royale with stuffing

The disaster toned nomicker the news has given this storm, 'arctic blast' has rolled in and we are sitting in about a foot plus of snow here in town. The mountains have been getting dumped on even more which is good. Went up to Keystone on saturday with steph and dylan, and snow is surely needed, even though we were able to carve some fresh tracks in the more wooded areas of the mountain. Later that evening we headed out to meet heather baer and her posse for some drinks on pearl street. Some folks even ended up loudly back at my place. Friday I opted to partake in black friday, buying some new chairs for my kitchen table, and an xmas present for laur. Then we watched the buffs lose their last game over at hillside. There's always next year. T-day was bountiful the day day before, also hosted at hillside. The night prior steph and I took in Casino Royale which was one of the best bond films in some time.

3 fer

transit kings - Living in a Giant Candle Winking at God: Alex Patterson (the Orb) and Jimmy Cauty (the KLF) re-unite for a fuck of good listen. This should have easily been the last proper Orb disc instead of that techno dribble of a release on Kompact. Guy Pratt (early orb, late pink floyd) helms the bass, and there's even a couple of guest turns by Johnny Marr (the smiths) on guitar. Silliness abounds a bit with some of the samples, but it's kind of refreshing. Supposedly written in the mid to later 90's then shelved for a while leaving some of the tunes sounding a bit dated, like the d&b leanings on 'west end of a duck going east', the deep forest gregorian chant re-hash on 'concorse' , and the cheesy indian chanteuse on 'bombay'. But don't be discouraged - the good parts far outweigh the faults starting with 'oh shit' and running through the rest of the disc. The album title refers to a light house keeper whose story is the album's closer.

deerhoof - Friend Opportunity: These guys lift annoying to new and uncharted heights. Reminds me of christina aguilera swallowing a live cat.

hot IQs - Dangling Modifier EP: The history is that this trio met at CU while djing at Radio 1190. I really dug their debut, which sorta reminded me of an indie rock version of the Cars. Coincidentally, you can hear one of their songs in some car commercial. This should tide fans over until their softmore release due next year I can only assume. Includes a notable cover of 'web in front' by archers of loaf.

it is what it is

This past weekend really sucked. I hate hanging out with my girlfriend, my sister, her best friend, and my brother in law. They're a bunch of dullards, especially when we go camping in utah. Our buddy jim who invited us all along wasn't a hero when he produced 60 PBRs after the keg failed to appear, and too bad his pals already had a bonfire going when we showed up at 11.30 in the pm. Things really started to go downhill when I woke up and discovered that we were camping on top of a bluff overlooking a vast expanse of canyon. Offroading in said canyon was definitely the low point in my life. Not to mention the ugly sunset. But the worst was having to sit through yet another bonfire with even more beer and food on saturday night. The drive home sunday wasn't even remotely scenic. I should have stayed home.

find yourself a city to live in

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75% Denver

65% Las Vegas

60% Austin

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55% Portland

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Looks like I'm in the right place...

reviews from a gun

pavement - wowee zowee, Sordid Sentinels edition: It's always annoying when things are re-issued with all the hard to find tracks that you actually took the time and money to track down back when they were still fresh and hard to find. So, as was the case with the first two pavement re-issues, I already have a chunk of the rarities, and of course the actual album. I would have much preferred if the pavement lads had done what the pixies did, and release separate cd's full of jsut 'b-sides' or just radio sessions. However, wowee zowee is their last great album, and if you don't already have it, you should pick it up.

yusuf - An Other Cup: First adult oriented release by the muslim alter-ego of the once brilliant Cat Stevens. This encourages the same bout of apathy that was ushered in with the latest release by the Who. As much as I love both the Cat and the Who of yesteryear, both of these releases are 20 years too late for me to really take seriously. Too little too late.

andrea parker - Nobody's Perfect II: I used to play an old andrea parker mix cd in one of the rooms of my first compound dwelling with the sole intent of making it uncomfortable for visitors to linger for too long. This mix is no where near as disjointed and aggravating as that one was, but it shares that same non-welcoming feeling, taking you on a journey full of sinister down tempo electro breaks.

annuals - Be He Me: This sounds markedly similar to the layered faux-psychedelia of the Animal Collective, who make my hair stand on end. One for the rubbish bin.

absolutes

Wow. There's this new absolut vodka commercial on the tele that makes the bold claim that the les paul is the absolut guitar. Maybe it's only 40 proof absolute, I don't know...

passed

I always get nervous when I take my car in for emissions testing, but as usual it cleared with flying colors.

recap

thursday - The plan was simple enough, return the keg & tap, and use the proceeds to get indian food for dinner. The result was the keg busting out the rear window of my car, and repairs putting me in the hole for $200. Still managed to eat indian food, though.

friday - Did a load of laundry and picked up some rekkids from hillside to send bobble's way. Haven't really had a chance to go through them yet, but hope to get them out sooner than later.

saturday - Rode my bike over to campus for another tailgate armed with a case of 8 oz beers, some 5-layer dip, and chips. CU actually won their last homegame, so we that was a change. Jammed my finger tossing the football around after the game. Then we all headed to the Toad for some 1/2 yards and grub.

sunday - Slept in. Then joined jacq, dyl, jean for an X-treme hike around the devil's thumb area. It started snowing while we were up there, on the descent it turned to rain.

fsm spotted in germany

This is kind of random as I was just watching the recent south park ep last night where they made reference to the flying spaghetti monster. (Even though this footage is from May, I just stumbled across it unintentionally.)

personified cardboard box contemplating the ingestion of fluids

-tasty-

voted

I just voted in boulder. No lines or problems at all, I was in and out. I also elected to use the old school paper ballot over the machine.

fri thru sun

What was meant to be a casual friday evening turned into a rather late night. While I was grabbing a burrito, I wound up with a handful tickets to hear Q-bert spin, so I rallied the troops to join me. The set was short, and merely worthy of a free ticket, but it was fun hanging out with my denver pals and meeting jilian.

