You Sir, Are a Douche Bag


I am actually lucky. I have pretty decent neighbors. But we all have one. One neighbor who drives you a little crazy. Let’s call him Bob. Bob is handy to have around at times. He has every tool imaginable, and anytime you come by he offers you a beer. Bob can be tough to live next to though.

He’s a talker for one thing. He will talk your ear off. If he sees you outside, you are committing to a long ass convo. I have resorted to hiding until he leaves the house, or pretending I didn’t see him if I go out to get the mail. I live in fear of getting into a “chat” with my neighbor.

Bob loves dogs. I have a dog, Bob has 5 dogs. Four of them are the irritating little yapping mother fucking dogs. It sounds like a baby is being eaten alive by hyenas when they get going. They yap all day and all night. It gets so bad sometimes that it wigs my dog out, and HE starts barking. (blood pressure rising just thinking of it)

That’s petty compared to what really pissed me off about Bob.

Before I stroke out completely though, here is a bad ass track by Woodhands. This is an indie electronic band that is blowing my mind right now. Named because of the organic feel they produce electronically. They are playing as I write this, and I keep restarting the song Under Attack which kinda ties into how I feel about Bob. Well…the title does.

[Woodhands – Under Attack]

Bob tells me that he’s gonna just give his house back to the bank since he’s got another house in another part of town. Awesome dude. Fuck off. You realize you hurt everyone else in the neighborhood with that move? Man up and stick it out. You promised to pay your loan. Now pay up. It’s not easy for anyone right now. I’m not fucking running away. YET. The problem is that the more people bail on their houses the more the banks have to short sale these fucking houses to try and recoup on their losses, which means they will sell the house for a fraction of its value. Thus, reducing the value of my fucking home, even though I still gotta pay my mortgage. Asshole. I hope your yapper dogs eat your face.

Well…I guess we all gotta do what we gotta do, but I would rather he disappeared without a clue…because knowing that he bailed just makes me angry. The worst part about this is that I will suffer through all this economic bullshit with nothing to show for it. There will be no benefits or special rewards for people who were not fucking over the banks. (Though they deserve to be fucked over) It will be business as usual. I wonder if credit scores will at least have a special caluclation for people who didn’t run from thier fudiciary obligations. I doubt it, but it helps me sleep.

Bob, i hope one of those tiny ass dogs trips you while walking down the stairs and you bust your gigantic head open.

Thanks for letting me rant. Now that the rant is over…I got another song that almost fits here. It’s called Fire Like Tinder by the group Post War Years. Which is what I hope I will call the years we are not in a war with Iraq and in a horrible recession that is choking the life out of this country. Maybe in those post war years I can look back fondly on my neighbor Bob.

[Post War Years – Flames Like Tinder]

Although, I doubt it.

Here is a little blurb from Post War Years’ press release, since I think my chest hurts too much to type much more:

Their danceable, other-worldly synth-beat driven sound as been celebrated in clubs and basements up and down the country honing their unquestionably skilful musicianship on the live scene.

By the way, Post War Years is on tour. Check out these dates, and go see them if you can:

25 Feb – London Lexington*
26 Feb – Brighton Audio*
27 Feb – Leamington Spa Assembly*
28 Feb – Leeds Cockpit 3*
1 Mar – Glasgow King Tuts*
7 Mar – Be at Proud Galleries London
* With James Yuill and Wave Machines

and…don’t forget to buy Woodhands:

What Would Wil Wheaton Do?


WWWWD

Sounds like a new version of the interwebs?

Kinda.

I’ve been thinking about how I can help inALLcaps.com get some more eyeballs. I’ve been considering branding, marketing strategies, and bumper stickers. It all comes back to Wil Wheaton.

He is an internet phenom. He is an actor and an author. He is one of the most popular bloggers/twitterers of all time. Not that I have any stats or anything to prove that, although he does have 61,158 followers on twitter. It just seems like wherever I turn, there he is. Obama’s Secretary of Geek Culture. Wil Wheaton is best known for his role in the Star Trek:The Next Generation and the movie Stand By Me..

You do know who I am talking about right?

