I'm on the radio tonight at midnight!   

Just wanted to let y'all know...
That's right, join me for my new new new timeslot (maybe I'll be in this one for more than two months this time) Sunday night/monday morning from midnight to 3am only on WUSB 90.1 FM. For the reception impaired, try http://www.wusb.org
yippeee

 
mood: jittery
music: spacemen 3 - forged prescriptions

PS I will blog some kind of update soon...

Oog-a-chaka

Hey kids, just a brief update to fill in some gaps. Lessee, what's happened lately? A quick rundown:

--The Repercussions EP, Don't Fear... was recorded and mixed. It sounds amazing. Apparently, the guy who recorded it is supposedly mastering it as I'm typing this. I hope so. I want to release something amazing-sounding. It already sounds awesome, but I want it to sound as awesome as possible. The first release on Example Such Cloth Hammer Engine (ESCHE) will blow your minds! Seriously. Catch them at Saints and Sinners this Thursday, with Jets Jaguar, The Clap and The Arsons. They are also playing Saints and Sinners next Wednesday, the 12th. I will be there for that one (no work). They rock, and I'm not just saying that because Matt's my brother and I'm putting out their EP.

--Sunday the 26th of October, Matt and I went to see Death Cab For Cutie and the Long Winters. When we got to the Bowery Ballroom, a slightly drunken Dawn greeted us merrily. We then said hello to an already inebriated Jackie and a slightly soused Sergei. Good times, indeed! The show was amazing. Both bands were great. THe Long Winters played a great mix of songs, mostly from the recent album, When I Pretend To Fall, but including a couple from their first, The Worst You Can Do Is Harm, including my favorite "Carparts," which they played right after I said "Carparts" in a quiet voice, not liking to be demanding. The guy next to me was like "Wow, you called it." Death Cab was totally intense...and for an encore, they played "Free Fallin'" with John Roderick and Sean Nelson from Long Winters on backing vocals and tambourines. Awesome!!!

--Made another mix cd for no particular reason. It's kinda thematic, and kinda down at times, but enjoyable nonetheless. The tracklisting looks like this:


Goddamn Right, It's A Beautiful Day

1. Iron & Wine "Such Great Heights"
2. Pink Floyd "If"
3. Loose Fur "Chinese Apple"
4. Elliott Smith "Waltz #2 (XO)"
5. Ballboy "Meet Me At The Shooting Range"
6. Idlewild "In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction"
7. Grandaddy "Yeah Is What We Had"
8. Maquiladora "Ritual Of Hearts"
9. Yo La Tengo "Don't Have To Be Sad"
10. Death Cab For Cutie "Title And Registration"
11. With Every Idle Hour "Untitled"
12. Dismemberment Plan "Time Bomb"
13. Eels "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues"
14. The Long Winters "Cinnamon"
15. True Love Always "Modesto"
16. John Vanderslice "Underneath The Leaves"
17. The Postal Service "Such Great Heghts"

------------------

---Bid au revoir and bon voyage to the lovely Dawn Wednesday night, as she was preparing to depart for Syracuse, in search of education and adventure in upstate New York. You will be missed, Dawnie. But I promise I'll visit at some point. I swear I need two weeks off to visit all my friends upstate for a reasonable amount of time. Got to see 3/4 of Come Down (Mark, Nicole & Tom), 1/2 of WEIH (Sergei & Sean) and one part ex-Bravado (Karen) + one Miss Jackie = one heck of a good time.

----Went to a costume party Thursday night at Bev & Ceci's house, because I was off of work. Drank enough to make up for a weekend of missed parties due to my stupid work schedule. I even drank enough to pass out for a little while. Go me! Woke up without a hangover, too. Good times.

--Friday night through Monday morning were spent working mostly. That always sucks. Especially when everyone is having parties and Pimpcore actually plays a show, and I couldn't go. Boo work!