The next morning steph & I biked over to the tailgate spot a bit late, after I vowed earlier in the week that I would not be late. Oh well. It was a much colder day than expected, but we got $10 tix so we watched another sloppy loss. That evening we tried to go see marie antoinette which was sold out, so we took in running with scissors instead, which was much darker than the previews suggest, but still a good watch. That kid had it rough.

Wathced the two big nfl games on sunday - broncos/steelers and pats/colts, over at milo. We ate good iti food, and jacq made me a nice framed collage of celebrities that I cannot stand the sight of.

first epidsode ever

©2006 the pepper & bourbon foundation

weekend listening post

shins - Wincing the Night Away: This one doesn't grab you as instantly as Chutes too Narrow did. It is instead a bit of a sleeer as was the case with their debut, oh, inverted world. Nothing out of the ordinary here, it's the shins being their shinny ol' selves which fans will undoubtedly appreciate.

Lady Sovereign - Public Warning: A full length at long last from pint size british brat, recently signed to Def Jam by Jay-Z. About half of this album is culled from her various singles and E.P.'s which you may have heard before. The rest fills in the blanks in the same quirky, female version of the streets kinda way as her earlier work. As evidenced with her live show, the whole schtick kind of falls flat due to her lack of any real serious conviction. It is however catchy enough that I've been caning it a bit this week.

the octopus project and black moth super rainbow - House of Apples and Eyeballs: Instrumental glitch pop. Decent enough for the stand out track, "Psychic Swelling".

apples in stereo - New Magnetic Wonder: More sunshine psychedelia from the grandfathers of the elephant 6. For those keeping track, Hilary Sidney has been replaced, and former OTC member, Bill Doss has now joined along with John Ferguson and whoever they got to replace Hilary.

menonena - Friend & Foe: These guys had a fairly unique sound going on with their first (stupidly titled) release, I am the Fun Blame Monster, rife with just right placement of horns & keys. Their last effort, Under an Hour was more of an experiment in noodling, rather than a proper follow up, and I think it actually accompanied some art instalation, so that's forgiveable at least. Friend and Foe is more like the proper follow up to Fun Blame. However, instead of expanding on their uniqueness, they've washed it out and come out sounding a lot like TV on the Radio, which of course isn't terrible. Their name still reminds me of the old muppets bit, "phenomena", and that's cool enough for me.

who is mike jooOOoones?

Colorado's in the news again, but this time it's because the religious right is wrong.

trail of halloween

This past week was non-stop, 3 shows and keg party. I am, of course, feeling a bit under the weather as we speak, but that was to be somewhat expected with all my running around. Friday steph and I ventured into denver to check out the Trail of Dead show with robert & angie. Kev & Laura met up with us at the show. There were a bunch of hoodlums there, including a moronic Jay look-a-like who expressed more interest in fighting me than scooting over a bit so I could set up mics. Celebration opened and they were OK, the Blood Brothers came next and they just screamed a lot. A lot of the crowd seemed to be into them though, and I taped them for the hell of it. I may put that up soon, but more importantly, the Trail show is now up in the usual spots - CO Tapers and Dime:

...and you will know us by the Trail of Dead
Gothic Theater
Englewood, CO
2006-10-27

Source: FOB, FDR, Earthworks SR78's > DA-P1
Transfer: Sony DTC-790 > M-Audio Transit > CD Wave > FLAC

01. gargoyle waiting
02. the rest will follow
03. relative ways
04. stand in silence
05. caterwaul
06. homage
07. it was there that I saw you
08. aged dolls
09. totally natural
10. source tags and codes
11. will you smile again
12. another morning stoner

-first night of fall 2006 tour-



Spent the rest of the evening at the Sherman abode. Tried out the new 2007 Winter Welcome, which was tasty, yet oddly enough came in a brown bottle. The next morning it was back to boulder bright and early to prepare for the halloween bash at edgewood.

Set up the soundsystem, picked up the keg, had a couple of cold ones just to make sure everything was in order, then headed back to my hut to ready my letter carrier costume, which really doesn't take too much readying. After jacq & dyl (celebrity & paparazzi), jean (vanessa kennsington), and lauren (hippie) came over we headed to meet up the edgewood ladies crew (the fanta girls), and kicked the night off. We were soon joined by jake (tennis player) and christy (viking), and a handfull of people whom I didn't know (assorted costumes). Kev (himself) & the denver/parker crew (vampire maid, bumblebee, etc.) showed up a bit later but helped keep the party going well into the AM. Hijinx undoubtedly ensued, including the burning of a stuffed animal, and the obligatory smashed pumpkin.

So, all told it was a great weekend, but now I'm sorta paying the price for never really having fully rested from the beginning of the week. Que sera, I suppose. Or wait, maybe going out monday & tuesday is not so brilliant either... but it was trey.

-fini-