the sticking point

The Grid

I did this a while back, thought I'd give it another whirl...

Stuff I'm not supposed to like, but do...
The Sounds, uncomfortable shoes, Staples (and all stationery stores), Grey Goose & Red Bull, "It's Goin' Down" (), Countdown's substitute anchors Alison Stewart and Amy Robach, Major League Baseball's wild card system, kale, HotChicksWithDouchebags, the bus to Barnstable, the whole idea of Corey Feldman

Stuff I'm supposed to like, and do...
Yukio Mishima, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Gore Vidal, Soupman's turkey chili, Flight of the Conchords, Van Halen's next tour, my 3-year-old climbing into our bed at 3AM, Mary-Louise Parker

Stuff I'm not supposed to like, and don't...
Televised talent competitions, Bob Murray, Dora the Explorer, U.S. military stop-loss policy, flip-flops, Perez Hilton, "the surge," evil clowns

Stuff I'm supposed to like, but don't...
Paste magazine, Talking Heads, high-waisted jeans (and the women who wear them), telephone conversations, The Corrections, sports talk radio, punctuation, iPhone, concerts at Roseland Ballroom, Ethan Hawke, selectively bred hybrid dogs, myspace, Big Love

Stuff I like the idea of, but don't really like...
Yoga, picnics, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, Colbert Report, Jay-Z, "massage" parlors, You Tube Presidential Debates

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Here's this week's Friday 10. Made from the best stuff I like.

01 Tomorrow Belongs To Us - Discharge: All the early Discharge singles are perfection. I was a big fan of theirs in the early 80s, then forgot all about them for a long time, until last year when I started putting the vinyl on CDR and gathering up the CD comps. It's great stuff. This track is on the "Decontrol" EP and the Why comp.

02 You Got Too Many Boyfriends - The Equals: I'm ashamed to say that until a few months ago, all I knew about the Equals was: Eddy Grant was in the group, and they were responsible for "Police On My Back." Then my pal SO'C shared the Viva Equals! comp with me and set my head right in regard to this great, great band. I am a fan now, only three decades after the Equals stopped recording. Song after song after song, Viva delivers. I can't believe that "You Got Too Many Boyfriends" was a B-side.

03 Stretcher Case Baby - The Damned: Another great B-side ("Sick of Being Sick" is the A). It was on their second album, Music For Pleasure. I got this version from Skip Off School To See The Damned (The Stiff Singles A's & B's) on Demon.

04 Lose My Freedom - Go Home Productions: I've written it before; I am not a fan of mash-ups. I say, if the songs are great to begin with, who needs DJ Wicki Wicki making a novelty song out of them? But I make two exceptions to the rule. I really like what Eric Kleptone did with all the Queen tracks on Night at the Hip Hopera, and I always check out the Go Home Productions site for new material. Mark Vidler (who is GHP, I guess), created this track, which combines Devo's great "Freedom of Choice" with something by Destiny's Child.

05 Anyone Else But You - The Moldy Peaches: I bet you don't know who is the Moldy Peaches' biggest fan. I'll give you one guess. Go ahead. Wrong! It's this dude Matt, with whom I once shared an office. Strange guy. Nice guy. Matt was entirely into his own thing and that was that. But oh, the memories! The room we shared was larger than most offices, and there were lots of us in there, too. Sometimes as many as six people. It was a quote-Writer's Room-unquote. Which meant that the Powers That Be threw us all in there together, hoping we'd "bounce ideas off each other" and all the ridiculous stuff people who don't write think writers do when they sit shoulder to shoulder. Anyway, Matt, for as well as any of the rest of us could get to know him, had three main interests. First, there was (were) the Moldy Peaches. Twice a week he'd ask the room, "Do you guys want to listen to the Moldy Peaches?" And one of us would invariably say, "No, because they suck." (We liked him, but sometimes treated him as if he was Donny from Big Lebowski. Because he sort of was.) The second of his life's loves was yoga. Not regular yoga. Matt was into the Bikram type, where you go and do your moves and poses in a hellish Saharan hotbox while every liquid in your system exudes from your pores. Sweat? Of course. Salts? Sure. Plus possibly blood, butter, baking grease, K-Y, Gravy Master, crotch jam, old eggnog, and other multiphasic compounds, all settling back onto the skin and into the fibers of one's clothing. Like Matt's. I knew this (we all knew it), because he'd abstain from a post-Bikram shower in order to get back to our writer's room. He'd stride in, his body shining, with a towel hung rakishly from his neck and a hot breeze of moldy ass trailing his steps. By late afternoon, our shared workspace smelled like someone had shit out a book on how to throw up.
The third thing that seemed to make Matt happy was eating smelly lunches. Which he indulged in as soon as he got back from yoga.
But anyway, now there's an actual Moldies song I like. It's this one, from the Murderball soundtrack. Cheers, Matt.

