Thursday, December 29, 2011

My Top Ten for 2011

In no particular order:
the Men - Leave Home
Tommy Guerrero - Lifeboats & Follies
Wooden Shijps - West
Moon Duo - Mazes
Shimmering Stars - Violent Hearts
Nicolas Jaar - Space is Only Noise
Unfact - split
DeathGrips - ExMilitary
All Pigs Must Die - the Blessed Void
Trash Talk - ep
Panda Bear - Tomboy
Slim Cessna's Auto Club - Unentitled
White Hills - hP-1
Dum Dum Girls - He Gets Me High
Cult of Youth - Cult of Youth
Beach Fossils - What a Pleasure
Weedeater - Jason the Dragon

I'm sure I'm forgetting something......

Friday, December 16, 2011

Bantam Boards

I might have to get one of these!

GLOBE BANTAM from GLOBE on Vimeo.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Monday, December 12, 2011

Great Men

Check this mind blowing cover of this Gang of Four classic. Thanks for the link Dana!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Does Time Exist?

Complex organisms die. Sad though it is in individual cases, it’s a necessary part of the bigger picture; life pushes out the old to make way for the new. Remarkably, there exist simple scaling laws relating animal metabolism to body mass. Larger animals live longer; but they also metabolize slower, as manifested in slower heart rates. These effects cancel out, so that animals from shrews to blue whales have lifespans with just about equal number of heartbeats — about one and a half billion, if you simply must be precise. In that very real sense, all animal species experience “the same amount of time.”

heavy shit on a Wednesday morning....

Thursday, December 1, 2011

FVGAZI

Fugazi archive now starting to get live.

G.P.K.

Gallery 1988 and Topp's and the Hundreds

did a Garbage Pail Kids show. Awesome!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Nicolas Jaar

2 new singles from Nicolas Jaar, so good.

New Weller Single

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Quote Someone

“Listen. All great literature is about what a bummer it is to be a human being: Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, The Red Badge of Courage, the Iliad and the Odyssey, Crime and Punishment, the Bible, and The Charge of the Light Brigade…” - Kurt Vonnegut

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Another Killer Package

What? No worm in this Mezcal?? what the? well, I still love the bottle.

Monday, October 31, 2011

40 Noises That Evolved Pop

Great list for fans of music, along with samples. Good stuff!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Obama Asks for Free Graphic Help

we call this spec work and no, it's not cool to ask.
FTA:
"Yes, the Obama campaign is soliciting unpaid labor to create a poster "illustrating why we support President Obama's plan to create jobs now, and why we'll re-elect him to continue fighting for jobs for the next four years."
no thanks!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Monday, October 10, 2011

Aaron Draplin

Aaron Draplin, one of my favorite graphics designers interviewed about some of ths shit he collects. Thanks Aaron, you're making my day.

Review of the OFF! Show Last Saturdy Night

Git Some opened, sorry I missed you guys, I love your album - but I was drinking in another bar at time you went on.

Fontside 5 played next, you guys need a sound engineer and a sound check.

Retox
- I like your studio stuff more than your live show, my take from you was fire the singer and move the drummer to the front. That guy can play!

OFF! Keith and the boys kicked out the jams for sure, I love how on the encore Keith says "we've played all out songs already, we haven't written anymore so we're gonna go back and play the first 2 songs"

European Motorcycle Ride in 1953

this is a great photo essay of days gone by. Link stolen from the mighty Coudal!

In the Summer of 1953 my father Geoffrey Gander and his friends set off on their annual Motor Cycling holiday around Europe.

It was probably quite an adventurous trip to take at the time.

They would ride through France, Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland.

We think of old bikes as being unreliable, but my father and his friends were keen riders and engineers and completed the trip without much more than a puncture.

The bikes that took part in the trip were:

GAU 856 Brough Superior SS100 with fuel in the loop sidecar

AHC 650 Triumph Thunderbird. He bought this one on 22nd July 1950 for £219 16 9 and by the day they set off in July 53 it had done 24,900 miles.

