i still have allergies...

ok... it's 3:15 am.

i'm promising myself i'll have this all put together by 4:30... can do...

what's been happening eh?

first...




anniversary!

lindsay and i celebrate our one year anniversary this monday the 12th!

i love her. she loves me. pretty good deal eh? we're registered at the mayan theatre and little india if you'd like to get us anything... kidding. just buy us some white cheddar stuff to put on popcorn. that'll make us very happy... or give us new jobs. that'd be great too.

second...




ENGLAND/WALES is imminent! i'm sure she'd rather me have a picture of puffins above, but we're staying in cardiff across the river from millennium stadium (where they play rugby, football and maybe hang witches), and while it's not quite Anfield...




...i've done my research and found that this stadium is a bigger deal... plus... liverpool lost to fucking chelsea in the UEFA championship... and i'm welsh anyway so i suppose i'm predisposed to this sort of fare anyway... i'm talking out my ass... looking at sports arenas is the last thing i'm probably excited about regarding this trip... i'll leave it at that and you can expect an update regarding our full itinerary as we get closer to the date. let's just say, we're fucking excited as... balls. like... ogre balls. anyway... two weeks... wales, england, london, hostels, hooligans, brains beer, sheep, coasts, car rides, small mountains, lonsdale, radiohead/mgmt, plane rides, mayhem. june. done and done.

also... speaking of traveling...




anyone for the world cup in 2010? it's in south africa. do it.

youTUBE is such a regular part of daily life for most everyone anymore that i decline to mention the most ridiculous shit i come across... still... the most recent thing i've found to be of note (that isn't 'old greg', 'the whitest kids you know', 'unforgivable' or asians playing nintendo songs) is this.




justice, like them or not, still makes great videos. makes you want to time travel, start a gang and set fire to cars... or maybe just watch 'the warriors'. check out their videos for
'D.A.N.C.E.' and 'we are your friends'.




ignoring the above, lindsay makes great mixtapes, AND SO CAN YOU! let me make this a formal invitation to everyone out there to make me mixtapes and shtuff however and whenever you may see fit. i want them shits. give. i envisioned this elaborate birthday scheme for the 26th b-day where i would be somewhere and ask that friends not buy me drinks or shirts that read 'i hate condoms'... but instead... provide a twelve song mix cassette of your favourite hits. needless to say, it didn't happen. i'm lazy.




go see only thunder any chance you get. that's it.

also!




i need to get the thursday the 15th off. architects from kcmo @ larimer. sigh... and then may 22nd for tokyo police club! don't fuck this up longman.

oh and dear, did you realize that on the tokyo police club myspace they make a reference to the end of back to future? umm... because... they do. validated.

that being said... i still don't like the hold steady or tv on the radio... sorry. had to get it out.

switching gears...




dad had sudden surgery for an inflamed appendix this week... brief scare, but as is with all things longman related, you can't really kill any of us... yadda yadda... made of metal, will never die.

brother gets married this fall in cambridge, MA... i'm excited to finally see the east coast... i don't get out much. still, being a brother in-law is great and whatever... but i want to be an uncle.

oh, what else...




taibbi has a new book coming... read an excerpt here.

rufus wainwright's cover of 'across the universe' is better than the original.

i missed both radiohead's basement performance on vh1 and the duke spirit on conan this month. my better half recorded the mighty duke spirit, but if anyone has radiohead tivo'd or knows where i can see it... well, you know.




in an earlier version of this i yakked about some bullshit regarding the purpose of writing and some other garbage... it's been summarized thusly...

