2011

YEAR OF THE HONEY BADGER
Here's the track listing and notes for this year's edition of the annual current music sampler I send in lieu of xmas cards, accompanied by a second disc of mostly off-the-beaten-path holiday tunes. This thing started off small and folksy and has become, uh, a little larger but still folksy. In 2001, I made 45 of 'em. Last year it went to 179 people. This year, an even 200, of which 133 went by U.S. mail, 57 are being handed in-person, with a handful extra for any last-minute "oh yeah, that guy/gal should get this!" occasions.

Of the 20 artists represented here, 9 have appeared at some point(s) during the previous ten installments, and 11 are making their debut. I'm pleased to report that this year's selection process was far less grueling than usual, involved fewer miles of headphone-trapped floor-pacing, though I did say at a late-stage juncture:

It's like I have 22 children and I love them all equally, but the time constraint of the CD medium dictates that I must throw 2 of them into the river, and that's just not right! Okay, let's see what each of these children is good for... here are two, both good at yard work, I really only need one kid for yard work, so which one is better... sorry, Foster The People, but the Rapture stays and you must go - brush up on your raking and maybe on your NEXT album we can talk - godspeed!

Further - and Jessica appreciates this, I'm sure - the production & assembly process involved not one major meltdown, not one inanimate object became a projectile, there wasn't even any shouting. Okay, here we go. Front cover artwork by my sister in law, the talented fashion designer, former co-MVP of the roller derby national champions and all-around pretty alright broad, Britta:


1. Genuine Pt. 1 by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
Sharon Jones' interesting career began in the church choir in Augusta, Georgia and after moving to Brooklyn on to (mostly uncredited) session work doing backing vocals on various disco, blues, soul and funk records in the 70s, then back to the church and a turn as a guard at Ryker's Island before eventually assembling this band. The Dap-Kings are best known for backing Amy Winehouse on her definitive album, Back to Black, but working with Jones is their day job.

2. Condensate by The Time (The Original 7ven)
You remember The Time, the Morris Day-led band with an eternal Prince association courtesy of their prominent role in the film Purple Rain. Fast forward to the present, and a recently reunited Time was not permitted to use their name. Prince owns it, won't let them use it, and won't even let them negotiate or make an offer to buy it. What a jerk. Morris, Jerome, Jellybean, Jesse & Co. took the high road and instead of dicking around with His Purpleness, they just changed the name, put out a great album, and moved on. Interesting, though, the context this adds to Prince's "emancipated artist" melodrama of the early 90s. Hey Prince: The Time just released more good music than you have in the last ten years.

3. Rolling in the Deep by Adele
The biggest pop song of the year. If you don't know this song, you've probably been living on a hippie commune without electricity. She writes her own stuff, she's got a soulful style with elements of blues, hip hop and gospel woven into a pop-friendly sound, and the girl can SING.

4. Stone Rollin’ by Raphael Saadiq
You may remember him as the principle member of Tony! Toni! Tone! in the early 90s, or his inclusion on this mix in 2008. Modern day Motown at its finest. This title-track tune opens up grooving in the pocket and never leaves that swinging place. The album is full of great songs and is a tie with Tom Waits' Bad As Me for my personal Album of the Year.

5. Run Right Back by The Black Keys
One of the most anticipated releases of 2011, this one didn't come out until last week. This Nashville-by-way-of-Akron blues-rock duo keeps it real. Real relevant, real true to their roots, real good.

6. How Deep Is Your Love? by The Rapture
I saw these guys play a Wired magazine party at the Fillmore in '04 and loved them instantly (thank you, Jeff). Sad that I was a little late to the party on their great 2003 album, Echoes, I looked forward to their 2006 follow-up but was disappointed by it. Before the current release came out, I read that the singer and songwriter of the band had gone through a religious conversion to become a devout Catholic. No religious judgment here, but I haven't heard much good religious-based rock music. I was skeptical. Then I heard this song. Wow. The only reason it won't put your booty in motion? You don't have one. In which case, stop what you're doing and hit your local booty store.

7. You Know What I Mean by Cults
I don't know much about this band, other than this is from their debut album and I think they're from New York. It was a tip from a music message board I trust. I really dig the trippy, poppy, girl-group sound.

8. Blue Tip by The Cars
All the original surviving members reunited for an album and tour earlier this year. Opening night was at the 1500-capacity Showbox SoDo in Seattle, the day the album came out, and Jessica and I were there. It was their first show in 24 years. On the album, they pull off the unlikely: it sounds like a Cars album, but without sounding dated, nostalgic, or like throwaway tunes from the 80s.

9. Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win by The Beastie Boys feat. Santigold
After a couple relative stinkers, Ad Rock, Mike D and MCA managed to put out a solid album this year. It's probably their best since 1994's Ill Communication, with a sound that combines the synth elements of 1998's Hello Nasty with grooves that bring you right back to 1992's Check Your Head. According to the liners, they did get permission from Bob Dylan to sing his line, "20 years of schoolin' and they put you on the day shift." I think Santigold sang on one of those Andy Samburg parody tunes on Saturday Night Live.