06 Sonny's Burning - The Birthday Party: My favorite Birthday Party song. I can say, without fear of hyperbole, that the first six syllables of this track comprise the best opening lyric in the history of music, in this or any other universe. If you read this site regularly, you're familiar with the Birthday Party -- ancestors of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I come back to their music often, and I usually hear things differently each time. I have to guess that bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and Dino Jr probably bumped into their share of BP records during their formative years. "Sonny's Burning" is from the Mutiny EP.

07 Hiromi - Squatweiler: If you've never heard this song, I hope it blows you away when you hear it. This is a great, great North Carolina band that deserves a lot more attention. I hope you track down every last morsel they've ever recorded. Maybe you'll start with New Motherstamper, which contains "Hiromi." Motherstamper is the band's third record, but their first after bassist Stacey Matarrese took over the vocals. Throttled the vocals.

08 Give Up The Funk - Parliament: It was just this past Tuesday when Burning Dervish told us "Give Up The Funk" would be his entrance music as he stepped into the batter's box at Yankee Stadium. And here it is on the very next F10.
How cool it was to grow up hearing Parliament, Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind & Fire, and Rufus on the radio all the time. I didn't realize how blessed I was. "Give Up The Funk" aka "Tear the Roof Off The Sucker" is from the classic Mothership Connection record. The Parliament/Funkadelic collective released 19 or 20 albums -- high-quality albums -- between 1970 and 1981. Think about that for a second. You think Ryan Adams is prolific? You think Steven Tyler did a lot of coke? In the 70s, George Clinton could fuel a 747 with a cup of his urine.

09 What Makes You Happy (L) - Liz Phair: I burned this off television program I'd recorded called Sessions at West 54th Street. I've forgotten most of the details about the series, but I copped some good performances from the show onto CDR. I have Phair, Sinéad O'Connor, Ben Folds Five, Beck, and a couple others. I like this song a lot. The version on whitechocolatespaceegg is one of my favorites of hers. It's got the great lines "I feel the sun on my neck / I smell the earth in my skin / I see the sky above me like a full recovery."

10 King's Lead Hat - Eno: The title is an anagram for "Talking Heads." The story that gets passed down through generations of Eno fans and scholars is that he hoped to record it with DByrne and the rest, but it never came to be. Soon after this album, Before and After Science, was released, the Man Himself collaborated with Talking Heads on a few albums. I don't know all of them, but the one TH album I actually like is among them. Getting back to Eno -- the Man Himself -- for a second, I think his reputation as an experimentalist might turn some people away. I'm sure plenty of folks hear "art rock" or "ambient music" and think, "Fuck that! Where are my Stooges records?!" Luckily, TMH's recorded output is as varied as the day is long, the summer is hot, and Dick Cheney is evil. There's plenty in his rewarding canon for everybody; dig in! October is just around the corner, and for me that means lots of Here Come The Warm Jets. His music is good for anytime, but there's something carried on a crisp fall breeze that tells me it's time listen to more Eno. (I have "October music;" I'll explain another time.)

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Tag, you're it. Set your mp3 player, digital jukebox, or Roomba to "shuffle all songs." Hear 10 songs randomly selected for you by the machine. Share them with us in the comments section below.

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Hear it for yourself. CLINK THIS LINK to download this week's Sticking Point Friday 10.

[posted with ecto]

He's My Dad

From the minds that brought you Seder!

[posted with ecto]

Meme Work

I found this meme on ChicagoMama today. Thought I'd give it a shot, too.

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
"I didn't have those gray hairs last week."

2. How much cash do you have on you?
$11.33

3. What's a word that rhymes with “DOOR?”
SPORE. (For some reason, I have had in my head the line from Ghostbusters: "I collect mold, spores, and fungus.")

4. Favorite planet?
This one? (Least favorite: Planet Hollywood.)

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?
My wife's older sister's husband.

6. What is your favorite ringtone on your phone?
"Los Angeles," by X

7. What shirt are you wearing?
Navy-check pattern buttondown by J. Crew. It's got persistent sweat stains inside the collar. And I am wearing a Black Flag T underneath.

8. Do you “label” yourself?
Yes. And the label is four feet long.

9. Name the brand of your shoes you're currently wearing.
Biltrite? Or is that just who makes the sole? These are pretty generic black wingtips.

10. Bright or Dark Room?
Dark. Getting darker every second.

11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?
I enjoy her weblog, but don't read it often enough. I think her musical taste reminds me of Brian Last Stop's.

12. What does your watch look like?
It looks like a Swiss Army Watch by Swiss Army.

13. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Whining. And hoping for just 20 consecutive minutes of sleep.

14. What did your last text message you received on your cell say?
Why would it be my last?! What do you know that you're not telling me?! (My most recent message read thusly: "Sheff to Tigers.")