--So, what am I doing tonight? I have no fucking idea. If you have ideas, call me. Or something. Whatever. Heh heh.

xo,
J-Ro

Well, I know that everyone else is doing it, but why can't I do it, too? Elliott Smith is dead of an apparent suicide. I think that it is a really deep loss for the "talented and not crappy" music community. I will admit that I was a little late to warm up to him, though not as late as I was to warm up to Jeff Buckley, to name another now dead icon whose music I was reluctant to appreciate. I had first heard of Elliott Smith as a member of Heatmiser, whose final record, Mic City Sons, I had gotten a promo copy of at Tower Records right before it was released in 1995 or 96, and I thought it was limp-wristed, wanna-be-grunge-but-not-manly-enough crap. I'm kind of stubborn that way, sometimes. So if any of you are confident that I might like it better now, go ahead and burn me a copy or something. Heatmiser had broken up after recording the record, prompting Virgin to release it via it's independent arm, Caroline. After that, Elliott had struck out solo full-time, having already released some solo material on the side during the Heatmiser years. I had heard from Lou Barlow's then-girlfriend, now-wife, Kathleen Billus, that he was kind of a Lou Barlow wannabe. Remembering the mediocrity of the Heatmiser record, I figured this was probably true. Then one day, Kathleen recanted these initial opinions and called Smith a genius. I still was not swayed. Even hearing the lovely songs in "Good WIll Hunting" couldn't get me to buy a Smith record, even when I was living in the Pacific Northwest, where he was obviously quite large at the time (I lived there from 96-99). I guess one day, something changed my mind. I'm not exactly sure what, but last year I broke down and bought a used copy of Figure 8 and immediately loved it. The song "Happiness" is on a mix cd I made earlier this year. "Waltz #2" is a recent favorite of mine, and I'm truly sorry I didn't get to appreciate him sooner and see him play live. The music world really did lose someone truly gifted and I wish that I could have given a shit when it mattered. Hopefully, we will meet in another lifetime, Elliott, and you and I will have made some better choices that go-round (for those of you unaware of my philosophies of endlessly repeating the same life in the same time period until you get it right, which is what I think causes deja vu, I think I wrote a blog about that once, but I can't be sure). Well, those are just a few of my thoughts about Elliott Smith. I hope you find some of that happiness you were longing for...

Also, while I'm posting, let me bid a fond farewell to Fred "Rerun" Berry, who died yesterday. He was too young, and now he will never be able to teach my brother how to dance for his wedding day. Poor Matt had his heart set on learning "the Rerun" for his evenutal nuptials. But now, back to working on a mix cd for Come Down. Yes, that's right, an entire band wants a J-Ro mix cd. Why, you might ask? Obviously, they are nutsy folk! For that, I love them. Nothing makes me feel more special than appreciation of my music nerdliness.

now playing: Ride "Leave Them All Behind EP"

So, yeah, I'm a little behind posting my mix cd tracklistings as of late. I made one for my friend Shannon a couple months ago, which I will post the tracks for soon. Meanwhile, here's one I started making for the trip to see Come Down at Sin-é with Dawn the night we were both supposed to make mix cds, but mine was not ready and she thought hers was too crappy. I ended up finishing it just in time for my trip to Syracuse to see Jismo and surprise him for his birthday the day after his birthday.

Space, Love & Geography: Metal, Maps & Pain

1. Slowdive "Alison"
2. Mogwai "Stanley Kubrick"
3. Brian Jonestown Massacre "Who?"
4. Treepeople "Big Mouth Strikes Again" (The Smiths)
5. Carlos "Heavy Metal Monday"
6. Les Savy Fav "Dishonest Don Pt. II"
7. Idlewild "You Held The World In Your Arms"
8. Medicine "Time Baby 2"
9. Dead Low Tide "Navy Buttons"
10. New Pornographers "From Blown Speakers"
11. Long Winters "Scent Of Lime"
12. imaginary baseball league "from arkansas, with love"
13. Mountain Goats "Going To Port Washington"
14. Destroyer "Sublimation Hour"
15. The Decemberists "Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect"
16. +/- {Plus/Minus} "Trapped Under Ice Floes {Redux}"
17. Interpol "Leif Erikson"
18. Elefant "Annie"
19. Broadcast "Before We Begin"
20. The Postal Service "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight"
21. Migala "Arde"

