| (no subject) |
[Jul. 16th, 2008|08:54 pm] |
Not to do excessive pimping, but there are a couple of new songs up at
http://www.myspace.com/thebandteenagestrangler
"Future Echoes" is one of our best songs. It's in the troubadour tradition, I would have to say.
Also, went to sushi happy hour and was converted to the way of Asahi, which I now know to be a pretty damn good beer. I also had a fish roe nigiri, which I had never had before, and was kind of weird. The usual bargain salmon/avocado roll, spicy tuna roll, and tempura vegetables hit the spot, though. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 13th, 2008|11:24 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Mercyful Fate, "Welcome Princes of Hell" | ] |
I decided that I kind of hate livejournal. Would another blogging setup cause me to write more than twice a year? I don't know. Anybody familiar with Wordpress, or even blogger?
--In other news, I picked up one of these a ways back:
--I saw Gospel Gossip last night finally, and it is obvious that they are easily one of the best bands in town. I thought their record was a little too long, and now I've seen them live I can also say that it's much more tame than their live show.
They're going on tour soon, so go see them!
--I went to Poland and Germany, broke the vegetarian-edge and totally ate many a sausage, schnitzel, and wild boar (among other things). I've been eating less meat since I got back, but the occasional dose of meat is a small delight.
I really dug the Buffalo sausage "Paul Bunyan" pizza at Galactic Pizza and the Hamburger at Barley John's (a brewpub with some of the finest beers in the upper midwest).
I realize that some of my recent posts have been kind of anti-meat, which may strike some of you as hypocritical. However, like those authors, I tend to think that moderation is the key, and making better choices about what meat we do eat (for those that choose to eat meat), rather than pressing for abstaining from all meat consumption. That most Americans think they "need" to eat meat for every meal is still ridiculous and wasteful.
I don't know, I haven't thought "meat is murder" in a long, long time. I'm more concerned with factory agriculture and all that jazz.
--Berlin is still the best city on earth. Poland was pretty great, too. The pictures are up on my facebook and may be coming to flickr at some point.
--I have some work-related lameness I need to deal with in the coming week. It's a long story, but I feel like I'm being screwed a bit, so I have to push back, which is always unpleasant but for the best, I believe. It's fortunate that I have friends in HR and that I can run things by my Mom (who has worked in management for quite a while) beforehand.
--For the latest news in Death Metal, check out Andy J. Leach's blog How Awesome is Death Metal? I have a somewhat limited interest in Death Metal, but Andy's writing on the subject is hilarious and interesting.
--Go see my band Teenage Strangler at the Borg Ward in Milwaukee next friday with Dear Astronaut and other dudes. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 11th, 2008|10:37 pm] |
I got one of these:
and I decided that I NEED a Holy Grail pedal to drench everything in a bottomless pit of reverb. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 9th, 2008|02:08 pm] |
rad things:
The Darjeeling Limited, in particular: India, Adrien Brody, and the Kinks
Pan American - Pan American, I know ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) _whitelight is up on this band, and I love how it sounds like dub reggae from outer space.
Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, which brings us to this week's mp3, "Ativan". Which has a great discordant guitar on the chorus that has lodged itself permanently into my brain. I saw Atlas Sound last week, and it seemed a bit like seeing the Velvet Underground in 1967 without the overarching chaos. The Phil Specter-esque instrumentation was more readily apparent, although the guitars sounded kind of strange to me, due to the White Rainbow guy's playing, which was a little too detached for my taste.
Boards of Canada - In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country, which is a flawless 4 song EP.
****
I happened to be at Barnes and Noble this week, where I paged through this book on Marco Polo that was totally fascinating. I especially enjoyed seeing medieval-style drawings of Asian cities, landscapes, and people.
I'm undergoing a fantasy novel binge lately. I'm on my second George R. R. Martin book (which I just heard was optioned off to HBO for a new series in the fairly near future) and I'm starting off on The Golden Compass before the film version can ruin it for me. But soon I think I'll move to nonfiction, including the Marco Polo book and this.
Lastly, I ought to be purchasing my ticket to Berlin any day now. I was hoping to spend more in the neighborhood of $6-700, but prices are a bit more expensive than the last time I went to Europe, so I'll have to settle for about $780. I'll put my economic stimulus $600 to good work on that, plus I just got a $500 at work and my tax return ought to be in the neighborhood of $2K, so I should be in fairly good shape. woo hoo!
