Half Man Half Biscuit- All I want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit

My internet travelings last week led me to an article on Dukla Prague's reemergence in the Czech second division(!), and so I figured I should probably go with this. It fits, anyway.

Story From North America - Garrett Davis

I was hoping to have a Best of '09 mix done by today (is anyone else planning to do one?) but that did not happen so I will post this which most of you will probably hate but I enjoy.



And if you did not like that just watch this video of a kid seeing a lobster for his first time and your day will be healed.

The Dream Academy - Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want

Sorry this is so late you guys. You know how it goes sometimes.

Noël Coward - I Like America

While we're waiting, here (here, hit play at the top) is a nice little song by a charming Englishman. He likes this country, and so do I.

Betty Wright - Mr. Lucky

This one gets a bit campy with the random gunshots in the intro, but the key here is Betty Wright, who just absolutely kills it.



This single was released in 1967, when she was freaking 14 years old. It was re-released on the Numero Group comp "Eccentric Soul: The Outskirts of Deep City" -- you might know them better as the keepers of the Marion Black catalog.

Watch for ups sometime soon, and happy (early) Thanksgiving.

MGMT - Time to Pretend

It's been over a year since I found out about them. And I still have this album playing regularly in my car. I think it sums up my recklessness better than Ozzy's "Road to Nowhere" ever could.

Black Moth Super Rainbow- Sun Lips

Heard this at a sandwich shop yesterday, and it made me smile. Hadn't listened to the album in a while, so I rectified that today. Anyway, I dig it, and don't really know if anyone else will. Here you go.

Blakroc - Ain't Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo)

This is a fun album in spite of the fact that Ludacris (I just don't like him, okay.) makes an appearance.




I am also posting this little thing because it makes me happy.

Velvet Underground - I'll Be Your Mirror

Allegedly this song's genesis is that Lou Reed was feeling down and Nico told him, in her deep-voiced German accent: "Oh, Lou. I'll be your mirror." She also claimed after they broke up that he couldn't bear dating her, or any German woman, because of the Holocaust. I don't know how much truth is in these stories, but Nico's voice - especially how aggressively untrained and flat it could be - has always struck me as sort of completely honest. I completely get the sense that she is allowing herself to find a place within herself to connect with the lyrics she's singing, and can let you in on that insight. This made her a perfect match for Lou Reed's lyrics, as he's always been unable to convey anything but sneering sarcasm with his lyric delivery, and he eventually devolved into just stating the lyrics, like early William Shatner songs.
Here's I'll Be Your Mirror, which is one of my favorite Nico-sung songs, and also serves as a welcome respite from the far less forgiving and affectionate songs that precede it on the album (thought they, too, are terrific).

Chuck Berry - Havana Moon

I don't have any Civil War portraiture, because I'm all smooth now, like a seal, and good motherfucking luck finding a picture of a Civil War-era figure who isn't sporting any facial hair. Well, I guess I could say that I went from this to this. So there you go. Dan, you are the light of my life, the fire of my loins.

Neu! - Hero

Neu!

CSNY - Almost Cut My Hair

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are a bit of a guilty pleasure with me, but I'm not convinced that they should be. Sure, it's easy to scapegoat them for the general folk-rock malaise that began in the waning moments of the 1960s and carried on into the 1970s -- until punk motherfucking obliterated that shit. But take "Deja Vu," their debut as the complete CSNY -- Side A of that album is just chock full of awesome. "Carry On" is a nice Stills guitar piece, with a psyched-out interlude that is letter-perfect; Nash's "Teach Your Children" stands up against the best of the Byrds' folk harmonies; "Helpless" is classic Neil Young (although the live version in "The Last Waltz" really outshines the album version here); "Woodstock" is a solid, driving tune, if a little dated. And even if Side B is a little forgettable (if not regrettable: see the execrable "Our House"), that doesn't make Side A any less an indispensable document of the folk-rock era.

But I'm coming in here with this David Crosby bullshit, this anthem for a generation of drugged-up, burned-out longhairs? What can I say, I like it -- it's got a raw, visceral sound to it; coming right after "Teach Your Children," it's a nice palate cleanser; when Crosby snarls "Separate the wheat ... from the chaff," it gets me every time.

And I do have an ulterior motive: I shaved my beard. It happened just the other day. I didn't wipe it out completely, but I really sort of went from this to this. For the best.

CSNY: Expect lava lamps.



All five of their albums released between 1969 and 1977 went multi-platinum, which makes CSNY an exceedingly easy find on vinyl -- I picked up the three I own for a total of $2. (If you're keeping score, Deja Vu was a whole dollar.)

A Day in the Life -- Beatles

It's one of those contemplative mornings.

And a lazy one.

But I've put off my suicide post (not MY suicide... Jesus Christ, people, have a little faith in me.) for a few months now, only because I wasn't sure how it'd be received. I'd go into a back-story, but that'll be for another day, another drunken rant at the drinkable end of a bottle of red wine.

KMD- Peachfuzz; Madvillain- All Caps

I've thought of doing a MF DOOM post before, and I figure I might as well do it today, as I've not really had any ideas for a while now.

First off, here's the video that sort of got me thinking on this a while ago. It's Mos Def talking about MF DOOM, and it's led to about a bazillion (wow, it recognizes bazillion as a word) posts on various hip hop message boards calling for a Mos Def/DOOM collaboration.



