THE HOUND

I started a new band about two months ago called Polluted Bitch-Hound. We've played some shows and we have a bunch of songs. Anyway, this weekend we were given the opportunity to lay down some tracks, so over about an 18-hour period we played and came out with a tad less than 20 minutes of music. Anyway, the info:

POLLUTED BITCH-HOUND- HUNGRY
1.) Creature Running Wild (3:37)
2.) Banujaga (4:26)
3.) High Atop the Mountain (4:01)
4.) Fun Time (2:44)
5.) Chip Trip (2:00)
6.) My Girl (3:09)
Total: 19:56

download

coll-edge

Current Listening: Exodus- Bonded by Blood

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKEND

I saw Fucked Up for the third time this weekend. Andrew WK played keyboards and they did Chemistry of Common Life in its entirety. They also played "Crusades," "Baiting the Public," and "David Comes to Life." I lost a glasses lens and had to go back to Kinderhook on Friday to get my other pair. Fuck.

Anyway, my new band, Polluted Bitch-Hound, played its second show Saturday night, and our first as a three-piece. We honestly were tighter than we were as a two-piece, and everyone seemed to think the bass adds a lot. Here is a picture of the show:
I am not in it. I was sitting behind that thing with bottles on top of it and pipes coming out. That's our hot water heater, but I drummed a good set. We played four originals and a Stooges cover. We did not fuck up all the time and people were into it. I really like our band. Sweet.

Today I saw IRON LUNG. Holy fucking shit their guitarist played through three full stacks. Incredible.

Doing Arabic now.

These days

So I'm pretty much exhausted all the time. I've overexerted myself in every way. Arabic is killing me, and I refuse to pass up any opportunities to be in bands and shit. I'm playing shows with three different bands this weekend, starting today, Thursday 9/29.

Anyway, not a whole lot else is going on, except...
A lot of shitty, shitty things have happened this year. I've been depressed for almost all of it, and for most of the time I haven't been depressed, I've been setting myself up for even greater levels of depression. At my lowest I had a "moment" with a band I just saw on Monday... oh, their name? EYEHATEGOD.

Fuck fuck fuck it was phenomenal. Best show of this year.

Anyway, while I'm excited about all the music I'm playing with all the bands I'm doing, the one that stands out is called POLLUTED BITCH-HOUND. I play skins, Quinn yells and twangs the six-string, Ian plucks away at the four-string. We have some songs which I will provide links to. They were recorded in my basement on a computer mic on different days. The sound is pretty uniform except that I think my drumming improves on each successive one. I forget the order though.

POLLUTED BITCH-HOUND - HOME DEMOS

Only "High Atop the Mountain" is a finalized name. Enjoy especially if you like Deep Purple and that kinda shit.

HMM

I feel like observant people may be able to see the direction this blog's moving in.

Been a month

Exciting

I'm at Bard now and the house is nice. I'm in the library sort of doing Arabic homework but I just wanted to share something with you quick.

THE BRONX- EL BRONX












I really like this. I'm not a big fan of the Bronx's other stuff; that "school" of hardcore never really appealed to me, although I guess it's all right for what it is. This record (El Bronx) really showcases what good musicians these guys are. This is a legit mariachi record, which, while a bit of a novelty, really comes through as a good album. I probably wouldn't be posting this if I didn't have a song on here to really latch on to, but the opener, "Cell Mates," is a fantastically great song. The vocals kind of sound like the dude from Beirut and there are horns and everything, so it honestly could be Beirut, but I don't really like Beirut and I can dig this and still be "punk." Whatever dude, just give it a listen.

End!

In a little while I'm going to go finish painting the house in Westport. I am owed like $400 and it's going to be awesome. Leaving for Kinderhook tomorrow morning, and then to Red Hook on Thursday with bed, pots, pans, rug, bike, etc. in tow. Nobody else will be around (I think), but this summer is finally ending.

Improvements: more skilled at painting houses (obv.), playing the guitar, BBQ.
Regressions: you know.