10. You Don’t Listen by Ringo Deathstarr
I saw this in a record store and the band's name made me chuckle out loud. An actual, real-life "LOL" moment. They're from Austin and this is from their first full-length release. I'm generally not a big fan of the shoegazer genre they're clearly influenced by (think Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, et al) but I love the sound here.

11. Get Away by Yuck
Another debut by another shoegazer influenced band, this was a tip from a guy I'm in an online music discussion group with. Bill and I have swapped recommendations sparingly over the years, his tips have always been worth checking out, and seeing that this album was released by the great Fat Possum label previously responsible for kickstarting the late careers of Mississippi blues greats R.L. Burnside, T-Model Ford and Junior Kimbrough, not to mention Solomon Burke's comeback album and more recently the early career of the Black Keys... buying this was a no-brainer.

12. Art of Almost by Wilco
One of this generation's greatest bands. They have not released a bad album, but this year's The Whole Love is, for my money, the best they've done in ten years. Wilco's appreciation for the rich sounds of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and the bold experimentation of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is outweighed by their brilliant tendency to create music that is uniquely theirs. This song is epic, and Nels Cline's guitar solo is simply awesome.

13. Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes
This Seattle band's sophomore effort is as enjoyable a listen as its 2008 debut. The soaring harmonies and clever lyrics separate these guys from virtually all others in the recently growing folk-pop genre. The Sub Pop label may be best known to the casually observant for its prominent role in the late 80s and early 90s grunge explosion, but the truth is they've been consistently putting out much of the best in indie music at every turn.

14. You’re Too Weird by Fruit Bats
Another Sub Pop release. Funny, while this band is originally from Chicago and they moved from there to Seattle around the same time I did, I never checked them out until shortly after the move. After catching a low-key 2004 show at Chop Suey that seemed more like a rehearsal than a concert, I was sold on their sound. I walked home that night appreciating the irony that we lived a couple miles from each other for a few years, and we still do, albeit after each moving more than 2,000 miles to the West Coast.

15. Tree By the River by Iron & Wine
This and the two prior songs may be my favorite 3-song arc of the mix. Iron & Wine appeared on the 2003 edition of my annual music round-up. I was playing their hypnotic lo-fi song "The Night Descending" on my non-commercial community radio show, around which time principle singer-songwriter Samuel Beam was making the transition from film & cinematography professor at University of Miami to full-time recording artist. This year, he signed to Warner Bros. and released his major label debut. This kind of move often waters down the music to something more accessible to a broader audience, but they did a very nice job here of not messing with the artist.

16. Cold Toes on the Cold Floor by Cold War Kids
This fiercely independent-minded quartet from Long Beach offers a uniquely soulful and bluesy, if not just plain quirky take on indie rock. They're not afraid to create space and veer far left of traditional song structure. For some reason, I find this tune to be sexy, in a dark, modern noir kind of way.

17. Talking at the Same Time by Tom Waits
Springsteen was great into his 50s, he turned 60 last year and we'll see, but his last 2 albums rank in the bottom half of his catalog. Bob Dylan put out some career-best material throughout his 60s, in fact it rivals that of his 20s, and he just turned 70 this year. Tom Waits is 62 and just released arguably the best album of 2011. Your move, Bob Dylan.

18. I Never Thought by Los Fabulocos feat. Kid Ramos
Guitar hero Kid Ramos played in James Harman's band and Roomful of Blues before taking seven years off to work as a water delivery man while starting a family. He returned to music when Kim Wilson asked him to join the Fabulous Thunderbirds in '94, with whom he played 'til '02 before spending the last decade doing his own thing. This album's official release date of December 2010 is one thing; but when Jessica and I were in the band's hometown Austin this April, I caught what was billed as a CD release show at the Continental Club. As a souvenir of my first time in that great town, I'm taking a mulligan and calling this a 2011 release.

19. Going Out in Style by Dropkick Murphys
The original lead singer of this band was a soft-spoken high school classmate of mine in Boston. Shortly after he left the band to pursue a more punk rock direction, I worked a show at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom where these guys opened for a reunited Sex Pistols. They brought out the Chicago Police Department's Bagpipes & Drums of the Emerald Society and proceeded to blow the place apart. This song is about as representative of their sound as you'll get. I like it for its straightforward and to the point, no-BS efficiency.

20. Alone In This Together by Star Anna & The Laughing Dogs
Remember this name, she may be destined for big things. The Central Washington native began drumming in a punk band as a teenager, eventually taking the solo route via the coffeehouse circuit before putting this band together. She has caught the attention of some notable Seattle music figures, including former Guns N Roses bassist Duff McKagan whose review in the Seattle Weekly helped push her into the radar of local music enthusiasts, and Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready who plays on this track.

The also-rans:
Among the artists who released good stuff worth checking out this year, but for one reason or another were not included in the mix: Florence + the Machine, Foster the People, the Strokes, Heybale, Stewart Francke, North Mississippi Allstars, Gang Gang Dance, Civil Wars, Mighty Sam McClain, Jimmie Vaughan, Lady Gaga, and My Morning Jacket. My primary regret is not getting the Kills album.

Back cover by my buddy Mark, a very good and laid-back guy with a wonderful sense of humor, time and rhythm.