***********

Here's the listing for a brand new mix cd I just finished at 4am, after finishing it at 8pm and then changing the tracks around again, unfortunately dropping the Dismemberment Plan...it was hard, but it had to be done.

It Was Easy When You Were Younger

1. Television Personalities "If I Could Write Poetry"
2. Ballboy "I Wonder If You're Drunk Enough To Sleep With Me Tonight"
3. The Stratford 4 "Tiger Girl"
4. The Raveonettes "Do You Believe Her"
5. Yo La Tengo "Deeper Into Movies"
6. Interpol "Untitled"
7. +/- {Plus/Minus} "Here We Are {Again}"
8. Grandaddy "The Warming Sun"
9. Pete Yorn "Ez"
10. Pedro The Lion "Indian Summer"
11. Damien Jurado "Inevitable"
12. Wolf Colonel "I Swear I Am"
13. Idlewild "I'm Happy To Be Here Tonight"
14. Canyon "Blankets And Shields"
15. The Long Winters "Stupid"
16. Rilo Kiley "The Execution Of All Things"
17. Tracy Shedd "Faint Pale Smiles"
18. Archers of Loaf "You And Me"
19. Karl Hendricks Trio "Somewhere A Weekend Of Sin"
20. Unwound "Fiction Friction"

*****************

So that's the kinda stuff I'm putting on mixes these days. I've got ideas for one or two more right now, with about 10 or so tracks already on deck in iTunes waiting for the call. Going to Manhattan today (pretty soon, actually) to do so café relaxin', people watchin' and writin' before doing a little record shoppin' and then meetin' up with my friend Molly, who is in town from upstate. We're gonna chill and then go see Beulah and John Vanderslice. She hasn't heard of either act, but you know they're so good she will love it. Anywho, that should be all for now. Gotsta get dressed and get the heck out of the hizzouse. Because, a lot like Not, I'm never on time...I'm always....sleeping!

now playing: Canyon - "Blankets & Shields"

Yo La Tengo

Autumn Sweaters and Nuclear War   
06:26am 11/10/2003
 
mood: tired
music: Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun

Saw Yo La Tengo tonight at the Warsaw with Bunny. Aislers Set and the Sun Ra Arkestra opened. The Arkestra was amazing!!

Yo La Tengo, as always, delighted me to no end, and if they were still playing, i would still be there grinning like an idiot and spazzing out, as is my wont. But all good things must end and this was no exception, although it did last until 1:40am.

their setlist went something like this:
Beach Party Tonight
Don't Have To Be Sad
From a Motel 6 (extra long and w/ many gtr freakouts!)
Nothing But You and Me
Autumn Sweater (MBV remix version)
Sugarcube
Decora
Tiny Birds
Little Eyes
False Alarm
I Heard You Looking (still the best 7 1/2 minutes you can spend engaged in something besides sex -- although if you combine the two, it's even better!)
Nuclear War (w/ the Sun Ra Arkestra!)
----
Tom Courtenay
something i didn't recognize

there were a couple other songs played that I wasn't familiar with or couldn't remember off the top of my head (I didn't write it all down tonight...I know you are shocked)

Show was damn fine. Something about YLT that just amazes me every time. So much noise for just 3 people...but it's a joyful noise. I went with Bunny from work and she bought me a couple beers. We tried one of the crazy Polish brews on tap at the Warsaw, but it was pretty much like Budweiser but with a name with an odd combination of vowels and consonants. Beer #2 was a bottle of Heineken..not my favorite, but I won't drink Bud...unless of course it is disguised with a crazy Polish name.

