Wild Nothing >> The past was folded up and in the twinkle of an eye everything had been changed

Wild Nothing - "Paradise" (feat. Michelle Williams)

(Captured Tracks, 2012)

Yes, this is the "video version" of Wild Nothing's shoulda-been-a-megahit, featuring ultramegafamous actress Michelle Williams(!).  M.W. recites from Iris Murdoch's 1975 novel A Word Child in the middle of the song, which is just a spacey instrumental passage in the album version.  This Michelle-fortified version is not available anywhere, and believe me, I looked high and low for it, so this is certainly a Blowtorch Baby exclusive.  The place I ripped it from rhymes with MooCube.

Counting days

The opening synth wash sure reminds me of the melody in Slowdive's best-known song, "Alison".  I first heard this song in my car while parked in a thrift store parking lot in Terrytown in summer of 2012.  Its amazing bassline and breezy overall feel prompted me to immediately text my sister to tell her to check it out.  I wasn't yet obsessed with WN, but it happened fairly quickly.  It ended up being a no-brainer to name Nocturne my favorite album of the year, and I think most followers of this blog would agree with me on that.

Last October, I finally got to see Wild Nothing live, opening for Local Natives at Tipitina's, and thankfully they played "Paradise."  Yes, the bassline is just as huge & badass live as it is on record.  Still amazed / saddened that they weren't headlining.  And next month the headliners are opening for Kings Of Leon at the N.O. Arena(!).

Mon. Mar. 10: Went to the Circle Bar to see Weekend + Nothing + AAN (pronounced "On").  AAN's singer has a beautiful voice, not unlike Wayne Coyne's, and the band cranked out multifaceted, Yo La Tengo-esque indie rock. The guitarist with the white Jazzmaster was almost a dead ringer for Damon Albarn, so I expect a strong female fanbase with this band.  Ashley had to leave to get to sleep.  I wanted her to see Nothing, who sound like a recreation of Slowdive / MBV on record.  Much to my surprise, they sounded more like Slayer live, so I was actually kind of glad she missed them.  They played five songs from the new album, and one from their 6-song EP.  Weekend were as streamlined and muscular as I had anticipated they'd be.  After the disappointment of no "Spiral" from Wye Oak the previous night, I had to deal with Weekend not playing the song I wanted to see, "Mirror."  Their singer seemed a bit drunk and angry, swinging his bass into the crowd at one point.  He got rather forcefully pushed back by them.  And each band only played for about 30 mins.  But overall it was a good night, and the highlight was Weekend's "Just Drive," which I got a full video of.  Nothing's bassist (also in Whirr and Death Of Lovers) was really engaging and we recommended shoegaze bands to each other.  Drove down Bourbon St. blasting "It's Alright" on Weekend's album Jinx, as I had just bought the CD at the gig.

Fun Fact: I sat next to local jazz drumming icon Johnny Vidacovich during Nothing.  Not sure why he was at this show...  Also met a guy who flew to L.A. just to see a recent reunion of the band Failure, so we talked about our love of Failure for quite a bit.

Tue. Mar. 11: Went back to the Spanish Moon to catch Weekend and Nothing again.  Right before this show, I stopped at F.Y.E. and got the latest CDs by Chairlift, CHVRCHES, and Danny Brown.  Seeing these bands on a stage in a much larger venue with a better sound system made quite a difference.  (Not dissing the Circle Bar at all, by the way.)  The crowd was only about two dozen souls.  No flyers for this show were spotted around the area.  You do the math...  Nothing played the same basic set again; one of their singers told me the previous night that they do the same 35-minute set each night on this tour.  And yes, just like the previous night, they sounded more like Slayer than Slowdive.  Traded more shoegaze recommendations with Nothing's bassist and merch guy.  Weekend's set, on the other hand, was quite different from the previous night.  They started with "Just Drive" (said the drummer, though I thought it was "July"), ended with "Coma Summer," and did a killer "Mirror" in between.  (The singer introduced that song by saying it was about his mom... then, after a short pause, said it was about his dad.)  Overall, they did more krautrock-y, jam-friendly songs than the previous night.  Afterwards I shot some pool upstairs by myself, then talked with Weekend's awesome drummer.  Some of the bands we touched on included CAN, Moonshake, Heat Dust, Belong, and Glish.  I didn't buy a drink at any of these three shows... Sorry, bartenders!  Had to spend a lot on gas and merch, and booze is very low on my priorities list.

Some of the excellent music heard on the club's PA on this night included lots of weird hip hop, The Cure's "One Hundred Years" (seguing into Nothing's first song), some Prefab Sprout, Flipper's "Ha Ha Ha," and the Chameleons' "Don't Fall."  I got a particular kick out of the Chameleons song, because I had just posted "Swamp Thing" on my Tumblr a few hours earlier, and I leaned over the second-floor balcony (this venue used to be a fire station) during the aforementioned game of pool while singing the phrase "donnnn't fall."  Kinda rad.

Sat. Mar. 15: Bought some plants at the annual Parkway plant sale @ DIllard University.  At Bed Bath & Beyond that night, I walked right by the first person I ever got a New Year's kiss from and she didn't recognize me.  In the twinkle of an eye everything had been changed indeed...

Planets with similar climates: Catherine Wheel - "Flower To Hide" (1992), Slowdive - "40 Days" & "Alison" (1993), The Smiths - "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" (1985).

Poem Rocket >> At the point of impact, don't rule anything out

Poem Rocket - "Levy 9 R.S.V.P."

(Magic Eye Singles, 1998)

So by now you know what Poem Rocket was capable of in terms of harnessing atonality and melody into oddly memorable and gripping songs.  What would happen if they really let their hair down and drifted off into the outer realms, like a non-sucky version of Hawkwind?

You have to admit that "At the point of impact, don't rule anything out" would make a great tattoo or Nike slogan, as would "If it hits us, we'll say 'I told you so' with no regrets."  Stick around until the last minute for some eerie, softly spoken vocals concluding with the epitaph "Deep in the dense layers of hydrogen."  This song's lyrics are presumably based on the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, whose collision with Jupiter in July 1994 was a huge event amongst astronomers worldwide.  I don't personally remember it, but I vividly remember the Mars Pathfinder rover in '97 and Halley's Comet in '86.  I can't say whether Levy-9 was in the same general category of public excitement causation as those two, but I doubt it.

