Television Personalities-Privilege

Some of you might know, the TVPs are probably sitting right at the top of my top three as far as bands go. I remember seeing this record while working at Hi-Fi sitting in the racks and I had dug on them a little bit because of Seth pushing 'And Don't The Kids Just Love It' and it kinda blew me away. I remember the Dots covering 'Silly Girl' and just listening to that song over and over again.

As anyone who has worked in a record store knows, there's lots and lots of time to listen to records, so naturally, I got around to Privilege. I hated it. I think that I may have listened to it once or twice (not even the whole way through) and then totally dismissed it as 90's late period garbage from a formerly great band. It's much more produced than any TVPs record and the songs almost sound kinda Kiss Me! Kiss Me! Kiss Me! Cure at points. 'My Hedonistic Tendencies' sounds like Prince. 'Sometimes I Think You Know Me Better Than I Know Myself' sounds like Bananarama. The record is all over the place. 'All My Dreams Are Dead' (which is one of the better lyrical experiments) is straight Cure and totally reminiscent of the stuff off of 'The Painted Word'. It's still obviously the same band, but the same band being ambitious in a non-offensive/annoying way.

Right now, I think it ranks in my top three albums by these guys. Right after 'And Don't The Kids...' just because of the impact that had and maybe above 'They Could Have Been Bigger Than The Beatles' since the songs are so much more diverse, and on a whole, just better. This album is great for this time of the year, and also a nice one for longer drives.

It's kinda hit or miss. You'll love it or dismiss it. Who knows, maybe the tables will turn five years down the road when you turn into a total pussy.

1. Paradise Is For The Blessed
2. A Good And Faithful Servant
3. Conscience Tells Me No
4. My Hedonistic Tendencies
5. All My Dreams Are Dead
6. Salvador Dali's Garden Party
7. The Man Who Paints The Rainbow
8. What If It's Raining?
9. Sad Mona Lisa
10. The Engine Driver Song
11. Sometimes I Think You Know Me Better Than I Know Myself
12. Privilege
13. The Room At The Top of The Stairs
14. This Time There's No Happy Ending
15. Part One: Fulfilling The Contractual Obligations

Become Privileged

The Gories-I Know You Fine, But How You Doin'?

Bought this ages ago but never got into then. Listened to it a while ago after getting more into the Dirtbombs and realized how much better the Gories were. There isn't really much here that is goin to knock your socks off, but it's terrifyingly solid and the lyrics are really funny. Mick is a much better singer than I ever gave him credit for and I think I owe him an e-pology.
Songs like 'Thunderbird ESQ' and 'Nitroglycerine' are what rock songs should be...short, and dumb. Figured I better follow up the Bee Gees with something a little more accessible. Diggit!

1. Hey, Hey We're The Gories
2. Detroit Breakdown
3. Stranded
4. Goin' to the River
5. Early in the Morning
6. Thunderbird ESQ
7. Nitroglycerine
8. Let Your Daddy Ride
9. Six Cold Feet
10. Smashed
11. Ghost Rider
12. Chick-Inn
13. View From Here
14. Feral
15. I Think I've Had It
16. Charm Bag
17. Boogie Chillun
18. I'll Go
19. Hidden Charms
20. Sovereignty Flight
21. You'll Be Mine
22. You Done Got Wrong
23. Sister Ann
24. Give Me Love

i know you fine...

Bee Gees-Cucumber Castle

I have a long running obsession with this record.
I guess that soon I'll have to post the Robin Gibb record too, but this is the one that started me on psych Bee Gees. This shit ain't for everyone, it gets pretty ridiculous and the vocals can be strange/annoying/unbearable for some. To me, it sounds like the happiest mix of Millennium, Gandalf, and strange British folk. Although Robin is my favorite, I just can't stop loving this record. (He doesn't play on it, except for one track)

I suggest you give it a couple spins. You might want to be a little weeded, because it sure is pretty weird at first. Songs about God, Dogs, and being buried are hard to digest all at once. If you get past the initial fear that you might actually like a Bee Gees record I think a lot of people will be singing these dude's praises real soon.