15. Where is your nearest 7-11?
About 300-400 feet from my building.

16. What's a word that you say a lot?
"Great." Everything I like is "great." Even spectacular things.

17. Who told you he/she loved you last?
S.

18. Last furry thing you touched?
That's personal.

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?
One. Caffeine. Vitamins and herbal supplements, but no other medications or drugs.

20. How many rolls of film do you need developed?
Zero.

21. Favorite age you have been so far?
Four was real good. No school. No work. I was unaware of the world's evils. "Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)" by Daddy Dewdrop was on the radio all the time.

22. Your worst enemy?
Attention Deficit Disorder.

23. What is your current desktop picture?
A most amazing photo of my wife and our oldest son. They are lying side by side, she is kissing his head. It's an action shot. It's beautiful and exudes love, like photos John and Yoko used to take of each other.

24. What was the last thing you said to someone?
"I'll talk to you in a bit."

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?
Give me the money. Why fly?

26. Do you like someone?
Are we eleven?

27. The last song you listened to...?
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) by Jimi Hendrix Experience

28. What time of day were you born?
15:24.

29. What's your favorite number?
18

30. Where did you live in 1987?
Yonkers, N.Y.

31. Are you jealous of anyone?
Yes.

32. Is anyone jealous of you?
I hope so.

33. Where were you when 9/11 happened?
First, in bed in Brooklyn, NY; then sobbing on my rooftop deck.

34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
Blame myself.

35. Do you consider yourself kind?
Yes.

36. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
My next will be on the in-side of my right lower leg.

37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
Korean.

38. Would you move for the person you loved?
From one city or country to another, yes. From the couch to the door to pay the delivery guy, maybe.

39. Are you touchy-feely?
No. But I have a hard time NOT kissing my 2-year old son's head and neck.

40. What's your life motto?
"I Don't Have One." It's a stupid motto, but the woman who begs for quarters on Court Street always understood me.

41. Name three things that you have on you at all times.
Wallet, wedding ring, tattoos.

42. What's your favorite town/city?
So many: London, Seoul, San Gimignano, Philly, Toronto, Providence, Indianapolis, Chicago.

43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
Lunch: turkey burger deluxe (with cheddar), Met-Rx protein drink, slice of marble pound cake.

44. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?
Around 2002, to my sister-in-law staying in Pennsylvania.

45. Can you change the oil on a car?
No. But I know how to get it changed.

46. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?
That she was overweight and living in Florida. I believe the story, however, to be apocryphal.

47. How far back do you know your ancestry?
I know I had great grandparents. (Or: "spectacular" grandparents.)

48. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy?
Sorry. As I am not a dandy, I do not dress "fancy."

49. Does anything hurt on your body right now?
My nerves.

50. Have you been burned by love?
Of course. But getting burned by hate is worse, every time.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: God Only Knows from the album Pet Sounds by Beach Boys, The

"I Feel Like Metal Is My Culture"

My Yankees playoff tickets arrived yesterday. I've got "home game 2" for the ALDS (which will be against either Minnesota or Detroit), "home game 3" for the ALCS, and World Series game 6. Nice set, there. (Unfortunately, if the Yankees have home field advantage throughout, and they probably will, that ALDS game will conflict with Tilly and the Wall at Bowery Ballroom. I was really looking forward to seeing them again.)

I've only been half-interested in the first two episodes of the new series of Survivor, When Races Collide, but even half listening to last night's episode, I heard one guy spew an (unintentionally) hysterical and great line: "I feel like metal is my culture, instead of Hispanic being my culture."

Maybe today we'll get the travel call from the adoption agency. If that were the case, we figure we'd fly out of NY on Wednesday. We don't know when this call is coming, so we don't know when we're leaving. We just have to be ready. Later today, we'll drop H off at my mother and father's house to chill with them for a day and a half while S and I buy furniture, build furniture, get the crib ready, and turn the office/guest bedroom into the nursery/office. It's pretty wild to think that in five days I might be in Seoul, Korea, and I don't even know yet.

Today's Friday 10...

01 The Unheard Music - X: I saw them again last month, one night in NYC and once out in Sayreville, NJ. In New York, I thought they might have been a bit off their game. Of course they were tight, and sounded awesome, but the performance in Jersey was the better of the two. But who's complaining? A mediocre X concert is still better than a great show by _______. (How far do you want to go? Nickelback? Talking Heads? U2? Yes, yes, and yes.) The version of Unheard Music I heard was off the criminally out-of-print Live at the Whiskey A Go-Go disk.

02 It's Getting Late - Galaxie 500: I'll probably never delete Galaxie 500 tracks from my iPod. Though I rarely seek them out, I'm always happy to hear them when they come on. "It's Getting Late" is from Today. That, This Is Our Music, and On Fire are the entire officially released studio output of this great band. All three records, plus b-sides and outtakes are compiled in the box set. Dean from G500 went on to form Luna, as you know; Naomi and Damon continued recording as Damon and Naomi. I think I'm going to break a lazy habit, and pull out some Galaxie 500 disks to hear today. A Head Full of Wishes is far and away one of the best fan sites you will ever visit. It's put together flawlessly and has everything you need or need to know about Galaxie 500, Luna, and all the solo permutations (including Weeds of Eden!).

