Favorite Albums of 08' Part I

It is a dreary Wednesday afternoon, grey skies, sick cat outside, Neil Young echoing in my brain after last night's show at the Garden.  I have decided to open up a $15 bottle of Zinfandel and post my favorite albums of 08'.  This is not an easy task.  As a teacher it is very, very hard to pick favorites and favoritism is not something I prefer in any capacity, yet I practice it all of the time.  I have a favorite baseball team, a kinda favorite movie (Just picked up Dig by the way and can't wait to see it), a favorite librarian, a favorite cat, I even have a favorite pair of jeans. Rambling I am.  Yoda I speak.  Anyway, for better or for worse and in no particular order, here are KumoD's faves of 08'.  

Real Emotional Trash Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks (Matador)

This one was a serious surprise.  I will buy anything by this guy and was a Pavement junkie back in the day, but this one doesn't really wear or tear.  I think he has actually kind of found himself musically, yet some of the compositions are a bit confusing.  None the less, they are often surprising direction-wise and I wasn't ever sure where the songs were going to go on the first few listenings.  It is fair to say that Malkmus has become a kind of guitar god.  I saw him on  tour for this album at MassMOCA, which was one of the best shows I had been to this year. It was the last date of their tour and they played a nearly two hour set.  Just seeing positive body language on stage after so much shit went down with Pavement was nice. Further, adding Janet Weiss on drums really kind of makes the band rhythmically breathless.  Yes, she is that good.

Beating Back the Claws of the Cold The Pica Beats (Hardly Art)

This is a band that I just stumbled onto while drunk and looking for new music ideas on Insound.com.  But, holy shit wow!  They rock.  I guess they are kind of a cross between the American Analog Set, Ravi Shankur and Neutral Milk Hotel?  I don't really know how to describe them.  They are definitely an indie rock band from Seattle, but they have this uncanny characteristic of making off-key vocals (both male and female) work perfectly so it is actually charming.  I bought this a few weeks ago after listening to samples on iTunes and it is addictive as hell and really beautiful to boot.  Shit, a line like I am the tension and you are the tightrope is pretty good, especially on an opening track.  

I Am...Sasha Fierce Beyonce (Columbia)

When I was about 10 years old, I saw Madonna spray-painting her way all over pieces of random sculptures on a Saturday morning video show that was probably on USA.  Since then, I have waited for a female pop artist to turn me on, interest me, or provoke me to buy a female pop album that is not by Madonna but is catchy and also has shades of brilliance.  Beyonce has done that for me this year.  I also really like that the album is equally divided into halves with Mrs. Z. having her say and Ms. Fierce, well getting her fierce on.  I swear I can't get Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) out of my head.  Some of you, my dear readers, can attest to that.  Oh, also here is a bonus treat for y'all.  

Offend Maggie Deerhoof (Kill Rock Stars)

I first saw Deerhoof at Galapagos (I think) in 2004.  They kind of blew me away and I guess this entry is kind of in the Malkmus vein.  They are a band that is maturing and getting more interesting as they go on.  I also like the fact that Satomi isn't a cute Japanese chick at all, but her voice is extremely doll-like.  I also like the fact that their drummer, who is kick ass, drums barefoot.  This is a pretty good album and has those kinda dirty glimpses of Royal Trux, especially with their bass lines.  Finally, it is good that Deerhoof has gone sort of bilingual.  I really dug this album on a flight I took to FLA over Thanksgiving.  Perhaps I didn't really understand all of it and now that I'm listening to it as I type it is a perfect fit for going to such a foreign yet American place such as S. FLA.  If you are looking for a confusing escape then this might be the album for you.

The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly Le Loup (SubPop)

This is another random insound find and what a gem it is.  Imagine a Panda Bear record with female backing/assisting vocals and not so electronic.  It is a short 39-minute ride, but the ride is a beautiful.  I think that actually is an asset to the album because it leaves you wanting more. Was just on their site and it sounds like they just wrapped up touring Europe and are recording now.  They are from DC and I always associate that city with Minor Threat, Fugazi and GoGo. But, now I know that more is capable of coming out of that hellhole.  (I have a bit of DC apprehension, obviously).  So, that is a refreshing aspect of the album for me as well.  Anyway, back to the band.  They have a serious bass drum thing going on and it has a carnival like atmosphere, yet the songs are so, I don't know, introspective and thought provoking in weird ways.  It actually makes you think about the origin of your name, where it came from, why you have it, and how we are destroying ourselves. Uplifting.