This song is from the Rocket's hard-to-find 1999 EP The Universe Explained In Six Songs.  According to the liner notes, it was recorded and mastered by the band itself, no small feat for such a sprawling, sonically-adventurous song.  The members of the band at this time are credited as: "Sandra Gardner (bass guitar, bowed bass, organ, violin, marimba, vocals), Peter Gordon (drums, piano, tape loops, harmonica, assorted mayhem) and Michael Peters (guitars, vocals, star shaker, drums)."  It comes in a cool mini clamshell (DVD-style) case with an interesting booklet.  I bought a copy ca. 2004, but the CD broke, so I bought another; I think I got both on eBay.  I have no use for the one containing the broken CD, so if someone wants it and is a somewhat-longtime reader of this site, drop me a line.

What you're looking at above is both of my booklets (front side; back side), the intact CD, the broken CD, and both cases (showing the white band / EP name stickers on the outside).

Inside the little Magic Eye Singles mailorder catalog (just one piece of paper folded in half) that came inside one of my Universe Explained CDs. (Pic added 2/23/13) Anything that contains the phrase "way better than Elliott Smith" gets a thumbs up in my book!

If you want to hear another Poem Rocket song in this spacey vein, check out "Contrail de l'avion" from their Into The Aether 10" (1994).  I actually was going to post that one instead, but opted for the longer, less hummable, more sui generis "Levy."

Illustration by Michael Peters from his book Vaast Bin; n Ephemerisi.  (The book has no page #s, but this pic is right in the middle.)

The happiest person on the planet right now has to be LL Cool J's manager.  His client just hosted the Grammys on Sunday, released (sorry, "dropped") a new single the next day, and is a dead ringer for the hopefully-late terrorist Christopher Dorner & is hence a lock to play him in the inevitable upcoming biopic.

Wed. 1/30/13: Saw Onuinu and Terrain at Siberia. I'm not sure if instrumental rockers Terrain are local, but the guitarist told the crowd it was their first-ever performance.  While Onuinu was performing (entirely solo) his catchy chillwave anthems-in-waiting, my sister and I kept telling each other "He's gonna be huge."  We bought a little too much merch after talking to him, just because of how nice and down-to-earth he is.

Thur. 1/31/13: Saw Chelsea Wolfe at the Spanish Moon.  Unfortunately, it was her "acoustic tour," and the crowd grew very antsy and belligerently talkative as it went on.  An actual quote I overheard: "It was amazing for the first 10 minutes, but after an hour I'm starting to hate it."  (It was an early show, with some sort of 80's Night beginning right afterwards at 10, so lots of obnoxious people were filling up the club.)  I was surprised C.W. didn't leave the stage due to all the talking and pool playing.  A local singer / songwriter named Erin Miley and her band opened with a set of post-Ani Difranco introspective pop.

Fri. 2/1/13: Termite treatment began.  Turns out one of the guys is a YouTube mogul who makes rap videos in New Orleans, but I forgot to ask for his YouTube name.

2/2/13: Went to the Mushroom for the first time since Nov. and learned my favorite employee and dear music buddy had quit.  Was crushed, speechless, etc.  I fittingly, and joylessly, bought Placebo's "Without You I'm Nothing" (one of my favorite songs ever) CD single for a buck.  Managed to go to the NFL Experience at the Convention Center with a bunch of my sister's friends and her fiancée right afterwards, but was sort of walking around in a depressed funk.  It didn't help that My Bloody Valentine released a dud of an album that night.  Was in much better spirits the next day on my birthday, though my prediction of Super Bowl tickets as a gift did not materialize.  Local product Jacoby Jones should've won Super Bowl MVP after setting the S.B. single-game yardage record, but he did earn a spot on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

2/8/13: Saw a sold-out show by the XX at House Of Blues with Em, Damion, Tace, and Alex, via free VIP lounge tickets.  I wore my School Of Seven Bells t-shirt, since their guitarist's cancer diagnosis was announced that day.  Opening act Austra went on at 9:30 instead of the heavily-advertised start time of 10:00, so we completely missed them.  I was looking forward to seeing them do their one good song, "The Beat And The Pulse," so I was pretty mad, especially since I missed a Toro Y Moi concert a few days earlier due to it being a sellout.  (In other words, I missed 3 bands on Wed. night, plus the opening band on this night, meaning I missed 4 of the 5 bands I ought to have seen in the week.)  After a long wait, the XX went on and delivered a very professional set with lots of cool lighting effects.  I'll admit I was skeptical about their ability to translate their hushed, "small" songs to the stage, but they really impressed me.  After hanging out in the posh upstairs lounge and listening to a DJ (forgot his DJ name, but it's 4 letters, maybe Flex?) spin such cutting-edge stuff as One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful," Beyoncé's "Single Ladies," and Lenny Kravitz' "American Woman" on CD "turntables," and talking to Jenn Howard for the first time since high school, we bailed.  Met Oliver XX and Romy XX outside afterwards (since most of the crowd had dispersed to the Quarter to check out Mardi Gras madness) and got our posters signed.  This is one of my sister's top 5 fav. bands, so it was pretty momentous for her.  A girl from Baton Rouge named Emilie and a guy in a wheelchair named Fuji were both elated after meeting the band, and Emilie honestly looked like she needed a cigarette afterwards.  Oliver XX even climbed over the barricade to talk to us (well, mainly to talk to Fuji), and was later blatantly propositioned by a leggy fan wearing an all-white denim outfit.  Also talked to their tour manager after I noticed his Beak shirt and told him we (Em & I) had seen Portishead at this very club in 1998.  Turns out he was Portishead's manager or tour manger up until 2007.  A very cool guy. We saw Jamie XX carrying a bag of records he had just bought at Louisiana Music Factory directly across the street, but never found out what exactly he bought.  We walked around amidst the thongs on Bourbon Street for a while and went in some mediocre bar, then I spent about 45 mins. trying to catch a cab.  Saw an obese African-American woman in a Misfits skull t-shirt walking in front of the Joy Theater while I was waiting.  The increasing ubiquity / market saturation of early punk bands ceased to surprise me long ago, but I have to admit this sighting made me do a double-take, mainly because she was walking with some decidedly non-punk friends.  As usual, sorry for the excessively detailed descriptions; just trying to capture some of the little moments that make up a night like this one.

Planets with similar climates: Bardo Pond - "Rumination" (1996), The Church - "Chaos" (1992), Juno feat. Jen Wood - "A Listening Ear" (1998), Verve - "Butterfly" (1993), Sonic Youth - "Expressway To Yr. Skull" (a.k.a. "Madonna, Sean And Me") (1986), CAN - "Father Cannot Yell" (1969), Polvo - "When Will You Die For The Last Time In My Dreams" (1996), Morphine - "Down Love's Tributaries" (1993).

