JON & KATE + EIGHT + JOEY?

Does anyone else think Jon from J&K+E looks like Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago? Compare the photos but then look at this Pixies video for Head On live (Jesus & Mary Chain cover).

http://tinyurl.com/nkd7kj

I was so pissed this live version wasn’t on Trompe Le Monde (at least the one I had) but rather the more produced track. Anyway, take a look. Its uncanny I tell ya.

Blur = Catalyst For World Change

I don’t think the return of Blur could have come at a better time. The global economy is in shambles. Civil unrest overseas. Heidi and Spencer are getting tortured on live TV. Britain needs this. America needs this. The world needs this. I personally need this right now. The universe absolutely needs this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oiIUaQCrkI&NR=1

Thank you boys. If you come state-side I guarantee universal harmony all over the world will be achieved (whatever the f that means). Now if only Obama could open the shows with some witty stand-up. “Good evening ladies and germs. How about them Blur boys huh? (cheers) Aaaaanybody here from the USA? (thunderous cheers)”. Hope/Change.

QUASI IS BACK - NEW ALBUM COMING IN FALL

….now whether they're bringing “sexy” with them is another story.

http://www.killrockstars.com/news/

http://www.theequasi.com/

(eyes closed, fingers-crossed with a rabbits-foot dangling from my wrist) Please have Roxichord on the new album…oh PLEEEEEEASE. I miss you Sam. Your guitar skills are great but it’s the Roxichord (distorted clavinet-ish, guitar sounding organ thingy) which hooked me from the beginning (Our Happiness is Guaranteed…first Quasi song ever heard…but that’s a whole other post). I know you dig it out for live shows but I need some new tracks son. Bottom line…we need another Sword of God. A live Quasi show is something to be seen my friends (saw Sam hump the keyboards a few times). Just seeing Janet drum in general is a thing of beauty.

Fun Facts: I saw Quasi so many times when I lived in NYC that my cousin Danny and I (Cugini means “cousins” in Italian btw…look it up) went on the “Quasi Tour 2002” seeing them in Manhattan (Brownies), Brooklyn (Coney Island) and Jersey (Maxwell’s) over a 5-day period. Here is the set list I swiped from under Sam's Roxichord after the Brownies show.

We were going to talk to Sam & Janet…but we were pretty hammered. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a white loose-leaf sheet of paper under the keyboards. So I went for it! (cougar sound). I was acting all stealthy-like (sweating, drunk, heart racing, giggling). It was the best feeling I’ve ever had. Second best feeling - When the opening band was playing at Maxwell’s (during Cugini Quasi Tour ’02) I realized that I was standing next to Janet Weiss (Quasi/Sleater Kinney/SM & the Jicks). We were sort of off to the right towards the back of the crowd. In a bold move I brushed-up against her (my lower forearm to her upper – she’s kinda short). Only so I could say to my friends “I touched Janet Weiss” (sounds creepier then it is….oooor not). I’ve been bragging about it ever since. Pathetic. Oh and I also shook Heidi Klum’s hand (not a joke). Been bringing that one up for years. (see also: pathetic).

A year prior to the CQT02 we saw Quasi at the Knitting Factory down in lower Manhattan on Leonard Street…not even a week after 9/11. They just started letting people back down below Delancey St. I’ll never forget the smell (like turpentine mixed with gasoline and burnt rubber x1000) before and after the show. During the show I didn’t really think of what was going on outside the venue. Thank God for music. xoxo

OMGOMGOMG!

Read the last paragraph of the interview. Oh man I would be psyched for a ATDI tour. Then check the second link to find out why I would be psyched.

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4137051?most-read

One-Armed-Scissor:

http://www.mtv.com/videos/at-the-drive-in/55550/one-armed-scissor-version-2.jhtml

ALBUM REVIEW: PHOENIX – "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix"

Ok…this is going to sound weird but the last Phoenix album It’s Never Been Like That reminds me of my mom’s 60th birthday. I was home from NYC running around in my folk’s car trying to pick up poster-board, markers, double-sided tape and other supplies for my moms party. Going into this mission I knew I needed tunes but unfortunately my dad did not have an iPod adapter and there were no cds in the car except for Cary Simon and Sade. That said I immediately popped into Coconuts Music in Exton, PA and picked up Phoenix per a recommendation from a friend. God forbid I drive around for 30 minutes listening to the radio. The album was so tight that I couldn’t stop listening to it all weekend while at home. That was 2006 and I really haven’t stopped listening to it since. It was one of those “life-changers” or “milestones” records for me. Some albums just sink in when they come around. Albums more prominent in your memory and played a lot more as they remind you of going through certain abnormal periods of your life.

Needless to say the lead-up to the latest Phoenix album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix was torture. I’d get little snippets of news now and again. The song 1901 was released in April (I had thought that was the title of the album for a long time given what they cryptically had on their website). I’m glad they led off with that track in terms of singles. Then all of a sudden they were booked on SNL (see my post on 3/26). Any news related to the new recordings slowly leaked out from early ’08…then all of a sudden they were all over the place. They even sponsored an episode of Free Radio on VH1 (which is hilarious btw). The sound of WAP skews more towards the electronica spectrum but in a good way. Some bands try to go new-wave and miss the mark completely. Don’t get me wrong the new Phoenix doesn’t have a new wave sound. They just added in some synths to their already guitar-pop stylings. Songs like 1901 and Fences illustrate this new direction more readily than Lisztomania which is the other single. Fences actually sounds like their earlier work from United (the few tracks I know). All of the tracks on Wolfgang are different and most all of them are completely rockin like Countdown and Armistice but there is one track…one track…that absolutely floors me and that’s LASSO. If you throw this song on and don’t start grooving when the chorus kicks in…then I don’t want to know you anymore. I’m not kidding. Pick up Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. You’ll dig it and if you don’t have Its Never Been Like That yet then please go pick up that album prior to WAP. Listen to one then the other and see if you have the same view of album progression as I do. If you don’t then…again…I don’t want to know you anymore. Hahahaha…this time I’m totally kidding…OR AM I????? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8of00uEVRRA

If you haven’t seen Phoenix live you’ll be happy to know that they seem to be ever adding US tour dates. Unfortunately most are sold out at the moment. Thank God (more like "Thank Rob") I am going to one of the NYC shows.

http://wearephoenix.com/journal/?page_id=254

RANT ALERT: NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL

Is anyone else sick of hearing about Neutral Milk Hotel or Jeff Mangums latest projects…none of them ever involving new music. “NMH help save a carousel”…”Jeff Mangum joins the circus”. If it isn’t about Neutral Milk Hotel or Jeff Mangum recording new music then I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT. Then there will be articles about speculation of Mangum maybe…maybe…hopefully…oh god please…showing up to play acoustic at some Elephant 6 collective or Merge related event. Does it ever happen…no. Please comment on this post and correct me if I’m wrong. It’s like Jeff Magnum thinks he’s the living ghost of Jeff Buckley, Elliot Smith or Kurt Cobain...oh…what’s that? HE’S ALIVE?!!! Record some new shit Man-gum. I can only be this harsh because I enjoyed NMH albums so much and think Jeff is a gifted musician/vocalist. It absolutely KILLS me that they haven’t put anything out since the late 90s (see also: Fugazi). Why do they keep getting press like they’re still an active band? Enough already!!! I am so fucking mad at bands that put out absolute life-changing music then fade into obscurity after a few albums…think about the fans for once ya jerks. (sigh…eyes closed) I need a Mr. Pibb.