Super Highly Recommended

1. Bury Me Down By The River
2. The Chance Of Love
3. Don't Forget To Remember
4. I Was The Child
5. I.O.I.O
6. If Only I Had My Mind On Something Else
7. Lay Down And Die
8. The Lord
9. My Thing
10. Sweetheart
11. Then You Left Me
12. Turning Tide

Enter the Cucumber Castle

Shrimpss-Endless Shrimpss

well, lusty, seth, jesse, and i went into lust's place yesterday and made an EP.
actually, it's only three songs.
funny, but i'm pretty proud of some of it.

we'll likely try and get some more of these done soon as this is how calibrated crematorium got started.
it's much nicer to actually have a studio at your disposal as is evidenced by the recording quality.
totally amazing vocal by jesse on the 'ripped friends' track.
getting pretty into this shit as i load it up.
hopefully, i'm not just residually drunk/fucked up.

1. Manufactured Company
2. Ripped Friends
3. Accidents

shrimpin'

Calibrated Crematorium-2 songs from a new record

So, how about some shamesless self-promo.
These are two tunes from our newest thing that is about to come out on Contraphonic in a couple months.
Just figuring stuff out for it now.
People had been wondering what we were doing so I figure I'll try and get people interested before we drop a feather at a metal show and nobody even hears that the record is coming out.
It's going to be called 'What Makes Star Salesmen Tick'.

These are two of my favorites.
One's a Seth tune and the other is one we wrote about Continental right as it's about to close and the wolves come out.

1. 3:30 Continental
2. It's A Shame That You're Leaving

Get Calibrated

Randy California-Kapt. Kopter and His (Fabulous) Twirly Birds

This one might not be for the indie rockers. Totally a heavy 70s jam record. You know Randy as the guitar player in Spirit. After Spirit put out Dr. Sardonicus they broke up and Randy started this band. Jimi Hendrix had just died (a great friend of Randy's) and it hit him pretty hard which explains the darker stuff on this record. Noel Redding even plays on it and is credited on the back as 'Clit McTorius'.

All around, a pretty solid record with some boring-ish too long shit on the second side. The first few tracks and the cover of 'Rain' are definitely worth the download. This record was playing quite a bit during the summer and I'm breaking it back out. Join me.

1. Downer
2. Devil
3. I Don't Want Nobody
4. Day Tripper
5. Mother and Child Reunion
6. Things Yet To Come
7. Rain
8. Rainbow
9. Walkin' the Dog
10. Live For The Day
11. Rebel

Randy

I Will Give You Aural

Figured I'd do a mix this time.
If I do say so, it's a pretty good mix.
Maybe I'll put them up from time to time.
The word 'mix' bothers me though.

1. Old Pervert-The Soft Boys
2. Brotherhood of Death-Apollo Sunshine
3. This Ain't No Hussle-Thomas Function
4. Adult Acid-Thee Oh Sees
5. Visit to the Gynecologist-Dr. Octagon
6. Get My Nails Did-Tobacco
7. Shaking Hand-Women
8. Activation-Atlas Sound
9. Everybody's Fool-Teenage Fanclub
10. Wildlife-Cheap Time
11. I Drank What?-Coachwhips
12. Dead Babies-Deep Wound
13. Girl on a Swing-Kevin Ayers
14. Shane-Liz Phair
15. You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (New York BOTT sessions)-Bob Dylan

mix mix mix mix mix

Ian Dury & the Blockheads-New Boots and Panties (1977)

"Wake Up and Make Love To Me" is the funniest song about morning wood I have ever heard.
Maybe my favorite British album of all time behind the Specials.

1. Wake Up and Make Love To Me
2. Sweet Gene Vincent
3. I'm Partial To Your Abracadabra
4. My Old Man
5. Billericay Dickie
6. Clevor Trevor
7. If I Was With A Woman
8. Blockheads
9. Plaistow Patricia
10. Blackmail Man
11. Sex and Drugs and Rock N' Roll

New Boots and Panties

Liz Phair-Exile In Guyville

So, I'm sure everyone is having a double-take moment, but fuck you. This record is great, and holding someone's latter day sins against them totally destroys everyone we look up to. When you get older you start to suck, that's fact. Dumbass Jim Derogatis decided he'd do a class of '93 article or some shit in the Sun TImes so I decided I'd post this record to remind everyone that making a record this good should be enough to cement your legacy.

The first song I ever listened to in my sister's brand new (with 100,000 miles on it) Toyota Corolla was 'Fuck and Run'. It made me feel like the coolest kid in the entire world. It was so dirty and hilarious and I understood nothing of what was going on with it besides the swears. I remember hearing 'Flower' for the first time and developing my first real star obsession. I remember going to see her and being so disappointed that she couldn't sing or play her guitar and that all the songs sounded really really bad live, and still, I couldn't get past how much I loved Guyville.