Bruce, I Understand. I Just Don't Like It.

WHAT DO I WANT?
I want to see Bruce Springsteen tour with a stripped-down version of the E Street Band - bass, drums, 2 guitars including Bruce - and tour theaters playing rockabilly and western swing, roughly half originals and covers. He started talking about this in the late 90s before Patti started breaking his balls. C'mon, Boss...

Maybe this is a long overdue eulogy for the Big Man. When he passed, I was DJing a roller derby match in front of 5,000 people at a Key Arena in Seattle. My friend Geoff texted me, "sorry about the big man." I knew C had suffered a stroke six days prior, and the reports were all hopeful, but Geoff gave me the news.

You're here, which means you're aware I am a Springsteen fan, appreciator, historian, aficionado. His music catalog is probably my favorite, in an exclusive category that also includes Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Sam & Dave, and Elvis Costello.

Back in June, the Big Man Clarence Clemons died of complications from a stroke at the age of 69. The Boss' muse since 1971, the image of an E Street Band without him is, well, unimaginable.

While they've remained active as recently as a 2009 album and world tour, for the first time in 40 years, The E Street Band is releasing an album and going on tour without the Big Man.

This is not the first death on E Street. Organist Danny Federici, whose musical companionship with Springsteen goes back even further to the late 60s - he actually hired The Boss for his band Child, and then they formed Steel Mill together, and Dr. Zoom & the Sonic Boom, before the 1971 formation of the Bruce Springsteen Band - lost a battle with melanoma in 2008. Federici's organ, accordion, and glockenspiel were at least as essential to the E Street sound as the Big Man's saxophone. In fact, nothing brought the Jersey Shore to life more than the squeeze box on "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)", his organ as the centerpiece on Bruce's only pre-Born in the U.S.A. Top Ten hit, "Hungry Heart" and if you're wondering what makes "Born to Run" so otherworldly... it's the glock.

But this is different. The Big Man's importance far transcended his solos on "Jungleland", "Badlands" and "Prove It All Night." He was Bruce's on-stage muse, his partner in crime in all the fun in-concert shenanigans, and a fan favorite. Most fans will admit, for 3-4 hours every night, you may have your good eye on the Boss, but your other is on the Big Man.

We've seen Springsteen play without E Street and We've Loved It. There was the '92-93 Lucky Town tour with an entirely different band (save for E Streeter Roy Bittan on piano). The solo acoustic tours for The Ghost of Tom Joad in '95 and Devils & Dust in '05. In '06, he assembled the Sessions Band for an album and tour of ragtime and gospel arrangements of traditional songs previously recorded by Pete Seeger. But those were not E Street projects, they were aptly named and great in their own ways.

WHY RECORD AND TOUR AS THE E STREET BAND? 2 THEORIES:
1. 2005 RECORD DEAL:
In '05, Springsteen re-upped with Columbia, his label of 40 years, in a deal that gave him $110MM for seven albums. Excluding live albums, best-of retrospectives, boxed sets and DVDs, Bruce has released four titles of new music since inking that deal: two with E Street, one solo, and one with the Sessions Band. It's entirely possible that the clock is ticking, and pure speculation makes me wonder if that deal holds Bruce to release a certain number of E Street titles among the seven. It's also possible he was held to certain promotional efforts. While the Boss gave very few interviews and was not particularly accessible for off-stage activities throughout his artistic heyday, since '05 we've seen him playing the Super Bowl halftime show, the Today Show, Good Morning America, giving extensive interviews and access for the DVD documentaries on the making of back catalog classics Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town. At a time when E Street may as well be renamed Park Avenue... why bother?

2. THERAPY?
Do the remaining six E Streeters - four of whom have been there since the early 70s (Garry Tallent, Max Weinberg, Roy Bittan and Steven Van Zandt) with "new guys" Nils Lofgren and Patti Scialfa having joined just yesterday, in 1984 - simply need to carry on as they normally have all these years, despite the loss or to honor it? Perhaps this is simply what these guys do, and they're simply not quite ready to stop doing it.

WHY NOT TO DO IT? 2 THEORIES:
1. CIRCUMSTANCES ARE DIFFERENT
Danny Federici, who went home mid-tour in late 2007 and passed away a few months later, was replaced by the great Charlie Giordano, who was part of Bruce's Sessions Band on the previous album and tour. In '07-08, the band was on the road, had to keep working, and there was a certain familiarity with Charlie. Clarence died at a moment when the band had nothing in motion, on relative vacation between albums and tours. From a timing perspective, calling it a day is as easy as embarking on a new project.
2. CAN YOU REALLY CALL IT E STREET WITHOUT CLARENCE?
I just don't think you can. I could write for days on this, but if you're reading this, we'll hopefully agree that I don't have to.

Regarding Amy

Amy Winehouse died last week at 27 from an apparent overdose. Cause of death hasn't been confirmed, but the toxicology report did find every drug you can name and then some, as well as 23 different brands of paint thinner, in her blood. While death is sad and few will argue that her 2006 album Back to Black isn't a very good one, everyone is suddenly a huge fan and the album is being canonized as a timeless masterpiece. RIP, but the hyperbole machine is just a bit out of control.

