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