Anywho, it’s the last gasp of the first decade of the greatest century in someone’s history, everyone’s just not sure it’s going to be them. Whether you look back on 2009 like it’s a grotesque animal. Whether the last year left you feeling like you’re part of an empire of dust. Whether you’ve got no prospects or career opportunities or affordable health care. Whether you think you’re fighting for a lost cause. Or whether you believe a change is gonna come, listen to these 8 songs and kiss 2009 goodbye.
Cause as my main man, Darryl Hall, says: She’s gone, and I’d pay the devil to replace her.
True nerd alert: I love streaming internet radio. I really do. I’ll even go as far to keep a post-it on my desk so I can note the names of bands who I’d like to check out further on their Myspace page. It’s sort of the 2.0 version of listening to the radio on a tape deck boombox and recording the songs that you like on a Memorex (born in the 1980s alert).
No online station gave me as much streaming enjoyment in 2009 as WOXY. Primarily, because it streams the best on my questionable internet connection at work. Most people however who rep online radio stations put WOXY, based out of Austin, TX in the upper echelon of those living online that play independent bands too (KEXP, KCRW).
Yesterday on WOXY’s blog The Futurist they announced the availability of their Best of SXSW 2009 Lounge CD, a collection of tracks recorded at last year’s festival at James Stevens at EAR studios in Austin, Texas.
2009 was another great year for music in the WOXY Lounge. And it was another great year for our lounge recordings during SXSW 2009 as well. We were back at EAR studios again this year for a new record 27 live sessions.
The CD will be available later in the week, but you can download 12 tracks from the WOXY Lounge on The Futurist now, including tunes from the Mother Mother, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, and the reigning kings of coming up with song titles, the Future of the Left – get ‘Arming Eritrea’ on Futurist; see also ‘You Need Satan More than he Needs You’ ‘adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood’ and ‘I am Civil Service’ by FOTL on their MySpace.
The music portion of this year’s SXSW runs from March 17-22, and I’m sure the WOXY folks are hard at work going through this ever-growing list of showcase bands at the 2010 festival, which is already 466 names deep.
If I was in Zun Zun Egui, I’d immediately change the name of the band to Aardvarks.
The rumors started percolating yesterday in the blogs that Frusciante is no longer with the band and would be replaced by the enigmatic Josh Klinghoffer, oddly enough someone who’s most notable for his collaboration with Frusciante. As recently as a few hours ago, however, the headlines still read Frusciante Quits Chili Peppers?
All speculation aside, for those interested in a deeper dive into who exactly Josh Klinghoffer is, he’s got stats. Along with playing with Frusciante – including the two recording an album together, A Sphere in the Heart of Silence – Klinghoffer has been linked to records and tours with Beck, Butthole Surfers, Gnarls Barkley and PJ Harvey to name a few. Him and Frusciante also hooked up with John Lally from Fugazi to record two albums under the name Ataxia.*
If you want to get real granular with your rock analysis, he’s got that thin, disheveled weirdo look down pat, which bodes best for fitting in RHCP; see Frusciante, Hillel Slovak. (DN, sorry hombre.)
We’ll have to wait for something hard confirmed from the band before writing this one in stone – maybe a good opportunity for Flea or Kiedis to sign up for Twitter? Until then, check out some videos below from Klinghoffer’s body of work and check out the madness that this guy would be bringing to the table.
If the title of this post in anyway comes off as a slight of Gene Autry, or his prowess as a baseball man, then I apologize, and concede to it being cheap humor at that.*
The OC Register and AP report that Gene Autry is amongst this year’s candidates for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The former and original owner of the Angels is part of a special “executives and pioneers” ballot that includes several other team owners as well.
Autry bought the expansion Angels in 1960, persuaded to do so by the management who were impressed by him buying the exclusive radio rights to the team. The OC Register’s Angels blog writes:
Autry was the Angels’ owner from the franchise’s inception in 1961 until his death in 1998, bringing many star players to Anaheim with his willingness to spend (particularly in the early years of free agency) — but only three division titles and no World Series appearances in that time.
The results of the Angels blog poll question: “Should Autry be in the Hall of Fame” are falling resoundingly in his favor.
Autry also served as Vice President of the Amercian League from ’82 until he died. In ’92, the Angels retired the #26 in his honor – baseball teams keep a 25-man roster, I think you can figure out why they gave Autry 26.