H8 Kinderhook

Been a month

It has been a month and two days since my last Hey Irony post. Over the last month, I painted a house, watched a lot of baseball, wrote a few songs, and fell for a girl. Fell hard. Didn't work out at all so I'm pretty down right now but I'm getting better. I'm visiting Daniel in Phoenix tomorrow and staying for five or six days. When I get back, I'm going to the city to see Mark Kozelek of Red House Painters/Sun Kil Moon fame and then staying in Westchester for a couple of days to write songs with Quinn. Yup, I'm trying to move on and I'm trying to do it right.

Anyway, the first thing I did yesterday when it ended was whip out my three Pygmy Lush LPs (or two plus the Turboslut split LP). I bought Bitter River when I went to the city last weekend, so I did them in succession, took a shot of Jameson, spent time with a good friend, watched the new Harry Potter, and overall did my best. It honestly would've been a pretty good day if I hadn't started out at negative eight million, but that's how it goes. I wrote a song about her the night before and I think it's pretty good. I can't wait to give it the proper treatment in front of people. Anyway, that's my month, especially the last few days. Getting out west should help a lot.

I just uploaded the Pygmy Lush/Turboslut split LP. It's been exceedingly hard to find in MP3 form, which is a shame, because I had always thought of how great it'd be to listen to these songs in any number of situations. As it turns out, I was completely right. Since this is my blog, I can write about this in as much detail as I want, so I'm going to. I'll probably post it over on GIRTH CRISIS with a shorter review and with a few other albums over the next few days or weeks or whatever, but I'm going to post it on here now.

DOWNLOAD PYGMY LUSH/TURBOSLUT SPLIT LP

I bought this record exclusively for the Pygmy Lush side. I posted a live set they did on the radio that featured a then-untitled and absolutely excellent track a while back. Not long after I heard that, they posted the song "White Oblivian" on their Myspace and I listened to that about five times. These songs proved to be indicative of the new material as a whole: the loud songs, like "White Oblivian," are snarling, noisy, and ferocious, and sometimes fast, faster than anything on Bitter River but not quite veering back into Pg.99 territory. Chris Taylor can still yell and scream with the best of them. The untitled song, which turned out to be "Proud King of the Doomed," does show the marked change PL's quiet songs have undergone, though. There are three here, and "Proud King" kicks off with a very dreamy and elegant line, a feeling which continues throughout the song. The two other quiet songs, "It's a Good Day to Hide" and "November Song" are much longer and more swirling, which, especially in the case of the former, suit the songs well. "Good Day to Hide" is, at least to me, the most depressing song PL have done. It's beautiful and it's a great one to sing along to when everything fucking sucks.

I only spun that side for about the first month this record was in my hands, but I knew that one day I would have to flip it over and spin Turboslut's side. When I did, I was fucking steamrolled. The first song, "Speed," starts off with this killer slow, pseudo-Sabbath out-of-tune riff while one of the girls in this band spits some of the most miserable, negative lyrics I've ever heard. "This is awesome," I said to myself as I gazed wide-eyed at my ceiling and listened to four women tear my ears apart. The genre I'd generally put this in is the ever-controversial "grunge," but this "grunge" does something for me that Pygmy Lush can't do, even though PL are my favorite band going right now (and it just occurred to me that Turboslut are not. R.I.P.). Honestly, I put this more in a league with Master of Puppets, Black Ships, and the mighty Sabbath themselves: I just grit my teeth and bang my fucking head and yell along to some of the words, and believe me, shit like "Gut my arms like fish/armpit to wrist, armpit to wrist" is great to speak and think about. It occurred to me after I dazedly put the record back into its sleeve that Turboslut are also unique in another way: they're the first "female" band I've ever heard to not seem dominated by the need to be respected, or to need to prove that "chicks can rock." Actually, as I was typing that, the Vivian Girls came to mind, but Turboslut are like the negative of them: their music is anything BUT cute.

All in all, I have an inkling this split (yes, a split) is going to be one of the most enduring albums of 2009 for this year. It'll probably get bumped out of #1 by the new Darkest Hour, but I'm not even sure The Eternal Return will have the staying power of this. Yes.