The point is that if I could get Wil Wheaton to mention this blog…we will be known across the internet as geek approved. Which would be great not only because of the marketing coup it would be for the blog, but it would be a badge of honor being that I think Wil is very cool for being such a geek. I am a geek too, and proud of it!

Wil often posts artists/songs that his iTunes Genius/Shuffle has selected for him. Well, he posts the conversations he has with his iTunes regarding the songs. I will post a few of the tracks he’s mentioned and hopefully get him to mention us.


Here we go.

Wil says:

just realized that I *always* listen to Pink Floyd when I’m on the final edit of a writing project, but never on purpose. It just happens. 1:24 PM Feb 6th from twitterrific

@Phillyberg iTunes put Echos between Obscured by Clouds and Dark Side of the Moon. I think I saw a monolith spinning qoutside, too. 1:16 PM Feb 6th from twitterrific

[Pink Floyd – Obscured By Clouds]

[Pink Floyd – Echoes]

I love Pink Floyd. It’s not something I listen to often these days, but it was definitely the soundtrack to parts of my life that I look back fondly on today. One thing that drives me crazy though is hearing a Pink Floyd song in an iTunes shuffle. Why? well. There’s something to hearing a Pink Floyd song among its siblings on the album. I like to listen to Dark Side from beginning to end. The Wall is just better when you listen to it in order. When I hear a Pink Floyd song alone, it just seems to be missing something, namely the next song in the album.


Wil Says:

The Bends follows Obscured by Clouds very nicely, if you were wondering about that sort of thing.
2:10 PM Feb 2nd from twitterrific

Radiohead. What can I say. Bends is a great album, but let me talk about Kid A. I just read Killing Yourself to Live by Klosterman. If you have never read this book, it comes recommended from inALLcaps.com. A great book about love, death, and rock and roll. Klosterman mentions in the book how Kid A seems like the soundtrack to 9/11. That chapter itself is worth the purchase price of the book all on its own. I want to share a little line from the book that explains the point I am trying to make:

This is followed by track three, “The National Anthem.” This is when the first plane slams into the north tower at 470 mph. “The National Anthem” sounds a bit like a Morphine song. It’s a completely different direction from the first two songs on Kid A, and it’s confusing; it’s chaotic. “What’s going on?” the lyrics ask. “What’s going on?” It gets crazier and crazier, until the second plane hits the second tower (at 9:03 A.M. in reality and at 3:42 in the song).

[Radiohead – The National Anthem]

Relisten to the album after reading this chapter, and that album will haunt you every time you hear it.

Alright. How ’bout one more!

Wil says:

iTunes: Psst…Maneater Me: [:whispers:] I know, right? iTunes: Are you going to dance around and sing it? Me: Maybe a little. Both: Squee!
12:09 PM Jan 16th from twitterrific

I am not gonna say anything disparaging about Hall and Oates. I’m into a lot of the same things Wil is into. I like Hall and Oates just fine. Dancing and singing…to Maneater… PASS.

I did find it coincidental that a certain hot blonde I know experienced her first crush on Wil Wheaton. Of all the TigerBeat pinups, she chose Wil Wheaton. I always identified with Wil, but let me reiterate that I would never squee if Hall & Oates came on my iTunes. Maybe that’s why she likes me more than Wil.

Do Wil and me a solid, and buy the albums from the bands we mentioned above.

It’s only then you’ll hear the sirens…


Oh thank god for the band Kid, You’ll Move Mountains. I was worried I was not going to be inspired by anything to write about for my Monday post.

I checked our email account looking for something, anything…

Saw a submission by the band with the interesting name, and hoped I could judge a book by it’s cover.

I suppose I can.

From the bands one sheet (a one sheet is a short summary of a thing, in this case a quick bio of the band.):

Combining each musician’s unique background, Kid, You’ll Move Mountains draws heavily upon Nate Lanthrum’s shotgun drumming, while also incorporating Wills’ ambient, effects-laden guitars and Andrew Lanthrum’s jitterbug bass lines. Yet much of the band’s haunting songs rest on the vocal interplay of [Jim] Hanke and Nina Lanthrum.