KBY 571 Sunbeam

VMM 871 Sunbeam

AHC 963 Triumph

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

About the Sounds

I have hundreds of gigabytes of digital music. Yet I listen to less than one percent of it. Why? Because it's entirely overwhelming. I have so much, and it's so intangible, that I may as well not even have it. Don't get me wrong, I love the convenience of having entire days (weeks, months) worth of listening in my pocket. But scrolling down an endless list of albums just ain't the same as flipping through a crate of LPs. Cover Flow? Please. Listening to records is an entirely different musical experience. For me, vinyl is more active. More visceral. More mindful. More immersive. I pick the album, admire the cover art, slip it from its sleeve, and play it. And after 20 minutes or so, I turn it over and play the other side. Remember "the other side"? I had forgotten until recently, when I retrieved my record collection from storage and immersed myself in the vintage audio forums online to find the perfect new, old stereo system.

Punk Rock Parents

documentary on punk rock parents, looks good

Monday, October 3, 2011

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Razor Blades and Knitting Needles

Ray Davies wrote this with the help of his brother (and Kinks guitarist) Dave. Ray played it for Dave on piano, and Dave tried it on guitar. Their first version was 6-minutes long.

Dave Davies got the dirty guitar sound by slashing the speaker cone on his amp with a razor blade. The vibration of the fabric produced an effect known as "fuzz," which became common as various electronic devices were invented to distort the sound. At the time, none of these devices existed, so Davies would mistreat his amp to get the desired sound, often kicking it. The amp was a cheap unit called an Elpico.

Before they released this, The Kinks put out 2 singles that flopped. If this didn't do well, there was a good chance their record label would have dropped them.

When the Kinks heard the first version they recorded of this, they hated the results. It was produced by Shel Talmy, their manager at the time, and Ray Davies thought it came out clean and sterile, when he wanted it to capture the energy of their live shows. Dave Davies girlfriend backed them up, saying it didn't make her want to "drop her knickers." The Kinks' record company had no interest in letting them re-record this, but due to a technicality in their contract, The Kinks were able to withhold the song until they could do it again. At the second session, Dave Davies slashed his amp and Talmy produced it to get the desired live sound. This is the version that was released.

This was the first hit for The Kinks. It gave them a lot of publicity and led to TV appearances, magazine covers, and 2 gigs opening for The Beatles. They didn't have an album out yet, so they rushed one out to capitalize on the demand. This first album contained only 5 originals, with the rest being R&B covers.

Ray Davies recalled in an interview with NME how his brother Dave created the distortion effect on this song. Said Ray: "We stuck knitting needles in the speakers, or in Dave's case, he slit the speakers with a razor blade. In those days we played records on a radiogram so loudly that they all sounded fuzzy. We thought, 'That's a great sound,' without realizing the speakers were buggered. Everyone else was using really clean guitar sounds, so for 'You Really Got Me' we hooked a little speaker up to a clean amp and came up with thunderous, unaffected, pure power."

Friday, September 23, 2011

Monday, September 19, 2011

Obama to Raise Taxes

to the tune of 1.5 trillion dollars.... I don't understand? if we can't pay for what we spend now how can the solution be to tax us more? Please President Obama stop spending what we don't have, please make some serious cuts with Congress and balance the fucking budget! Please!

Article here.

Friday, September 9, 2011

MLK Sculpture Completed by Chinese Unpaid Workers?

Say it isn't so!
FTA:
"While often overshadowed by his civil rights legacy, King was an outspoken defender of labor rights and was supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee when he was assassinated. But his memorial was built, in part, using free labor imported from China."

Friday, September 2, 2011

Quote From Rick James in 1981

"Any artist who tells you that they don’t wanna get gold or platinum records is full of shit. Any artist who tells you he’s doing it for the sake of art is full of shit, OK? I am trying to make multi, multi-millions of dollars, I am trying to make Paul McCartney white boy money, so I can sit back and have a big house in Spain and not ever work again. Right now I got a few million dollars and I’m doing all right; I hope to have 20 million soon, so I can sit back real fat like Mick Jagger and Rod Stewart and all them other assholes who sit out there and talk shit and procrastinate and talk that hypocritical ass bullshit about their ‘art’…"
— Rick James, 1981

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Isa Scott R.I.P.