Lie Down in the Light Bonnie "Prince" Billy (Drag City)

Although this album is nowhere near as strong as The Letting Go, the originator of the trucker hat phenom has a few gems on here that make it a solid record.  Most impressive is You Want That Picture with some help from Ashley webber who has that Loretta Lynn DNA in her vocal chords.  Certainly not his best work, but Oldham can't seem to disappoint me, yet that is.

Wow, this has taken quite a chunk of time.  More to come later, as I think I'm only halfway there.....Haven't even gotten to the hip hop/other stuff yet.....

A Peach Tree Grows in Greenpoint

Back in January of 1998, my best friend, C. and I moved into a ground floor apartment at 209 Kingsland Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  I recalled many experiences in that neighborhood today as I read an article in the Times about chemicals seeping into homes in the neighborhood.  When we took the apartment in 98' we were mystified by having a fully grown peach tree in our backyard.  I even think the broker pointed it out to us in January.  It was a huge plus for an $800 shithole with a brown tiled bathroom accompanied by green ceramics.  Then the summer came.  My God!  Fruit!  Pink. Juicy. Edible?  On the first of every month our landlord, a hulking, limping man, would come to collect the rent.  We asked him about the tree and the sweet fruit enticing us on a daily basis.  He made us aware of the enormous oil spills underneath the neighborhood and said he had never, ever, not even once, truly considered eating one due to that.  

It was torturous to have to watch piece after piece fall of the tree and rot.  The bees came a lot that summer, as did some rats to feast on some cancerous fruit.  You couldn't tell, though, which is what made the ordeal so deceptive.  They looked great.  The backyard was shielded from truck soot on busy Kingsland Avenue by a large public school with an enormous playground. 

So, now in 2008, a little over a decade later, people are discovering there is a lot more to deal with in Greenpoint than just an oil spill that was by far larger than Valdez.  Dry cleaning chemicals and automotive waste is drifting up from the ground as well.  Scary stuff.  People are fearful their property values will drop substantially if they allow testing on their homes and chemical vapors are found. 

Back in 98, we took the apartment partially out of desperation for badly needing a place to live and it was a two bedroom for less than a grand.  We could deal with the oil spill, tolerate it  because we were really young, and shit it was part of the charm of living in the "industrial" section of the neighborhood.  Not sure if I'd do it again.

FLA: The State I am In Part II

Late here candles and 

palm trees move as the wind blows.

Small ripples on the pool.

The kids circled and circled,

again and again in Hollywood.

Dizzying.

The good uncle tucked them in,

looked at them in their eyes.

Kisses on the forehead.

Adults now, gnawing

at each other.

There is no sympathy/empathy/apathy

with family.

Raw.

DVD.  

Silence.

There are a few more hours of warm weather,

little kids,

adorable and hugs galore.

Before it is time to go back to

silence.

FLA

FLA: The State I am In

Australian Riesling.  Who knew there was such a thing?

Sunrise Highway, cars zooming,

surround sound, left and right.

A perfect turkey, 

browned, juicy.

Something is missing from this table,

an accent, a nod, roll of the eyes.

The kids scream.  Way, way past their bedtime.

We scream together.

Way past mine.

We scream for what we can't have on holidays

and always used to have it.

G Train Drama Part II (Nada)

Today wasn't that interesting.  Same stop, but no eye contact.  Me reading newspaper.  She walking past me.  Ho, hum.  Perhaps this will be the last post in this short lived series.  

Townes Van Zandt

Townes.  I don't know who in this world can write songs, living or dead, as he could.  My faithful readers, of which there are few, I know.  I am getting divorced.  This man has gone through so much shit and kept on going until he really couldn't.  He is the equivalent of a song sampled by a million hip hop boys.  Tons copied him.  He was an original, wrote about life in a way that nobody could really do as well.   Simply unmistakable.  Moreso, I hear him and he gives me this odd hope.  Most of us are not TVZ and that is a blessing.  On the other hand, if we were TVZ without the afflictions, we would be able to say whatever we wanted.

G Train Drama PartI

I have been having days where I made eye contact with a librarian-esque girl on the Greatest train in the world.  It had been eye contact only until this week.  On Thursday, she sat next to me.  On Friday she sat across from me.  I read Mussina articles very closely on both days and "forgot" to look her way.  On Thursday the train was wide open.  It would have been so easy to talk to her.  Orange seats abound, many places to stand and look, she smelled nice.  More to come on Monday, I hope......