The alternating singers sashay through dark tales of love and loss, avoiding the temptation of call-and-response verses that would have left Hanke singing the salty to his female counterpart’s sweet. Instead, the vocalists share the emotional burdens, each voicing stories of looming autumn days that turn to the dead of winter, before each also sings of the hopefulness of spring.

The idea of having two vocalists in a band is not new. Straylight Run was a band that made it work well, although they have since had a reworking of their line-up and no longer have two vocalists.

Usually though, the two vocalists confuses me. It seems disjointed and disconcerting. KYMM seems to put it together well. Might also be the fact that they just rock. The music is fantastic. Fresh and vibrant.

But listen to Wives’ Tale to get the taste of these two vocalists working it out. It’s fantastic.

[Kid, You’ll Move Mountains – Wives’ Tale]

Something old, something new
Something soiled, something used
Shake the rice out of your shoes
Hang the dress like you did the noose

I love Nina’s voice, and then Hanke’s growl comes in to put a finer point on it.

Take a look at Nina, she’s adorable. Start professing your love now, I am sure she ends up being a hot commodity with the assured increase in popularity this band will surely see in the coming months.

I might just be biased though, “you’ll” is one of my FAVORITE contractions.

Buy the album directly from the artists. It’s only seven bucks. That’s better than a gov’t bailout plan!

Tell Nina inALLcaps sent ya’.

[Editors Note: Doh. I should remember to do more research before hitting the PUBLISH button. Nina is married. To the drummer. Drummers get all the hot chicks. If you are thinking of learning an instrument, remember my advice. Thanks.]

Oh, that was supposed to be a secret!

I learned recently that Dwight Howard, center and power forward for the Orlando Magic, sings Beyonce songs while he’s at the free throw line. It’s funny that this giant man pumps himself up and gets focused signing Beyonce, but well…let him explain it (From ESPN’s PTI):

“Ya’ all heard about that? Oh, that was supposed to be a secret!” Howard said. “Like when I’m at the free throw line I try to keep my mind off everything and I might just up there and start singing like …”

(singing) ‘I’m a single lady, I’m a single lady’ … And sometimes I might make it! It happens. I get up there and I might sing Beyonce. I don’t know why, out of all the artists, I’m supposed to be like, (makes menacing noises), like Jay-Z, or Kanye or Lil Wayne, or someone towards those lines, but I’m singing Beyonce … If I have to sing Beyonce to make a couple of free throws, I’m gonna keep doing it.”

Love it!

What would you sing if you were at the free throw line and needed to get focused? My choice would be any song off the Ignition album put out by The Offspring around October 1992.

Why? The music is fast and edgy. I tend to get more focused with a little anger.

Just listening to it gets my heart beating faster. I was telling someone recently that this album makes me wanna drive very fast. Listen to the song Session and imagine you gotta get across town, weaving in and out of cars on the road. /shiver YES!

[The Offspring – Session]

The Offspring have a booty load of albums, all worth picking up. But Ignition is the best. CASE CLOSED.

BUY SOME OFFSPRING RIGHT FUCKING NOW

You ain’t gonna miss your water until your well runs dry…


I spend a lot of time at Daytrotter.  It’s a great site.  Probably once you discover them, you might never come back to our silly little blog.  It’s what every music blog strives to be, at least in part.

Read this from their site:

There are so many music/entertainment websites that copy one another, scrambling so fast to “discover” or present something new to the world. And just because you get there first, it doesn’t really make you an explorer. We did poke a stars and stripes into the moon, but we could always see it. We knew it was there. It wasn’t new. We can always come along and say we did, saw, heard something first, but we’re never right. What Daytrotter is attempting to do is to not kid around with you and tell you that we found something that you never knew existed. We are going to contribute to the musical landscape, not just toss it around like a used book or a stolen pick-up line. We’re going to give you something that you truly have never heard. We are not giving you songs from someone you love’s record album, thereby stealing from someone you love. We’re giving you exclusive, re-worked, alternate versions of old songs and unreleased tracks by some of your favorite bands and by a lot of your next favorite bands.

Yeah.  They kick ass.  Make it a site you visit often.

I was listening to the session TK Webb & the Visions did on daytrotter the other day.

WHAT?!?

You haven’t heard of TK Webb & the Visions?

um.