Recently, I picked it back up on my sister's recommendation and it's still as good as it was when I was thirteen. Go ahead and hate, but fuck you.


1. 6'1"
2. Help Me Mary
3. Glory
4. Dance of the Seven Veils
5. Never Said
6. Soap Star Joe
7. Explain It to Me
8. Canary
9. Mesmerizing
10. Fuck and Run
11. Girls! Girls! Girls!
12. Divorce Song
13. Shatter
14. Flower
15. Johnny Sunshine
16. Gunshy
17. Stratford-On-Guy
18. Strange Loop

Fuck and Run

Bob Darin-Born Walden Robert Cassotto (1968)

There's been a whole lot of good words coming my way from the other Bob Darin post, so I figured I would put up my favorite record by him. It was made a year before 'Commitment' and is the first record he released on his Direction label. It seems kinda odd that there is such an overwhelming response to the Darin records from everyone I've played them for. There's something about these songs that kinda just snaps fingers in front of your face.

Although I love 'Commitment', the lyrics on 'Born...' are far and away better. I hate being a lyric man, as it seems like such a silly thing to be focusing on with this album, but so it is. Lines like "...and the ocean floor will be like a whore, who will lie no more, because she's dead..." on 'Questions' are so not Darin, but are delivered with conviction. It also has the tear-jerker, Bobby's tribute to Robert Kennedy, as the last song on the album.

Bob Darin is certainly not Bobby Darin and his ability to do such a thing late in his career is quite genius. These songs speak for themselves, but if they didn't I'm sure that you could have went and asked Bob.

1. Questions
2. Jingle Jangle Jungle
3. The Proper Gander
4. Bullfrog
5. Long Line Rider
6. Change
7. I Can See The Wind
8. Sunday
9. In Memoriam (Robert Kennedy)

Born Walden Robert Cassotto

Captain Beefheart-Bluejeans and Moonbeams

So, sorry the first track from the Dutronc album was missing, trying to track it down on my hard drive and it's not happening.

Anyhow, I figured I'd put up this record by Beefheart because a lot of people I thought would be obsessed with it have never heard it. I'm looking at you Jesse. It's typical Beefheart in the sense that, yeah, it's pretty weird at times, but this record is way more slick and easy to digest than one like Trout Mask. I first got suckered in by "Observatory Crest" which is such a fucking weird ballad that even after listening to it fifty times I still can't figure out the vocal phrasing and fuck it up when I sing along.

Primarily a "heavy blues" album, with songs like "Twist Ah Luck" and "Pompadour Swamp", the record can seem a little hokey at times. Don't let it fool you, the songs are all solid and even the seemingly cheezy stuff will get caught in your head. That said, it's the ballads on here that just slay. Don's voice is perfect for ballads, when you think about it, and as far as I know, these are some of the only ones he sang.

1. Party Of Special Things To Do
2. Same Old Blues
3. Observatory Crest
4. Pompadour Swamp
5. Captain's Holiday
6. Rock and Roll's Evil Doll
7. Further Than We've Gone
8. Twist Ah Luck
9. Bluejeans and Moonbeams


Bluejeans and Moonbeams

Jacques Dutronc-1st LP (1966)

Last one for today. Keep up on the world music tip with my fav french stuff.
Dutronc is smarter than Dylan, and more french that Serge.

This record is great for a few reasons:
1. La Compapade. A completely insane tribal farce that alternates between my favorite and least favorite song on the record.
2. J'ai Mis un Tigre Dans Ma Guitare. I put a tiger in my guitar?? Seriously? Incredible. The delivery is soooo distant, alternating between snarky and reserved. I am by no means a french speaking American, but I feel like I can understand what he's saying on this one.
3. The production of the drums. Whoa. 1966?
4. How could you not love the cover of the album?

01. Les Play-Boys WHOOPS, MISSING....SORRY.
02. L'Espace D'Une Fille
03. Sur Une Nappe De Restaurant
04. J'Ai Mis Un Tigre Dans Ma Guitare
05. Les Cactus
06. Et Moi, Et Moi
07. L'Opération
08. On Nous Cache Tout, On Nous Dit Rien
09. La Fille Du Pere Noel
10. Les Gens Sont Fous, Les Temps Sont Flous
11. La Compapadé
12. Mini, Mini, Mini

Tracks might be out of order on the download....Sorry.
Rearrange yourself.

Et Moi!

The Gaylads-Soul Beat

I figured it's just starting to get cold outside so I would try and listen to some of my summer cuts. This one worked especially well as it is nice to sit in a heated (thank you pilot light) apartment and drink to. Of all the reggae stuff I listen to, this and Delroy Wilson have got to be fighting for my favorite. Just great rocksteady.