"if anything, it's great practice for a two week trip you're taking that involves a self-affirmed vow that you should take account of such a journey day by day with pen and paper. shit like this happens very seldom in a life such as mine, and i'm upset enough about those times in my life that... weren't accounted for. i don't think there's a life after this one and i think i should spend the majority of my latter years annoying my neighbors with the accolades of my youth."

and then i included a picture of tetsuo from akira... weird.

moving on...




denver '08. my feelings regarding the convention are lukewarm at best. let's hope pete's can get tickets to the daily show through coors or something dumb like that. i've heard that they're ('they' being coors) spending a lot of money to make sure that only coors products are available in a seven-mile radius or something equally as retarded.

other than that, looks like obama will outlast hillary, which is intendedly a way of saying that he will never be seen as emerging victorious over his opponent. shouldn't be his problem, but will be. let's hope he's not full of shit... let's hope he's been speaking softly whilst carrying a fucking railroad tie behind his back.




he's going to need it. food is about to get pretty expensive.

in other unrelated news...

more about Radiohead... catching those up to speed that went to stars or kraftwerk the night they 'played' on conan. here's what happened:



the 'appearance' was reduced to a (maybe) live broadcast of them playing 'house of cards' in some studio somewhere in london only after they explained the inconvenience of playing one show in new york via airplane... gas prices... a plane ride across the pond is equal to a year's usage of gas for your car... or emissions or something... blah blah... makes me feel pretty guilty for paying upwards of $1,200 just to go over the atlantic to see them in june. anyway... jokes. fair enough. cheers. see you in two months... smartass.




i read fictional children's stories about atheism. i am... enlightened. still, i've yet to finish this little 'bathroom' book called the atheist's bible... it's a good place to start in case hitchens or dawkins scares the figurative hell out of you... in addition, someone go see ben stein's movie for me... i'm more interested in stuff like this. maybe i'll finally get into ellen page when she's uhh... acting her age. broken social scene did the score. i think...




i also feel like the only person on the planet to have seen 'funny games'... which was very good.




i want some buddyhead crap (and blood brothers tees before they run out), but i have this feeling that their merch/apparel/whatever people suck at what they do or don't do... and that i would have just been making a donation. still, who doesn't want to support a stupid LA label with a shirt that has a coffin with an American flag on it. their blog sucks... and HAS sucked since they stopped doing their 'best of/worst of' and continued to observe NIN and TOOL as the culmination of music as it... is.




i'm really obsessed with 8 bit nintendo theme songs.

it's bad.




really bad....

i don't understand this. really... i don't. it's a source of comfort... far from the point of understanding... so yeah... bad. it's bad. it's the nostalgic/cathartic thing that seems to thrive between/with my brother and i... pathetic? kind of.

let's just say that the top two are the bubble man theme song from mega man 2 and the kid icarus theme song... as you might have received reference to above... is that even proper grammar? who knows.




i spilled maker's mark on my blackberry the other night tenderizing the bar. it was fine by morning (like most things you 'spill' whiskey on), but for awhile there it was pretty wasted. makes me finally understand one of the funnier lines i've ever heard through a friend, "jaegermeister ate my computer mouse".




and that's it. more on travel and politics in the semi-near future. england is all i think about and the daily show may be bad for america. read music, speak spanish.


* * * * *


and here you go... shit i've been... well...






no age - eraser EP

i'm all for simplicity. still, even from a minimalistic standpoint, the music still has to be uhh... marginal at best. i'm sure there's some stand outs among various albums and shit, but who fucking cares? throwaway soundtrack for films you have to be reminded you saw in the first place. ech.






foals - antidotes

being from oxford is a plus. tapping makes my head swim. thick accents work too. being in norway when i take the wife to the UK makes no sense to me. that aside, i think it's a rare accomplishment in this day and age (and by that i mean the past five years) to make something danceable that isn't dance music. except the saxophone. really. tie it all together, put a bow on it, and well... well done lads.






menomena - friend and foe

horns are dumb... and not necessary... while this is a bad association, it reminds me (in a very roundabout way) of george michael's 'careless whisper'... that can't be good. that aside, many favorites found inside. 'wet and rusting' is worth it even if the other songs were all crap, which, they're not.