Ok. Real quick…

[TK Webb & The Visions – 1,000 Horns]

The CD is great. Not overly compressed, so it’s a pleasure to listen to. If you love psychedelic bluesy guitar rock, I suggest looking into them further.

(We Now Return You to Our Regular Program Already in Progress)

While I was listening to those, I discovered yet another bad ass site being advertised on Daytrotters site. 

Wolfgang’s Vault is a place you can listen to the greatest live music of all time in full concert format. They even have an iPhone app so that you can easily listen to these live concerts from anywhere you are.  I have been listening to some amazing Bob Marley concerts.  
They way Marley and the Wailers build and build during the set is mind bending.  Please, go check out wolfgangsvault and check out all the amazing music there.

SKELETONS come to LIFE in my closet!


My shadow’s the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart’s the only thing that’s beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
‘Til then I walk alone

Green Day always makes me think of my friend Ade. She was totally a punk rock princess to me. Even before she was into Punk Rock. My memory, albeit addled with reckless drug abuse, is that I introduced her to Green Day. I set her life into motion in a way. She now had a purpose. It was not long after this introduction that I noticed the giant Green Day sticker on the back of her new car. She never gave a fuck about what you thought of her. I spent many hours with her on the power box outside my house. We talked about our parents, about school, the douche bags on the bus, and more importantly; we talked about music.

And on this night…I think of her fondly. I hope she is happy. I picture us both singing along. I salute you with my middle finger and a smile!

Can I get another Amen? AMEN!

Bullet in a Bible is a live show by Green Day which documents the two biggest shows that Green Day have ever headlined in their career. According to Rolling Stone, Bullet in a Bible was the seventh largest one-band concert in history, playing to over 130,000 people at the Milton Keynes National Bowl in the UK on 18 and 19 of June, 2005.

My first thought while watching this was:

Wow…I had forgotten how many bands have looked up to Green Day in their style and the sound. And the first one that comes to mind is…My Chemical Romance!

[My Chemical Romance – The Sharpest Lives]

There is some good commentary in between songs that make the DVD worth a purchase all on its own. There was a lot of crowd interaction in the show, and some pyrotechnics. I wonder if they just did that for this big show?

I sat down to watch in my living room while nursing a bottle of JD. Choice. It was great to sing along to Billy Joe and company with a nice buzz in my belly. How will you enjoy watching it? Let me know.

[Green Day – Android]

I watched in terror, the lake opened wide


For Xmas I got three classes to a cooking school. I was shocked at first. Why would someone think to get me this? I guess I forgot about all the times I had daydreamed aloud about owning my own hippie pizza kitchen. But somehow the idea of classes threw me off guard.

I’ll tell it like it happened, it was Darius and Nolan and me
Just a few po’ boys trying to get up outta Missouri
Took 55 to Louisiana, stopped by the highway to eat
They both had crawfish, strictly chicken for me
Back out under thunderheads, the radio was Southern soul
They interrupted Clarence Carter with a strange-ass local show,
They were sayin’,

After further thought, I realized it was quite a thoughtful gift. I love watching Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen and other foodie shows, and while watching them I get pretty into it. I often wish I had better knife skills, and I would love to try my hand at using some of these fancy ingredients like truffles or selecting the freshest ingredients to throw in my dishes.

Come down to Lake Pontchartrain
Rest your soul and feed your brain
That’s where you will get to see
Everything the water can be.

Food is a powerful thing. Eating a great risotto is something that can change your life. You never forget when you taste your first amuse-bouche. Even horrible meals are memorable. I can’t think about LSD without remembering the grilled cheese sandwich I ate while frying my balls off.

The rain was comin’ down, the wind was howlin’ outside of Slidell
It was the kinda night that makes you think the whole world’s goin’ to hell.
We got off on an exit ’cause we couldn’t read the map so great
Near the Choctaw Motel, we parked to deliberate
When out of the bayou came a man like the lake had a tongue
He was right up on the glass, all yellow-eyed, black teeth, bangin’ on the
windshield
screamin’ like a demon at the top of his lungs,

Come down to Lake Pontchartrain
Rest your soul and feed your brain
Free for you and all your friends
Crawfish ’til the bitter end.
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain
Wade to where the shallows break
That’s where you will get to see
Everything the water can be.

