Life
In The Morning
Carry The Zero
Velvet Waltz
Sidewalk
In Your Mind
Distopian Dream Girl
Made-Up Dreams
Stab
Big Dipper
Time Trap
Stop The Show
-new tune #2 (had a cool reggae vibe)-
While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Post show, I was forced to tack onto the tail end of 'girls night out' due to a lack of domestic bliss amongst some of the passengers in my car. So I wound up in LoDo right when the bars closed but just in time to drive the ladies (and derrick, who also wound up at 'girls night') to some {non}after party, in so much as there was no one there except the guy throwing it. After a speedy exit, we ended up back at jenn's for a few more hours of raucous behavior.

-thrilled until-

history lesson

After Scrippy got her refill at the pharmacy she enjoyed six mint juleps, and the rest is Triple Crown history.



Moral to the story:

Alcohol and pharmaceuticals mix wonderfully.

plug tunin'

It's about time.

-wired-

club foot in mouth

I wonder if the execs at Kellog's realize that the song, 'Reason is Treason', they have playing in the background of their new national tv spot ad campaign for Nutri Grain Bars is by a band named after Linda Kasabian, currently serving life in prison for her involvement with Charles Manson's murder spree the night of August 8, 1969?

-harvest of flavor-

rewind of the day

'History of Lovers' by Iron & Wine and Calexico.

tunes for tuesday

wolf parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary: Much hyped debut from the British Columbia band which Isaac Brock recently got signed to Sup Pop and twiddled production knobs for on this release. Not surprisingly, it has some of those beautifully cynical tendencies of Modest Mouse. Take this and combine it with a bit of the Archers of Loaf's brash choppiness & some of the shrill longing of the Arcade Fire's vocals, the resulting audio makes for great listening if you're feeling mildly despondent or vaguely apathetic.

sareena maneesh - s/t: My Bloody Valentine falls in love with Sonic Youth at a Dinosaur Jr. concert. I think they're from sweden, but from what I can make out, they sing mostly in english.

boozo bajou - Dust My Broom: Assorted down-tempo-y fair with various vocal stylings peppered throughout - a smidgen of r&b flavah, a dash of ragga, and even a little bit country. An inveritable backroom bouillabaisse if you will.

franz ferdinand - You Could Do So Much Better With: I'm still not sure if I actually like these guys, or I'm just going along with some big cosmic joke. There were surely some great tracks on the first disc, but tough to listen to as a whole mind you. I've only given this one spin so far, and although it doesn't instantly grab me, it may grow on me. A lot of my issues with these guys should hopefully be resolved after catching them live at the end of the month.

-double pickels on the lime-

quartermasters

Wow! This is the sickest two minutes of quarters I have ever seen. Truly compelling video.

ten to one

Can't complain about this friday - no siree. Started off with some prime spots down along the third base line, approximately (exactly) 6 rows back, for the rockies unfortunate demise to the diamondbacks. Highlight of the game was Helton's foul drive (at the last at bat, mind you) right within spitting distance of our seats.



And then, with some guest spots in my backpocket, I proposed a post game visit to the Larimer Lounge, mere blocks away from Coors Field and host to the Rogue Wave for the eve. All parties graciously accepted. And here we stood.



And here it began.



Soon the wave broke.



Although we stayed dry - converts, every one.



-bird on a wire-

catch of the day

labor day weekend

Labor day weekend was non-stop. The festivities began saturday morning in our new tailgate spot smack dab next to Folsom Field. Although it was hopping, it was tight quarters. The heat was brutal, and beating down on us for most all of the game. Those who were brazen enough to return for the second half witnessed a near win by CU over their in state rivals CSU (31-28), and the fans obligatory rushing of the field. Post game, the lot cleared out a bit so we had some breathing room to wind down and diseminate the random bike crashes and ill-fated liquor store runs that occurred with all those who stayed outside after the half. Hit the hay early to get a jump on our camping excursion the next morning.



For this outing, it was back to Rollins Pass, hoping this time to get to our spot near the top. We were snowed out over the 4th of July, so we were quite pleased when we were successful in our quest. Set up camp in a jif, then began our 2 1/2 hour climb along the ridge.



Once we were through with our trek, we settled down to our campfire. Made some great food, played cards, pretended that we didn't forget smores, and proceeded with general silliness well into the very clear & windless night.



We even caught a couple of shooting stars before setting derrick on fire.