meneguar - strangers in our house

"one arm is broke and the other needs a break." makes you never want to listen to anything that wasn't 'produced' on a four-track ever again. melody isn't dead, it just went home to brooklyn and broke up. sad.






gang of four - entertainment!

essential listening for anyone who still thinks sexual intercourse is pretty cool.






neon blonde - chandeliers in the savannah
neon blonde - headlines

no one wants to dance to this. of all the blood brothers offshoots, this may be the wackest. all of this stuff sounds like b-sides. but b-sides to what? who the fuck likes b-sides? i start wondering what i'm doing with my life when i listen to this for too long. the piano parts come off like elton john at times... if elton john blew a bag of asses and never wrote 'crocodile rock'. johnny's probably stoked his wife still has a clothing company.






dirty projectors - rise above

i know he's done other stuff. i'm sure rollins is stoked, but no guy... no. there's a line between doing something creative and wasting everyone's time. you're on one side of it. interesting in theory, boring and overbearing when introduced through headphones. this is a lose-lose.






nick cave and the bad seeds - dig, lazarus, dig!!!

god, you're old. the great argument here is that grandpa is inconsistent. why there is no real thread between grinderman, the birthday party and the bad seeds doesn't bug me. but looking at nocturama? lyre? abattoir blues? some of this stuff reminds me of certain hold steady records that i don't own. christ. "night of the lotus eaters" and "lie down here" works. at the same time, he might've lost his goddamn mind. only gave this a listen or two the other day, so who knows. also, i like using lazarus in metaphors from time to time and i have no idea why he'd be digging anything. verdict? this is kind of fucked. maybe he knows he could track a homeless man throwing nails at a trash can and people will still buy his 'music'. in that case, bravo. you've made it.






slaraffenland - private cinema

instant excitement! available in combo packages of two! easily accessible and makes for a great summertime fling! until the horns arrive. or woodwinds. or both. fuck. still! this has wonderful written all over it in big red marker. just came to denver. i suck. every time i come back to listening to this stuff i feel like i've discovered fire all over again.






antioch arrow - in love with jetts
antioch arrow - the lady is a cat

sluts. prizes. this is like the alphabet in that, after a certain point, it should not have to be explained. you're either on board or you speak in binary.






head wound city - s/t

"It's kind of like if Alien and Predator started a band instead of fighting each other." supergroups burn the earth. good to see some of the kids are keeping busy if nothing else.






logh - every time a bell rings, an angel gets it's wings
logh - north

there's enough eerie elliott smith moments throughout both of these that make me want to know what that word up there even means. in a word, pleasant.






wolfmother - s/t

stupid. for the record, every time i hear 'woman' i want to cut my dick off.






burning airlines - mission: control!

so much is derived from these desert island, must-haves anymore that you kind of cringe for the next time you hear "i don't know, sounds like burning airlines," coming out of your mouth. buy/steal. own/protect. keep/defend.






mgmt - oracular spectacular

skepticism abounds with stuff like this for me because it's too good, too soon, too fast. still, that's their problem, not mine. "I'll move to Paris, shoot some heroin, and fuck with the stars." best big thing i've heard of since muse. woo-saa.






silkworm - italian platinum

"and i know i love means i hope you don't survive the night." good... and then still, you've been warned... some of these songs are god-fucking-awful and by that i mean... it's "holy-shit-hit-me-in-the-dick-with-a-brick" bad.






lcd soundsystem - s/t

DAFT PUNK IS PLAYING AT MY HOUSE.... AT MY HOUSE... ... good enough for me. didn't they play with gogol bordello this past summer or something? at red rocks even? have you seen wrist cutters? gold. 'when there-iz tre-ap. set-upfer-yu...' get it? you don't? i know right?






saviours - into abadon

eh. that's right, eh. i would go see them... provided they came with someone, but as an advocate for shit that makes my boner come alive and frighten kids i have to say, that didn't happen.