03 Lady Coca-Cola - Métal Urbain: The album this is on, Les Hommes Mort Est Dangereux, is the only one the band ever made while they were together (though I think it's a compilation of their singles). French noise terrorist Eric Débris went on to form Dr. Mix and the Remix with one or two other members of Urbain. While Dr. Mix is sort of a rock and roll noise outfit, Urbain is for sure a noise noise ensemble. Not easy listening, but great music isn't easy. Nevertheless, "Lady Coca Cola" will empty a room, if you need to be alone. Great! You can also get "Lady Coca Cola" on the Anarchy in Paris disk from Acute. Wikipedia has some Métal Urbain info, as does TrakMarx.

04 Monolith - T-Rex: From the great Electric Warrior. I must have been about ten years old when I "bought" that album. I loved it so much; cool wordplay, great riffs, and all the songs sounded like different genres. I was enthralled. (It wasn't like Kiss or the Stones or the Beach Boys at all!) When this song came on this morning, I was trying to remember how it was that I started listening to T-Rex. By the late 70s, there sure wasn't much coverage of Bolan and the group in any of the magazines I read, like Creem, Circus, and Hit Parader. I can't remember any of my friends or my older sister's friends listening to them. I honestly don't know how I started listening. Maybe I heard "Get It On" on the radio and just started tracking down the records on my own. When I was about 11, I wrote a letter to a UK address on one of the albums, and ended up joining the T-Rex Fan Club. Every month or two I'd get a newsletter and an EP or single that was only available to fan club members. I remember that one of the greatest songs I got was called "Sing Me A Song," and the sleeve said Bolan write and recorded it as the theme to a BBC television special. By now, all that fan club-only music has found the light of day on comps and reissues, but the vinyl singles I got from the club are among the most rare and valuable stuff in my collection.

05 Four Thousand Days - Luna: This is a good song from Days of Our Nights. I remember when that came out, thinking it just wasn't on par with any of the Luna records before it. It was the beginning of the era of diminishing returns for the band. I guess that makes DoON the last Luna record worth having. It's too bad they started sucking so hard; at their peak -- their Slide to Pup Tent streak -- they were among the best.

06 One Shot - Rollins Band: "You get one shot / Don't miss me" is a couplet from the Badass Hall of Fame, I think. The Nice album was pretty much kicked to the curb by critics and fans and, admittedly, it took me some time to come around to it. I kept my ears on it, and I've grown to love it. What serious fucking grooves got laid down on it! It was engineered by Clif Norrell -- a master. In the last year, I've probably listened to Nice more than any other Rollins Band record. It's still in print, but I'm sure you can find it for little more than shipping costs on eBay.

07 Perfect Circle - REM: I actually won that first REM record. I was in Seaside Heights, it was the summer of 1983, and I put a quarter down on one of those boardwalk wheel games and won the album of my choice. It was something that would happen a lot in the early 80s, because I spent so much time down the shore and when I did, I never left those album stands. Are you kidding?! The chance to win new records for just a few quarters?! I came home with armloads. Anyway, it's not hard to figure out why, even more than half my life later, a week doesn't go by when I don't listen to a song of this perfect album. I don't know if there's a remaster out there, but the mix on the CD is far inferior to the vinyl. That's not elitism or thumbing my nose at anything, it's just... there are notes and entire layers of sound that I loved on the record that are noticeably lost in the digital mix I have. Whatever. I read somewhere that the band chose to call the album Murmur because it's the easiest word to speak in the English language. That is, science has proven that saying murmur requires the least effort of the tongue, throat, lips, and larynx.
On a tangent: Did anyone else know that forty is the only number that, when spelled out in English, has its letters in alphabetical order?

08 It's A Long Way Back To Germany - Ramones: Tell me: Why was there an image of Joey Ramone on the screen during the open of FOX's Saturday afternoon game last weekend? It was part of an Audioslave music video intro that made very little sense it was an audio and video non sequiter. Maybe using Joey in the visual was someone's way of grasping for credibility. I just can't find my way to Audioslave. Can't explain why.

09 All Tomorrow's Parties - Velvet Underground: What a vocal. What a band. What an album. Henry Rollins once described Nico as "darkness and cold distance on two legs. The enchantress of the Abyss." That's perfect. I haven't seen Icon yet, but we've got it Netflixed. I'm sure it'll ship sometime after we watch the 11th season of Lost.

10 Baghdad - High On Fire: This is Matt Pike (from Sleep)'s newer band. A seriously ass-whomping outfit and a heavy record from start to finish. If you've never heard Sleep, start there with the amazing, DNA-distorting Dopesmoker cd. (It's loud, slow and low -- the guy in the apartment above mine told my wife he can hear me playing my bass. I don't play bass, but I was recently listening to Dopesmoker everyday for weeks.) Then work your way through the spinoff bands: High on Fire, Om, and Kalas. You won't be disappointed; they'll smash your mind to pieces -- in a good way.