Today

This morning I had a revelation about the direction my life should go in for the time being with 100% certainty, and couldn't do a thing about it. This is a new sensation, and not one I ever want to experience again, though I suspect tomorrow will be the same thing. All for now.

Oh, and the new Darkest Hour rips just as hard five days later.

Hey dudes

Just thought I'd stop by to ask HOW'S IT HANGIN'?

Actually, no, I just wanted to say that Darkest Hour's latest, The Eternal Return, fucking kills. I was not expecting anything close to Hidden Hands or Undoing Ruin after the somewhat disappointing Deliver Us, but the first listen kicked me into the fucking dirt. Second and third listens were even better, and now I'm absolutely floating. Everything I like about Darkest Hour and (almost) everything I like about heavy music on one record, which is, I believe, how they intended it to be.

The rest of you can kiss Album of the Year goodbye.

I APPROVE

NSFW

Wassssting summer. Trying to figure out how to pay for plane tickets to Phoenix and New Orleans in a month or two.

You should also see this if you haven't already...important.

Endings

Today is Saturday, the final (weekend) night of my first year at Bard College.

You said it, Quinn.

I feel like since nobody reads this, I might as well just keep for my own records some of the bigger memories of this year. This is going to be a long post, if there's something I feel proper posting at the end, musical or otherwise, I will.

FIRST SEMESTER: Moved into Tewksbury. Chris came along. I had super long hair and hadn't shaved for months, and had just come from a Radiohead concert. I had an affinity for tightish pants, but apart from that I wasn't all that different from the way I am now. Chris and I did a lot the first two or three months I was here. We went to the Mills Mansion and it started raining, and we saw An Albatross three times. We also saw Sonic Youth at the final McCarren Park Pool show. That ruled. Then we didn't talk quite as much, and I started chilling with Daniel, with whom I bonded because we were both into City of Caterpillar. We started two bands: first, the screamo band Piskaryov with our friend Alex. We had four or five songs with no vocals. We recorded a really rough one-microphone demo in Daniel's basement which we both still listen to periodically, and do not find it painful at all. If he comes back and we still feel like it, we might try resurrecting and maybe reworking a few of those. I still like them. Then we formed the pop-punk band No Parents with Alex and his friend Ben, who also proved to be a cool guy. We played a show with Off With Their Heads that went well. Then Daniel's basement flooded with all our equipment in it, so we went to the city. Some bad shit happened, so Daniel left in the middle of finals.

WINTER BREAK: Spent some time being bored in Kinderhook, then went to the city for about two weeks, then was bored in Kinderhook for a few more days, then went to DC with some friends from Bard to see Obama become President. Then school resumed.

SPRING SEMESTER:
I did not have as much money in my bank account, so I did not make as many trips to the city. My crew basically became Ben and Quinn, who I started playing music with. He is a very good guitarist. We went to the city once to see Black Dice with my friend Jarred, Daniel's former housemate and an all-around cool guy. We started a band with this dude Eli which sort of fell apart before spring break because of me. Over Spring Break we saw Fall of Efrafa on their only US tour (which Quinn hated), then we saw They Might Be Giants. He loved that shit. After Eli, we started a band called Summerhome who have a lot of songs in various stages of completion and one song recorded. It's a pretty good recording and I am excited to give it the full-band treatment. Anyway, there was a lot less spontaneity, so even though the classes were better, the semester was less enjoyable overall. I'd give it a 6.

FUTURE:
Living in a house next year. Taking 20 credits in the fall. Lots of hard work will probably lead to a drinking problem, depression, and me quitting everything. Taking a lot of music classes soon. Cool.

RANDOM NOTES:
Tewksbury is a rotten shithole. My neighbors on both sides and the dude who lives above me are way too fucking loud. The place also attracts the biggest pieces of shit in my class. One of them tore down the picture of Ian MacKaye on my wall today. I am a much better guitarist than I was three months ago, and feel like I know how to get even better. I accumulated a lot of shit in my room that I need to figure out how to take care of before I leave in less than 48 hours. Everything here is gross and I pity my roommate for having to deal with this eyesore for six months.

