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Friday, October 21, 2005

 

The Penultimate Judgment?

"While some parts of the blogosphere would like to try to make a candidate's reversal of tactical decisions a penultimate sign of "trustworthiness" vs "untrustworthiness," the real penultimate sign of backbone, spine, "trustworthiness" and "straight shooting" is on the issues."

The above quote is by paleo, a diarist at the liberal myDD.com. I don't know paleo, and I don't know whether Sherrod Brown or Paul Hackett is a better Dem candidate for OH senate, the writer's topic. I do know that "penultimate" means next-to-last, not "super-ultimate" or whatever paleo thinks it means.

That's all.

Oh wait, I almost forgot: Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

Thursday, October 20, 2005

 

All Hat No Penis


"Let me finish. Can I finish? It's big enough to fuck the Constitution, you and your grandkids. Course, like Bushie says, size don't matter, especially in my case because all those years of Peruvian flake made me impotent. Shit, anybody else seeing snow lights?"

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

 

Jack Kirby Haiku Wednesday

across this blue world
men fight, bleed and die to own
King Solomon’s Frog

Impossible Man,
have you been introduced to
Mr. Mxyzptlk?

First Issue Special
“The Dingbats of Danger Street”
what was Jack smoking?

 

Son of the Return of Children of Nuggets?

As I've mentioned before, the new Children of Nuggets box set from Rhino has me all kinds of excited. But looking over the track listing, filled with bands and tunes I've either never heard of or always wanted to hear, I got to thinking about my Nuggets. Um, I mean, that is, about the unheralded singles and obscure album tracks from the height of the indie rock era of the early 1990s. While Sonic Youth, Nirvana, My Bloody Valentine, Pavement and a few others took the spotlight (deservedly so), there were scores of lesser bands who released great tunes in those post- post-punk years in a myriad of genres: shoegazer, power pop, pop punk, cuddlecore, sludgy riff rock, rockabilly, bizarre novelties, on and on. Children of Nuggets, with its focus on "the second psychedelic era 1976 to 1995" crosses over with this movement to an extent, but garage psych is only one facet of a wider story--one that cries out to be archived.

One of the engines behind this period's underground rock renaissance was the embrace of the 45 RPM single. While the mainstream's shift from tapes and records into CDs was in full swing, little bands were still able to get their music out in a format they could afford to press, and one that college DJs like me were eager to fetishize. The Sub Pop Singles Club led the charge, with a new 45 every month for subcribers (with deep pockets--it cost a fortune), featuring bands from Nirvana and Soundgarden to Urge Overkill and Gorilla.

But there were other, more musically diverse sources for new records. One of the highlights of my day was walking down to the campus mailroom to check the station's mailbox (I still remember the combination--28-29-12) which was always filled with stacks of new promos--and once a month the RockBox. Oh, what a happy day it was when the RockBox arrived. A collection of CDs, records and singles complied by the editors of Rockpool magazine for subscribing college stations across the country, the RockBox always contained the best of the day's unheard, unsigned regional acts--and its share of unlistenable crap. Rockpool was eventually swamped by CMJ, and went under sometime before I graduated in 1993--but for a while, it was magic.

Anyhow, I'm working on a list of my favorite tunes from this period, toward a fantasy box set. If you have an affinity for this music, feel free to add more in comments. (Yes, Matt, I'm talking to you.)

You Don't Love Me Anymore—Llamasaurus
All Girls Are Mine—Smashing Orange
Everything Should Be The Way It Should Be—Immaculate Hearts
When I'm Here With You; Last Caress—The Parasites
We Got The Beat—Poison Idea
Hello, Hello—Groovie Ghoulies
Stop Dragggin' Me Down—Mono Men
Where Did She Come From—Hard-Ons
All Time/All The Way—The Groove Diggers
Cicciolina—Majesty Crush
Axl or Iggy—East River Pipe
Sex Offender—The Mr. T. Experience
Rainbow Man—Jack Wenberg
Do De Squat/Squat With Me Baby—The Great Gaylord
Please Don't Kill Dr. Strange—The Pineapples
Swivel Chair—Nothing Painted Blue
L. Frank Baum—The Bags
I'll Kill You—Hot Glue Gun
Anesthesia/I Can't Wait—Dean Wareham (pre-Luna solo demos)
Hello the Mellowman—Fantastic Palace
Park The Car By The Side Of The Road—The Swirlies
Jr. Loaded—Sprinkler
Savage Eggplant—Kenny Young
Strong Reaction—Pegboy
Go Fish—Cub
20,000 Volt Monster—Sometime Sweet Susan
Warm/Crawl—Velocity Girl
Sober/Detox Man—Gorilla
November Comes—Hollow Men
In My Groove—The Whirlies
The Insect God—Monks Of Doom
Lolita—Paw
I'm Hell—Mule
In The Mouth—The Cows
Raleigh—Arcwelder
Soundmind—Viva Saturn
Deathwagon—Deiselmeat
I Am The Greatest—A House
The Jayne Mansfield Story/Why Does Everybody Leave Me Jayne?—Opposable Thumb
Trailer—Ashtray
Young And Dumb—Low Meato
Spirit Of Radio—Solomon Grundy
I Want More—Vision Thing
High—One Thin Dime
Bold Rat—The Coctails


One that has to be heard to be beleived is the Opposable Thumb single, one side of which is insanely melodramatic excerpts from the Jayne Mansfield TV movie starring Loni Anderson and Arnold Schwartzenegger set to music, while the flip side is a folk song using the exact same words as lyrics.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

 

It's Christmas Eve

Dear Santa:

I have been a good boy all year. It has been hard but I have done my best to be nice to my sister and I hope you are well how is Rudolph? Anyway, here is my list of stuff I want this year, I understand if you can't get me everything because you are so busy (say hi to the elves!)

1. Indict the living fuck out of that evil bastard Karl Rove. I want him to walk funny when you're done serving him. All his life he's been paid to be the most unethical person in any given room--which is a fun game as long as the rooms you stick to host Washington dinner parties and campaign strategy sessions. But when the room is shared with Jimmie Ray Earl who killed his six inbred daughters for questioning his divinity, and Big Willie, who took down six cops and bit off a guy's nuts before they captured him, it might not be so much fun anymore.

2. Bring a ton of bricks down on Scooter Libby. He should be given a month in the hole and a "shower" with a high-pressure hose just for having that obnoxious preppie nickname.

3. While you're at it, indict Satan himself, Dick Cheney. As Dan Froomkin points out in today's Post, there's precedent. I think Dick would look good in orange.

4. Get John Hannah to flip like a little bitch and rat out his bosses in order to save his own dirty neck--oh, wait, you already got that for me.

5. The Adventures of Superman, Season One, on DVD.

PS--I will leave you a cookie like always. (And carrots for the reindeer.) I love you!

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