Folks (no pun), meet Portland's Loch Lomond, a lovely sextet capable of some sweet harmonies. You can download an EP culling from their two LP's for free/donation from the label's site. You should do so.
They're currently touring with the amazing Blitzen Trapper and will be at the Picador on Saturday, July 18. A show not to be missed.
Hi. Nice to see you. Kidding. Like you're there. Everyone's gone away.
Everyone is finally gone, right? Cool. Now we can get real up in here. For example, I'm oddly attracted to the woman's voice at the end of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, chanting that phrase over and over. Yeah. Her and the automated teller that seems to only live inside the WestBank ATM on Burlington. That's the only place I've heard that lovely British woman ask me to wait while my "tranZACKshun is PROHcehssing." Hot.
After most of the last year largely living on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook, a blog post feels so formal. Hilarious. Have I alrdy topt 140 chars? Prolly. Whatev. Texting jokes are so topical. You get it because you're topical too. Like an ointment. Free association. I'm alone. Whatever.
But that's the nice thing about the blog, right? Especially now that there's no one to get bored by what I'm typing, I can just type and type about werewolf ninjas or how I'm pretty sure that my car got bugged during the campaign last fall. That's the only explanation I can come up with to explain the hiccup it occasionally makes. I really wish those guys would come and disconnect their device. I won't even ask any questions, like what it was that made me so critical to the campaign and whether their efforts foiled me or made sure I wasn't foiled. I just want to know what kind of pawn I was. For my resume.
For reasons I won't go into, these days find me with a bit of extra time and a truckload of killer music. I've already kicked a couple artists at people over Twitter and Facebook, but it's just not the same. So, here comes the first mix in I don't even know how long. Two years? Gotta be. Thanks for being patient.
A couple of highlights to note in the mix. First, there are 14 actual named tracks and 2 bonus encore tracks that will remain unnamed for reasons that will become obvious once you hear them. Let's just say this: If you've been following my Twitter, they shouldn't be too much of a surprise. I've mentioned the tracks each recently. A big thanks to the man J. Steiner, who's helped me stay plugged in with band rec's over these last couple years of my general acousticity, if you'll extend the conceit. Telekinesis and The Thermals are all him. Gracias.
The National track is new, taken from Dark Was the Night, an AIDS Benefit compilation, curated by one of the members of the band. I highly recommend the whole thing. Just as No Alternative was a pretty decent cross-section of the "indie" music scene in the early '90s, DWtN foots that bill more than 15 years later. Minutemen are one of those "where the hell have I been all these years" bands that smacked me over the head a few months ago. That track is from an amazing album, Double Nickels on the Dime, which everyone should be willing to sacrifice half their libraries to own. This is more than desert album material, this is rocket-ship-to-Mars levels of worthiness.
The May Mix, as always in individual mp3 or zip form, is below the fold. Enjoy.
Continue reading "The May Mix: Just Because I'm On Your Side" »
Take a look at this picture taken yesterday (and offered at high resolution by change.gov) of Obama and Biden's visit to the Supreme Court.
Consider two things this picture and visit reveal. First, this is the third time in recent decades that a president- and vice president-elect have paid a pre-inaugural visit to the court. (Understandably, W. didn't go in 2001. He had a much briefer transition, was therefore busier, and probably wanted to avoid the appearance of impropriety given that it was the court that crowned him.) All well and good, but I'm less impressed by the visit than I am this photograph.
If you don't have your Supreme Court trading cards handy, the man to Obama's right is Antonin Scalia, arguably the most conservative and certainly the most outspoken justice. This is the guy who cited Jack Bauer when talking terror and excusing torture. This is the guy who went duck hunting with Dick Cheney before considering the GAO's lawsuit to retrieve records of Cheney's secret energy policy meetings in the spring of 2001. (Meetings, at which, we've since learned that detailed maps and analyses of Iraq's oil resources were presented and discussed. Just sayin'.) Scalia's the guy who argued that habeas corpus rights weren't meant to extend beyond the borders of the United States. Hooo-kaaaay. Score one for the Freedom Agenda.
In short, Scalia is a hard-line opponent of most of the Democratic, and certainly the Left's, principles and agenda.
And this is who the next president strolls out of the meeting with, still chatting. (And if Alito had shown up yesterday, it is not hard to imagine him rather than Ginsburg to Obama's left.)
If you've been following Obama's story, you'll know that this is par for the course with him. At Harvard, it was the conservative Federalist Society that helped vote him in as president of the law review. Members at the time have been quoted as saying that Obama was the only one who sat down and talked with them during his campaign. He could articulate their reasons, for instance, for opposing affirmative action better than they could, they said.
And, again: A coule nights ago, he went to dinner at conservative columnist George Will's house along with a handful of other conservative writers like Bill "Palin Roolz" Kristol and Fred "Bush Was Awesome Because He Exceeded His Authority" Barnes. With the mild exception of Will and Peggy Noonan, these writers poured out gallons of poison ink over the last year to prevent Obama's election. And yet he breaks bread with these people. Could you imagine a P-E McCain sitting down with Paul Krugman, Chris Hayes, and Eric Alterman? Hardly.
The trend we see from Obama, the pattern, is one in which he gravitates toward the person who's most likely to disagree with him. It's fascinating to see it repeat. He's simply not afraid to expose himself to contention, but in fact, appears to want it. We all should want to, of course, for the obvious benefits in learning something new and the opportunity to teach others. But how many of us actually make a point to spend time reading or talking to people we may dislike or who have said things about us that were damaging?
In other words, just take a look again at this post's title. This is what he said he would do during the campaign. It's why the vengeful part of me resisted supporting his candidacy initially. I wanted a fight, not negotiation, not compromise or appeasement. But, it turns out, that doesn't work. That needs to end.
Obama's extended his hand to that 75% of Republicans (!) who currently say they approve of the job George W. Bush did. If they slap it away, that's on them. But they can't say he wasn't willing to hear them out. That he wasn't willing to walk with them rather than away from them.
It'll take some getting used to.
I'm pretty sure that half of Margot and the Nuclear So & So's double-disc release is going to wind up in my Top Three or Five. These Take Away Shows the band did in San Francisco for La Blogotheque definitely help lock them in. Hearing the songs live and stripped down really highlights their craft.
Margot and the Nuclear So & So's - German Motor Car - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque.
I was sorry to have missed them when they came through Iowa City, but I heard the sound in the Old Brick was not the greatest. Here's hoping they'll come back for a session at the Mill or somewhere similarly intimate.
Oh, hell. Look what they can do with found sound. The energy is infectious.
Margot and the Nuclear So & So's - As Tall as cliffs - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque.
You can watch more here.