Max tells me this is good.

GO TEAM

SHUT UP

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

Cannot stand this fucking place anymore

So

One week left in my first year at Bard College. I have been super busy all day and have papers to write and shit, but at the moment all I can think about is how stoked I'll be to not have a roommate or live in Tewksbury.

Presenting Joseph

SPRRRIIINNNGGG FLLLLIINNNGGG

So I'm here at Bard still. It's been a pretty good semester. Spring Fling is currently happening and everyone else is enjoying themselves, so I am not.


LOVIN LIFE

What u up to this summer?

WINS

With this post Hey Irony has surpassed Girth Crisis. However, it is far less useful. Congrats to me!

Just a few things:

1.) I tried (and failed) to record a new song on Friday. Good, two-minute song that I was seriously too tired to lay down properly. I still have a lot to learn, but the good news is that there is at least one song completely written for my new project, which is at the moment called Summer Home. Let me know what you think of that, or don't, because I don't care/you aren't reading this.

2.) I will be living in Red Hook (off-campus) next year in a punk haus. I got a terrible room draw number and Brian approached me about this whole thing and it's a nice house, so yeah. This, combined with the fact that I don't and will not own a car, means that the amount of time I'll be spending on campus will be somewhat limited, but I do have a place to put my amps and everything else, plus the place has a basement with a decently high ceiling that should be all right for shows, plus a great porch and lawn. Looking forward to it.

3.) I did some grilling with friends today. It was delicious, but almost ten hours later I still don't even want to think about eating or drinking anymore. I did not go out and party tonight because of this feeling, though I have been riding bikes a lot.

All for now.

YOOOO

I am running on three hours' sleep and am about to hand in an essay which could be completely wrong, though I suspect it isn't.

I spend way too long on essays.

How are you?


I do not take college seriously.

Hey d00ds

So this is pretty much my blog and nobody reads it, and I've come to terms with that. I like offering things to download or shit I find funny and I hope other people find it funny. I never really posted a mission statement on here or anything, but I do hope you enjoy your day. Lately I've come to appreciate a few things about my life, while also keeping in mind that the world is a terrible/comical place. Never be happy with what ya got, but be proud of having it. It's 2 in the morning.

I just watched Some Kind of Monster with Quinn. All of it. Well, almost all of it. When things actually started going well, we stopped, but I think it can all be summed up and you've probably all seen this picture in a different context:


I have a job at the end of this semester buying used books and generally annoying the shit out of people. I've read up on the company and it'll just require me to generally be a dick without necessarily compromising on anything. I hate anything resembling "the college lifestyle," and this really plays into that whole thing, but I like to think I haven't really "bought it." Ya know?

I'm still writing some things for a recording that I hope to do at the end of the semester, maybe over the course of a few long Friday nights. Maybe they won't be done, though, who knows. It's sounding like this weird folk/post-rock/Sonic Youth type amalgamation, even though I'm not satisfied with any of those labels except the last one. I like the lyrics I'm writing for it, and I think one of the songs will be very long if I figure out what to do with it. I'm gonna say 2.3 songs written so far, and I know what I want to do with another. Apparently our name is "The Yeti Drinks," and it is just Quinn and I. We haven't talked about it in a few days, but I think it might actually happen, and we might have our first show over the summer if anything works out.

I always like to offer up a download, so here goes. As a lover of music, I would like to try my hand at writing about how much Pg. 99 means to me. They represent just about everything I want to do with music; namely, they recorded music on their own terms that they liked, and it made their lives better (by all indications). They had about eight bazillion members who are and were all in bands now; the ones I care to mention are City of Caterpillar, Malady, Forensics, Haram, Majority Rule (briefly), and the amazing (and previously-posted-on) PYGMY LUSH. They were actually pretty technical and very heavy, while being distinctly more emotional than a lot of bands who bark up the same tree. It's debatable where Pg. 99 ranks among the aforementioned bands (though I would probably put them below CoC, Maj Rule, and Pygmylush), but it's undeniable that they were a fantastic and meaningful band. Their first full-length, Document 5, is 100% amazing and punk as fuck. If you're reading this, you probably already have it or want nothing to do with it, but in case you don't already have it and do want something to do with it, here it is.