What should I do?  7:30-ish every day?

Blowin' in the Wind

There are not nights like this that often.  There are not times, when you are down and out, such as I am, where something happens and makes you think anew about things.  There is very little belief in the idea of change most of the time, i.e., the wife beater, or better yet the wife beating alcoholic.  

Yet, what happened today is profound.  Perhaps it isn't even that profound if its context weren't what it was.  The Bush years have been tough to endure.  And, such an end to them in such a historic way makes those years feel like roots deeply sown into the earth.  Those roots must hurt as they bend and pull and tear through the soil as they become real saplings.  It has got to fucking hurt!  

So, here we are little tree of 300,000,000 people.  

LATE NIGHT

And so it is Novenber the 1st.  It is late/early, depending on who you ask.  Murph is outside, smelling, sniffing whatever he does.  I am full of snot.  Full of whiskey from Scotland, full of shit.  I am that guy who stays up all night and takes his antibiotics.  I am that guy who .......

Who am I?

Thank you, Lord!

Well, well, I figured I'd have to write before crashing this evening.  The Neanderthals called The Boston Red Sox are not going to the World Series.  They lost in Tampa Bay tonight and the world, as much as it is spinning out of control in many ways, now feels a little bit better.  I am so happy to not have to hear Boston fans sing, "So Good! So good! So Good" for many months.  Now all that Tampa Bay needs to do is get a new logo for their hat.  Since they have already removed the devil from the ray, why not just drop that "B" and become the Tampa Rays.  At least then their letter logo wouldn't be representative of a highly infectious disease.  And, by the way, looking at their mascot, you gotta ask, what exactly is that?

Changing Gears

So, now, I'm Joe Plumber, aka anyone who makes over $250k a year.  I work my ass off.  I've given up the 6-pack, as it puts on too many calories anyway.  My snake is oily; dirty.  I need a bath and I think Hussein Obama is a terrorist.  I refuse to call him by his first name because of his privileged upbringing in such a wealthy country as Indonesia in the 60s/70s.  It was there where he met Bill Ayers while he was blowing shit up in random cities in the US.  While Ayers was blowing shit up in America, he sent telegraphic messages to Hussein Barack while he was studying in a terrorist jihad Catholic School/Madrasa in Indonesia.  At the tender age of eight, Hussein Obama learned how to overthrow the American economic system in the US and how to infiltrate banks in Western Europe.  In a rickshaw, he met Osama Bin Laden and further coerced with him on how to destroy his lunchbox after he ate his sandwich and before other kids could snag his HoHos.  After this discrete meeting Hussein Obama returned to the US to live with liberal Columbia students and practice law at another (god forbid liberal institution) Ivy League School.  The rest is history.........

Song of the Week

I think Wednesdays will be dedicated to a song I have been listening to a lot this week.  So, this weeks song is........ Cigarettes, Wedding Bands by Band of Horses.  This one has hit home to me ever since I first heard it.  The chorus repeats "They lied" and then turns it into a ladidied, lididied repetition.  I guess the song is kind of a fuck you to institutions and family drama.  

So, as you listen to the song, you'll notice that there are some striking lyrical illustrations in the first verse.  A dogwood fence has been destroyed by violence, a drunken brother attempts to intervene in some capacity.  Dogwood is considered to be a strong wood and was actually used in the past to commit violence.  Due to its strength it was used to make daggers, as it wouldn't break as one was stabbing someone.  So, the assumption can be made that whatever broke that fence was some kind of emotional/physical tornado.  

Further, there is the drunken brother.  Images of drunken brothers remind me of weddings, funerals, etc.  Therefore the lie could be a death or a marriage, but having to intervene is ominous.  Finally, one last note, simply based on the first verse, which would support an expensive event (funeral/wedding) is the idea of the working man's wage being pissed away.

Guided by Horses is a force.  They are cinematic in ways.  Most of their lyrics are quite minimalist, like a great Carver story.  Your mind can wander and wonder.

I just bought Deerhoof's new album and have been revisiting Springsteen's Nebraska ( a masterpiece).  Possibly one of these two will make the song of the week next week?

A Conversation With Joe 6-Pack at the Bar in Palinese

Joe: Golly, Ed! I sure had a goshdarn hard day.

