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The Hard Lessons

Look forward to an album review to The Hard Lessons Forest Arms tomorrow @ Motor City Rocks (here's a preview: the album is amazing). A good band playing the Uncharted Zone is a fucking brilliant move.



HERE'S THE REVIEW!

Record Collecting, Musician Alan Scheurman

The Steve Barman Show S01E02 "He's a Satanist" from steve barman on Vimeo.

If these posts are annoying anyone, I'll stop. I hope you peeps like the show!

One Summer

Song: One Summer

Artist: Daryl Braithwaite

Album: The Edge

Year: 1988

I heard this song on one of my Kevin Smith nerdcasts that I listen to and the three seconds of the chorus that I heard of this over the span of two or three days forced me into finding out what this was.

So, this song is probably the cheesiest, catchiest, most vapid, devoid of real emotion piece of pop garbage that you are ever going to hear. The video is even worse. Don't hold me responsible for the video. I'm sure Surma will hate this and I'm guessing Steve isn't going to like this either. But, I think there is a place for this song in the B.J., Tercala and Gould universes (Radon you will like this, but won't admit to it.).

This song is here for one purpose and that is the chorus. The intro, the verse, all you are doing is waiting for the chorus to kick in. I imagine in a month I'm going to hate the hell out of this song, but for now it's such a great feeling.

Red China on The Steve Barman Show

The Steve Barman Show S01E01 "Fabio Covered in Blood" (ipod) from steve barman on Vimeo.

Since was stupid enough to say he never got into Doves..

This is one of the best songs off of the album The Last Broadcast. The song before this on the album is really good, but is an even better lead into this song and when the drums kick in on this it makes you happy and want to start jumping and shouting.

It was hard for me to pick a song to put on here by them, but I couldn't find a good video for "Words" which is probably my favorite off the album.

let's end the shitty argument here.

You should all see the movie too.

King for a Day

I've been thrown right back into XTC all over again and I wanted to post a song on here. Since I'm posting the first XTC video on here, Gould would have to agree that I am the #1 source for anything XTC, so if you have any questions I will gladly field them (even the ones Gould doesn't know the answers to).

Alright, enough shit talking from me about Gould. This is a really catchy song. The best part is the harmonizing vocal that Andy Partridge does over Colin Moulding. I give this song a 400 out of 10.

Frank Zappa - Peaches en Regalia

Aaron said he wanted Gould to be Gould and post a Zappa song. So here we go. This and Inca Roads are my two favorite Zappa songs, since Inca Roads is like 8 minutes long I picked this one. I could probably listen to this song once a day for the rest of my life and not get tired of it. Hopefully you guys like this and you feel the urge to dance to it like I do.

Carolina Chocolate Drops - Hit'em Up Style

I caught these guys at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival this was sweet live.

I don't know all that much about them but they are North Carolina and they love banjo's and fiddles.

Check this cover they did, it's amazing according to me.

Faraquet - Carefully Planned

This is a nod to all of the Goulds of the world. I've been listening to a lot of the older Dischord bands that i liked in high school and first few years of college (Jawbox, Q and Not U, etc.) Faraquet is probably the nerdiest out of them all. I think they paved my way to the land of 31 Knots.

Like all things that happen in the unjust world that i live in, they played a reunion show in September and i found out about it today.

Silver Jews - Random Rules

The Silver Jews have written two of my favorite albums of all time, American Water and Starlight Walker. Both were co-written with Stephen Malkmus and both were when David Berman (lead singer) was trashed all the time. I'm not a fan of Berman sober and sans Malkmus, but hey, maybe i'm just a 'Joos purist.

David Berman has written 30 of my top 35 favorite lyrics in songs. I think he's hilarious. Some samples:
"when the sun sets on the ghetto all the broken stuff gets cold"
"suburban kids with biblical names"
"on the last day of your life, don't forget to die"
"He can afford anything, he's got dogs that blow on trumpets"

This video gets huge cred because for some inexplicable reason it's just Connery clips from some biblical-looking movie (cue the "you've never seen ___!?!?!??" comments).

I think Bri's term 'charmingly sloppy' applies to the silver jews in songwriting, guitar playing, and singing, but it somehow stays together and keeps me coming back for more, time and time again.

Adrian Belew - I See You

Adrian Belew is a guitarist who has played with Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon, Nine Inch Nails, and King Crimson. He also writes some Beatlesque pop on his solo albums. This is from my favorite album of his, Here, which is a great pop record. This isn't my favorite song of his, but it does have a funny video.



Also, while searching youtube I found this hilarious commercial he did in Japan. He did a couple others, but this seemed to be the best.

Portugal. The Man - M80 the Wolf

I just read about these guys. This is the first song i've heard by them and it's awesome. Really awesome. be prepared for a lot of 3am text messages extolling the virtues of Portugal. The Man. They get huge bonus points for being from Wasila, Alaska, hometown of a certain former vice-president nominee.

Now, if you'll excuse me, i'm going to listen to this song 37 more times.

Black Keys - Strange Times

Few bands are cooler than the black keys. I could have taken the door guy's advice at a Drowningman concert 5 years ago, but i decided against it (probably because of the hype from a certain Nate Briggs). Finally i got off my ass last year and started listening to them. man was I a prick. they are so cool. and, they are great live to boot. They will be at the State Theater a week from thursday. Please consider seeing them with me.

They have a great music video for this. They were playing laser tag with these 10 year olds, but they had real lasers. it was pretty funny. But, it has apparently been yanked from youtube. it seems like a lot of videos have been pulled from youtube recently. i don't get it.

Here's a pretty funny homemade video someone made for it.

Matt and Kim - Daylight

In september BJ and I, among many other people, saw the High Strung play. Bri made a great point - their guitar player had gone from 'charmingly sloppy' to a legitimately good guitar player. We had both loved his playing before, but it was definitely 'charmingly sloppy'. Ever since Bri said that i've noticed more and more songs that fall under that category.

Although this song doesn't necessarily fall under that category, everytime i hear the piano part at the start i think 'charmingly sloppy'. This is such a fun song to me. Their first album is an obvious first album. it was cheaply produced and isn't that great. Then they released this song as a single last summer. I've been listening to it multiple times a day since then. they new album comes out tomorrow. i'm looking forward to it.

James Maskill said to me at a recent My Dear Disco concert, "My cousin said he couldn't figure out if the singer for My Dear Disco is hot. I said, 'She's in a band, of course she's hot!'" This theory applies to Kim.

Wang Chung - Dance Hall Days

When I was in high school, HBO used to show what they called "guilty pleasure movies". And what these movies usually consisted of were some third rate action star(Dolph Lundgren, Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Jeff Speakman) who takes on some type of gang of criminals. At some point he meets a hot female who sometimes gets naked, but always falls in love with the star. And oh yeah, lots of shooting, kicking, and limbs being broken. These movies were stupid and kind of boring, and yet I would sometimes watch them for no good reason. Well this is the musical equivalent to these movies. It's Wang Chung's dance hall days. Yes, that wang chung. I am not generally a fan of 80s synch pop and I don't like Wang Chung. I can't explain why I like this song, but I do. On the plus side, the video is realy stupid. Just think of this like you would the movie "Stone Cold" starring The Boz, Brian Bosworth.