ratatat - s/t

like a cold bowl of good soup. nothing really all that amazing. still fun in moderation. still kisses with saliva. for fans of nintendo and music that makes use of the electric guitar. could really do without some of the stupid sound bites at the beginning of most songs. no one cares. just start the song.






cat-a-tac - past lies and former lives

they're boring. that's the hype i've heard. and i've heard them. believe the hype. believe me though. blah. remember crossfire? that game ruled. it wasn't so much a game but marbles for pre-teens who had a penchant for guns. honorable mention: hungry, hungry hippos.





lightning bolt - hypermagic mountain

set up a camera and play this shit for a room full of blind people armed with handguns to see the most violent movie ever made. garbage. reminds of this time when a guy looked me in the eye and told me to "go fuck myself."





gorgoroth - ad majorem sathanas gloriam


holy fuck. on my birthday four years ago, during a live broadcast concert in Kraków, Poland, the band displayed sheep heads on stakes, a bloodbath of 80 liters of sheep's blood, satanic symbols, and four naked crucified models on stage. i was not in poland at the time.






the kooks - konk

i kind of want to beat whoever mentioned this band to me with a big, big flashlight. i know the names of their families, am fueled by bloodlust and cannot be killed except in a ritualistic fashion... like in a horror movie.






braid - frame & canvas

as solid as a good shit. as soft as your boner in a tube sock. something that makes me think about road trips, blow jobs, your first pair of store-bought shoes, freshly mown grass, old arcade games and all things that are good.






nausea - lie cycle

never lived in new york. some dude joined choking victim. sweet. soon to be a patch on crusts everywhere. yup. fuck reagan. over it. why is this on here?

oh, i have my reasons...

boredom being one...

and constantly going back on those affirmative, resolute, I-never-change-my-mind-never-ever statements as a rule for two...

so...

first off...



twenty fucking years man. twenty fucking years. i don't even know why the fate of the jayhawks seems to bug me more than it should, but who cares? as far as omens go, this is a good one and i'm happy it happened... even if no one seems to really understand it... outside of my immediate family and those who... well... do.

and who gives a fuck if Self stays or not? shit. stack paper. make cheddar. get paid. $10 million is a lot to pass up and the jayhawks didn't win with Roy so does it matter? check and mate.

that said...



j/k. now i'm done.

other news...



there's things i know and things i want... the things i want make me an optimist, but it's the way things are that make me more of a... not even a pessimist... more like a nihilist.

or rather...

we're fucked...

obama seems to talk more about how he feels about the olympic protests than anything regarding... well, anything. meanwhile, McCain announces a refusal to rule out pre-emptive war and i'm pretty sure he has no idea what makes a sunni different from a shiite. also, if you're a fan of 'the hills' star Heidi Montag, you'll be happy to know that she's endorsed McCain and vice versa. in a related story, i've endorsed 'snacks'. somehow, Montag's endorsement is bigger news than my allegiance to duncan hines. weak.

all the while, hillary continues to continue, reminding everyone in america of how unorganized and grossly similar the democrats may be to... you get the idea.

and the only person of note who's even asking (or rather, promising) that we pin the current administration to it's sinking ship is that (possibly) gay (maybe) republican gas bag Andrew Sullivan. even he has taken the attitude of 'if you send it up the flag pole,' that tends to work more times than not... so good luck with that. he even makes his accusations and assertions with words like 'war' and 'crimes', let alone 'fiscal accountability'... wow.

still, as far as commentary or even 'news' goes... my blood brother and future employer still tends to hit the nail on the head. so yes. it really is that bad. it won't just go away. and read this one to find out who's to blame.

that's right.

you...

and me.

here's another... on the subject of riots and the DNC this fall, i don't think we need to brace for anything like chicago in '68 or whatever... but i wonder about the manner in which said protest (on however many topics... who knows. don't expect a big seattle production) will be co-opted/conducted and whether it can stir up any kind of shit show. sure.



because that's what a shit show is.

why not. i see it ultimately festering into some kind of lackluster display that will leave a (albeit, small) black, stinky eye on the whole party/event. you're welcome.

also, i compare the uninformed, reactionary element that makes up most of these disasters using a simile vice made once about bike kids (which is unfair to people on bikes everywhere, but who gives a shit?) that i believe translates. oh, and they're talking about Chicago here, but Denver's no slouch when it comes to morons.