DOCUMENT 5

FACTS

Daniel has a new blog, and his first entry is about Omegle. That shit is so fun. He also found some place in the Caribbean which is like a hotel with emotional/physical hookers. Dude won the internet yesterday.


Anyway, I'm starting to think about what I'm going to do this summer. I did my phone interview for some company that wants me to buy used books for them. Went well. The commission's pretty good, so I may make enough during finals week to pay for my airfare someplace over the summer, with eyes toward either New Orleans or Phoenix, or both. Anyway, I'll have to do shit during finals week, but money rules.

I also plan on submitting applications to Whole Foods and the Strand, in addition to looking for intern work in the city. YEAH MANUAL LABOR RULES RIGHT ON BRO. Alienating shit, round 2, but I may know a few more people and have a bit more fun this time. Plus I might actually make some money for next semester.

So that's about all the news lately, except that I continue to hang out with the same people and fall more and more into a routine. Soon enough, they say, soon enough. New band on the way.

I also have a very special download that I would like you to have. This was recorded by me on Garageband on Saturday night. Contents: 1.5 drunken phone calls made by a girl buying weed from my friend's roommate. The first three minutes or so are the conversation where the girl found out about shit-talkin', and the last bit, the real gold, is a message she left for the perpetrator. This recording comes with critical acclaim from everyone I've played it for, so I encourage you to give it a listen for some serious lulz.

CHECK IT OUT

Hey

So no update in a while, and this isn't gonna be huge. I have a blog.

It's the middle of Spring Break. I have been "writing songs," which has quotes around it because I haven't worked on any of the songs I said I would work on. That being said, now that I've spent a few days being removed from all that, I'm not really sure how much I like the stuff we have. I have also learned to play Neil Young's "The Needle and the Damage Done" and Weezer's "Say It Ain't So" thanks to the internet. The song I actually have written fully is a four-minute acoustic thing that I hope to flesh out under the moniker "Remain Standing In This Light." Not a reference to anything, just something I woke up saying yesterday around 2 PM. Life is good.

I watched the 1972 adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's classic Slaughterhouse-Five just now. That book is a favorite of mine, and Vonnegut was right when he commented on how perfectly it was translated. Recommended.

Oh yeah, I've been listening to a lot of doom metal the last couple days. As a non-weed-smoker, that shit fascinates me. Jus Oborn apparently tunes his guitar to fucking A# and runs his guitar through a bass amp. Someday I will achieve that heaviness...

Uh huh

I saw Ian MacKaye in person on St. Patrick's Day. He answered two hours' worth of questions which ranged from really great to really dumb, but was able to elaborate enough that nothing sounded really dumb. I knew this years ago, but he's a really smart dude. So that was fun. Also won a contest where I guessed something close to the number of Lucky Charms in a jar and won some Bard Buxxx. Overall yesterday was a good day.

Today was also pretty good, but suddenly I have no prospective ladyfriends. Usually I let them occupy me for months and do nothing with them before finding someone else, but this time I just don't really have anyone to fall back on. So if you know any relatively good-looking girl who is good at "not knowing how things stand," hook me up! You know where I am!

That was the most honest I've ever been on the internet. Should either keep it up or stop doing that.

Oh before I forget-- I'll be in Kinderhook for anywhere from five to ten days. Not saying you should go out of your way to do something with me, but... you should go out of your way to do something with me. I like tennis.

Okay so

I have a massive headache and I hope to go to bed pretty soon, but this is insignificant. Why?

I am meeting him in less than 24 hours. I have been formulating questions for the last two hours, and hope it will end in a hug.

Current listening: FUGAZI

So I'm a terrible person

Also, I have a new computer. It's nice.