Isa Scott, Mother Of Bon Scott, Dies At 94

Wed, 31 Aug 2011

Bon Scott’s mum Isa Scott has died in Western Australia at the age of 94.

Isabelle Cunningham Mitchell married Charles Scott in Scotland in the 1940’s. On July 9, 1946, son Ronald Belford was born.

Isabelle and Charles were known as Isa and Chick. Ronald became known as Bon.

In 1952, Isa and Chick, along with Bon and his younger brother Derek migrated to Melbourne, Australia. In 1953, they had a third son, the Aussie born Graeme.

In 1956, the family moved to Fremantle in Western Australia, where Isa lived for the rest of her life.

Isa remained one of AC/DC’s biggest fans and attended a show on every tour after her son Bon’s death in 1979. She last saw the band live as a VIP guest at the AC/DC show at Subiaco Oval on March 6, 2010.

R.I.P. Isa.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Thursday, August 25, 2011

End of Summer Mix

another decent mix from the HOOD INternet

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Definition of Bad-Ass?

Having lung cancer and still helping me fell a tree. BAD ASS!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Frozen Ghost

I love the bottle design and graphics, but a man stuck in a bottle of booze might make some people are little sweaty.

Frozen Ghost Vodka


Tuesday, August 16, 2011

For Me - this is as close as biking gets to skateboarding

Danny Macaskill just killing it, again.


not only is the riding spot-on, but so is the filming and the score. Sound and Vision once again!

30 Harsh Musicians on Musicians Quotes

man, there are some gems in here Here's a couple:

Robert Smith on Morrissey
“If Morrissey says not to eat meat, then I’ll eat meat — that’s how much I hate Morrissey.”

Nick Cave on Red Hot Chili Peppers
“I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the fuck is this garbage?’ And the answer is always the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Tons of Records in London Destroyed by Riots

Numerous independent record labels fear they have lost a catastrophic amount of stock in a fire at a distribution warehouse in north London during the riots in the capital on Monday night. A three-storey, 20,000 square-metre building in Enfield, owned by Sony DADC and holding stock to be distributed by the Pias Group, was burned to the ground.

Oh man, what a waste.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Van Halen and the Brown M&M's

The 1980s was a heady and decadent time for rock stars. Stories of bad behavior by some of rock’s finest - be it trashing hotel rooms or simple prima donna demands - were splashed all over the headlines. And few of those stories were as famous as the “Van Halen and M&Ms” story.
Here’s the thing, though: the band put the “no brown M&Ms” clause in their contracts for a very good reason.
"For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us."
- Charles Bukowski

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Budweiser's New Can Design

I like it, but I'll have see in person and of course sample the contents so as to make sure nothing else has changed.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Monday, August 1, 2011

Chelsea Hotel to Close

Punk rock and poetic icon, NY history to close to guests.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

You Know I'm No Good

Some great live performances from Amy Winehouse.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Friday, July 15, 2011

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Stop Spending Money We Don't Have!!!

“I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection.”

Warren Buffett

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Interesting Take on Cars and Cars2

I love Pixar, and I see all of their movies with my kids in the theater and then repeated viewings at home as well. I hated Cars when I saw it, even though it's nice to look at and I love cars it was just an awful flick on many levels. This guy has an interesting take on why he thinks it was awful......a Christian slant via 'Intelligent Design'. And no, I will not be seeing Cars2...... the only Pixar movie I will miss on purpose.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Steven Jesse Bernstein

"More Noise Please" one of my most favorite poems. Ever.

Bigger and Longer than the one over Lake Pontchartrain

I used to drive over Lake Pontchartrain everyday when I worked in New Orleans. Don't miss that drive......