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Now you do it: Put your mp3 player or digital jukebox on "shuffle all songs." It's Friday, so let us know the first 10 songs you hear.

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[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Buggin' Out from the album The Anthology by Tribe Called Quest, A

Shakes on a Plane

The World Trade Center film is in theaters now. Have you heard, seen, or read anything about that this week? Seems to have snuck in under the radar. You'd think the news media could spare some time and get around to covering it, or reviewing it, or asking New Yorkers what they thought of it, or polling viewers on what they thought of it, or interviewing Nick Cage, or interviewing the guy played by Nick Cage... or at least something. Jayzuss, I've never felt so alone and in the dark about a major motion picture "event."

I'd like to see it. I don't know if I can. Intellectually, I'm there for it. But emotionally, I don't know if I'm ready. And I know that sounds so melodramatic, but I don't know what else to say. I was at the gym the other day, and I happened to look up at the TV monitor while the story about the movie was on CNN. I read the closed captioning as the reporter said, "The film doesn't contain a single shot of the planes flying into the buildings...." And just then, I saw what the movie does have: a wide shot of a downtown street, with the enormous shadow of a plane moving across the facade of a building.

I got a little choked up upon seeing that. Wasn't ready for it. I guess because I'd never seen it before, it was somehow more startling and off-putting than the actual, often-seen footage of the impact. I can't say I've gotten over seeing those planes flying into the buildings, because I never will. I never will. But I'm somehow used to those images. My brain has developed the proper chemical antidote for that. When I see it now, the chemicals kick in, my brain administers enough of the dosage to keep the knees from buckling, the tears from welling, the stomach intact.

The shot of that airplane's shadow -- that has been with me for a couple days now. I need new mental apparatus to deal with that one.

I remember when I saw Fahrenheit 9/11, which was the first film to have the attack scenes in it, I was kind of traumatized. It was rough going, for those first few minutes of the movie. But then once I righted myself, I spent most of the rest of the time pissed off. At the administration, obviously... but at Michael Moore as well, for going so fucking softcore on them. F9/11 was a good movie, but a pretty elementary assault on Bush and the oil hawks. I didn't think he went far enough.

But that's not what I wanted to write about.

Something seems a little odd about yesterday's thwarted terror plot. First, it seemed strange to me that the primary targets would be the British. And secondly, Al Qaida are either the most tenacious terrorist operation in the world, or they're just simply out of ideas. They've dusted off Operation Bojinka. The big question is: if the plan is more than eleven years old, why did it take authorities until yesterday to search, ban, or scan liquids?

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Based on Traffic, Syriana, and his remarkable interview on the Henry Rollins Show, I am ready to declare Stephen Gaghan my hero. (But first, he needs to wear socks.)

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Look! It's the Friday 10! And the pilot is waving at you! Wave back!

01 Rise Above - Chuck D and Rollins Band: From the West Memphis Three benefit record. A few summers ago, Rollins Band (the Mother Superior lineup) toured, playing the Black Flag songs featured on this album and benefitting the WM3. Keith Morris was a part of it, too. Of course, I had a pair of tickets (and an adult diaper) for the NY show. Unfortunately, by the time the calendar swung around to near event day, my wife and I suffered a devastating, heart-wrenching loss. I didn't go to the show, didn't look back, never missed it: perspective.

02 Ashes of American Flags - Wilco: From Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. When Wilco taped a Hard Rock Live for VH1 in 1997, I had an extra pass, because the girl I wanted to take was far away. I walked from my office building, through the theater district to the studio where the show was being shot, and saw Winona Ryder leaning against a lamppost waiting for her turn on a red carpet. What the fuck, thought I; she's a bit of a rockstarfucker, maybe she's got herself a crush on a Wilco. I approached her with the ticket and asked if she'd like to "see Wilco with me tonight instead." She said no, of course, but she considered it momentarily. And I'll always remember how she didn't seem all that put off by a total stranger asking her to a concert starting in 45 minutes. Like it happened every day. Good show. Jeff Tweedy had a migraine that he complained about between songs, until an audience member gave him some Excedrin. And dusty old Roger McGuinn (with his amazing Rickenbacker 370-12) joined them onstage for a few songs.