Ed The Bartender: Golly, Joe! What the heck happened?

Joe: Well, my Main Street store had so few customers today and yet, I couldn't get one darned thing done because I watching my IRA portfolio just go down the tubes. You betchya it hurt to watch that!

Ed: Gee, well, Joe, have a Budweiser! If it makes you feel any better, I had a blunder of a day, too. Ya better believe it!

Joe: Well, golly gee, what happened to you?

Ed: Hucksters came in here and walked out on a $90 tab. Those knuckleheads really left me in the dark.

Joe: Ooh, that is so, goshdarn awful. This world makes me really mad!

Ed: Gee Whiz, Joe. You are so right. This world can be so darned cruel. You can bet your bottom dollar, I'll try and catch those cronies!

The Cat Analogy

Commanche.  He gets his name.  With a period.  Because he is Commanche.  Commanche is my cat.  I have owned him now for 10 years plus some months.  Commanche was born when Clinton was still president and the country was doing okay.  Commanche can also read my mind.  I am not going to go on some long, droning blah, blah, blah about him.  Yet he holds some random key to the current economic meltdown in the US.  

He got really sick on Sunday, the 14th of September.  He cried and moaned and couldn't pee.  So, off to the vet we go.  We go to the expensive vet in Park Slope.  We have already spent $3000 there on his sister who got really ill and made it.  Barely.  Now she has a growth on her vagina and is incontinent.   Back to Commanche.  He was blocked and couldn't pee, as stated above and he needed some work done on him.  

The first assumption was that he needed a catheter in his little penis to unblock him.  He would have to stay a few nights in the animal hospital.  Most likely this would work itself out and Commanche would walk out of the building in his little bag, in my arms three days later and all would be fine.  He's be in bed with me and purring.  I'd be the happy pet owner with a slightly lighter wallet.  All would be fine and owner/pet relationship would continue harmoniously.  

But it didn't work out that way.

I was denied fucking pet/vet credit.  I guess the industry has gotten that tight in this day and age.  The oddest thing about it though is that you apply for "vet" credit on the same website as you would people credit.  So, it turns into this odd site where you are searching through hospitals, clinics and veterinarians.  So weird.

So, I got denied.  If this cat can't get the surgery he needs he will die.  

Oddly enough, after frantic phone calls with numerous vets, pleading, freaking out on the phone, etc......  They tell me they can "dip into a fund for people like me."  

And this is where the analogy truly begins.  We can always dip into funds.  We are so rich.  That is the bottom line.  I am just a measly teacher, yet there is some fund to dip into somewhere that allows me to continue living an alright life and not worry about some dire shit and a little cat in a country of 300 million people.  

The Mess We're In

Well, well, well, what an eventful 2008 thus far.  I capped off this disastrous financial day by watching Taxi Ride to the Dark Side on HBO tonight.  Whew, I felt a mixture of sickness and awe at what great balls of steel this administration has.  Yeah, yeah, I know it is old hat and there isn't very much left to say about these past eight years, but there is this blatant question of how did we let this happen for so long?

These past eight years have truly, truly been the wild, wild west in this country.  Blatant lawlessness, cover up after cover up, shameless spending and lies that would make a Jim Carey character spit his milk out of his mouth across the room, down the hall and into oblivion.  There was nothing done about these myriad, and repetitive, occurrences and I am numb by the seemingly endless bad news that attaches itself to this administration on a daily basis.  Not only that, but we are truly supporting this broken system via the bailout which Bush seems to have mandated (fearfully, mind you).  Crony upon Crony is laughing out of the closed bank, down the street (Main or Wall, it really doesn't matter) and off to Dubai to live on one of those million dollar islands while millions suffer without homes, cars or jobs.  

It will be so nice to see this go.  It will be even more beautiful to read history books when I am fifty and acknowledge the blindness this entire country has been terrified into living on a day to day to basis.  It is so laughable that Palin, with her "god told me so" ideology would even be considered for another round of a presidency.  Another TKO (Theological Knockout) will come with a mighty punch if some house isn't cleaned up, and I mean soon.  

Last food for thought on this "black" Monday?  Could it be that?  Bush passed some legislation on Sept. 23, 2006 dating back to 9/11 that allowed for complete immunity for his administration to ever be tried for War Crimes.  What could be buried in that enormous document the house didn't pass today?