And then here's a KMD video. This was when DOOM was known as Zev Love X. If you want, look up some stuff about this group, as it's sort of interesting. Basically, this is a pretty standard, meaningless popish track, but they also did the whole five-percenter thing, and their second album (Black Bastards)was pulled because of a controversial cover/message



And then here's a track from "Madvillainy", a collaboration between DOOM and Mad Lib. Anyway, there's no real point to any of this, and that's why I'm not really explaining anything here, but I just sort of wanted to point out that this dude has had a weirder career than just about anyone I can think of. Going from pop-rap, to five percenter rap, to weird humorous villain persona in-which he's created a whole narrative that necessitates the mask, is pretty fucking bizarre.

Neon Indian - Deadbeat Summer

Felt - Felt Chewed Up

New single! Enjoy!

Hüsker Dü - Diane

I've been trying to work a Hüsker Dü angle for a while, and this one works nicely. It's Friday the 13th, and this is a creepy-ass song about a Minneapolis teenager named Diane Edwards who was kidnapped, raped and murdered on her way home from work in 1980. It's also the first Hüsker Dü song that got any real national exposure (such as it was), getting picked up by college radio stations.

The Band Wagon - That's Entertainment

This one lodged in my head for some reason walking down the hill. I was trying to remember the verses ("The plot could be hot simply teeming with sex/ a gay divorcee who is after her ex/ it could be Oedipus Rex") and I thought I'd share.

The Pogues - The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Veterans Day and this song are two things that were born of the Great War. And on that Armistice Day in 1918, in the tragedies of Gallipoli, and of Verdun, the Somme, Ypres, the Brusilov offensive, the world learned a valuable lesson: that mankind could never again afford to glimpse the grim face of war.

And they all lived happily ever after the end.

Port O'Brien - Woke Up Today & Of Montreal - Art Snob Solutions

Why can't I have two?

Family of the Year

Geez. Hop yourself up on meds, tear out an IV you really don't want but are forced to get injected with because the docs want to "lower your body temperature," and basic flu symptoms almost prevent you from keeping a promise.

That I made to the lovely ladies of the band I feature today.

This was the band that is opening for and touring with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros on their tour this holiday season, which I am proud to say kicked off in Solana Beach on the 3rd, at the BELLY UP TAVERN, WHERE YOUR GOAT SOAKED IN SOME GOOD LIVE MUSIC TO KICK OFF A LIVE NOVEMBER!



It's good to have attractive young ladies perform as part of your band, and it's even better when the audience can tell you've got cohesion and a bit of musicianship to bring to the table as well. I for one could tell they were having fun on stage and the added bonus of being able to meet and greet, so to speak, with some of them during the Edward Sharpe performance made my night. They set the tone for how the music was to sound and if you ask me, they outperformed The Deadly Syndrome, which actually served as a bit of a lull which saw my friend sneak out to the car and sleep. The bastige.

P.S. -- I really should have asked Christina (the keyboardist) out. (Vanessa is the vocalist.) There's my Goat. moment for the year. (Buuuut she's got all this touring thing going on, and I've got the deployment, and she's probably already dating a rock star etc etc etc.)

Homeboy Sandman- Lightning Bolt

This dude apparently graduated from Penn, and then dropped out of law school to do the whole "broke MC" thing. Last year this video started sort of becoming known on the internet, and that's basically how he's made any sort of name for himself.

The track/video is pretty stupid, but whatever, I dig it. He's slowly been coming out with more stuff now, but to my knowledge there hasn't been an album. Anyway, here you go.

The Very Best - Yalira

(It's just so fun!)

Gentleman Reg - It's Not Safe

I find this song extremely affecting. I think it's probably the lyrics, which I think would also work tremendously well as nonmusicked poetry, but is really something as a song. Sorry, anyway, here it is.

The Friends of Distinction - Grazing in the Grass

I must have heard this one on the radio recently, some bumper music or something, and it always makes me smile. That's all, no ulterior motive on this one, just a fun-ass song for a Friday.

Velvet Underground - Train Come Round The Bend

If you'll allow me to indulge in a City Song. What city? The City, if you were wondering, the one that has The Stadium in it.



Hugs!

Ted Hawkins.

I wish I could say I came across this guy while thumbing through a record bin and coming across his album. Instead, I heard one of his songs on KEXP, our local independent radio station, the other day. He's an interesting story, full of the hardship and personal tragedy worthy a blues man. I guess I'll go ahead and compare him to Sam Cooke, too, because everyone else does. All but two of the tracks on his first two albums are original compositions, which I guess surprises me for a guy who spent most of his life as a street performer. Of course, not many street performers have the talent he had.

It's not often I find a new (to me) artist that grips me the way he has. As a result, I went a little crazy with the YouTube uploads. Take your pick from these three:





And here's his take on our national health-care crisis:



All three of the above come from his 1982 debut, "Watch Your Step." I did go out and find his second album, "Happy Hour," on vinyl, which is even better than the first. But I can't for the life of me find a digital copy.

Afghan Whigs - What Jail is Like

90's?

90's!

Pixies - Here Comes Your Man

Thursday. At the Hollywood Palladium. "We won't get another chance at this, Admiral."

Organized Konfusion- Walk Into the Sun

!

Mayer Hawthorne - Just Ain't Gonna Work Out