"This place used to be all right till it got invaded by Chicago bike weirdos. Does every city have these? Manic Panic’d gutter kids who love disgusting canned beer and build those retarded “Why be normal?” junk bikes on which to spread stupidity across the city? It’s like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, but they’re all “fighting” George Bush instead of Tina Turner."

sooooooo yeah.

get smart. fast. listen to npr. shit in public. read news from CSM. do NOT have a blog. leave the economist in someone's bathroom. have uncomfortable conversations, or even better, arguments with colleagues and co-workers, parents and siblings, dogs and cats, etc. stop believing. give up a little. start over. organize. prioritize. wash, rinse, repeat.



speaking of nothing, i got a kick out of the above... just don't know if what bansky does is worth six figures... apparently angelina jolie bought that one... which is funny... because i think the people at the picnic look like brangelina and their adopted kids anyway.

okay. more on nothing next week.

oh wait.

shit i listened to this week... or that i can remember listening to.






does it offend you yeah? - you have no idea what you're getting yourself into


for fans of the rapture and... umm... bullshit. this could get really, really bad in a hurry... then again... that sounds kind of fun. ten points for gratuitous use of an organ. ha. that has a double meaning. ha. innuendo even.





grizzly bear - friend
grizzly bear - yellow house


so they're opening for radiohead this june, so i thought i'd look into what everybody was talking about in 2007... and 2006... apparently. nothing spectacular. i'm sure shit like this grows on you, but so do warts. that said, the video for 'knife' is fucking awful. i'm only including a still from it. you can youTUBE that wack shit on your own, cowboy. yeesh.







chormatics - chrome rats vs. basement rutz

music for travelers. you can feel alienated and alone while waxing xenophobic all from the discomfort of your own couch. or at least, that's what i'm thinking. also good for those dates where you get tested for AIDS and end up at Arby's sharing a bacon beef an' cheddar.





mew - frengers
mew - the zookeeper's boy EP
mew - and the glass handed kites


you kind of have to be from denmark to make stuff like this AND make it interesting. or at least that's the rule i just made up.





athlete - tourist


simple light boring rock stuff that i eat up from somewhere in the united kingdom. file under: music to put off doing laundry to. i don't have 'beyond the neighbourhood'. but i will. they spell shit with extra vowels over there. it's true.





daft punk - alive


way unprepared to deal with the strange rangers scattering around red rocks this past summer. totally prepared to listen to this well into 2008. being into shit like this is weird though, like when your grandma hugs you too long and you realize for the first time that she's stacked... like way stacked.





barronness - red album


so much better than the sword it hurts my dick. oh, and i heard that new album, 'slobs of the hearth' sucks.





autechre - quaristice


it's kind of depressing to listen to this shit because as much is makes me want to hit my brain with a shovel, i kind of want to know what they're doing to get some of the sounds that they get. except the blips and sonar sounds that sound like dolphins fucking on gameboy. i've figured that out.





m83 - before the dawn heals us
m83 - saturdays = youth


can do no wrong. a must have for most new home owners.





lupe fiasco - food & liquor


kick. push. kick. push. kick. push. coast. no, i don't have the cool. never did.





junior boys - so this is goodbye


for people who want to like hot chip, but haven't found a reason as to why. also for people struggling to find out why they listen to cut copy when they once said it was 'music for the gays'. a nine step program that costs under ten bucks and doesn't bum out your folks. hot chip remixed 'in the morning' if you're not ready to get in the water just yet.