03 Try Me - John Entwistle: In 1980, Entwistle released a bunch of singles in England. Don't ask me why, but I bought them all, on import. Got 'em at The Record Sleeve on Martha Avenue in the Bronx. I'd ride my bike there about 10-15 times a week. The owner was a guy named Joe, and he'd let me look at every 45 and album and 12" he got as they came out of their cardboard shipping boxes. I wanted him to give me a job there, but he never offered. The best alternative was helping him open these boxes and anything I wanted -- he wouldn't charge me sales tax. Sounded like a deal to 13-year old Tommy Himself! What a great fucking store that was. I bought all my Clash Japanese and UK imports there, as well as every damn Rolling Stones product that came in: singles, albums, 12" singles, bootlegs, t-shirts, and mirrors (which I was aware were for coke to be snorted off of). Like I said, I loved that store. Unfortunately, no one else shared that sentiment, because I don't remember any customer other than me and the friends I brought in. (Other kids who soon tired of standing around while I flipped through and discussed every record in the racks.) The Record Sleeve's hours reflected this: Joe kept the store opened less and less as the months went on. By the summer of '81, he'd only turn the air-conditioner on if I'd brought someone in with me. I'm sure me and my need to own every release from any group I was interested in kept him open a few more months than he'd have lasted without me. Of course, my parents were the victims of this, because whatever I couldn't afford with my few dollars allowance (supplemented with "Grandma money"), I stole from Mom and Dad's dressers, night-stands, and even the secret hiding place in the basement. (This is why I want to be rich -- I want to pay this all back, in Cadillacs, like Elvis.)
The Entwistle singles I bought at Record Sleeve are all good. Even great, if your expectations are low enough. "Try Me," sounds a little bit Joe Walshian, and that's alright, because I like that.

04 Blue Moon Baby - Dave "Diddle" Day: This is from a great comp called Born Bad: Volume Two. Hard to find, but so is true love and a perfect cup of coffee. You all probably know this song from the cover version done by the Cramps.

05 Suzie is a Floozie - The Lurkers: From their great second album, God's Lonely Men. I came extraordinarily late to the Lurkers party, but I'm ready to stay forever. What a band. When I play their songs for friends, they all have the same reaction I did a few years ago: Why have I never heard this band? Trust me; get yourself a copy of GLM. It's one of those like-it-or-double-your-money-back, guaranteed lovable records.

06 53rd & 3rd - Ramones: From Ramones. I saw them a lot of times -- no big deal, everybody in NY did -- but one show stands out. I can't remember the year exactly, but I'll guess it was around 1982. They were booked to play the tiny Left Bank in Mt. Vernon, NY. Of course my friends and I lined up well before the doors opened. We paid our 5 bucks and pressed ourselves against the stage, even though we were the first people inside. It must have been around 8pm. By 10:00, the band wasn't yet onstage, and neither was an opening act. Word spread around the club that The Ramones weren't even in the building yet. Things were getting boring. At 11, there was still no band and no announcement over the PA. Still nothing at midnight. People were getting pissed. For most of us, this was a school night. This is not how we wanted to be wasting our "out late" time. At around, 12:30 in the morning, the band came creeping through the audience toward the stage. Joey got to the mic and said "Sorry we're late. We're the world famous Ramones," and the four guys fucking vaulted into "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment." They played about 45 songs in 100 minutes. (That's not news to you, I know.) Everything was twice the speed of the records. It was amazing. Marky's drumsticks were a blur. From two feet away, I could see the sweat drip down Johnny's wrists and fly off before it reached his hands. My friends and I were crushed against the stage, completely immobile and devoid of all body fluid -- by the fifth song, we'd already sweat out everything we had. We were dried out, like potato chips. During "Beat on the Brat," Joey swung a bat over our heads. We loved every second of it. Even though we our bodies couldn't take anymore, we still cheered every time Joey'd say, "This next one is called, 'I Don't Wanna....'" We stumbled out of that place around 2:30 in the morning. The next day, in school, I felt like a hero. No one else gave a shit, believe me; but I felt heroic.
Everything about "53rd & 3rd" cuts like a knife (pardon the pun): that riff, Dee Dee's vocal, and the ride splash at the end of the verse lines. Unreal. This was just one great, packed-with-confidence track out of many on a debut album.

07 The Creeps - Luna: I can't believe more Luna doesn't turn up on these Friday 10s. There are more than a hundred songs on the machine. I don't think my iPod likes them very much. Even though no one else finds it funny, I still enjoy calling Britta Yoko. There's a DVD documentary out now about their final tour. I think we have it Netflixed. "The Creeps" ("Tell me who it was / Let the creeps into my life") is from Pup Tent. My recommendation to newbies is to start with Penthouse. A Head Full of Wishes is easily one of the best, most complete sites you'll ever find for any band. They have info on Luna, Galaxie 500, and all the solo permutations.

08 Go Go Getter - The Colors: Who? Right, I don't know either. I'm pretty sure this is a track I downloaded off the Lost Bands website. It's not a bad song! I just checked; yes, that's where I got it. Here's a link to the write-up.

09 Cha Cha Twist - Detroit Cobras: From Mink, Rat or Rabbit. The Cobras are my all-time favorite cover band.

10 Little Troublemaker - Ian McLagen: Troublemaker is a record I will never stop listening to. McLagen was in the Faces and the Small Faces, and a stellar lineup of musicians plays on this record. Plus, it's got far more great songs than you'd expect from a keyboard player's solo album. When I got my first CD burner about eleven years ago, Troublemaker was among the first batch of vinyl I ripped.