And next year I am resolving to get all my inoculations in order and accompany Kirsten for two weeks to either North Africa or Southeast Asia. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 4th, 2008|09:52 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Nico - It Was a Pleasure Then | ] |
Yesterday I was at the Mall of America and I heard a reggae version of "Fly Like an Eagle" blasting out of the Kokomo theme restaurant. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 30th, 2008|06:50 pm] |
These cold, dark winter days have driven me to listen to the dark, grinding English band Amebix. I first came to know Amebix through the crusty people who always wore the band's patches while playing fast, thrashy crustcore--however, the actual sound of Amebix is somewhere on a continuum between Joy Division's bass heavy post punk, depressive Pornography-era Cure, and early Neurosis' doom laden pagan metal.
Check out the tribal drumming that opens up "control", and then the bass, which is totally upfront. I'm still not convinced that perhaps Peter Hook was moonlighting when he got bored playing in New Order. The guitar is discordant and droning, perfectly capturing the bleak tone of the lyrics, which explore the nature of power.
Amebix - Control (Yousendit)
And few things are as pounding and grim as "Winter" (my personal favorite Amebix track). It is everything I like about the cosmic sympathy inherent in black metal, but in a package that is far more aesthetically pleasing to my ears.
Amebix - Winter (Yousendit--in hilarious scratchy ripped-from-vinyl form)
Everybody go listen to Amebix!
I'm thinking of trying to make mid-week my time to post links to music that I feel is under-appreciated. I will definitely try to avoid the bloggy-world's cliche of chasing the latest Beirut or Sufjan track (yawn). Let me know what you think! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 30th, 2008|09:38 am] |
For May--Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds at the Tempodrom in Berlin.
Last time seeing Nick at the State Theater in Minneapolis would be easily among the top 5-10 shows, ever.
Thus, I think this is going to be pretty rad. It may be challenging getting tickets, though. |
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| cold night. |
[Jan. 29th, 2008|09:24 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Times New Viking | ] |
Temperatures dropped about 50 degrees here in Minneapolis in the last 24 hours or so, with overnight lows estimated at about -15 F.
My beard freezes instantaneously in the icy tendrils of the wind.
It's so bad that I can here the bats retreating inside the space between the ceiling and the roof of my apartment building. Hopefully they won't emerge from a hidden opening, like I had happen last year--I woke up at 4:30 am to a bat orbiting my bed. |
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| gathering winds around my head in bright lights |
[Jan. 26th, 2008|05:32 pm] |
SO...
I updated http://www.wiscpunk.org/justinholt, after a really absurdly long time. I pushed aside some of the cobwebs, so to speak.
Awesome things, late winter 200000008:
Black Mountain - In the Future
Amebix - No Sanctuary 12"
Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
Tyranena Bitter Woman IPA
Times New Viking - Rip It Off
Sunny Day Real Estate - How it Feels to Be Something On
High On Fire - Death is This Communion
The Church - Remote Luxury
George R. R. Martin - A Game of Thrones
Bitter Cold
Sunsets
Evergreen Cemetery, Menomonie Wisconsin
Also, I'm going back to Berlin in May and then travelling to Poland for the first time. I'm thinking it's going to be pretty spectacular. |
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| The Road |
[May. 19th, 2007|01:01 pm] |
I'm trying to decide where I want to go this summer. I'm at a loss for ideas.
I was in Philly last year, and then in New York last fall, so I'm a big sick of the East Coast. I had considered Toronto, or driving out west to Wyoming or Montana or something. Mexico City crossed my mind, but airfare would probably be kind of expensive. I don't think I can afford to go outside of North America.
Kirsten is going down to Ecuador next month and I'm pretty jealous, with the Andes and the Amazon and all that, everywhere I could go around here pales in comparison.
Does anybody have any ideas for me? |
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| Time Minus Zero |
[May. 19th, 2007|12:37 pm] |
I got a digital camera with my bonus this year and have been taking a lot of pictures lately. Check it out here.
I usually take my camera along when I go on my frequent walks through Kingfield and East Harriet. I got a little Canon Powershot Digital Elph and I love how it fits nicely into my pocket.
* * * *
Today I am fascinated by Nick Cave's Grinderman project. Pitchfork linked to a recent performance on Jools Holland and I was kind of blown away by how amazing of a performer he is. I remember seeing Nick and the Bad Seeds early in 2002 at the State Theater and it still ranks as one of the best things I've ever seen.