Any death is sad, especially when a person is young. Add a bunch of wasted or unrealized talent, and it becomes more sad. There's a certain mysticism for recording artists, actors, athletes, writers and entertainers, because their work - typically considered a manifestation of the person, however misguided - is something we consume in a way that brings them into our lives and causes many people to feel some kind of personal connection. I get that, especially with music, because so much of it is so personal and while we don't actually know the artist, the artist is sharing some piece of him or herself through the work. How much varies by artist, but with rare exception how much is something we'll never know. I once saw Bruce Springsteen asked in a Q&A audience session, "As personal as your music is, do we know the real you through your songs?" The Boss' answer? "No. Not even close."

I will agree that Back to Black is a magnificent record, one I listened to quite a few times in 2007. It was a common soundtrack to my domestic engineering that year. I find it hard, though, to reconcile its absence from the top-end of many prominent and taste-making annual Best Of lists from 2007, and its incredibly enhanced post-mortem treatment. It's a very good album, sure, but certainly not the genre and generation-defining classic so many are making it to be in the shadow of the artist's untimely death. True, some albums age and grow better than others, and many of the all-time classic albums were not necessarily the biggest chart-toppers in their years of release. But for a record that's barely four and a half years old... while some of the music rags ranked it high in '06 and '07, many didn't (released in December '06, BtB registers in either year depending on who's defining the cut-off date, so I looked up the lists from both years). Rolling Stone had it at #40. The Guardian UK had it at 5, Mojo at 7 (they've always loved her at home). The Village Voice, 4. Pitchfork did not have it in their Top 50. Spin, 7. Chicago Tribune, not in the Top 20. Billboard, 24. Amazon editors, not in the Top 24. A popular record indeed, but not quite considered a galvanizing masterpiece in its day, contrary to what recent public discussion may suggest. A handful of albums those two years were staples in virtually every Top Ten list, and this wasn't one of them. Not that it isn't a really good album. It is. Alas, hyperbole abounds in death.

It's sad when anyone dies at a young age, even if we can't be surprised given the style and fashion with which Amy Winehouse lived her final four years. But as for our treatment of Back To Black, is it possible that too many people are making it out to be a Sgt. Pepper or a Pet Sounds when it's more like a Synchronicity or an Exile In Guyville?

Burning Beast!

I've been to carnivore foodie heaven. Twice. Burning Beast has been running four years. Jessica has been to the last 3, I to the last 2. Each year at the non-profit creative Smoke Farm, just over an hour north of Seattle but off the grid enough that nobody can successfully use their hand-held toy of choice while there, a handful of the area's top chefs is each assigned an animal and tasked with creating something without electricity or running water. They show up a day or 2 ahead of time and create their space. Most dig a hole and create a makeshift BBQ pit, others get more "out of the box" based on what they're cooking.

There's a covered area with beer and wine. It's okay to bring a tent and camp for the night. There are a couple bands, this year a bluegrass band that's played Highway 99 Blues Club a few times called the Half Brothers, and a band of local theater actors called
"Awesome" (yep, the quotes are part of the name) who decided to start making albums after doing a number of live scores. They are aptly named, so back off! There's also a DJ playing all vinyl. I'm a DJ myself, stupidly critical of DJs as a result, and I must say: Dude has superlative taste in tunes. And a bonfire at the end. The organizers construct an animal of choice - this year a moose, with balls (last year, a pig, no balls that I recall) which is burned after the chefs are all out of food, everyone is chilling, and the aforementioned DJ plays a nice soundtrack.

What'd we eat?
Duck. Goat. Rabbit. Ram. Sheep. Pheasant. Salmon. Beef. Chicken. Water Buffalo. Elk.

Veggies?
Tons of fresh grilled Northwest produce, the best you'll have, but seriously...

What'd we drink?
Bathtub Gin - a bar had a stand with (standing by the meat motif) chorizo-infused sidecars and a prosciutto-infused gin lemonade.
* I had one sip of the sidecar and elected to stick with water.
** in related news, next year I will not make the same decision.
*** in even more related news, next year we'll be camping overnight.

This event is all kinds of crazy good. If you're a meat lover and/or a foodie, it is paradise. They sell roughly 200 tickets, everyone here paid a hundo and most drove an hour or so to get here, so the Knucklehead Factor is virtually (if not, per my experience) non-existent or dare I say, "priced out." Yeah, homepeeps, I said it. $100 is a lotta dough. It sounds like a lot because it IS a lot. As we all save and pinch for the important things, if you've dined at 4-5 star spots and then come here... Burning Beast ia a steal, the kind of unique gut-busting, free-for-all tasting menu you will not experience anywhere else. You can bring your own snacks, beverages, booze, just no pets (service dogs allowed). This is the Lollapalooza of food, only better.