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Play the home game: Put your mp3 player or digital jukebox on "shuffle all songs." What are the first ten you hear?
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"الغربيه كفارا في السجون وسوبيرماكس حولوا لي في هذه الجمعه 10. ولا بد لي من القول انه راءع! ثناء الله! بلايسي تومي نفسه! "
--- Abdul Hakim Ali Hashim Murad*

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago from the album Complete Live At San Quentin by Cash, Johnny
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*"The Western infidels in my supermax prison have turned me on to this Friday 10. I must say, it is superb! Praise Allah! Plaise Tommy Himself!"

Dirty Glen Campbell

I don't know what "dirty Glen Campbell" means, but I woke up saying those words yesterday.

(One of) you asked for it. Here's today's Friday 10.

01 The Engine Driver - The Decemberists: Wow. I don't like this. Can't stand the foppish, unmanly voice of that singer -- the guy who wrote that terrible 331/3 book "about" the Replacements Let It Be. I nearly tore both hamstrings and a groin muscle racing to the computer to delete the song from iTunes.

02 Ask What You Will - Irma Thomas: I came waaaay late to the Irma Thomas party. Sure, the Detroit Cobras excellent cover of the excellent Thomas song "Hittin' On Nothing," was my way in. And then, I just grabbed up whatever Irma Thomas stuff I could, from all stages of her career. This is on Walk Around Heaven, a late-career album on which she got back to her gospel roots.
But Who Listens Dept.: When the network I worked for was putting together its star-drenched Katrina telethon last fall, I shouted loud and often that Irma Thomas had to be included. I even brought in emails that she'd written to the people who maintain her website, in which she told them (after more than a week incommunicado) that she was fine and had made her way to a family member's house. (Lest anyone think that this New Orleans legend wasn't literally a survivor of the flooding.) Ah, well... I got a few nods from those in the know, but no one reached out to Irma but me.

03 Heart of Glass - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes: Yup, the Blondie song. It's from a disk called Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah, which is probably all you need to know as far as the concept. Whether this is a real or staged B.M. is irrelevant. Sticking Point pal Tim turned me on to this last year. It's funny stuff. Sort of a more lighthearted (and much less malicious) The Shit Hits The Fans. Tim's a big fan of oddball covers, so of course he'd share it with me. I think I remember seeing a DVD of the Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah show in Virgin once. I might also be imagining that.

04 Black Diamond Express Train To Hell, Pt. 1 - Reverend A.W. Nix: Fire and brimstone sermon from Nix. Parts one and two of this are on a complete recorded works comp on (of course) Document Records. It was originally recorded in the late '20s, I think. I don't have a lot of background info on Nix, but I dig hearing these sermons out of context. Good stuff, it's worth lending an ear. The photo up top there is from a 78 rpm record recently up for auction on the 'bay. Someone won it for $7.99.

05 Sick in Santorini - DaDa: This came to me courtesy of MicKen, who gave it to me on a disk he burned in May 2003 entitled, "Songs I Wish I Wrote." Santorini is a volcanic Greek island. I don't know anything about DaDa, but this is a cool song. Verse 2: "I guess the word just got around / The new wave bitch from hell ain't got no lover / She's come back from the island for another / Spilling drachma in her vodka all night long." Just looked the band up. They are one of those groups with a name that is either so generic or has so many meanings that they've got to qualify their URL: dadatheband.com. Just like X. (The band.) This track is on El Subliminoso.

06 Changes - Sugar: What an easy band to love, Sugar was. This is from their first release, the mighty I-can-listen-to-it-any-day-of-the-week (and-thrice-on-Sunday) Copper Blue. Bob Mould is godhead, and is responsible for more great music than is healthy.
Geek Alert Dept.: I still have a dollar bill Mould signed when I saw him at 7 Willow in Portchester, NY, on a solo tour. It was April 5, 1995. The dollar bill was all I had that could be written on, and when I handed it to him he said, "Jeez, I feel like a stripper."
Even Geekier: Here's a setlist from that show: Wishing Well, Hear Me Calling, Hoover Dam, After All The Roads Have Led To Nowhere, Your Favorite Thing, Can't Help You Any More, Needle Hits E, Can't Fight It, Explode And Make Up, Hardly Getting Over It, Poison Years, Sinners And Their Repentances, Brasilia Crossed With Trenton, No Reservations, Chartered Trips, I Apologize, In A Free Land, Man On The Moon, Slick, Makes No Sense At All.

07 It's Too Late - New York Dolls: This week, Mrs. Sticking Point treated herself to a brand honking new iPod. And just like that, her mp3 storage capacity has tripled. I gathered up a bunch of CDs and told her, "If you want to remain my wife, you'll put these on your new iPod." The first Dolls disk was in the pack. It's got a lot of great tracks, but "It's Too Late" is one I often call my favorite.