Poem Rocket >> I am creating you to be with you

Poem Rocket - "Appeal To The Imagination"

(Atavistic Records, 2000)

This song wastes no time in grabbing one's attention with a simple, Stones-y riff and Michael Peters' unmistakable yelp.  Sandra Gardner contributes a killer bassline and spooky feline vocals, as always.  At about 1:55, the song shifts into high gear, with speed-metal drumming and more emphasis on bass.  At 2:40 the bass just takes over the song, and the guitar briefly disappears at 3:30.

Note: I'll be taking this song down and putting up an edited (shortened) version of it at some point.

Most bands don't understand how important it is to stumble onto a simple lyric and repeat it over and over in an unorthodox way, since people have short attention spans.  "Appeal to the imagination" is an evocative phrase on its own, but the way Peters sings it is jarring and very memorable, since he puts emphasis on syllables that are not expected to be emphasized.  Black Francis / Frank Black was quite good – okay, masterful – at this, which rescued a lot of so-so Pixies songs from lameness and made them into classics.  Ditto for David Byrne.

I have this promo poster

On October 3, 2000, a band called Radiohead released an album called Kid A and a band called Poem Rocket released an album called Psychogeography.  One was full of sterile electronic noodling and lyrics of Caucasian ennui, and one had quirky, catchy, knotty Songs with a capital S (plus, to be fair, plenty of difficult meandering).  Guess which one went on to be voted the best album of the decade by an array of "reputable" music publications?

Undated live photo of Sandra that I found on Tumblr. Anyone know where this is?

This mp3 was given away on eMusic.com and (I think) on Atavistic's website, so it's presumably Poem Rocket's best-known song, and it should've propelled them to godlike indie mafioso status.  It's the song that got me into P.R. in spring of 2003, when I joined eMusic.  (I had read about them in '97/'98 in Alternative Press, and probably in Magnet too, but never actually heard them.)  Hearing this song was one of those "Whoa, where has this band been all my life?" moments.

Amazingly, this song was not released as a single, and there was no video for it.  The only video from the album was for the moody and slow-burning masterpiece "Dirigible":

The album title refers to the study of how urban environments shape the psychological lives of their residents.  I recently snagged a book at a thrift store about this topic called The Image Of The City by Kevin Lynch (M.I.T. Press, 1960).  I have another in a similar vein called Architecture In A Crowded World by Lionel Brett (Schocken Books, 1971).  As a plant geek / grower, I'm more interested in the psychological impact of landscaping than of buildings; for example, I refer to palm trees as "green Prozac."

In addition to the above pic, I found this cool description of Poem Rocket by Melody Maker on Michael Peters' website: "...a band with guitars and more than one idea. If Poem Rocket were English they’d probably be Flying Saucer Attack... a dense sonic fog of apocalyptic drones... dig the atmospherics and the vibes, piano and cello that creep out and back in again like audio leprechauns..."  He also has lots of rare photos of Poem Rocket there.  (Including the black & white one that I bragged about being the first to upload last month... Oops.)  Check out the amazing Abbreviated Poem Rocket Press Kit.  It's by far the greatest .pdf ever.  I was kinda shocked to see my review from Cold Comfort in there amongst all the reviews from "real" publications... It also shows a review of Psychogeography from Pitchfork which I never knew existed.  I dunno why Pitchfork purged it from its archives; presumably to make room for Arcade Fire dating tips or a Kanye West Twitter feud timeline.

In late 2003, Atavistic was taking preorders for Poem Rocket's upcoming 3rd album, and early buyers were promised a free CDEP as a bonus.  So I sent in a check for $18.00 and waited.  A year went by and no album.  Okay, so my favorite band is a bunch of perfectionists, no big deal.  Another year went by, still no album.  Hurricane Katrina had happened and I had to move away from New Orleans, so I wrote a letter to Atavistic asking for my money back, since $18 would go a long way for someone in such a situation.  I still had every intention of buying the album the day it came out, of course.  They never sent my money back or even wrote me back.  This, combined with the fact that they did little to no promotion for the album, left me with some choice words that I wanted to say to them.  I guess I thought they'd be somewhat grateful that I'd done an interview with this particular band (well, with its singer), which would of course help to get the word out about said obscure band, but they treated me like I was nothing.  I guess my $18 was needed for Lydia Lunch's mascara budget or something.  No, I don't think that record labels owe us fans anything; we in fact owe them for financing the recording of albums by bands that aren't very commercially viable.  But, as the bike path signs in Jefferson Parish say, "Courtesy Is Contagious."  If we're all in this battle against lame corporate music (or in my case, against lame indie music), we should look out for one another every once in a while.

Well, I think it's safe to say this is a really mediocre and disjointed post, but at least the song is good.

Mon., Jan. 7: Saw the movie Life Of Pi in "RealD 3D," which was my first-ever 3D movie.  It was quite breathtaking at first, but the effect wears off as the movie goes on.  Then watched as Alabama won a 4th national title for smug cyborg Nick Satan.  Fuming mad all night over this.

Last night: Saw True Widow with D.O.C. (Disciples Of Christ) and Glish at the Spanish Moon in Baton Rouge, in the little upstairs "Green Room."

Planets with similar climates: Bright Channel - "Final Stretch" (2004), Pixies - "River Euphrates" (1988), Orbit - "Come Inside" (1995), Drop Nineteens - "Delaware" (1992), The Black Watch - "Come Inside" (1994), Swervedriver - "Rave Down" (1991), A.C. Temple - "Miss Sky" (1988), Moonshake - "Spaceship Earth" (1992), Catherine Wheel - "Chrome" (1993), Smashing Pumpkins - "Quiet" (1993).

Poem Rocket >> Nothing is stopping me

Poem Rocket - "Small White Animal"

(PCP Entertainment, 1995)

Every great band has a song on which it eclipses its influences and creates an entirely new form of music, and for me this is that song for Poem Rocket.  The guitar feedback seems to levitate and take on a life of its own, like a cobra swaying to lull its prey to sleep.  A sinister, Ron Carter-esque bassline churns away underneath, and a robotic drum pattern forces the listener's mind into lock-step.  Michael Peters' lyrics are as confounding and dense as ever: "Thousands of incorporeal pieces / Fragments of the new form / So lucky you will never forget me."  It seems that he's singing about feeling insignificant in this big universe, and the cover art of the 7" (sort of a faceless take on Munch's The Scream) does nothing to dispel that.  The "small white animal" in question could be the moon, though, considering the line "I've seen the moon sink to the ocean."  Sandra Gardner's backing vocals add an element of disembodied coolness and mystery that most bands would kill for.  How has she not become a go-to vocalist for today's leading trip-hop bands?  There are no leading trip-hop bands today, but there could be, if only they would enlist Sand-Gar's services.