stars - in our bedroom after the war


you kind of have to do some cut and paste. 'my favourite book' sounds like norah jones. trash. 'the ghost of genova heights' channels the scissor sisters, and i'd rather have someone feed me bagels from their ass than listen to the scissor sisters. 'barricade' is some kind of ode to 'les miserables' or showtunes in general and that's ALWAYS retarded. so yeah... scrap those three and you've got a solid record. 'take me to the riot' should be radio hit of the year. do kids like this stuff? i don't care.





latterman - we are still alive


i'm pretty sure i'm looking for the first album. maybe i'm thinking of a different band. this just sounds like hot water smoke or gaslight anthem. or the draft.





justice - cross


french dudes have garageband now. it's true. hold a dance party in your studio one bedroom apartment. anything's possible. plus! the justice versus simian video for 'we are your friends' is one of the best ever. ever. ever. this one's not bad either. kind of makes you want to spring for stupid t-shirts... but not really.





voxtrot - mothers, sisters, daughters and wives EP


i really like me some boring ass music.





charlotte gainsbourg - 5:55


nothing special pretty stuff from that girl from that gondry film. soon to be in an ad about iPods or boutique SUVs. and that's about it.





now it's overhead - dark light daybreak


i hope the rest of the saddle creek catalogue (of late) isn't this boring. for fans of tv on the radio, modest mouse and grizzly bear, etc. yawn.





yacht - i believe in you. your magic is real.


hit and miss. long lasting? methinks no. i don't mind shtick like this, but it makes me wonder how easy it is to make music these days. your local guy/gal who has his own dj dance night knows this stuff front to back no doubt. that's too bad.







camera obscura - let's get out of this country


it's like the finished recording some of these songs, played them on a boombox at the end of a long hallway wrapped in sheet metal and recorded that. girls that like echoes and reverb as much as i do. i'm enthusiastic about music.





steely dan - can't buy a thrill


smooth. so smooth.





dillinger escape plan - calculating infinity
dillinger escape plan - miss machine


"i smell that whore!" ... "woo!" fun for everyone. essential listening for anyone who wants to start a family. i want to listen to it underwater.





botch - the unifying themes of sex, death and religion


you'll wanna drive around town on quaaludes and tell bitches they look pregnant. makes me want to re-listen to these arms are snakes.





atari teenage riot - burn, berlin, burn


this band talked about taking amphetamines and writing songs all night until they passed out. i heard alec empire had a shitty solo project once. whatever dudes. this reminds me of better living through chemistry, rob swift, de la soul and whatever else i was listening to in high school. delete yourself.





annuals - be he me


when pop music evolves into shit like this it gives me a hard on like the statue of liberty. big. not shaped.





propellerheads - decks, drums and rock n roll


i get tired of listening to the same shit driving to work and back again. you'll feel like steve mcqueen driving a dick on wheels. except for that shirley bassie song or whatever. that's just weird. that said, if anyone can find me an album by boom, boom satellites i'll jerk you off and melt your face. really.





the duke spirit - neptune


best album of 2008... so far. i would let liela moss put cigarettes out on me. really. i would. why they have six times as many EPs and singles than full-length albums is a mystery to me. maybe that's why they're loaded. people from across the pond must eat that shit up.





vampire weekend - s/t


i don't care about this band. i was hoping i could find the album art for 'hung queens can suck it' instead. oh well.





les savy fav - let's stay friends


this will also make some dumb 'best of '08' list as well even though it came out last year... pretty solid. like a brick through a window. their singer reminds me of a coked-out allen ginsberg and he also did a strip tease of sorts on conan. rad-i-cal.





liars - drum's not dead
liars - s/t


saw them on my birthday. bored out of my mind... kind of. it's like they went from 'drum' to 'liars' and turned up the 'shit's going to be actually happening' knob so people on xanax wouldn't die when they listened to the new record. that's genius.