Arrive anytime from 3pm, some chefs are serving tastes while preparing, the DJ is spinning records, official dinner bell rings around 6, bands play before and after, then around dusk (9?) the bonfire begins.




goat w/ polenta, ram slider


the oysters are gone, baby


duck w/ feta crumbles & cucumber, pheasant & waffle w/ pickled peach


oysters are cooked here


salmon is smoked here


peaches, cherries, and such are pickled here




gas heat in the bottom. dough in the middle. outer cylinder is sand and rock. they're making bread.


a serving station






this guy means business. the guy in the "bacon is a vegetable" t-shirt was not less approachable, he just moved faster.




rabbit salad w/ papaya slaw, pig on flat bread w/ a thin-sliced pickle


elk sausage, smoked kielbasa-style in the wood shed, some beer-braised & grilled


water buffalo chili (left), 2 styles of elk (right)


fun & games


(ram or sheep) blood sausage






to the above, add smoked salmon w/ cucumber yogurt to the left


When all is said, done, and eaten... they burn the beast!

Fun with the BlackBerry spell checker

In the course of text messaging with my brother, one can rightly imagine the kinds of unsavory words flying back and forth. I find the spell check function on the BlackBerry quite amusing. You can run the spell check anytime, and like MS Word any words it doesn't know or like will be underlined in red, but the 'Berry will pause for the cause and offer the unsolicited suggestions only if the last word of your message isn't in their dictionary. Naturally, the nature of communication between me and my brother is such that many messages end with a colorful expletive. Here are some of the suggestions offered by the BlackBerry spell check, in word: suggestion format.

jerkoff: jerk off
* apparently, this term is an action verb and not a proper noun.

dickhead: dick head
* similar to above, but here it's a concrete noun and not a proper or pronoun.

asshole: assholes
* the BlackBerry must know what kind of crowd we run with. Seriously, though, why is the plural acceptable but not the singular? Maybe BlackBerry insists that if you're going to be casting an "asshole!" you must make it count, get a little bang for your buck. I like the way you think, BlackBerry...

prick: price, pick, trick, brick, pricks
* again with the plural.

motherfucker: motherhood, mothering, motherland, motherboard
* bo-ring!

pussy - no suggestions, this one's okay by BlackBerry, but it reminds me of hearing Andrew Dice Clay explain to Howard Stern back in '92 what makes the difference between inoffensive language and what may earn you an FCC fine: "It's okay if I say, 'see that guy over there, that guy's a real pussy' - but if I say, 'hey, that's a nice girl, I bet she has a nice...' - that's when you get into trouble." Back to the BlackBerry.

asswipe: as swipe
* I see what they're doing here, kind of cute, but someone at BlackBerry has a wonderful sense of humor. Aside from being an adjective to describe my brother, an asswipe (also underlined in red by blogger.com) is a legitimate product. I use one every few days on my pets. There are few rules in my house, but one of them is, if you're not gonna wipe your ass, and you insist on not wearing any clothes, and you're gonna put your ass right on the floor or maybe even on the couch... get over here, pal, let's use an ass wipe and getcha clean.

"c-word" (hey, a lady might read this): cut, punt, mount, hunt, cult, bunt, aunt
* eh, not terribly interesting, unless of course you an aunt who is a c-word, in which case there's a mild trace of ironic double meaning to be enjoyed here.

douchenozzle: (empty)
* HA, BLACKBERRY, FOR I HAVE STUMPED YOU!

SCUMBAG v. DOUCHEBAG, BlackBerry v. Wikipedia:

douchebag: doughnut, doubleday, doubter, doughy
* BlackBerry gets extra points here for doubleday, which, incidentally, is underlined in red by blogger.com. Wikipedia says it can mean (1) device used to administer a douche, (2) pejorative term in slang use similar to but arguably less harsh than asshole, or (3) a 2010 film directed by Drake Doremus. I must call b.s. on (1) - the bag doesn't administer anything, that's the nozzle's role. The bag is a holding tank. I don't even douche and I know this. Goddamn Wikipedia, so bush league...

scumbag: scum bag
* while the BlackBerry splits hairs on this one a la dick head and jerk off, Wikipedia says it can mean (1) a contemptible person, (2) a used condom, (3) low income working class Irish youth with aggressive anti-social behavior and little respect for police, or (4) the title of a song performed by Green Day in the film American Pie 2.

Well Papa go to bed now, it's getting late

Coincidence, I rented three DVDs from my neighborhood video store, all were good and one was incidentally topical. I enjoyed Still Bill, the 2009 documentary about the brilliant (and one of my favorites) Bill Withers. Another was a stand-up special by the comic Norm MacDonald.

Then there was The Tillman Story.

PLEASE RENT THIS FILM.

I may write more about this soon. Tonight, I simply don't have enough in the tank to exert my complete thoughts and feelings, deep and far from casual they are. For now, just click on the names below - these reprehensible, morally bankrupt, sorry examples of the human kind... COWARDS:

Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich - COWARD

Donald Rumsfeld - you pansy-ass slimy piece of SHIT

Gen. Richard Myers - COWARD

Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger - COWARD

To you named above: Go Fuck Yourselves, you shameless whores of fictitious values and lies.
Happy Fucking 4th of July, assholes.