A 12 person committee of Hall of Famers, baseball writers and current and former executives will vote on the nominees, and the results will be released on Dec. 7. Separate voting and different committees decide the players’ and coaches’ ballots. Funny how it took Gene Autry for me to bother to figure out how Hall-of-Fame voting is decided.
*That disclaimer seemed necessary, given the wide readership of metalheads on this site.
Entourage could go off the air tomorrow without a whimper, and I wouldn’t be the least bit broken up about it. It used to be one of my favorite shows. A great antidote for a feeble mind on a Sunday (i.e. a show where no problem can’t be solved in under 8 minutes). Even the most lethargic of Lazy Sunday routines have an expiration date, I suppose. Now, we just watch Mad Men in the same state, and are left pondering every wacky thing that Peggy Olson does.
Where Entourage continues to thrive and excel however, is the end credits. I don’t mean that in a snide “thank god that 22 minute show is finally over, hyuck hyuck” sort of way. More specifically, the music the producers select for the fade to black – whether they put much thought into it or not – always delivers.
Check out my top-10 Entourage end hits below – including three gems from this current season – and let’s hope that, for the next 1-5 seasons that they prolong this show, HBO reverts to a format where you get to jam to the credits, see if the very brusque Bob Saget is making another filthy guest appearance, and then should you choose, opt-in to watch the actual episode.
The Doors – “Peace Frog” (Season One, Episode Six)
Outkast – “Da Art of Story Tellin’ (part 2)” (Season Five, Episode 63)
Muse – “Time Is Running Out” (Season Two, Episode Nine)
Ace Frehley – “New York Groove” (Season Four, Episode 52)
TV On The Radio – “Staring At The Sun” (Season three, Episode 33)
The Dutchess and The Duke – “Reservoir Park” (Season Six, Episode 72)
Yeasayer – “Sunrise” (Season Six, Episode 74)
Rolling Stones – “Tumbling Dice” (Season Three, Episode 36)
Funkadelic – “Can You Get To That” (Season Five, Episode 66)
The Buzzcocks – “Why Can’t I Touch It” (Season Five, Episode 68)
Yannick the tennis phenom went pro in ’77 at the age of 17. Among his feats of tennis prowess include becoming the first Frenchman to win the French Open in 37 years when he did so in 1983 (dropping only one set throughout the tournament). During his career, Noah won a combined 39 singles and doubles titles and was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2005. He also played on the French Davis Cup Team for 11 years. In 1991, Noah captained a French team which won its first Davis Cup title in 59 years.
That same year, Noah released his debut album Black of What. Apparently, after winning the Davis Cup, he led his player and the whole stadium in a rousing rendition of Saga Africa, his breakout track off of Black or What. (Wikipedia – Yannick Noah)
Because I’m a stand-up dude, I check almost every profile of everyone who follows me on twitter. Not saying I like everything I see, it’s just a nice thing to do. And so, when I got the in-box indication that @landoftalk had decided to subscribe to the perpetual asinine stumblings of @mikehayes19, I dutifully perused their profile page on Twitter. I found out they were a band (who or what else posts a link to a MySpace page anywhere, anymore), fantastic for them I suppose. Still, I probably would not have checked out the tunes if not for this fantastic twitter bio:
Fronted by the daughter of North America’s first female alligator wrestler. Backed by Montreal’s skinniest drummer and fattest bass player.
The daughter of North America’s first female alligator wrestler is 27-year old Ontario-native Elizabeth Powell. Her mom hung it up – presumably, before she got did like Chubbs – in favor of becoming a psycho-geriatric consultant (kids, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t follow your dreams). Here’s Powell on her mom:
“She just had this placating technique with alligators that turned into a bit of a sideshow,” explains Powell. “She just tickled its belly and it went to sleep. It wasn’t like she was in the ring in a bikini, wrestling it to the floor!” ( The Independent )
Placating? Tickling an alligator to sleep seems downright puttying.
In terms of the music, you might think it sucks, but I think they’re great. Check out Land of Talk here: http://www.myspace.com/landoftalk
Low Vs. Diamond was totally worth braving the elements for last night. Phase one of my musical odyssey this weekend es completa. Weezy F. Baby tonight!