[Download Ludo – Lake Ponchartrain]

The song we are highlighting today, is about food, in a way. It’s the story of three boys, on a road trip. A quick bite on the side of the highway has horrific repercussions.

I was driving out of there as fast as a Camry could
But the interstate was flooded and I had to take the road through the woods
Bad move in retrospect, the road disappeared in the rain
And I stood on the brakes when I saw the sign: “Lake Pontchartrain”
Darius was yelling that he saw somebody out in the swells
He jumped out runnin’ and Nolan was goin’ as well
“Come back!” Why the hell would they leave the car?
And that’s when I heard it, make no mistake
the voices were calling them from under the lake.

Come down to Lake Pontchartrain…
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain…
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain…
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain…

I first heard the song while driving to Arizona. My brother threw on his iPod while we were on a road trip of our own. When this song came on, I was stunned.

“Who is this?!” I shouted over the blaring music.

“Ludo,” he replied.

Shit. I have this album. How could I have missed it? Well, I had to ensure that you, our faithful readers, don’t also miss out.

The crawfish were screaming, the waves danced in time
My friends went in deeper, the water, it climbed
I watched in terror, the lake opened wide
And horribly roaring, it pulled them inside.
That’s how it happened, why would I lie?
There were no bodies, I’ve got none to hide
I’m just a boy, lost his friends in the rain,
Any more questions, just go and ask Lake Pontchartrain

Quickly purchase You’re Awful, I Love You and enjoy the whole album!


I broke free on a Saturday morning…


I put the pedal to the floor…

At the moment, I am sitting on a king size bed at Quality Inn of beautiful Glendale, AZ. I am here with my brother to watch the Cardinals play NFL regular season tomorrow. I just got back from an Irish pub named Tim Finnegans. I got a nice buzz, got beat 2 to 3 in a game of cricket, but I feel ok about it since I kept it very competitive.

I have been thinking about writing this post for weeks, but as of a few minutes ago, I had not written a word.

I wanted to talk about the end of the year. It’s nearly time for us to change our calendars. There is a song that I always consider an anthem of mine as we get close to NYE. It’s the song This Year by the indie band The Mountain Goats. Well, the song’s title might give it away a little bit, but the song is about getting through the year.

Even if it kills you.

Well, the meaning of the song is probably a tad deeper than that. I mean, Scotch on your tongue or not, seventeen is a long year if you are desperate to legally get the fuck out of the house of an abusive parent. The scene ends badly as you might imagine…

It’s a great song to scream/sing in your car as you are thinking of just how shitty the economy is and how your house has lost tens of thousands of dollars in just a few months.

I’m just saying.

[Download The Mountain Goats – This Year (Live)]

I also wanted to tell you a story about my blue Gap shirt with the yellow stripe, that I always wear on the holidays. It’s beat up and well worn, but it fits so well! The best part might be that every year, in every photo, I am in that shirt! Makes me giggle everytime I see myself in those pictures. The only way you might know which year that xmas picture was taken, is by the configuration of my facial hair in the photo.

But you don’t care about that do you? You would rather hear more about The Mountain Goats. Maybe I could tell you about how John Darnielle, the lead singer and songwriter, just wrote a book called Black Sabbath: Master of Reality for the 33⅓ book series. I could even tell you about the 33⅓ series and why you should really check it out.

I’m not going to, though. I am tired. It’s late. I need my beauty sleep for the big tailgate party tomorrow before the game!

From all of us at inALLcaps.com, we wish you a Happy New Year!

Hail Satan!

[Download The Mountain Goats – The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton (Live)]
or
[Download The Mountain Goats – The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton]
and
[Download The Mountain Goats – This Year]

But be sure to eventually buy these:

PSST…

Andy Hull covered a John Darnielle song…guess which one?

LOL

[Download Andy Hull – The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton (Cover)]

may your organs fail before your dreams fail you


Alle, alle auch sind frei!

That was a cruel joke played by the Nazi’s with their prisoners, but ‘ollie ollie oxen free’ might be the rallying cry for many signed bands to get free and make music with out the pressure of getting on mTV. Most bands would not want to be forced into a mold to sell records. Well most bands WE respect here at inALLcaps.