Best U..S. Cities for Indie Record Shopping According To Me

Call me a dork but in your heart of hearts you KNOW this is interesting. After realizing that Boston and Cambridge - historically always considered great markets for indie music and stores - had only 1 and 3 participating Record Store Day locations while Seattle had 27, I felt compelled to perform a little exercise. Using the 2010 U.S. Census, I took the top 75 cities by population + 25 more semi-randomly selected from among the 76-275 most-populated. Then I looked up the participating stores on recordstoreday.com and divided the number of stores for each city into its population to get the population ratio per store. The idea is, a lower ratio of population per store makes a city more favorable to people who enjoy the brick-and-mortar indie record shop experience. For example, I'd rather live in a city with an indie record store for every 50,000 residents than one with a store for every half-million.

We have a champion. Congratulations, Pittsburgh, with a Record Store Day participating store for every 21,857 people you are theoretically the most indie record shop-friendly city in this hard land. Also, here's to you, Seattle, Minneapolis, Berkeley, and Cambridge: welcome to the Top Five. Salt Lake City, Ann Arbor, Madison, St. Louie and Portlandia... not too shabby, homeys, you cracked the Top Ten.

Dishonorable Mention goes to Jacksonville, Fresno, Anaheim, Newark (NJ) and Henderson (NV) - all among the 75 most-populated cities in the U.S. and not a single RSD location between you. Shame on you. And YOU, San Antone! You can't hide in the back! As the 7th most-populated city with the 94th best RSD ratio, you officially suck. Maybe all your records are in the basement of the Alamo. Have you considered seceding?

For those keeping score at home, here are the stats:

Record Store Day 2011

Happy Record Store Day!

Here in Seattle, it was kind of a zoo but worth it. In five short years, RSD has grown from a relatively obscure event for music freaks to a pretty major event for collectors and hipsters. Still, it's a marvelous event for real music fans who actually buy their stuff and the independent music stores where the record shop experience still exists. (big chains are excluded from participation - this is not 'nam, there are rules). RSD is an occasion on which to find all kinds of vinyl awesomeness: from vintage re-issues to exclusive limited-editions and everything in between, the allegedly-dead music industry manages to produce a great deal of high-quality stuff for this annual occasion (this was RSD's fifth year).

Glad I live in Seattle. There's only 1 participating store in Boston and 3 in Cambridge (Newbury Comics is too big and corporately owned to qualify). 3 in Memphis, 5 in Nashville. 12 in Austin. 14 in San Francisco. 30 in Chicago. 15 in Portland, OR. 4 in Portland, ME. 27 in Seattle. I'll compute the RSD location-per-capita soon, but this appears to be a rare case of Seattle WIN-ING in the matter of a city being good at something. Huh.

This Year's Booty:


9am: Easy Street. There were already about 100 people inside and out, and it was a hipster free for all (many 20-30somethings who wouldn't know a Marquee Moon from a Television if it (album or tube) crawled up their inner thigh and got friendly). The store has a lot of retail product display by the check-out counter and they just didn't set things up or plan any crowd control for what's guaranteed to be the busiest day of the year. The place was full of bodies, nobody knew where the line was or where it began, etc. but while browsing was a bitch luckily as 3-4 lines ultimately met around the same homestretch to the register, everyone was laid-back about merging in a fair way. The dynamic resembled something like what the manufacturing industry might call a supervisor-free environment, a self-directed workforce. We all had our booty in-hand, so why beef about the line(s) situation? A table with a couple hundred records collapsed when the sleeve that keeps one of the legs straight snapped. The business end of it landed on my foot but no harm, no foul, a staffer came over and dealt with it.

10am:
Sonic Boom. A similar but less feeding-frenzy-oriented clusterfuck than Easy Street. It was far easier to browse but the line moved slower (one of their two registers was on the fritz, compared to Easy Street's three working registers). The upside to the long and slow-moving line is that I grabbed a first-run 1989 Sub Pop issue Screaming Trees double 7" of Change Has Come b/w Days (black vinyl) + Time Speaks Her Golden Tongue b/w Flashes (white vinyl), and an Ohio Players LP. Neither were RSD releases but stellar grabs none the less.

11am:
Finally, I hit Everyday Music which was more laid back, the rush being over, but as their 7" and 12" sides were placed at far ends of the store and not right in front of the register, something tells me the aforementioned clusterf**k registered at a noticeably more palatable click a couple hours ago. No lines, grabbed a few things.

7":
Freddy King - Wash Out (alt. take) b/w Butterscotch reissue
Death Cab For Cutie - In Living Stereo! RSD Exclusive
Urge Overkill - Effigy (2010 UO Records) b/w Thekidsareinsane (1991 Touch & Go) reissue, green vinyl
Buck Owens - Close Up the Honky Tonks b/w My Heart Skips a Beat (early versions)

10":
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band - Gotta Get That Feeling b/w Racing in the Street '78 live from the Carousel, Asbury Park

12":
Gorillaz - The Fall LP
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues b/w Grown Oceans single
Bob Dylan - Live at Brandeis University 1963 LP
Lady Gaga - Born This Way single + 3 remixes picture disc EP (5,000 pressed)
Skip James - Today! LP (Vanguard re-issue)

Free stuff:
Sub Pop - Terminal Sales Vol. 4 comp., magnificently packaged and awesome track listing of new stuff (CD)
Universal RSD Sampler (CD)
Epitaph Winter/Spring 2011 Sampler (CD)
Universal "Lift Every Voice And Sing" gospel comp. (CD)
Select-O-Hits comp. (CD)
Thomas Dybdahl / Laura Jansen split single (Decca 7")
The Right to D.I.Y. (double album 12" by Brown Paper Tickets)
Soundgarden - 3 buttons

Also among the free swag, I got this neat shopping bag:


Not a bad little outing. Maybe I'll take Monday off work. You know. Record Store Day observed.