To see two short clips from the (apparently stunning) official music video, go here.  These clips should give us all impetus to pester the band to upload the full video (and the video for "Ka-boom") to its YouTube channel.  Even if this song is not your cup of tea, you have to take your hat off to the band for having the balls to actually release a song like this as a single, and to shoot such a cinematography-intensive video for it.  Though unthinkable to budding young noise rockers of today, back in the mid-'90s MTV would occasionally play videos by bands like this.  So I guess it was worth a shot for Poem Rocket to make several videos.

As for what I said about "an entirely new form of music," that might sound hyperbolic, and I thought about changing it until I stroked my chin and pondered the collision of space rock guitarscapes + industrial-style drumming + rubbery basslines + high-art lyrics + diametrically-opposed coed vocals.  This recipe is very different from the one used by most bands that could be classified as "noise rock."  If they had dumbed their sound down for the Neanderthal crowd, they could've easily become stars of the AmRep, Skin Graft, or Touch & Go stables, but instead they signed to PCP Entertainment, which was apparently a subsidiary of Matador Records that focused on NYC bands.  I'm not sure if PCP started off on its own and then was incorporated into Matador, or Matador created it out of thin air, but it had quite a varied roster.  Peters said he was a fan of The Church, which would explain his knack for cryptic lyrics.  The Church's Steve Kilbey is probably my favorite or 2nd-favorite lyricist ever, mainly because decoding his verbal webs is part of the fun.  The simple line "Nothing is stopping me" could be a high school football team's weight room motto, but if you look deeper into the phrase, it could also mean "The only thing that is stopping me is the concept of nothingness / insignificance."  Maybe I'm just reading too much into it and I should go back to rocking out on air feedback guitar while jumping up and down.  And that's the real beauty of a creation like this: Anyone, regardless of his or her care for, or knowledge of, specific types and subgenres of music, can just let his or her ass get rocked by a song like this.  It speaks in a primal, unspoken language, the one that impelled our amphibious ancestors to crawl out of the primordial ooze and head for higher land to build some sort of proto-life.  It has that visceral edge that the brain subconsciously craves in order to sharpen its fight-or-flight response.  Try getting that from a song by Guided By Voices, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Spoon, or any other Pitchfork favorites.  (My hatred of Pitchfork is deep and longstanding, as you might know by now.  That site has literally never printed a single thing about Poem Rocket, at least not since 1999.  Maybe they did sometime between 1996-98.)

This is such a great photo, and one of the few live pics of the Rockets that can be found on the web.  All I know is that it's from Brownie's in NYC, dated 1994:

I've been wanting a semi-hollowbody guitar like that, since they are notorious for their tendency to create unwanted (or wanted) feedback, and having three pickups rather than one or two would obviously help with feedback creation too.  Then again, maybe he used a totally different guitar to record this song in the studio.  Plexi's Michael Barragan is the only other guitarist I know of who had such a consistently abstract, feedback-laced guitar sound, and he always used Gibsons with P-90 pickups.

Here are my two invaluable Poem Rocket t-shirts, bought as a lot on eBay in late 2003:

I have recently been able to determine that the design on the left shirt is by Michael Peters himself, an accomplished visual artist (as well as singer, songwriter, guitarist, experimental author, college literature professor, biographer, etc.).  See / buy more of his art, and watch him give a rather intimidating book reading, here.  I miraculously stumbled onto & bought his incredibly bizarre book Vaast Bin; n ephemerisi at a bookstore in Houma earlier this year.

The shirt on the right is based on the striking cover art of the band's Into The Aether (a.k.a. Blue Chevy Impala) 10" EP.  And their old website uses a similar design for site navigation.

Noth'd Rookery by Michael Peters

Sorry to scatter out so much stuff about Poem Rocket, but like I said, any bit of info that can be shared about them is important, since this was not a band that practiced much self-promotion.  Those types of "secretive" bands, including many of my all-time favorites (e.g. Unwound, Hovercraft, Bailter Space, Bare Minimum) are the ones for which I am proud to take up the promotional mantle, to help "pay it forward" to the next generation of music fans.

Planets with similar climates: Live Skull - "Fort Belvedere" (1986), Bare Minimum - "Night We Streak, Divine Failure" (1995) & "Swim In Anxious Moment" (1997), Bright Channel - "Final Stretch" & "Night Eyes" (2004), Helmet - "Sinatra" (1990).

Poem Rocket >> I don't want to be your satellite

Note: In order to declutter this site and keep it more focused on the specific musical artist at hand, I'll be posting most of my personal photos, musings, etc. on a conveniently-URL'ed Tumblr page from now on.  This is just one of the many services that is provided to the Blowtorch Baby reader.  Subscribers of course get free landscaping advice (USDA climate zones 8 & 9 only) and the ability to stop time for up to four days.

Poem Rocket - "Flaw"

(Bear Records, 1994)

If you've been paying attention to the little "Planets with similar climates" sections at the bottom of every post for the last two years, you've seen this band pop up constantly.  And the previous post probably tipped you off to what was coming next.  I think the reason I haven't gotten around to posting anything by a lot of my all-time favorite bands yet is that I get sort of paralyzed by what to do, since I often have to decide between several photos, maybe a promo poster, a live pic that I took long ago and have on some disc somewhere, a review from some zine that's being stored in a closet, a music video that got yanked from YouTube, a tour t-shirt, etc.  The problem is that I want so badly to do a band justice that I don't want to leave any pertinent info out.  This especially applies to a band like Poem Rocket, about whom information & photos are quite scarce.  Any tidbit of information that can be unearthed about them is important.  So if you know of any review or live gig listing or photo, etc., please post it online somewhere so that it doesn't become buried beneath the mists of time.  This song is a great representation of Poem Rocket's quieter side.  It's the b-side to their "Period (Punctuation Or The Interval Of Time Required For A Cyclic Motion)" 7", which came on orangey red vinyl pressed at the audiophile-friendly speed of 33 rpm.  Like most of the band's chameleonic early non-album tracks, it can be found on the great compilation CD Felix Culpa.

Maybe due to the opening lyric "I'm waking up," as well as the sluggish tempo, this song makes me think of an alligator or capybara emerging from hibernation.  The drumming changes dramatically over the course of the song, and for what it's worth, Poem Rocket had a ton of drummers.  The core of the band was always singer / guitarist Michael Peters and bassist / singer Sandra Gardner.  They got married in 2003.  I think my online zine Cold Comfort was actually responsible for "breaking" that news in 2003, when I did an email interview with Peters, but for some unknown reason, it didn't shake the indie rock world to its core.  I'll post excerpts from that interview soon.  Peters' slide guitar brings a bluesy, desolate, wounded feel to the song, in an era when slide guitar was probably the most uncool thing on the planet.  (Juned also used it that same year in their great song "So White.")