“Selling out” refers to the compromising of one’s integrity, morality and principles in exchange for money, ‘success’ (however defined) or other personal gain. It is commonly associated with attempts to increase mass appeal or acceptability to mainstream society. A person who does this, as opposed to continuing along his or her original path, is labelled a sellout and typically disregarded. Selling out is often seen as fickle; gaining success at the price of lost credibility.

The punk band The Matches have a song on their album Decomposer that reminds me of this struggle. This song is definitely about money, to me. The money being what cuts his skin. He’s a ‘mark for their marketing plans’ which to me means that he’s falling into what most bands do when they try to make it big. They have to change their style of their songs or whatever, not because they want to, but because someone else thinks that it’s good marketing.

[Download The Matches Papercut Skin]

But this band doesn’t seem to be rolling in dough.

I found this quote about the making of the video for “Yankee In A Chip Shop”:

The only money spent on this video came out of my pocket– I’d been saving up checks from art jobs just to shoot this second video for our new record– one that there was no budget for in our recording contract, but that I was passionate about, and knew that people would be tickled to see.

Saving money from ART JOBS?

Well at least the bands hands are clean, so far. It must be tough for a band to make a living and yet not appear to sell out.

The Man, The Myth, The Legend


Well, call him what you want. I call him my friend. He’s a good solid person that I trust and respect. He’s also been known to drop a hot house set from time to time, but it seems those days are behind him.

He is Walt Zink. He writes for this here blog. In fact one of his latest posts got us to the number one spot on the most popular songs of hypem! We were very stoked to see that happen, as well as the gigantic jump in traffic and subscribers!

In honor of this achievement of Mr. Zink’s, I wanted to share a track with you that he introduced to me some 10 years ago? The artist was Jackson and His Computer Band and the song was “Make It Happen“. This song to me was some sort of awakening for me. I scoured the web and record stores for more french house. I wish I had an MP3 of this song to share with you. Sadly I could not come up with one, and Walt’s vinyl has a bad scratch in it. (Status update: Walt bought us each a copy on vinyl…hopefully one of us will get it in a post ASAP. Stay tuned!)

Instead I will offer a few other songs by Jackson Fourgeaud (he is the one man band that makes up JAHCB) for you to nibble on until then!

Off the album Smash:

[Jackson and His Computer Band – Utopia]

and Walt mentioned Justice last week, and look…I found a JAHCB remix of D.A.N.C.E.

[Justice – D.A.N.C.E. (Jackson Remix)]


One last thing. When I went to hypem.com to catch our blog in the number one spot, I listened to some of the other songs in the list and I found a band that I am now a fan of. Mae Shi are an indie band from Los Angeles. I took this from their myspace page:

We are The Mae Shi. We were born in Los Angeles in late 2002. If you are just hearing of us now, you missed out on four records and 250 shows of busted electronics, spazzier-than-fuck drums, crazy-ass boogie guitar, distorted caveman bass and throat-destroying vocals. You missed us playing in 100 different basements and garages to 100s of different kids. You missed our 59-minute-long debut EP and our 5RC debut full-length, Terrorbird, which was a hyper ADD-afflicted hip-hop concept album about monsters and the Old Testament.

This is our story, and we invite you to come along. It’s about self-improvement and trying to live life at the top of your lungs, living life rightly, respecting others, making something you’re proud of, and trying to sort out all the static and figuring out what matters. It’s about trying to forge that third way, that way everyone said it couldn’t be done. We do this in basements and backyards and in fancy clubs we don’t even feel comfortable in. We do this in living rooms and bathrooms and bedrooms and wherever the sound sounds best. We do this with ten dollar keyboards and Olvera Street guitars and with light-reactive synths we built ourselves. We do this with broken cymbals and busted speakers. We do this the first thing when we wake up. We do this after a hard day at work, when it’s the only solace and life seems to be a constant source of frustration. We do this on weekends. We do this all the time.

Check out their myspace page if you have a moment to read the whole story.

And I leave you with my favorite song from theirs off the album Hillyh as well as an amazing video for another amazing song from that album.

[The Mae Shi – Kingdom Come]