Besides being awesome, this video also acts as a showcase for Grinderman's excellent facial hair. Nick is sporting a handlebar mustache that is surely among the world's best. Not to be outdone, the guitar- (is that a guitar? It looks too small)ist (Warren Ellis?) and the drummer have Charles Manson/Devendra Banhart-esque heavy beards that kind of personifies the primitive, virile vibe that Grinderman is changing the world with. Anyway, people should check this out, it's really fabulous.
* * * *
I've also been fascinated by this blog, which discusses the band Low on a strictly song by song basis, often revealing fascinating information about the songs themselves and the stories behind them. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 24th, 2006|04:27 pm] |
Here's an excellent article on Edward Abbey in Salon.
I devoured Ed's book "The Monkey Wrench Gang" in High School while I was going to Earth First Rendezvous and pouring sand in bulldozer engines throughout rural Wisconsin. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 10th, 2006|06:19 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Strung Out in Heaven | ] |
Also, my RSS feed seems to only be working for Click Opera (which is excellent, go read it).
Does anybody have any experience using Bloglines or the Google RSS Reader to read livejournal posts? At first I thought it was just the friends-only posts, but it would seem that it doesn't recognize much of anything.
* * *
I'll also take this occasion to note that I've been making what I'm pretty sure is the best snack ever lately--Pitted Olives, Goat Cheese, crackers, and a beer. It would be even better if I could find San Miguel beer here in the states, but alas, I'll have to make do with Summit EPA. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 10th, 2006|05:48 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | The Jesus Lizard - Liar | ] |
I'm not a 100% believer in the apocalyptic visions of people like James Howard Kunstler, but you've gotta admit, given the following articles, things are looking pretty bad for cheap oil in the immediate future. A flatlined global production with rapidly increasing energy demand in places like China and India can only result in rapidly rising energy costs around the globe, with catastrophic possibilities.
http://www.kunstler.com/mags_diary19.html
http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2006/10/5/215316/408
http://picodopetroleo.net/temp/exporters/ExportsAll.png
Take a look around yourself and realize that almost EVERYTHING you own has cheap oil built into the price, and that this indeed is a very big deal unless something is undertaken in the magnitude of the Manhattan Project.
Just think if, instead of spending it on a pre-emptive war we had, oh I don't know, spent the 330 Billion Dollars developing solutions to our energy problems... |
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| my top records of 2006 thus far. |
[Aug. 27th, 2006|01:11 pm] |
     
In approximate and rough order, Mostly for my own musing's sake. I guess this thing is usually done somewhere in the middle of the year, but it may as well be the midpoint now, as this year in music looks rather end-heavy.
The Sonic Youth record was a huge surprise for me, and may even be my favorite SY record (or perhaps tied with Goo--the stripped-down quality of it all really appeals to me, and Kim's songs have never sounded better. The best new bands seem to be the Duke Spirit (anyone into anything from BRMC to Mazzy Star ought to check them out!) and Brightblack Morning Light. BML took a long time to full appreciate, and it's true that all their songs sound the same, but it's best taken as a mood piece, and is rather excellent to fall asleep to.
Greater
Sonic Youth: Rather Ripped
Witch: Witch
Comets on Fire: Avatar
Belle & Sebastian: The Life Pursuit
Ellen Allien & Apparat: Orchestra of Bubbles
Brightblack Morning Light: Brightblack Morning Light
The Duke Spirit: Cuts Across the Land
Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Mylo: Destroy Rock and Roll
Ghostface Killah: Fishscale
Lesser
Cat Power: The Greatest
Boris: Pink
Jenny Lewis: Rabbit Fur Coat
Mogwai: Mr. Beast
The Black Angels: Passover
Gnarls Barkley: St. Elsewhere
Forthcoming Possible Contenders:
Bob Dylan: Modern Times
Yo La Tengo: I'm Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
Melvins: A Senile Animal
Isis: In the Absence of Truth
Nina Nastasia: On Leaving
Akron/Family: Meek Warrior
The Lemonheads: The Lemonheads
Robyn Hitchcock: Ole! Tarantula
the Mars Volta: Amputechure
Joanna Newsom: Ys
Mastodon: Blood Mountain
Deftones: Saturday Night Wrist
Modest Mouse: We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank |
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