Austin Field Notes

After my first visit to the People's Republic, with a bullet, straight to the top of the pops, Austin is my new favorite city. Jessica and I went down there for the wedding celebration of our friends, Ruby and Jorge. Here's a run-down:

FRIDAY:
From the moment we get off the plane, it's clear that live music is decidedly a core element of this town's landscape. There's a good band playing rhythm & blues, in the permanent Asleep At The Wheel stage situated right in the middle of everything, among the food court and bookstores, in an area through which anyone walking between the gates, baggage claim, security and ground transportation must walk. Austin sets the tone: the first and last thing you experience about this place is good live music. As we'd experience at every turn during this trip, the tunes are not just a bookend, it's the very fabric of the city.

The Hotel San Jose - checking into our super cool bungalow-style hotel is delightful. One step into the lobby and we see framed showbills from local clubs of Buddy Buy, B.B. King, Bobby Bland, Bobby Womack... behind the front desk is a Fabulous Thunderbirds showbill... the courtyard and outdoor lounge areas are cozy and tranquil for sitting, breakfast, a snack or cocktail.




Now we're checked in and whattaya know, it's happy hour! We're in the SoCo neighborhood (South Congress Ave.), and right across the street is the awesome Continental Club, where the Mighty Blue Kings used to play when I worked for them in the late 90s. Happy hour here means no cover + live music with the Blues Specialists. We enjoy a couple ice-cold Lone Stars and step across the street for a dinner of small plates at Snack Bar. The baked brie + diced pear, braised pork belly sliders, my my my... Now, we're off to The Highball, a Vegas-style combination diner, bowling alley, and first-class music venue where our just-married friends are headlining a rockabilly bill with their band, Ruby Dee & the Snakehandlers.

After a message from my friend Skeeter, a Texas man I work with in Seattle, we change beers. I believe he wrote, "Lone Star is Texas piss water. Try Shiner Bock, now that's a beer." We follow his tip and we're happy for it. Shiner Bock is a good beer, indeed. Next, we head back to the hotel (it's midnight) but first check what's going on at the Continental. It's a CD release show with legendary guitarist and ex-Fabulous Thunderbird, Kid Ramos, with his band Los Fabulocos. It's a fun blend of rhythm & blues with a mariachi front and a mambo back. Here's a minute or two of Kid tearing the place apart during a guitar-and-drums break:

And we're ALMOST done with our first night in Austin. A block up the road is the highly recommended pizza joint, Homeslice. A couple slices later, and we're quietly resting back at the hotel.

SATURDAY:
Room service breakfast today, which we ordered yesterday. Here, room service means a phone call from the front desk advising, "we'll meet ya in the courtyard in 5 minutes." Fresh fruit with cream and chocolate, croissants, a ham & cheese omelet for me, french toast for her, an urn of coffee, fresh OJ and a bottle of champagne (Jessica is a sucker for a mimosa).


Now we're off to Ruby and Jorge's house for their backyard BBQ wedding celebration. They cured some meats over the last few days for BBQ and the sides + desserts are pot luck. We bring a couple dozen cupcakes we got from a truck. Food trucks are an increasingly popular source of higher-end cuisine across the U.S. (makes sense, if the 3 most critical factors in the success or failure of a small business are location, location, and location: put your show on wheels, baby!), they're huge in Austin. Jessica is such a cupcake aficionado, she refers to herself as The Cupcake Tourist and has long considered writing a travel book using that motif and title. These are the best cupcakes we've ever had. Hey, Cupcake!

But we digest... the wedding party is simply perfect. Ruby and Jorge have always been the best hosts, as we know from previous Thanksgiving dinners at their place when they were our neighbors in Seattle. There's a traditional Tex-Mex band playing on the patio. People take turns working the grill and serving beverages. In a few hours, we enjoy more sunlight than we have during Seattle's first 100 days of 2011. Literally. The National Weather Service confirms this. Look it up.


Jorge dancing with his mom:

Now, after all this sun, it's nap time! We sleep heavy and long, wake up later than we want to, but a late start is better than no start. On Ruby's tip, we hit Curra's Grill for the best Mexican food we've ever had. We start with a Mexican Martini (that would be a margarita) and I can't even recall what Jessica had because my dish knocked me right on my tooshie. The Carnitas comes with your tortilla of choice (I'm a flour guy), guacamole, pico de gallo, beans of choice (I'm a pinto guy), rice, sour cream, diced tomato, and now for the money shot: shredded pork marinated in Coca-Cola, milk, and OJ. That's right. Ch-ch-checkitOUT:


After the Mexican gut bomb, we head out to the legendary traditional honkey tonk The Broken Spoke where longtime owner James White stands by the host area to greet every customer with a smile and a "thank you" on our way in. Class, defined. On stage, the similarly legendary Dale Watson puts a smile on every face and a Texas 2-step in every body ("slow, quick-quick, slow"). The audience spans 3 generations, from the twentysomethings to the barely above ground and everything in between. Skeeter has mentioned "dress jeans" and I've made fun of him, but here I see it and now I get it. Picture a guy wearing a nicely polished pair of boots, a pressed button-down cowboy shirt, his hair perfectly combed beneath a proper cowboy hat. What kind of britches is that guy gonna wear? Dark, unfaded, ironed, DRESS JEANS. Seriously, Skeeter, I swear: now I get it.