Ghostin'

So I got really, really sick yesterday after eating two tacos at Kline. I mean, theoretically it could've had nothing to do with Kline, but I got a huge stomachache about fifteen minutes after consuming them, and six hours later, I became more than casual acquaintances with a Tewksbury toilet, if you get my "drift." More like PUKESBURY... oh! Anyway, I woke up feeling really weak, but my strength has been restored to a reasonable extent since then. I haven't eaten anything substantial today, so I'm pretty ravenous and shit. Snapz n popz.

Might go see Watchmen today or this weekend. I also hear I have a subscriber now, but I'm not seeing that on here, so maybe not. Here's a picture of an antelope.More like... the band Antelope... LOL!

Catching up

So I haven't had time to post much lately because I've been going to the library and keeping busy. I have an essay due tomorrow that I hope won't kill me. I wrote lyrics to a song and I think they're all right.

There is a Root Cellar show on Friday. Ghost Town Trio and Reverse the Curse. Should be fun. After that I have the studio at Blum until 4 AM and I want to lay some hot trax down.

I went to Cornell over the weekend and saw LUDACRIS play some of his songs. Guy's sold fifteen million albums, but nobody at this great Ivy League school seemed to fully grasp how much they'd been conned by this whole thing. Like I understand that I go to a school which is CRAZY about irony, but I don't think it's necessarily Bard speaking when I say that there was not "nearly enough" irony present in that room. I also feel like I've reached the plateau where a show has to be really, really fucking good for me to actually enjoy it. Luda was okay. Didn't have nearly enough tattoos...!

Science!

So I am still in a band and we are still practicing music. Apparently Dear Friend(s?) might play the Root Cellar in April, so we're tentatively shooting for that as our first show. Eli was in a shitty mood and was sick yesterday, so we didn't really broach the subject.

The music: I'm not honestly sure how good it is. I don't think we've come into our own yet, plus I haven't written shit for lyrics, but yeah. I dream of making crucial jams and I'm not quite sure if these are crucial jams. I hope they're crucial jams. :(

Anyway, I did pull an all-nighter to do that paper. I did pretty well yesterday considering, but I slept like a rock last night. I used to write like ten-pagers all the time for US History, but I suppose that when they're on more complex/thought-provoking subjects, they take longer, like waaaay longer.

Yesterday and today I've been listening to a lot of Tunes for Bears to Dance To. They were a screamo band from Florida whose members went on to form or play in the fantastic bands Capsule, Torche, and Tyranny of Shaw. I prefer them to any of those bands, or most bands in general. Take the musicianship of a band like A Case of Grenada, combine that with rawer production and some degree of silliness, and make it a lot better, and you've got these dudes. Yeah, nobody reads this anyway, but here it is.

DOWNLOAD TUNES FOR BEARS TO DANCE TO

WAT

So I'm here at New Henderson trying to start an essay (which, I hope, is the hardest part of this thing). I already know what I want to say (kind of), which is good, because it's past 10 and the thing's due tomorrow. Probably gonna be a late night, this has to be 6-8 pages. Probably 6.

Anyway, I'm writing this to try to clear my mind so I can get down to business. I need something catchy to kick off an essay about human freedom, man's social nature, and the relationship between the two.

So this weekend I went to New York (with Quinn) and saw Black Dice for the third time (with Quinn and Jarred). They played like 7 songs I'd never heard before, which I can only assume to be off REPO, "Glazin,'" which is off REPO, and one I recognized from Load Blown. The new jams were very solid, so I can only assume that their studio counterparts will be similarly good. I always like to hear a band that's good at what they do. Blank Dogs opened and played some okay rock stuff that was really Brooklyn and not hugely interesting, but at least didn't sound bad. Whatever.

If I ran this town, I would start this paper with "The relationship between man’s perception of his own freedom and his social nature is something complex that I won’t get into."

Unfortunately, I don't.

Photo Booth Life (Part 1)

Unplugged!

So posts on this are going to be intermittent for a while because I have finally laid my old computer, which looks like what you see above, to rest. I got it at the beginning of junior year and after about two and a half years of hard use, I am declaring it finished.

Shit rules.