As you can tell by the band's name, the cover art of this 7", and the use of a satellite as a lyrical metaphor, this band was kind of obsessed with outer space, but not in an overt or obnoxious way.  I think they viewed it as a good prism through which to deal with the subtleties of human relationships, e.g. the (real or imagined) distance between two people, rather than in a simplistic "Hey, let's jump on a rocket and go to Mars" way.  People who actually know about space know just how stupid most of those ideas are, mainly due to the fact that most cosmic distances are measured in a little thing called the light year.

Some publication called Sound Views praised this single's "guitar-powered concoctions that slowly bloom into atmospheric/noise-rock":

This came in my Into The Aether 10" EP. Flower was a mighty fine Wipers-esque band that evolved into Versus, by the way.

L-R: Michael Peters, Sandra Gardner, Andy Nelson (I think), someone (probably Dennis Bass, a.k.a. Dennye)

I bought this 8x10" promo pic on eBay about 5 years ago, and, amazingly, it seems that it has never appeared anywhere on the internet.  Way to go, Poem Rocket's publicity team / person.  I even asked the (really nice) guy at PCP Records mailorder for one in 2003 to use in my interview, and he sheepishly told me they didn't have any.  If that is indeed drummer Andy Nelson, the pic must be from the mid to late '90s, since he was apparently in the band from 1993 to '98.  I know this because I created P.R.'s Wikipedia page and lots of people proceeded to add lots of details that I never knew about, such as exact years of tenure in the band.

Check out this hilarious review I found in the April / May 1995 issue of the California skatepunk zine Flipside:
"These guys could take up a whole side just with their guitarist's introduction and just as his guitar work was approaching a solo on the level of Led Zeppelin, in jumps the singer who has a rather annoying style of purposely changing the inflection in his [sic] voice in a manner which makes him [sic] sound very off-tune.  In jump the other instruments as the songs play on and this whole scenario appears so overly self-indulgent as to make one want to vomit.  They bring new meaning to the word 'obnoxious.'"  The review was by their usually-reliable scribe Michele, who must've mistaken them for some sort of classic rock-influenced grunge band angling for a major-label deal.  (Flipside was obsessed with trying to valiantly sniff out and expose those types of bands.  If you thought that review was harsh, you should read some of their Lollapalooza reviews.)

Song credits from the inside flap of the Felix Culpa Digipak:

Planets with similar climates: Live Skull - "Bootcamp" (1986), Bardo Pond - "Tantric Porno" (1996), Opal - "Supernova" (1987), Bleach - "Crimson 'O'" (1990), Warpaint - "Warpaint" (2010).

Currently drinking: Three intriguing dark beers - Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout, Sierra Nevada Narwhal Imperial Stout, Fuller's London Porter.

Das Racist >> It's fun to do bad things like rhyme about handguns

Das Racist - "Rainbow In The Dark" [original version]

(self-released, 2010)

After two "mixtapes" which set the underground rap (sorry... "hip hop") world abuzz, Das Racist's debut album, Relax, was unleashed on a label called Greedhead Music, run by DR's own Heems, née Himanshu Kumar Suri.  Their unforgettable and extremely quotable song "hahahaha jk?" (built on a sample of the theme song of the soap opera Days Of Our Lives) was an instant classic that made me sit up and take notice, but the effortless charisma and cool of "Rainbow In The Dark" is what made me a true Das Racist convert.  Highlights: That slightly off-the-beat synth part and all the obscure, geek-friendly lyrical references.  The 2011 version on Relax is slightly spruced-up compared to the mixtape version, but is almost indistinguishable.  (The original 2010 version is about 10 seconds longer: 4:02 vs. 3:52.)  Das Racist is a group that is always one step ahead of the spider; their secret weapon is the ability to subtly parody other rappers' attempts at lampooning lame genres of hip hop.  (Think De La Soul's "Ego Trippin'" video.)  SPIN's review of Relax says "The synth-pop jam 'Booty In The Air' is essentially Das Racist spoofing Lupe Fiasco spoofing mainstream rap."  It goes on to say "Reprised early internet cut 'Rainbow In The Dark' is a welcome oasis of expertly half-assed calm amid the newfound clamor."  (The last line of this song is especially funny because my sister and I's Cuban friend Alex once exclaimed "I can't... They'd put me to work!" when he was asked if he wanted to visit a plantation.)  Here is the origin of the group's name, if you're the last person on earth who was still wondering.  In order to not embarrass yourself further, the first word is pronounced DASS, not DOSS.  I will remind you that this is a professional site, so please, no Dio jokes re: the song title.

I mentioned this concert last year, so go here to read a nano recap and see the extremely great, Wikipedia-worthy, 7-dudes-in-one-shot pic that I took near the triumphant finale.  Note: I just found out the "DJ dude" (who also did some rapping at the beginning of DR's set) is Lakutis.
Despite the band's laid-back flow on record, they were super-energetic live, almost to the point where I'd use the word "frantic" to describe their onstage antics.  They do rap about Four Loko, and I remember jokingly pointing that out to my sister as a possible explanation for their manic energy.  Amazingly, no vids from the show have been put on YouTube yet, despite it being a pretty packed show.  The bizarre film clips that were playing behind them were definitely unexpected, and I can't even begin to describe them, so I won't.  I'm still shocked that they didn't play "hahahaha jk?," but at least I have a reason to try to see them again.  Some girl was hitting on Lakutis after the show outside, and invited him to go the Saint with her.  My sister and I went over there just on the off chance that he or any Das Racist members would show up, but none of them ever did.  Opening act Danny Brown has gone on to become a pretty big star, at least in indie circles, though he has apparently stopped wearing tiger outfits onstage.  Kool A.D. of D.R. recently released two solo albums.  Sorry... two solo "mixtapes."  I guess the only difference is that a mixtape is given away free, oui?  Heems is my favorite Das-er, basically functioning as the Q-Tip of the group with his nonchalant delivery.

Fun Fact: DR's mixtape Shut Up, Dude was named after a lyric in this song.

Fri. Sep. 28: Bought a gorgeous, essentially brand-new La-Z-Boy recliner at Salvation Army for only $140.  Looked at carpet samples beforehand with my mom, but decided to just get my carpet professionally cleaned instead of getting new carpet after realizing that $2.50 a square foot sounds cheap until you extrapolate it out to the size of a living room.