After a couple hours, we head back to home base. Above the Continental Club, there's an art gallery with a Hammond B-3 jazz trio playing. We sit at the small bar, have a couple libations and enjoy this ass-kicking ensemble for an hour or so before crossing the street for bedtime. Okay, maybe we hit Homeslice for some late-nite pizza, but this can be neither confirmed nor denied as the details were a little blurry at this point.

SUNDAY:
Okay, apparently we DID get a couple slices last night, judging by the box on the table. Good thing I kept the room temperature somewhere in the high 40s - the room is a fridge and we can share that one slice to tide us over before..
SUNDAY GOSPEL BRUNCH AT STUBB'S BBQ. This place is legendary, with an occupancy capacity of 519 it's where (for example) Tom Waits launched his "comeback" in '99, and in the 70s musicians who would “play for their supper” included Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Robert Cray, George Thorogood, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Linda Ronstadt and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. The brunch is amazing - for $18 (or $15 if you don't need a stagefront view of the band) we get every bit of what (for example, and no disrespect to HoB) we've gladly paid $40 at the House of Blues. Below: Biscuit + gravy, migas con chorizo y queso, garlic cheese grits, creme spinach, cornmeal-rolled catfish. Bacon.

I did not photograph Round Two: The Brisket. Some things are best kept private. Hey, did I mention the awesome gospel group? I'm an agnostic jerkbag, but I really enjoy me some uplifting gospel music.

After the brunch, we ask for a wheel barrel to get us outta there. Alas, no dice.

I'll say this about Stubb's and it applies to every place we hit all weekend: AWESOME staff, everyone is either happy to be there or they're doing an Oscar-worthy job of selling it - which I wouldn't buy, because my BS meter is sharp. People here are just nice and friendly and I believe it truly is that simple.

Yard Dog Gallery - after brunch, we hobble into the art gallery owned by a guy I've rubbed elbows with over the years enough to say I know 'im (a certain number of shared beers, tequila shots and a burger may be involved in this equation - not to assume he knows me, as I'm certain the aforementioned shared experiences don't put me in a particularly exclusive category!), in my opinion the truest Renaissance Man of our time, the great Jon Langford.

Back at the hotel, we nap, then turn on the television for the first time. Taylor. Newman. Ives. Ah, the film adaptation of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. What would a Tennessee Williams play be without booze, junk, and family drama?

Sunday night, we hit Antone's, the blues club from where the early careers of the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan were launched. It's an Austin Blues Society membership drive event. I'm skeptical because this event in most cities (I've been to a few of 'em) registers somewhere between lousy and lame. But not here. Three bands and they all killed. They'd all be weekend headliners in any other city. 80something LEGEND Lavelle White shows up and rocks a few tunes. Amazing.



For a late dinner, we hit some place which is apparently well-known and a tourist trap for a bite. Jessica gets forgettable tamales and queso. I get unforgettable chilled shots of Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo tequila. It's our last night, so I step back into the Continental Club for a few minutes. It's Sunday and this is the club's THIRD show tonight. In most cities, venues are more commonly closed on Sunday. Not here. Playing here every Sunday is a cool, gritty, real country band called Heybale. It's a CD release show for them. I get a shot of Jameson with a water back, buy a CD and a bumper sticker, and return to the hotel within 30 minutes after promising Jessica I'd return within ten. [a] who can get across the street, pay a cover, have a drink, catch a couple tunes and cross the street again in ten minutes? [2] hey, some guys get lap dances, I get a drink and catch some music! Upon return, I'm far from in trouble. In fact, we "rent" a free DVD from the front desk. Fishing With John, the short-lived (six episodes) 1991 t.v. series. We watch the Tom Waits episode and then fall asleep during the Dennis Hopper. Rather than describe this, it's best that you set aside 7-8 minutes:


MONDAY:
We sleep in and hit Amy's Ice Cream. That's right, ice cream for breakfast. We're on vacation. Don't judge.

And now, for our last official act... we'll drive a bit to the town of Driftwood to experience what we've heard and will soon understand as the world's greatest BBQ. Salt Lick. A half-hour drive from the City Limits and (understatement) worth it, this fanfare-free and cash-only BYOB joint is simply the best and in a class of its own. The property is unpaved, the signs hand-made, the vibe warm & welcoming and everything about the service comes with the kind of laid-back slice of pleasantry that we city people tend to doubt. In other words: perfect. The brisket, ribs, sausage, potato salad, baked beans... best I've ever had.

Now THAT's a BBQ:


Austin, Texas. Big, clean, collegiate, progressive, easily navigated, good eatin', arts and culture everywhere, my new favorite town.