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Friday, February 27, 2009 Depressing/Hilarious? So I need to come up with a word to describe the three terms: "depressingly hilarious" "hilariously depressing" and "depressing/hilarious" I realize i've been saying these three things CONSTANTLY the past few weeks, so it's time to put a label on this unique feeling. Any thoughts? posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/27/2009 10:31:00 AM 3 comments Thursday, February 26, 2009 Homoriffic Sexuals  I know often return to the familiar faves when writing on Slang, but let me rep for a moment one of my favorite legitimately unsung and underdiscussedbands of all time, the late 70s/early 80s post-punk band The Homosexuals. Lots of the bands we love are "obscure" when registering the aural knowledge of the general populace, but to those among our little world of "independent music," pretty much everyone knows your Deerhunters, Arcade Fires, Spoons. Even older and not-too-known-at-the-time bands like Black Tambourine and the Pastels get a chance to have their day when the trend-revisitation cycle comes around (see: Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Vivian Girls, Knight School). But for whatever reason, The Homosexuals have flown below even that radar of reconsideration, being passed over in the great post-punk reclamation project of 2002-03 that saw Gang of Four, Public Image Limited, James Chance, Liquid Liquid and others get a second (or third or fourth) look. I wasn't around then, so I'm not entirely clear on why the Homosexuals were less known when they were contemporary, but i'm even less clear why they continue to be so ignored. Their music, an unmistakable brand of sunny English post-punk, hits on many of common pp touchstones you'd expect, but the end results sounds like almost no one else. The key force is, of course, spiky trebly "Gang of Four" guitar, but unlike those uberserious Marxists, the Homosexuals inject a level of crazed absurdism into every song that makes each one a million times more listenable than any Gang of Four song beyond "Damaged Goods" and "I Found That Essence Rare". Most songs run under two minutes and seem to fall apart under the weight of their own construction, in a way that feels shambolic but not sloppy. The rare songs that last longer do so because they are meant to go somewhere, with each assuring you an unexpected turn along the way justifying your patience. Doorknobs and I planned to see them this past weekend at the Mercury Lounge, as Cause Co-motion! was originally tabbed as opener, but when Cause-Co fell off the bill our interest diminished, and our subsequent discovering that that band was simply singer Bruno Wizard plus some young dudes our curiosity waned to nearly nothing. But perhaps our dismissal was unfair, adding us to the ranks of people who have dismissed or ignored Bruno & Co in the entirety of the band's career. Beyond this weekend's nearly-attended show, what originally re-piqued my interest in the band was the release of last year's Love Guns? EP, which was the first new Homosexuals material in nearly twenty-five years. The EP is neither unexpectedly great nor embarrassingly bad--it's mostly meat and two veg postpunk indie fare. However, its feature track, "3AM (Pink Pony)", for which the band even made a video (once available on pitchfork.tv only, now seemingly gone), it's kind of awesome. Beginning with two simplistic and quiet repeated guitar riffs/lyrics for 2:30 before blossoming into a joyous and bombastic climax doubling as a plea to world togetherness. It's preposterously simple and devastastingly effective; I haven't been able to let go of the idea of the song since the moment I heard it. And not only is this track great, but Bruno sounds young and fresh--there's no way you'd think he was an old geezer twenty years out-tha-game if you were played this track shorn of context. I wish the other four songs on the EP were even close to as good, but honestly, this track is so great as to render the rest redundant. And here, for you, is "3AM (Pink Pony)" for your own inspection, plus two great faves from the past. The Homosexuals, "3AM Pink Pony", from Love Guns? EP (2008) The Homosexuals, "Kiss With Venom", from The Homosexuals (1984) Labels: loved sounds, memories, mp3, music, old flames, thoughts posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/26/2009 06:03:00 PM 0 comments Wednesday, February 25, 2009 Don't You Ivah  This week I picked up a Calla album, Scavengers, on an accidentally tangential recommendation (I was told to check out Boduf Songs, which was described to me as being a "darker Iron & Wine" side-project of Calla's--it isn't), and I'm liking it. I've never listened to this group at all--I think for some reason I had them lumped in as mathrockers (am I thinking of Hella?)