Monday, June 27, 2011

Good Advice

"Drink the local beer. Be the last to a party and the first to leave. Check out her mother before you marry her. Never take anybody's last anything. Keep the rear sights in focus and you'll hit it every time."
Poached from the TRAD

Monday, June 20, 2011

Olympic Maple

rebranding Canada's Olympic team. Man, this is good

.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Mothball Fleet

when I was a kid living in California we used to drive by this mothball fleet all the time. This is a killer photo essay on how these broke into/onto these historic ships and took some photos. Check it out.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Decline of the Empire

an interesting article for sure, it's easy to pin on Bush that's what comes to my mind when I think of timelines......

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Thursday, May 26, 2011

More on Record Collecting

from Jim Cofer - an excellent article! thanks Jim!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Henry Rollins 1st Column for the LA Weekly

and he talks about something I love.

FTA:
"As an LP spins, your needle goes on the musical journey with you, traveling great distances as it deftly picks up the analog information and delivers the sonic message to you in real time."

"Sitting in a room, alone, listening to a CD is to be lonely. Sitting in a room alone with an LP crackling away, or sitting next to the turntable listening to a song at a time via 7-inch single is enjoying the sublime state of solitude."

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Death Grips

loving the new Death Grips mixtape. Download ExMilitary.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Physicist Stephen Hawking Says There Is No Heaven

In an interview published Monday in The Guardian newspaper, the 69-year-old says the human brain is like a computer that will stop working when its components fail.

"There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark,"

Thursday, May 12, 2011

YouTube now Posts its Top 100

so cool, I welcome this chart as voted by the people

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Thrasher 30th Anniversary

Loading the player ...

Monday, May 9, 2011

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

M m m mmmmm mm mm mm m MY Ge gggg g gg gg gg g gGeneration

Were you born between 1964-73? If so, then like me, you’re a member of a lost generation mistakenly called “Generation X.” Members of this misidentified cohort were in their teens and 20s in the Eighties (1984-93, not to be confused with the 1980s); and in their 20s and 30s in the Nineties (1994-2003).

Great read if you were born around the same time as me - hecho 1970

Best Thing I've Seen this Week

Go Michelle!!!!!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

an Oral History of the Beastie Boys

I saw the License to Ill tour here in Denver at the Mamouth on Colfax..... he heh remember that? Dancing Girls in cages.....Hurricane was on a giant 6 pack of Budweiser and Murphy's Law and Fishbone opened. It was epic. I saw them a couple times after that too but that show was over the top.

Monday, April 25, 2011

the Latest Commercial from Spike Jonze for Lakai

New Work from Bill Watterson??

This painting — by “Calvin and Hobbes” creator Bill Watterson — is the first new art from him that his syndicate has seen in the 16 subsequent years, say executives with Universal Uclick and its parent company, Andrews McMeel. The artwork is of the character Petey Otterloop from Richard Thompson’s comic strip “Cul de Sac.”

Thursday, April 21, 2011

the Last Supper

wow big post on lots of Last Supper parodys - thanks to the mighty COUDAL for the link

False Rarities

Great article on record collecting these days.......
FTA:
"The two songs, both Misfits covers, were released as free downloads long before the record was pressed in its edition of 2,000 copies. The record, this commenter seemed to believe, is utterly unnecessary.

But, I mean, of course it is. Isn’t every record? And isn’t every limited-edition collector’s piece an example of false rarity? They could press more, but they didn’t. This wasn’t because the equipment or the raw materials to manufacture them were missing, or because the master recordings were lost forever to some unfortunate accident, but because the decision was made to press only a certain arbitrary amount of the record, and that was that."

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Lester Bangs Basement

neat article on how nothing is really collectable anymore - since we have the internet and virtually access to any music or film we'd like to see. I remember back when "Across the Trax" was open on 13th here in Denver - that was the only place you could rent the movie 'Star Wars Christmas Special' and it was a treat to be able to see it when most thought it was a just a legend, now you can see it on youtube anytime you like. The world has moved on.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Twist and Shout

I'll be doing some shopping here tomorrow!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Auto-Buds

the term for when the same model cars park next to each other on the street. If there's one like mine in a lot I always park next to it.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Monday, April 4, 2011

You Took My Name

nice

How to Steal Like an Artist

this really hits home for me, this also keeps in line with my philosophy and not seeing movies like the Titanic or wasting time listening to top 40 music.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Regulate on Toy Instruments

this is really is Fucking Fantastic!