Sat. Sep. 29: Went to the Mushroom and finally got to talk to Sam again for the first time since Jazz Fest.  I found out she's in a band (Trampoline Team).  She asked if I'm going to see Dinosaur Jr., but alas I ain't; tried to talk her and Mike into seeing Godspeed You Black Emperor.  She offered to burn me this Dino Jr. remix album, but I said I'd have to hear some samples first.  Was somewhat amazed to find out she had gone to the Boris concert in Baton Rouge in '07, and also had seen one of MONO's many shows there.  And she casually mentioned Magma(!) when describing some local band's sound...  We both made fun of Ben from Bipolaroid.  I dug out some used CDs (Unwound's Fake Train & Challenge For A Civilized Society; Yo La Tengo's Painful; Suzanne Vega's self-titled) from under the "blue roof" tarp for her to check out.  Picked up Cat Power's Moon Pix on vinyl and showed them the inner sleeve, boasting "This is what my front porch looks like":

Sam replied that her dad in New Jersey has lots of cacti and desert plants too, which really impressed me.  In addition to the Moon Pix LP, I scored the 2-DVD Criterion Collection edition of Paris, Texas for only $4, and a movie called Forty Shades Of Blue.  (Again, no jokes please.)  Mike said his jokey metal / grindcore band Foot was playing 3 hours away in Mississippi that night, and I took a 1-song freebie CD-R of theirs.  Sam said I'm her favorite customer, which, since she's pretty much my favorite person in the world, pretty much made my year.  Though as a Phillies fan, I was not too fond of the fact that she was wearing a Yankees shirt.  (Aren't Jerseyites supposed to be Mets fans?  I know the members of Yo La Tengo are diehard Mets fans, and their name even came from a phrase that a Mets outfielder was known for shouting.)  It was raining, so I ducked into some little place called Favori Deli on Maple St.  Got a very good grilled chicken for myself and a Philly cheese steak for my mom, who was born & raised in Philly.  It's right next door to the former digs of The Camera Shop, which I used to frequent when taking Fine Art Photography at Loyola in '97. I caught the very end of the Fall Garden Fest at City Park, but most of the vendors had already left due to the rain, so I just bought a little lily called Zephyranthes atamasca, which looks like a chive or wild onion plant.  I unfortunately skipped Glish's Come Down EP release party at Circle Bar, just because I don't really like going there and the acoustics are awful, though Sam had informed me that it finally has air conditioning now.  My sister surprisingly bought a Godspeed ticket without me having to even convince her.  I thought she'd want to go to M83, but apparently not, so I might got to that alone, despite how gleefully Hipster Runoff has mocked M83's recent efforts.

Sun. Sep. 30: Took my dad to the airport parking garage to jump the dead battery in his truck.  Went to Barnes & Noble in the rain for a few hours, getting a few things for my sister's birthday.  Hit up the second (final) day of FGF and scored three more native species: Osmanthus americanus (Devilwood or Wild Olive), Amsonia hubrichtii (Narrow Leaf Blue Star), and Hypericum densiflorum or H. frondosum (St. John's Wort).  Somewhat renowned local acoustic guitarist John Rankin gave a chillaxable performance under the glass dome of the fern / cycad / orchid house at the Botanical Garden, accompanied by a sax player and a guy on upright bass.  I used to walk by his open door at Loyola in '01 and hear him giving one-on-one guitar lessons.  I guess he still teaches there, but I don't feel like checking.  I used to have his '84 LP Something I Ate.  Anyway, it's not often you get to see a jazz concert attended by about 5 people inside a greenhouse at a botanical garden in the rain.  If this sounds appealing to you, move to New Orleans, because I really doubt you'll find that anywhere else other than maybe Amsterdam or San Francisco.  (Which reminds me... Note to self: Move back to New Orleans.)  Drew Brees torched the Packers in Green Bay for 400 yards by the end of the 3rd quarter, but the Saints still found a way to lose, falling to 0-4.

Mon. Oct. 1: The first day of the Times-Picayune's mega-controversial shift to only putting out a newspaper 3 days a week after 175 YEARS as a daily paper.  Why they couldn't have just trimmed it down to 4 or 5 days a week is beyond me.  This happened because the paper sold out to a cheapskate conglomerate based in the NE U.S. called Advance Publications, which already was notorious for killing off Ann Arbor's newspaper after buying it.  And word has it that they're giving Syracuse's paper the axe next.  N.O. is now the largest city in America without a daily newspaper.  Baton Rouge's The Advocate is making an aggressive foray into the N.O. market to try to fill this void.  As a tree fanatic, I can't say I'm too distraught, considering that lots (millions? tens of millions?) of trees will be saved by the shift to digital.  I still refuse to read novels on any format other than actual paper, though.  Extremely psyched to see Merchandise & Glish at The Big Top on Friday, and for the first Obama-Romney debate tonight.  Working on a metal / punk mix CD to bring to the dudes at the Mushroom, since that's what they mainly listen to.  But I'm miffed that the mix I painstakingly made for Sam never made it to her.  And thus ends a post that began with me talking about "mixtapes."

Speaking of Alex, here he is, valiantly holding the purse of his extremely wasted wife Tace at the Orpheus parade in February.  This girl is a doctor and can outdrink the entire U.S. Senate without even blinking, so it was quite a shock to see her practically unable to walk or form a coherent sentence:

(Camera phone pic by my sister.)  I'm in the green hoodie, just a few days before the Trayvon Martin hoodiegate incident broke.  FWIW, I wore a baby blue hoodie to see Boris the previous November, just to stand out among the black-clad metal masses.

Planets with similar climates: Special Ed - "I Got It Made" & "I'm The Magnificent" (1989), MC Paul Barman - "Make No Mistake" (2002), Poor Righteous Teachers - "Can I Start This?" (1990), Eminem - "My Name Is" (1998), Flight Of The Conchords - "I Told You I Was Freaky" (2009).

St*Johnny >> I wanna burn like a martyr in my Chevrolet

St*Johnny - "Go To Sleep"

(Ajax Records, 1992 / Caroline Records [U.S.], 1993; Rough Trade Records [U.K.], 1993)

This song was released as a 7" by cool indie Ajax in '92, and then appeared on the band's High As A Kite singles compilation the next year.  (The U.S. version on Caroline, which I own, has 11 tracks, while the U.K. version on Rough Trade has only 8.)  This type of song is a perfect example of why I started this site: An obscure indie band releases a universe-destroyingly great anthem; no one hears it back in the day; the band breaks up; the song languishes in cool ppl's mix tapes / closets / iTunes for years or decades until the song decides to break free and assert itself much like when the robots rose in T2: Judgment Day.  The only unfortunate thing about this song is its name, which does not exactly generate much excitement, especially when the mundane band name is factored in.  Note: They sometimes spelled their name St. Johnny (in the early days), st. johnny, or St Johnny, and the asterisked (DGC-era) version of their name is technically spelled st✮johnny.