These guys were Ken Boothe's backing band on a lot of his recordings and were Winston and Bibby before going to the Gaylads name. This record doesn't include their one Jamaican hit, "Africa", but in my eyes is their best stuff.

Enjoy.

1. Peculiar Man
2. How Can I Go On?
3. Red Rose
4. The Soul Beat
5. I Am Free
6. Love Me With All Of You
7. Simple Way of Living (This is a STONE COLD jam)
8. Wait On Me
9. You Are Leaving Now
10. Go Away
11. She Cryed
12. She Want It
13. Joy In The Morning

Get The Soul Beat

Bob Darin-Commitment

Alright, this one is going to take a little longer to explain.
First of all, it's one of my favorite records that I have ever heard and i didn't even know it existed until about two or three years ago. Finding it was another task.
My old boss at the record store, Tim, used to play me Darin's first foray into the swampy sound, Born Robert Walden Cassotto, all the time. I couldn't believe that it was really "Mack the Knife" singing it. Then I heard the story behind it.

Apparently, when the 60's hit, Bobby got less involved in the pop music schmaltz and became much more politcally active. He attached himself to Bobby Kennedy during his run for president. They were dear friends and Darin was actually at the hotel the day Kennedy was shot.

Bobby was devastated. He sold all his shit, moved into a trailer in Big Sur, and started his own record label, Direction, which released this gem sometime later. Playing nearly all of the instruments himself, writing, and producing doesn't even seem to have phased the process. The song's flaws seem intentional and the goal of the recording seems realized.

This is a record that might seem odd at first, but one that has fit any situation I've tested it in. We listened to it EVERY SINGLE DAY while recording the new MM record, and our engineer Mike now swears by it. It represents everything I have come to appreciate about music. It's stark but solid, funny but not goofy, smart but not coy. Best of all, it's a man truly removing all the veneer. A truly great musician testing his mettle.

Whoa.
Fan boy.

1. Me And Mr Hohner
2. Sugar-Man
3. Saulsalito (Governor's Song)
4. Song For A Dollar
5. Harvest
6. Distractions (Part 1)
7. Water Color Canvas
8. Jive
9. Hey Magic Man
10. Light Blue

Commit to the Darin

Soft Boys-Underwater Moonlight

I think that it goes without saying, but I'll go ahead and say it anyway: You should buy these records if you like them.
Of course, there's going to be some shit that's up here exclusively because you can't buy it, but...

Anyway, this record has been slaying me every bus ride to work for about a month now and it just keep getting better.
It's strange that this was put out by Matador since they kinda vaguely remind me of the glory days of Pavement. I'm sure that Pavement would take that as a pretty insane compliment since Soft Boys just get it so much better. Very intelligent (not in an overbearing way) hooks and hilarious lyrics and the guitar parts are simple to listen to and impossible to figure out.
Very very highly recommended to fans of guitar rock bands who aren't total dolts.

1. I Wanna Destroy You
2. Kingdom of Love
3. Positive Vibrations
4. I Got the Hots
5. Insanely Jealous
6. Tonight
7. You'll Have to Go Sideways
8. Old Pervert
9. Queen of Eyes
10. Underwater Moonlight
11. He's a Reptile
12. Vegetable Man (Syd Barrett)
13. Strange
14. Only the Stones Remain
15. Where Are the Prawns?
16. Dreams
17. Black Snake Diamond Rock
18. There's Nobody Like You
19. Song #4

Underwater Moonlight

(Us And) All of Our Friends Are So Messed Up

After being begged and begged to post this, I finally am.
This isn't the appropriate image to correspond with the recording, but fuck it.
It's just one track (the one we just covered for the new MM record) followed immediately by "Her Name Was Jane", another jam.
Thanks Cyndi, and sorry I fucked with the lyrics on the record.
Enjoy.

Get Messed Up

Guess how I'm going to start this...

I figure, what the fuck, I don't waste enough time, right?
So, without further ado, here is the new music blog and other bullshit.


Let's start with Ace's finest.
Snowblind? Sounds like he may be, but still flawless.
Don't even try to hate what you cannot imitate.

1. Rip It Out
2. Speedin' Back To My Baby
3. Snow Blind
4. Ozone
5. What's On Your Mind?
6. New York Groove
7. I'm In Need of Love
8. Wiped-Out
9. Fractured Mirror

Get Back In the New York Groove