-extinguished-

resuscitate

I've been hooked - this time around it's Rock Star: INXS. Now, I'll be the first to admit, I kind of enjoy hearing a little INXS every now and again, in that random channel surfing in the car nostalgic kind of way. In fact, Kick was one of the first cd's I ever owned (Anthrax & Metallica were amognst the others). It had a big chunk busted out of the side of it, but still played all the tracks (neat-o). I pretty much lost track of them after that, completely forgetting of the bands' existence in fact, save for when I heard the news of Michael Hutchins' suicide, which was merely that - news.

So, needless to say, I was a bit befuddled by a Mark Burnett reality show based on finding a new lead singer for the band which this many years later was essentially a novelty act of a band if that (cue to 'Never Tear Us Apart' musak being piped through the ceiling of a corporate environment near you). But as my other summer shows (Six Feet & Entouarge) have come to a close, I have found myself caught in the vortex of yet another, in a particularly long line of, ridiculously premissed reality shows.

Never mind that there have only ever been two successful lead singer replacements that come to mind: Brian Johnson replacing Bon Scott in AC/DC, and Bruce Dickinson replacing Paul Di Anno in Iron Maiden (let's leave the Sammy v. Dave conversation for another time). This group of talented in their own right singers have come to the table trying to prove otherwise...

Which brings us to the contestants. First off let me reiterate the talented in their own right bit when talking about the female players. None of them are going to fit the gap left by a male heart throb in a band that is playing major catch up in the "new album & ensuing tour" arena. Even if the public votes for any this blaringly obvious show of "fair play / PC nonsense" put on by the network, the remaining members of INXS still have ultimate veto power on who stays & who gets the boot. And they are surely aware of the tightrope of success on which they now balance. That being cleared up, we'll just ignore this group entirely, because you don't want me to go on...

I forget what song JD covered tonight, but his original sounded exactly like 'Devil Inside'. No two ways about it. Pretty unimaginative, if you ask me. Plus he's got a pretty shabby attitude about the whole contest. But, the ladies seem to dig his vibe (we are replacing a male heart throb as I mentioned just moments ago), so unfortunately he will be a contender.

Next up, the guy who just can't get around not pretending he's the inventor of the Mick Jagger swagger. Brother a word of advice - not even Mick himself can pull it off these days, who are you to front? His laborious attempt of an original ballad about "losing someone and moving on" reeked a shameless stench in trying to tug at the emotions of the remaining members of the band. Even Dave Navarro (we'll get into his business another day) was like, "Yeah dude, we get it. Next."

Now for the singer that has me not only rooting for him, but texting in votes as well - Marty. His last minute decision to play a solo acoustic version of 'Mr. Brightside', longside his rendition of 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' definitely got my attention in episodes past. But it was last week's hit-the-nail-on-the-head performance of 'Wish You Were Here' (it was up there with the actually Pink's Live8 performance) that first got me to actually cast a vote. Tonight, he held true to form, toning down his version of 'Everlong', and performing a catchy new tune of his own, called 'Trees' (Still not 100% down with this tune - Rush pretty much claims this theme as their own, even though Marty sung of love and not maples v. oaks). With his performances, however, he does accomplish what no other singer has seemed to yet, and that is channel the essence of Michael Hutchins into his performances {almost in the same way that mandolin player was able to channel Jerry ;) }

Marty's the man man for the job if you ask me, and once again received my humble vote. And so ends another episode of my new guilty pleasure of a reality show. After all, it's as much fun as you can have on a tuesday night after numbing your mind with the trivialities of The Real World - Austin.

-pontificate, cheese to grate, we sell live bait-

ridge watcher

more to come...

friday top 5

So as you may have seen here, I like to do record reviews as soon as I get my hands on a new title. So more often than not, these are my first impressions of that material. These whimsical descriptors have occasion to change upon repeated , or non-repeated listens. So for a quick look into what I'm actually listening to and thoroughly enjoying these days, here's my Friday Top 5 in no particular order:

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - s/t
Kingsbury Manx - the fast rise and fall of the south
Rogue Wave - descended like vultures
the Warlocks - surgery
anything by the Brian Jonestown Massacre

-sounding off-

swimmingly

From PageSix:

September 1, 2005 -- PHISH singer Trey Anastasio apparently drinks like a fish. The frontman for the now-defunct hippie jam band was staggering past Jeffrey Chodorow's Meatpacking District eatery Ono when he was recognized by Chodorow's 19-year-old son, Max, a major Phish fan who had just finished dinner there. When Max slowed down his Audi A4 to get a closer look the other night, a slurry Anastasio asked him for a ride. Max happily let the tipsy tenor and his pals squeeze into his car and dropped them off at a townhouse on West 18th Street.