Reviews and zines from the early to mid '90s always pointed out how St*Johnny were protegés of Sonic Youth, though I think they were more aligned with fellow New Yorkers Mercury Rev.  (The Rev's Grasshopper guested on at least three of their songs: "Velocity," "My Father's Father," "Matador.")  Either way, this kind of thing is always a double-edged sword.  The band was allegedly scoffed at relentlessly, at least by the hipsters and tastemakers of the era, which seems really sad to me.  This song obviously has a ton of S.Y.-esque characteristics and charisma, down to the Thurston-y vocals, but it is definitely its own beast.  To describe how awesome this song is would take me a while, but I don't think most people need a roadmap to its bounty.  That one killer guitar riff immediately grabs the attention, and melds perfectly with the vocals, which are delivered in a desperate way, and with interesting post-Lou Reed / Tom Verlaine enunciation.  It's a really amazing vocal performance overall.  He says "I know that we're in trouble now, and I know that we're in deep" and "You're cursed and I'm a liar" without explaining the conflict in question.  More cool lyrics: "If we live long enough we'll see the other side of everything," "The stars are out and they're comin' down on my head," and of course "I wanna burn like a martyr in my Chevrolet."  (Note: I had thought for the last decade that it was "I wanna burn like the motor in my Chevrolet.")  The somewhat detuned, violin-esque guitar anti-solo at the 2:29 mark is the perfect bridge between arena dino-rock and the noisy indie rock of the '90s.  And I love when any instrumental break is preceded by a frenzied volley of drumming.  Another cool touch is that the song's title is only uttered right before the guitar solo and as the final words of the song.  I mean, check this out, they should build a whole museum dedicated to this song, if only so that lame, putzy, non-rocking rock bands like Wilco, Arcade Fire, Spoon, etc. can make pilgrimages to it in order to learn how to rock like motherfuckers.
The band's proper debut album in '94 had the great title Speed Is Dreaming.  But, aside from the killer "A Car Or A Boy?" (featuring some backing vocals from Mercury Rev's head weirdo David Baker), sucked.  I owned that CD but actually threw it away years ago; wish I had it back to check it out again, though.  Being signed to DGC (Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Beck, Posies, Sundays) apparently didn't land them in the Buzz Bin, and they faded into obscurity in the mid-'90s.  Singer Bill Whitten reemerged with the band Grand Mal (named after a St*Johnny song, which was named after a type of seizure) soon afterwards, but I don't think I've ever heard them.

7" insert sheet

Well, I was very wrong about Hurricane Isaac last week.  It turned out to be one of the worst disasters in the state's history, and was much more of a rainmaker than I had anticipated.  Luckily I had trimmed most of my trees a week or two earlier, so they didn't blow around too much in the wind and suffer torsional stress injuries to their trunks.  Since the eye of the hurricane passed directly over us, I went out and trimmed them a little more during that calm period.  That day (Wednesday) was probably the most harrowing day of my life, due to all the wind and rain noise, and not being able to see the origin of it since most of the windows were shuttered closed.  We never lost power, though over a million people statewide did.  And it's fun to be able to walk around the house butt-ass naked, thanks to the boarded window thing.  I drove through Gonzales, Prairieville, & Baton Rouge a few days later and ended up scoring this t-shirt at FYE:

...as well as the Stooges' Fun House 2xCD reissue and a rather tame CD by a band called The Mysteries Of Life. The store was playing Portishead's first album, so I recommended Slowdive to the Asian employee who had put it on after he told me he was a big Cocteau Twins fan.

Mon. 3rd: Went to Cocodrie (old Cajun slang term for "crocidile"), right on one of the southernmost tips of Louisiana.  Listened to Verve's A Storm In Heaven, perhaps the ultimate roadtrip album.  The area pretty much got no damage.
Tue. 4th: Watched Batman Begins at my sister's, since my parents in N.O. still hadn't gotten power back.
Wed. 5th: Went used book shopping for a few hours at The Book Rack in Mandeville, then drove over through Lacombe & Slidell.

Planets with similar climates: Sonic Youth - "Hey Joni" (1988), Verve - "All In The Mind" (1992), Swervedriver - "Blowin' Cool" (1993), Ride - "Here And Now" (1990), Catherine Wheel - "Texture" (1992), Silversun Pickups - "Well Thought Out Twinkles" (2006), Glide [Australia] - "Taste Of You" (1992), Nice Strong Arm - "Cloud Machine" (1989), You Am I - "Berlin Chair" (1993).

School Of Seven Bells >> Swing my weight around

School Of Seven Bells - "Windstorm"

(Ghostly International / Vagrant Records [U.S.]; Full Time Hobby Records [U.K.], 2010)

My town is about to get a direct hit from Hurricane Isaac, so this was the only song that kept coming to mind.  It's only gonna be a category 1, and we took a direct category 2 hit from Gustav in '08, so I'm not very worried.  The only annoying thing is moving my 100+ outdoor potted plants around.  Perhaps based on their extremely polished sound, I had always thought SVIIB were on a major label, but a check of my Disconnect From Desire CD, in beautiful paper gatefold packaging, proves otherwise.  This is truly one of the catchiest choruses I've ever heard, so beware, because it can really get stuck in your head for months at a time.  This song came out on a red vinyl 7" in the U.K., but only as a "digital single" in the U.S.  More proof that the Brits have always valued these kinds of bands more than we have over here, though ours did have an extra track, since we believe in super-sizing.

This song has that duelling-simultaneous-choruses style that reminds me of the old nursery rhyme "Frère Jacques," as well as the Psychedelic Furs' immortal "The Ghost In You."  The wussiness of the song's opening chant used to put me off, but Alejandra Deheza's main vocals have a deep, resonant, almost androgynous tone that is very awesome to my male ears, especially during the "When the fire's burning from sky to ground..." part.  The drums have a loose, jazzy feel that suits the music perfectly.  It was NPR's song of the day: "[Ben] Curtis says he began writing the chord progression based on a melody that Alejandra Deheza was singing while they were driving through the Alps; they constructed the song's transporting sound to remind listeners of the mountains."

The aforementioned extra track on the U.S. single is a predictably pounding remix by A Place To Bury Strangers.

"Bye Bye Bye" actually had more potential to be a hit than "Windstorm" did, in my opinion.

Fun Fact: The album title is from Brian Eno's storied Oblique Strategies card deck.  Yes, this band is pretentious and meticulous in all the best ways...

