Pissed Jeans Is Better Than Everything Ever

The moment it hit me: shirtless frontman Matt Korvette singing into his bassist's asshole. The cap on a show of sweat and self-groping. Pissed Jeans (aka The Jesus Lizard) was opening for Black Dice, which made it all the more apparent that the latter has lost their grasp on nonsense. Methinks they don't get along too well in the green room.

Jeff Mewbourn of Beatbots A/V Club recorded the whole thing which you can find here. I recommend that you do. You'll also find audio from both Ponytail and WZT Heart's sets. The latter is a fantastic 20-minute tribal noise jam. Jeff recorded BD's set too but hasn't gotten a reply from the band as to whether or not it's kosher to post the audio. I recall it hewed pretty close to Load Blown with some Broken Ear Record in there for good measure. People danced and it didn't hurt.

A Shame

Why, why, why, whywhywhy do I even give a damn anymore? What kind of pathetic obsessive am I that I give this much of a fuck what slash who a newspaper on the other side of the country prints? I should take a walk and admire the leaves, read something, play with the dog (that I'm dogsitting). It's a holiday and stuff; I should relax, maybe blog about the nice Thanksgiving I had (Tofurky, a lot of Bushmills and soy nog, board games), and not dwell on the latest hundred words of swill that's staring at me in another browser window. Or at least I could have a sense of humor about it.

Here's the deal. You give someone 70-120 words and $10 to write something intelligent, informed, and halfway entertaining about a band/show.Good deal, right? And, if you have the first clue about what you're talking about, pretty easy. In the right mindset, it can be done in 20 minutes. Rack up like five of them a week and you almost have rent (OK, deep North Portland moldy basement rent). So, there's no excuse for this:

Under the Blacklight isn’t just the title of Rilo Kiley’s latest offering, but also the recipe for success when it comes to DayGlo—the ink that gets its glow on when the lights go down. Will you too come alive under the black lights at Rotture when San Francisco’s Eats Tapes make its way onstage to engage in a bit of experimental techno? With local Knights of Neon, DJs Pocketrock-it and DJ Bonaparte there for a boost, all bets are on the night’s beats outshining any luminescent shades of green, pink and orange.

Wha? I come away from that with "experimental techno" and a round-a-bout, not terribly clever endorsement of said "experimental techno" and a whole lot of filler. Under the Blacklight? Why? So we know you're down with Rilo Kiley? We need to be told what DayGlo is but not what kind of music to expect? So we know you're down with DayGlo. Right. Got it. Maybe some context at least? I feel like I just got stalled for a hundred words while the writer ducks out the backdoor. A good writer can make up for being uninformed--mask it, anyhow--but a bad one has nothing to hide behind.

A few years ago, Willamette Week had about the standing of the Tribune within Portland's ignored, somewhat bitter electronic music community. Aside from the whole becoming an editor thing, changing that is what I'm most proud of. I don't particularly like seeing it torn down in front of my face.

But, hey, this blurb probably got the writer on the guest list, at least.

I Care About Detroit

Someone made this list about which cities are safe, which are dangerous, and which ones are sorta in between. I don't know how they did it, but given they've scored 368 cities down to the hundredth of a point, I'm willing to take their word that some work went into this. All apologies to Portland readers; you did not "win." I know that's hard to wrap you're head around. Mission Vallejo, CA won.

Fun facts about Mission VallejoViejo, CA from Wikipedia:

-"The median income for a household in the city is $78,248, and the median income for a family is $86,902."

-"At the center of the city is a man-made lake, Lake Mission Viejo, a private association for Mission Viejo residents with custom waterfront homes, condominiums, boat rentals,and swim beaches."

Detroit, my hometown (median income: $29,526), lost for the fourth year in a row and Baltimore (median income: $30,078) came in 12th from last. A group email discussion ensued at City Paper about slogans B'more could derive from all of this and Lee's contribution was "Baltimore--Still Better Than Detroit." Yeah, that's probably true at this point in most ways. People actually move here, more and more actually. Baltimore doesn't have to worry about extinction; Detroit does. Literally.

Needless to say: not good thoughts.

Then, this morning, Matos sent me a song. I'd never thought about just how cool it is that you can do that, just send someone a song. It's a nice idea. The song is Smokey Robinson's, "I Care About Detroit" from the Complete Motown Singles Vol. 8. It's cheesy. It could be like a radio commercial or something--maybe it was--but it has this spoken intro...

Listen:

boomp3.com

Totally unrelated, a few hours later we're bouncing around an email discussion about this week's Metro Times cover story, "The 100 Greatest Detroit Songs Ever." The vibe is "awe."

The photo is of the Belle Isle Arboretum, my favorite place in the city for so many reasons.

October Office Ambience

Special emphasis on “ambience” this month; can’t explain aside from it probably has something to do with my earlier post on new job/city stress and “pretty” music. I can’t handle much more first thing in the morning beyond some variation on Eno-eque deep-tripping hippie jamz or folk slash folk-smear.

Laraaji, Essence-Universe

Dude worked with Eno on Ambient 3. Deep, shimmering tones that move like the moon/sun/stars move across the sky. The two on here are around half-hour each but it only takes five to ten minutes of that to burrow heavy into your skull and stick in there like a vibrational salve/resin.

White Rainbow, Prism of Eternal Now

Yep. Still.

Black Mirror comp

Ian Nagoski’s distillation of his absurd collection of 78s. Gathered over his life from more far corners than everyone I know will have visited, combined, by the time we’re all dead. The curatorial principle was asking people, wherever, what they listen to--what their friends listen to--and not what he thought he should be hunting (an obsessive music academic and record store owner, he would’ve had a good idea). "World" music for cultural anthropologists.

Jay-Z, American Gangster

Weird, conceptual, and entirely without flow; this will be the best/worst album of the year.

Kode9 & the Spaceape, Memories of the Future

Creepy, narcotic grime/dubstep very much so from the future.

This is "Kingstown." Listen:

boomp3.com

Panda Bear, Person Pitch

Yeah, I know I got on this train late. Someone’s certainly already told you why this is the greatest thing…ever.

Supersilent 6

“Like the hold music in heaven.” – Lee Gardner