December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!


2008 - Denver's Christmas Mix!


I made this mix of sweet Christmas music especially for my girlfriend Tis who is away visiting family, and who I won't get to spend Xmas with.
Peej and I miss you!! :(
Anyway, I made it for her to listen to today since I can't be there, but I think everyone will like listening to this one today! So don't snooze on downloading it! You want to listen to this one today!!!
Don't worry about there being noise. There isn't. Just nice christmas songs. :)

Also, when the kids (or parents) aren't around, there's a super secret bonus track for the mix, which can be downloaded
right here!!!

01 - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Darlene Love
02 - Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) - The Ramones
03 - Sleigh Ride - The Ronettes
04 - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon with Yoko Ono
05 - Christmas In Hollis - Run DMC
06 - White Christmas - Orenda Fink
07 - Christmastime Is Here - SP
08 - White Christmas - Mark Kozelek
09 - Blue Christmas - Low
10 - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - The Pretenders
11 - Little Drummer Boy - Mark Kozelek
12 - Silent Night - Low
13 - O Tannenbaum - They Might Be Giants
14 - Santa Baby - Madonna
15 - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - U2
16 - Santa Claus - The
Sonics
17 - ???

December 24, 2008

More snow in Portland...

oh boy. that's great.

The dream of what love could be...

1970 - Band Of Gold


I think almost everyone knows the song 'Band Of Gold'. You could easily argue that it's one of the greatest soul songs of all time. If you don't find yourself singing along with this song like you fucking wrote it yourself, choking on every lyric, then you are a cold, dead husk and I hope there's a way to fix you, you Scrooge. :(
Also, there's something sick about the drummer on this song. Not sick like a guy in a Mountain Dew commercial would describe his "brah's" snowboard trick. No. Sick like, someone make sure that guy's doing ok. Is he about to snap?
Jesus.
Talk about single-minded, relentless drive... It's almost maddening.
Anyway, alot of you already know this.
However, NOT many of you have listened to the rest of this record.
You totally should.
This album is smoldering hot.


Freda is fucking amazing on every one of these songs. She totally owns it. The whole damn thing is a classic and everyone deserves to have this music in their lives.
Of interest also, is the fact that many of these songs were co-written with Ron Dunbar who later went on to help create the Parliament and Funkadelic worlds.
You can't get this on CD. Never was such a thing made in this country. You can either dish out a bunch of cash for an original vinyl copy, or order a fucking ridiculously expensive CD from Germany.
Oh, and there used to be a ridiculously expensive Japanese version of the CD. It's out of print though.
This is a tragedy I cannot abide by.
Rock this record.
Rock it damnit.

Check this bad-ass woman's website as well:
"Whatever! It's all good..."

Loving Love Tara


1993 - Love Tara

I bought this album about 16 years ago when I was a junior in high school in Spokane, WA at a little store on North Monroe called 4000 Holes. (Told you we'd be back) I had taken the bus downtown really early that day so I could get some coffee and look at records and just try to pretend to be living some bohemian lifestyle far far away from the flat hell of the northside in Spokane. I remember it was very snowy so it must have been in November or early December. Maybe even January. The owner of the store, Bob, had put the album on in the store while I was browsing around, looking quite literally through every single record in the store. (I did this once a week at least. sorry Bob.) I looked up and asked him what he was playing and he said "Here. These guys are from Canada." and handed me the record cover. I must have just stood there and stared at it for like four songs, trying to wrap my head around what I was hearing. I was hooked.
Violently.
I spent the last of my money, including bus fare, on a cd copy so I could listen to it in my headphones while I walked home through several miles of snow. It was normally a completely miserable, cold, wet, long, uphill trek but I spent the whole walk in a state of total jubilation. From the sublime perfect songcraft of "Behind the Garage" to the soaring buzzed out bliss of 'Sunlight' there isn't a song on here that doesn't take me right back to when i first heard it. Hearing 'Blinded' was like a sea change for me. I sat down on a curb, played it three times in a row and decided right then that I wanted to continue making music for the rest of my life. I felt... liberated. The way that only a 17 year old can.

December 21, 2008

oh sweet starjob...


1997 - Star Job EP


I love this record... SO much. This is Chicago area freak cult band the Frogs, all dressed up for a hot, slick rock show.
Gone(!) are the trademark, ultra lo-fi jabs. In with the ultra-slick production and rock wild guitar heroics!!
The Frogs do not let go of their urges to make broad, infantile and intentionally wildly offensive jabs at everything in their path though, for which, I thank them.This is a crystal perfect beheading of the era of the rock star, written in the language of big ROCK.
The album is produced by Billy Corgan under the pseudonym 'Billy Goat' and certainly features some of his guitar playing. Probably a lot actually.
But wait.. isn't Billy Corgan a HUGE rock star?
yes. yes he is.
The Frogs gladly handjob him right onto the record with commendable shamelessness and even drop his name with a wink wink nudge nudge.
Did I mention I love this record?God damn. Yes I do.
It might not even be my favorite Frogs record though...
I dunno.

(A really nice thing that you could do is buy this album (plus TEN bonus tracks!) directly from the band!)


I love it so much that shortly before I left Tea For Julie, I played in a Frogs tribute band. Not just a Frogs tribute, we were a tribute to specifically this EP. We called ourselves 'Starjob'. What else?
I was playing bass and keyboards. Michael from TFJ was on guitar and vocals. Kenny Erlick was playing guitar as well, and our friend Flapjack who formerly drummed for Icanlickanysonofabitchinthehouse was behind the kit. Practice consisted of... well... mostly it was an excuse to drink retarded amounts of tequila and smash our way through a cover of the EP. We did these practices... six, maybe seven times(?) and I did all kinds of wild damage to the physical structure of my bass and found out that the two ten Ampeg cabinet I have actually lights up if you push it too far into feedback! Who knew?! When I quit TFJ I pretty much quit this band by default, but we were gonna be awesome man...
totally rad...

Noise in it's natural surroundings.

1991 - Incapacitants Live In Tajima, Fukushima, August 25th