As I mentioned a few months ago (see here), I saw SVIIB in April '11 opening for Interpol at House Of Blues in New Orleans, and headlining at the Spanish Moon in Baton Rouge in April of this year.

Alejandra's twin sister Claudia had left the band in Sept. 2010, right after Disconnect From Desire came out, so I guess I'll never get to see the "real" / original SVIIB live.  Note: They were not at their merch table either time, so don't plan on saying hi to them at a gig.  And they did not have the "Windstorm" 7" for sale at either gig, since it had presumably sold out long ago.  They also didn't play "Dust Devil" either time, so don't go hoping to see it.  I did see Ben Curtis playing pool upstairs at the Spanish Moon right before opening act EXITMUSIC went on and unspooled their gloom-rock.  Ben's previous band, Secret Machines, kicked moderate ass at Voodoo Fest '05, doing a bombastic type of Led Zeppelin meets prog rock thing.

Former print mag CMJ's digital cover from July 26, 2010. Hilarious Fact: This was actually not SVIIB's debut album..

Go check out the album cover and then look for that strange symbol, on the band members' bodies and elsewhere, in the music video:

There was also a deluxe version of the CD that came in a box with tarot cards; these cards are reproduced in the booklet of the regular CD issue too, so don't break the bank on the deluxe CD.  I usually complain about bands that I like making super-catchy songs and then not receiving enough of a marketing push.  Well, this album got a truly impressive and diverse promotional blitz, but SVIIB's music proved to be not quite simplistic enough to compete in the current major-label or indie climates, in which lobotomized party music reigns supreme.

Cheesy '80s-style album announcement poster

You may wish to read this article, if only for the stylish photos: The evolution of Brooklyn's School Of Seven Bells

Map from two days ago

Map from today

I was gonna see the Jeff Buckley-channeling band Ours, of "Sometimes" fame, at the Parish in N.O. last night, but it was cancelled due to the storm.  I guess I'll go when it gets rescheduled.

My sister sez noted Lana Del Rey hater Brian Williams has been following around her crew at her hospital in N.O. today, so you can probably catch a glimpse of her on tonight's NBC News.

Hipster traps appear around New York City - "...which include sunglasses, a yellow bicycle chain, a Holga camera, a can of PBR and a pack of American Spirits as bait."

Planets with similar climates: My Bloody Valentine - "Drive It All Over Me" (1988), Curve - "Horror Head" (1992), The Psychedelic Furs - "The Ghost In You" (1984), Lush - "Take" (1992), Pearl Harbor / Puro Instinct - "Slivers Of You" (2010), Catherine Wheel - "Flower To Hide" (1992), Bleach - "Dipping" (1991).

Lynnfield Pioneers >> Look directly into the sun

Lynnfield Pioneers - "Add It Up"

(Matador Records, 1997)

Since that guy in the Beastie Boys died, I decided the only thing to do is to post the most Beastie Boys-esque song I can think of.  Unfortunately for the Beasties, these 140 seconds eclipse pretty much anything they ever did... Awkward.  I really hope their moms are not reading this...

Note: It should go without saying that the tagline on this site's header ("Providing roughly the same amount of hits as Sadaharu Oh since 2011") is an appropriation of a line in the Beastie Boys' "Hey Ladies."

I got this album, Emerge, on LP in Dec. 1998, after reading about the band in Alternative Press and/or Magnet (both of which I subscribed to) in the previous year.  They were essentially always described as some variation of "Pavement meets the Beastie Boys," or "Archers Of Loaf meets the Beastie Boys," etc. The hilarious cover art, a soft-focus shot of a group of flowers, is a classic.  It'd be ideal for an album by Starland Vocal Band or some hirsute new age flautist from a Balkan nation.  As for the curious band name, it's simply the name of their high school football team; for what it's worth, mine was the Country Day Cajuns and our mascot was a crawfish.  I was a starter at wide receiver and cornerback, and wanted to play WR in the NFL.  AllMusic Guide gives this LP an accurate 3-star review and accurately says "Emerge seeks out the common ground between the Beastie Boys and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, slicing and dicing meaty hip-hop beats, crazed garage-rock riffs and vintage keyboard squawking; what could have amounted to little more than primordial pomo sludge is actually quite impressive when it catches fire (see "Go for a Ride," "Add It Up" and "Get Off Your Feet"), although the band's willful lack of focus is a weakness as often as it's a strength."

The drumming is incredible... Like, it should be in the hall of fame of drumming.  Listen to how the drummer leads the way in speeding up and slowing down the tempo within each bar.  Polvo would be proud at the sheer math-rockness of it.  The distorted organ (Hammond B3, I'm guessing) sound is just too cool.  The song has an overall badass quality that is infectious.  I planned to recommend this song to Apple for use in an iPod commercial about 10 years ago, but for some reason I never did.  The "Do the math / Multiply, divide, subtract" line would be perfect to play next to a graphic showing how many songs could fit into a certain size (GB) iPod.

"Add It Up" is a huge leap forward from their early self-released novelty single "Yos To Go," which begat what was apparently their only music video:

Pic taken by my sister, at my behest, in December on the edge of the French Qtr. while we were going to various Prospect.2 art exhibits around town:

She also took this one of me with some sort of robot vending machine outside the Contemporary Arts Center:

Pretty uneventful week... Went in for Mother's Day barbecue with the fam, and drove around with my dad frantically looking for flowers at 7PM on a Sunday night.  Luckily Rouse's saved the day.  Planted a Juniperus chinensis 'Blue Point' (Blue Point juniper), a Chamaerops humilis (Mediterranean Fan Palm) (normal green version), and a Leucophyllum frutescens 'Compactum' (Compact Texas Sage).  Had to buy a new $300 tire due to a tiny nail in the sidewall.  Found out holes in this location cannot be patched, so the whole tire has to be replaced.  Was sort of creeped out by how enthusiastically the mechanic told me "If someone gets mad at you, all they have to do is stick nails in your sidewalls!"  Vaguely considering seeing a band called As Cities Burn on Friday.

Appreciation of BOOTED NEWS WOMEN Blog - I just found this, the worst site in the history of America, narrowly edging out Facebook.  It brews up anywhere from 1 to 30 boot-tastic posts per day.  Reading the user comments is by far the best part.

CSI Miami: Endless Caruso one-liners - Because this show just got cancelled

Your rage comic sucks

Planets with similar climates: Bailter Space - "Pass It Up" (1997), Six Finger Satellite - "Parlour Games" (1995), James Chance & The Contortions - "Contort Yourself" (1979), Bleach - "Shotgun" (1991), The Delta 72 - "...Ever Since You Told Me" (1997).