08 Shelter From The Storm - Bob Dylan: I know. Since none of us can think of many records greater than Blood on the Tracks, you don't need me harping about it here.

09 Blue Spark (L) - X: This is from one of the Live From The Masque disks that were recorded at the Masque benefits in February 1978, this one subtitled "We We Can Can Do Do What What We We Want Want." I think it's volume 2. It also features live sets from F-Word, the Alleycats, and the Zeros. F-Word (with Rik L Rik) does a cover of "Hillside Strangler," and the Zeros from La Jolla live up to their "Mexican Ramones" nickname, but the X stuff is what you're getting on line for. They aren't tight, they're actually a little ragged, but their set shows them to be a band with all the parts and great songs, in need of just a little more spit and polish. (It DJ Bonebrake's first gig with the band.)

10 If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out - Cat Stevens. From the soundtrack of one of the funniest movies ever made, Harold and Maude. I've seen it so many times, and it might be about time to watch it again; it's near perfect. Cat has made so many great songs. He's just one of those guys: you think you like him, and then you look at the tracklist for a greatest hits or a box set and you think, shit, I might love him. But we all remember when he got on board with the fatwa issued against Salmon Rushdie. I'm sure each of us wanted to snap ol' Yusef Stevens's spine with a good kick, right? Jihad up on this, asshat. Eh, well. Good music is good music, there's no accounting for insanity. (It's what makes James Brown so damn hard to root for.)

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Go ahead, try it yourself: Put your mp3 player or digital jukebox on "shuffle all songs," and let us know what are the first ten random tracks out.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Deny Everything from the album Group Sex by Circle Jerks

Miscellany River

Yesterday in the Barnes & Noble magazine section, some guy shushed H. My son shouted his new sound, “Gaaaagg-elll!” a few times, and I noticed the guy giving us dirty looks. I was waiting -- just eagerly fucking awaiting -- for him to say something. Then he shushed. Not joking, not even smiling. He was pissed. I said, “You didn't just shush my son, did you? Where the fuck* do you think you are -- a library?! If you can't take a little noise, get the hell out of the store.”

So there. I know I'm a little bit late on this rant, because plenty have opined about it before me, but... these bookstore patrons are getting out of hand. It's getting harder just to navigate the aisles, because each is crowded with 5-7 nomadic freeloaders, squatting, sitting, and laying all over the rug. Who are these people?

* I whispered this word, both for violent effect and to protect my son's tender sensibilities.

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Can a 21-and-a-half-month-old with a mouthful of teeth start teething again? Just asking.

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Interestingly coincidental shuffle of songs this morning during H's breakfast. The playlist was “3+ Stars,” which has six hours of music contained therein. In succession, we heard “Just Get a Grip on Yourself” (The Stranglers), “Orgasm Addict” (Buzzcocks), “Rather Be With Me” (Viletones), and “Get Off” (Dandy Warhols). Is our iTunes sending a not-so-subtle message?

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The Devil and Daniel Johnston finally comes out Friday.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: “National Health” from the album Low Budget by Kinks, The

The Punk Rock

New documentary in production. Trailer and lots of info here.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: “Truckin'” by Pop O Pies

Monday's Headline

OSCAR GOES FOR 'BROKE'

Very little time to post this week, but I wanted to get that down here so I could look like a goddamned Nostradamus next week.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: “Vowel Movement” by Evens, The

Hustle and Flow

Last night, we watched Hustle and Flow, which I'd thought I'd hate. My preconceived notion was: preachy, clichéd “message” movie. Untrue. This is a great movie, with not one wasted line of dialogue and a amazing performances from every member of the cast. Even Taryn Manning. (Her delivery of her lines outside the musical instrument store was captivating.) I think Oscars and other awards for actors, movies, music, musicians, etc. are bogus and misdirected, but... since it's a nice way to say Terrence Howard is AT LEAST in the top five, I'll say that he should get an Oscar nomination for his role in this movie. It must have been a son of a bitch to prepare for and keep inside of. He was dazzling in this.

But that's not what I wanted to write about. I wanted to mention that I was blown away by the original score, composed by Scott Bomar. It was like an aural history of the common motifs of rock and roll, shot through the prism of the Stax studio sound. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like any of these performances are available anywhere but in the film / on the DVD itself. I hope they release these tracks on CD. They are SO worth hearing over and over again. To have the incidental music stand out -- even shine -- like it does in a film devoted to musical (hip hop) performances says a lot about Bomar's talent as a composer and the chops of the old Stax guys.

P.S. Since I'm now a big fan of Scott Bomar's, and I've always been crazy about William Bell, here's a picture of the two men together in September 2005. I found it on Bomar's site.

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[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: “Gun In Mouth Blues” from the album Life Time by Rollins Band