Since I had left the house having digested nothing but a bowl of Matzoh Ball soup and a large mug of coffee, I got a bit peckish, so between the Sun Ra Arkestra and Yo La Tengo sets, while Bunny bought the second round of brews, I got myself a plate of pierogies and kielbasa. As of 3am, I could still taste it. That was after the drive to Manhattan and the coffee avec doughnut.

Tonight I think I discovered an answer to the question as to why I'm single. Aside from having too many female friends (if a guy is hanging out with a woman, I think people tend to think that those two people are together), I think the way I spastically "dance" and play air everything (guitar, bass drums, even keyboards) puts me into a category perhaps even more frightening than Elaine Bennis' infamous "thumb dance" from Seinfeld.

I was thinking about this during "False Alarm" as I was not only making the feedback sounds of the bass in the beginning, but also playing an invisible organ, which, I think, perhaps crosses some kind of air instrument line. Of course, doing an Ira-style air-guitar freakout during "I Heard You Looking" (all 7 1/2 minutes) surely doesn't make women's loins all over Brooklyn quiver uncontrollably --- "Oh, look Janie, that guy over there is soo hot! He's spazzing out uncontrollably as if having a seizure in rhythm to the music! I find that SO sexy! I must have him. NOW! (Heads turn as crazy Janie pushes and claws people out of her way to reach J-Ro, who does a dance resembling a ragdoll's with limbs flailing to and fro, but ultimately, she just trips on the many orphaned beer bottles that populate the floor, landing face first in a big puddle of mystery liquid (most likely a mixture of all the leftover beer drained out of the aforementioned bottles, mixed with the half-cup of my first beer -- that crazy, Polish Bud-like -- that I somehow spilled on the couple in front of us. I swear it just jumped out of my hand) before even reaching her density, one George McFly). Man, that was funny. Maybe there is a point to me writing things after all. To make me laugh at how weird my brain is.

Oh, and after having listened to the whole thing finally, aftr purchasing it at tonight's show, let me say how much more I like Summer Sun than And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out. I still don't think anything will ever rival the trilogy of Painful, Electr-o-pura and I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One.

I didn't really see anyone I know at the show tonight, but Jeff from Aden stood behind me in the bathroom while waiting for a free receptacle (he astutely informed me and the dork in front of me who insisted that there were no free toilets that there are THREE in the men's room at the Warsaw, and henceforth pushed us in there), making it difficult for me to urinate. Kevin Barker (also of Aden fame) was merely standing in the barroom talking to some girls when I saw him.

I think that's it. Unless you want to hear about how the second time I went to the men's room, I had to go into the stall because of my stagefright, and then while i was in there, a lovely young lady who was behind Bunny on the line for the little girls' room opened the door and apologized for intruding, and then apologized again upon my exiting (since I was behind a door, I didn't really care -- e.g. the stagefright thing saving embarrassment).

Oh, and lest i forget the odd man in the donut shop who could have been Rob Rothenberg's long-lost brother (does he have one), who was playing Bjork on a walkman w/ speakers for an audience of four, and telling stories with his eyes closed in a loud, lower-east-side-accented voice about how that song (Army of Me was what I heard) was her first big hit in America, blah blah, and soon he ranted about how the weather in San Francisco at night and how it's warmer for the football fans than for the baseball fans, and he said something about Kansas and then the temperature differences between Manhattan and Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, it made it difficult for me to think of conversational topics. For some reason I was kinda awkward with that tonight.

After coffee, I walked Bunny to her building and then proceeded to walk in circles trying to find my car, until I finally walked the course I had driven to come to my parking space, and magically, my car appeared. I am such a lamester for not remembering where I parked. If everywhere could just have lots like Disney World -- I could park in Goofy lot 2 and then be fine. Just don't ask my brother about my remembering where I parked.