R.I.P. Nate Dogg

New SLAYER Jersey

nice

Hollywood is Out of Ideas

but of course you didn't need me to tell you that, here's a list of 10 low budget flicks that changed hollywood and movie making.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Hidden Images on Album Covers

Gonna dig a few of these up so I can see 'em myself

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

365 Days of A

this guy is driving a Model A for a year and blogging about it.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Stephan Tillmans

Takes pictures of TV sets the split second after they turn on. Killer.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

1965 Vespa SS

this guy mounted a camera to his chest and is riding in Santa Barbara on one of my favorite Vespa's the 1965 Vespa Super Sport. A pretty shot of how it feels to ride an old scooter.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

JCPenny Rebrands

the P and E in the new logo fucks with my eye.....I prefer the old logo, JCP BOLD!

Misery Bear Goes to Work

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

While My Turntables Gently Weep

this is a pretty decent rant on why DJ's are so boring today - and the state of clubs and scenes built around music these days. It goes much deeper than the vinyl vs digital DJ but there is a good arguement there as well.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Rocky Mountain Diner Closes!

man, I love this joint in the famous "Ghost Building". What a shame.

Friday, February 18, 2011

2011 Skateboarding

there is some serious work going on here

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Wisconsin Democrats Flee State

Wow! there is some interesting stuff going on in our country. I can't believe that they have left the state in order to hold up a vote. And since there's no money government workers are being asked to cover more of their medical benefits and their pensions. Hmmmmm just like the rest of us!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Caligraphy

R.I.P. Rick Kulwicki

Sad news in Denver today. Read more

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Monday, February 14, 2011

Obama

This is not right, stop spending money we don't have. How can he run a trillion over budget this year alone but tell us he's saving a trillion over 10 years? Utterly irresponsible - President Barack Obama released a $3.73 trillion budget for fiscal-year 2012 Monday.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

We Are the Doorways

new record from RJD2, sounds like a break from his usual stuff..... now onto his obsession with SciFi Movies form the late 70's and Early 80's..... the Insane Warrior you can definately hear RJ though.....

Friday, February 4, 2011

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Tolstoy's 10 Rules for Living

Get up early (five o’clock)
Go to bed early (nine to ten o’clock)
Eat little and avoid sweets
Try to do everything by yourself
Have a goal for your whole life, a goal for one section of your life, a goal for a shorter period and a goal for the year; a goal for every month, a goal for every week, a goal for every day, a goal for every hour and for evry minute, and sacrifice the lesser goal to the greater
Keep away from women
Kill desire by work
Be good, but try to let no one know it
Always live less expensively than you might
Change nothing in your style of living even if you become ten times richer

Friday, January 28, 2011

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Sampled Room

I love this!

Monday, January 24, 2011

SPOTS

this is so cool, having myself spent tons of time in parking lots and other ignored concrete areas - - - I can relate brother.


TRAVIS COLLIER 'SPOTS' from Mike McKinlay on Vimeo.

the Beast Publishes it's 50 Most Loathsome Americans

full of gems like this:

34) Stefani Germanotta (Lady Gaga)
Charges: A Madonna doppelganger with scoliosis and a knack for trite, overproduced and formulaic drivel. Not nearly as controversial as she imagines. She pissed off Jerry Seinfeld? Meh. My heart’s not really in this one. She makes shitty music. Who fucking cares. Probably you. You sicken me. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Aggravating factor: Excessive consonant repetition.
Sentence: Tracheotomy.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Stars on Bikes

love the old pics..... thanks Coudal!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Stranahan's Sells to an East Coast Company

fuck the East Coast
'tis my favorite whiskey though and I wish them luck!

What Diplo has Been Playing Out this Month

some bangers in here

Friday, January 7, 2011

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Best MashUps of 2010

some good ones in here

Wednesday, January 5, 2011