shit.

Heh, my computer died last week. New one's on the way. Crucial information has been missed in the intervening period...sorry Ned, Jason! I really did want to meet y'all! I owe Mr. Gross in particular a bajillion apologies for turning in my latest piece ever, the Travis Moz interview I laid to tiny, tiny tape months ago.

Consolation prizes:

D.X. Ferris's 33 1/3: Reign in Blood
Dizzee Rascal's Maths + English

why are all these

MEN getting upset that Liz didn't thank them?

My Girlysounds boo has my eternal benefit of the doubt even though she shut me out of her NYC Guyville shows this week; her acoustic mini at the World Cafe for Somebody's Miracle was my favorite show of that year. And if someone wants the argument, I'll start it. Compare falloffs: Somebody's Miracle or White Chalk. Yeah, I'll take the tunes.

Hey! Power to the people.

late-night playlist

At the Drive-In - Enfilade
The Flaming Lips - The Spark That Bled
Built to Spill - Carry the Zero
No Age - Escarpment
Portishead - The Rip
Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl
Akrobatik - A to the K
Tab the Band - CYT
Weezer - Pork and Beans
My Morning Jacket - Two Halves
Lil' Wayne - A Milli
Snoop Dogg feat. Everlast - My Medicine
Sun Kil Moon - Neverending Math Equation
The Hold Steady - Sequestered in Memphis
Oruc Guvenc - Bismillah Ar-Rahman
The Streets - Empty Cans
The Notwist - Good Lies
Modest Mouse - Other People's Lives
Fleet Foxes - English House
The Dandy Warhols - We Used to be Friends
Jay-Z feat. R. Kelly - Guilty Until Proven Innocent

jigga, kelly, not guil-ty

I'm often asked why the fuck Tom Breihan is one of my favorite crits in the game, because a lot of people think he's fucking crazy, and while that may have something to do with it, it's mostly because he properly communicates the in-between in his convictions. Like me, he can't resist sprawling about first impressions and he's willing to admit when an album that took his fancy, like Young Buck's Buck the World, disappeared completely. It's important to me because I find not enough critics leave roadmaps, and an album as, say, rewarding but truly intrinsically difficult as Hell Hath No Fury that still makes little melodic sense 20 plays in, can be extra-irritating when it feels like the rest of the world bit from the get-go.

Anyway, this is some premature ejaculation shit....all that buildup just to link you here. Dude's responsible about conflating fandom with justice, and he sums it up with the right cautionary distance from his subject. Good job, B.

pulling out

I had fun with this one. Tab the Band > The Wallflowers > Sun God > Rufus Wainwright > Sean Lennon > Lisa Marie Presley, btw.

a milli a milli a milli a milli

A group of dudes slapboxing on the street was blasting Carter III when I left at 10:20.

It's 5:11 now and I heard the strains of "Got Money" nearing from a car as I rounded my block returning.

I love New York City.

al green and sweetened ice tea

I was really honored to talk to Eef Barzelay of Clem Snide, one of my musical heroes, for CMJ. This didn't make it to print, but I did get him to call out Sufjan Stevens and Iron & Wine on a what's-the-matter-with-kids-today tangent (from a conversation he had with Ben Folds no less!) and I totally dared him to return to his hardcore punk roots (he politely shot that one down). I was too timid to tell him I used "End of Love" for my Final Seconds or to explain what that was.

it's automatic when you know it

One of my editors has drawn the short straw and elected to (almost) defend the indefensible: the new Weezer album that it's both easy and fashionable to dismiss, but harder to extol its winning melodies and heartfelt jokes in print. A good try.

EDIT: And here's what I was looking for.

the most awesome album ever made

Unwound's Leaves Turn Inside You is, at least for the time being, the most awesome album ever made. I did not know this until yesterday. If you love Sonic Nurse as much as I do, you only owe it to yourself. And the album cover is fucking awesome.

all right, i'll play

From the honorable Lord Sotosyn:

"If you're getting this meme, it's because you're uniquely qualified to answer this request:

"List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to."

7 songs:

Aerosmith - "Love in an Elevator"

I wouldn't mind a bit if this summer became known as the summer I rediscovered my love for Aerosmith.

Momus - "A Complete History of Sexual Jealousy"

I'd never heard Momus before, so Theon hooked me up, and I think he's kind of the midpoint between Stephin Merritt and Kevin Barnes, a/k/a the crass, graceless Stephin Merritt. His egomania is hard to stomach, but also kind of really funny.

Lil' Wayne - "Snitch"

Now that I've finally accepted Lil' Wayne's place at the top of the rap heap the way pretty much all Republicans agree Iraq was a mistake after the fact, why not investigate the legitimate suddenness of his rise to genius? Tha Carter came out only a year before he exploded with Dedication 2/Carter II/Drought 3 as a bona fide master, and so it happens, it has plenty of not-too-shabby moments itself, even if Wayne was still finding his footing on the punchlines. "Snitch" is my favorite, with its truly insidious hook and, what do you know, he was doing weird shit like playing guitar in his videos all the way back in '04!

Weezer - "Dreamin'"

The new Weezer album is big, bold, cheesy and great. How anyone could hear this gorgeous bit of candy corn and tell me Rivers Cuomo's melodic sensibilities have been derailed is beyond me. Sure, he's coming off a slump of one and a half shitty albums, but having loosened up the reins on his band for the first time ever, he defeats the need to rely on old gimmicks by admitting there's life after cryogenically frozen teen-emo anthems. Like thawed old man emo anthems.

Islands - "Creeper"

It's too bad me and Jen didn't stay together long enough for her to enjoy my belated approval of the formerly odious Nick Thorburn/Diamonds. I will not, however, be studying the complete works of Th' Corn Gangg. Beats the new Wolf Parade.

Fripp & Eno - "Swastika Girls"

I've been getting my ambien on lately and I may be more convinced than ever that Fourth World: Possible Musics could be the deepest non-jazz album ever recorded, this starryeyed, Steve Reich-reminiscent repetition liftoff from 1973's No Pussyfooting sometimes convinces me there's a Fifth World of inarticulate beauty to encircle.

Katy Perry - "I Kissed a Girl"

I don't want to give too much away yet because I plan on writing more than one tome on the teenpop breakthrough of the year, but suffice it to say that here's where I'm starting to believe that the Britney-Avril axis may yet see light in the next liberal presidential era. Perry shifts accordingly from shame-shaded vaguenesses to outright jokes and come-ons. Confused, who?

Souls of Mischief - "Let 'em Know"

I was going to put Big Boi/Andre/Raekwon's old-school miracle "Royal Flush" but I've already overlapped too much with my new Muxtape, so here's another straight-up gem. Bass, drum and rhymes from the era of what-else-do-we-need.

I tag:
http://narrowcast.blogspot.com
http://fractional.blogspot.com
http://tiffanyten.wordpress.com
http://pleasurepie.blogspot.com
http://gigibytes.blogspot.com
http://yeweiblog.blogspot.com
http://screwrock.blogspot.com

mating season

C'mon, Billy.

"Heart Songs" by Weezer

is a perfectly reasonable song and everyone needs to calm the f down. Holla.