I think about a year ago the hinge started to break, then I dropped it off my bed and it wouldn't shut, so that put me like $175 deep in repairs. Then the keys started sticking and the clicker didn't always work. Still we soldiered on! Then around November 2008, the thing started running very, very slowly, at which time I had 2% of my hard drive space available, which I think may have caused it. I continued to use it, convinced that it would still last me through this semester, but NOPE. The battery has ceased to function and it will instantly shut off if unplugged, which is often because the plug design on this thing always was piss-poor.

Hopefully GETNAMAC.

THE WARRIORS

So a pretty disappointing Thursday night turned into a pretty fucking awesome Thursday night because I watched The Warriors with Ben and Quinn. I am a huge softie for these "Dirty New York" movies, partly because I've listened to Combat Rock so many times, so I probably already loved this movie without even watching it.

Honestly, the plot of the movie was also ridiculously awesome. An eight-member gang is framed for the murder of an important guy who says "CAN YOU DIG IT?!?!?!" a lot, so they have to get back to Coney Island from the Bronx with every gang in New York looking to git 'em. A lot of shit goes down that night.

What really blew me away was how often this movie tried to sabotage itself with gimmicky shit and piss-poor acting, but still ended up ruling. The movie made time move forward with this shit where the live action would turn into a comic book so they could switch scenes, and a female DJ sort of became the narrator, which The Warriors didn't really need at all. The movie's "antagonist" was a whiny little bitch who reminded me of Scorpio from Dirty Harry only not as menacing, and ended up getting fucked up by Swan real fast. Oh, the guy who played Swan actually did rule pretty hard. The "romance" between Swan and some woman was pretty weird, and the conflict within the Warriors between Swan and Ajax was hardly developed at all before Ajax got arrested (WHOA SPOILER) and the guy disappeared from the movie. THIS WAS AWESOME

We never dove for the truth...

So it was abnormally warm and sunny outside. I wore a shirt with sleeves rolled up in the middle of February and did not feel cold at all. This has been a three-day warm spell here in Annandale, and since it sounds like it's raining outside, I think it might go back to being cold as balls like tomorrow. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this year, so this was really more of a pleasant interlude than actual spring. Last year I noticed myself appreciating the changing seasons much more than I had before, so the warmth and sunlight today put me in a really good mood.

When I think about it, nothing particularly amazing went on today. Well, actually, it definitely was above-average. Met a girl who I might be into although my natural fear of rejection makes me think I didn't impress her at all. That's neither here nor there, though. Who cares.

Also went to a Root Cellar pot luck briefly and saw the same people who always hang out at these things, which is good. I like them. Brought Quinn along and introduced him, so he might get in on it and it'll rule.

Biggest news: Daniel might be coming to the city over (his) spring break. Really miss that dude and I hope that whole thing works out. Also might go to Phoenix for a few days over the summer before heading to Dude Fest and flying out of Indianapolis. However, all this costs money, and I don't have much. So realistically, Dude Fest probably isn't happening and I will miss Black Ships/Comadre/Coke Bust (whose link isn't working)/everyotherbandiwanttoseeever. I am very optimistic.



I said I'd post some music on here and I haven't forgotten because I only said that a little over two days ago. So here it is:

Pygmy Lush are my favorite band in existence right now. I only really, really like a few bands in existence right now anyway, because everyone is always breaking up, but I really liked Bitter River the first time I heard it, at first enjoying the heavier songs more, but soon realizing how fucking brilliant the folky stuff is. Then they released the entirely-folk Mount Hope last year, which was one of my favorite records of '08 because it ruled. Anyway, I only got wind of this live recording recently, and it fucking kills. The audio quality is about on par with Mount Hope and better than Bitter River, and since there's no clapping, I'll take a wild guess and say it was recorded in a studio. The songs are mainly drawn from Mount Hope, which means that they're great but essentially the same, but the two off Bitter River, "Headless" and "Throw the Jockey," are rearranged and generally better. Sadly, no "Hurt Everything" or "Send Bombs," but in its place are the three surprises: a new, as-yet-untitled song which absolutely rules, a cover of the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" which sounds nothing like the Ramones but also absolutely rules, and a REWORKED PG.99 SONG. Granted it is one of the least abrasive songs pg.99 ever did, but I was very pleased with how a folked-up "Lonesome Waltz of Leonard Cohen" turned out. Love this shit.

DOWNLOAD PYGMYLUSH HERE

Also, if you're in the mood to hear something I really can't vouch for in terms of quality, I learned about fifteen minutes ago that Dan and Amit from Mother Night have formed a new band, Torchbearer. I saw Mother Night open for 108 (whose link also isn't working) in New York in '07, and they were very good. I was similarly impressed by their full-length, Lifestyle/Deathstyle, which was a good, creative hardcore record. I haven't listened to this Torchbearer EP, which they are offering up for free download (as everyone should), but I probably will tomorrow, and I'd expect something similar to Mother Night, which is a good thing.

DOWNLOAD TORCHBEARER HERE

Okay, sorry

Last post on here, the Phelps one, was really fucking useless. I apologize. I am not used to this kind of power, and at this stage, stupid shit like that might devastate my huge fanbase. Here's how that one slipped through: I was going to write about Verse breaking up because their bassist decided not to be edge anymore, and use that as a jumping-off point to write something about how everyone needs to make their own choices, without necessarily agreeing with that dude, and how fucked it is that a band (probably) broke up over something that trivial. Then I realized that a)I don't really care about Verse and b)nothing coherent was coming out of it. So yeah. Fuck straightedge and fuck being pressured into doing anything.

"What is new?" For the last three weeks I have been playing music with some friends. There are about 3.5 songs written at the moment, and as the first is radically different from the most recent 2.5, I'm going to say we have 2.5 songs. I described it to Daniel earlier as something like "Drive Like Jehu covering Jawbreaker with harmonized solos," and I think that's about it. Honestly, after being in two bands just last semester that barely did and did not (individually) come to fruition, and before that being in many, many "bands" that totally fell apart, I have to respect groups that genuinely have their shit together onstage. You have to actually work at it and have things go your way. Last semester things did not go our way.


Oh, other thing. I don't want to fall into the niche of "Bard bands" who play Smog every month and nowhere else. In fact, I want to avoid playing Smog ever.

Phelps

Think about this: no non-weed smoker has ever won eight Olympic gold medals at once. I am in awe and I don't even smoke weed.

My roommate also pointed out that the munchies this dude gets must be RIDICULOUS.

Apparently Ted Turner also likes weed. That dude is cuh-razy. I also realize that I'm a few days late on this one, but I didn't have a blog a few days ago.

PANDA DOG

So I am sitting here in my room wanting to practice the Rzewski piece I have to learn, but my roommate and his girlfriend are dozing ten feet away and it's really awkward. Obviously it would be a dick move on my part to just start playing, but this actually kind of sucks. I literally can't do anything of use in a room which is legitimately half mine. Fuck this shit. Anyway, this was supposed to be a post about the PANDA DOG ON THE LEFT.

Holy shit that dog looks like a panda. It is cute and fluffy in its own right, but it also resembles another creature among the world's cutest and fluffiest. I just want to hug that thing until one of us dies. Careers and stuff be damned, if you can name something in life more worthwhile than a Panda Dog, I urge you to share. With me.

Update: roommate's girlfriend has left and roommate is still sleeping. Situation is slightly less awkward (or way less awkward) but no more useful. Kudos to him for going to bed early or something, but I really need to do this.

SUP

So I'm Jack and I decided to start a blog because it's easy and the demise of Juicycampus has left a void that needs filling... in my heart. I post on Girth Crisis occasionally, but this blog isn't going to be totally about music like that one. I may post a good album here and there, or even most of the time, but this is about ME. ME ME ME.



I go to college and like to do fun things like everybody else. I'm generally a pretty bummed-out dude and I can only expect that that'll come out in these blogs. Also I will try to actually tackle things that matter (to me) other than my love life or other things you would expect to find in a personal blog. Might review some albums even if I don't post 'em, might talk about the news. I rarely watch the news.