--and I think I may have been missing out. Dark-ish yet bright, and kind of quiet, there's something a little menacing and unsettling about them. I'm not sure yet if the tempo pulses enough to satisfy me longterm, but no doubt there's a mixworthy song or two for sure. I'll put some further introspection into it all, but I think a solid recommend already. Hear: Calla - "Love of Ivah," from Scavengers peace, jb Labels: case studies, mp3 posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/25/2009 08:43:00 PM 0 comments New Black Lips Album: FAIL
In brief: One Million Thousand is just really not very good. I had really high--though realistic--hopes for this record, but, wow, NOPE. I couldn't even bear to listen to through the entire album on this first listen--i made it to track eight and then switched to something else. Opener "Take My Heart" was an underwhelming but acceptable garage "Hi there", but I figured they were just getting warmed up. Then, track 2, "Drugs", well, erm sounds like a weirdly boring(/shitty) Clash song. Track 3, "Starting Over" is the pre-release leak track and I do think it's really good, and positioned at third you might not think things are going so badly (despite the fact that these first three songs also sound illogical lined up against one another).... but then it just goes downhill into the deep and expansive depths of ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. "Short Fuse" sounds like Fleetwood Mac (really??), I'll Be With You" sounds like a shitty, unstudied little brother of "Dirty Hands". By the time i got to "Big Black Baby Jesus Of Today" I was just done. So this is kinda a "wow" to me. It took me a while to get into Black Lips, as I found their earlier stuff to be kind of boring and tuneless and it wasn't until 2007's Good Bad Not Evil that I finally went, "Oh! I see". For the rest of summer and fall 2007, they were my jam, and I even worked backwards into the "live" album and Let It Bloom. But this, well, this new record is more or less a summation of exactly what I didn&'t like about the band in the first place... a weird garage-y snoozefest. I will try listening to the album a few more times and promise that I hope I'll eventually hear things differently, but I consider it to be a pretty harsh indictment that I don't even want to make it all the way through a new album by a band I (thought I) love. Labels: disappointment, HATEFUL, old flames, thoughts posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/25/2009 12:32:00 PM 1 comments 1
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Tuesday, February 24, 2009 Halfway Twixt Deadwood and the Badlands Lies a little place called BOX ELDER.  MP3 funtime! Pavement - "Box Elder", Westing By Musket and Sextant Holly Golightly - "Box Elder", Singles Round-up Labels: loved sounds, mp3, old flames posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/24/2009 06:59:00 PM 0 comments Tommy Terrifiying
Gawker hits 'em up on the weird marks today. Labels: lolgore, quicksnaps posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/24/2009 04:35:00 PM 0 comments Larry Hughes Is To Shit As Tim Thomas Is To...Joe Budden(s)?
hotdoorknobs: terrible hotdoorknobs: i do not like larry hughes hotdoorknobs: trading tim thomas for larry hughes was like trading poop for shit styrofoamfuror: hmm, well, speaking of shit/poop, right now i am listening to disc two of the TWELVE DISC Joe Budden(s) comp Growth Of A Legend (The Complete Collection) . hotdoorknobs: ZING! Labels: basketball, fucktactics, loved sounds, rap posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/24/2009 03:33:00 PM 0 comments So LeBron Is Crazy, But This Is Just Insane... This fucking shot is OUT OF CONTROL. It's not just a 3pt buzzer beater, or just a half court shot, but a 3pt buzzer beater halfcourt shot that he fumbles, catches and then lobs, with only a tenth of a second before the buzzer expires. Basketball!!!!!!!!!!! oh yeah, and the obligatory, "fucking jason kidd!" Labels: basketball, INSANITY, VICTORY posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/24/2009 11:49:00 AM 0 comments favorite 5 bands of 2008 1) Deerhunter/Atlas Sound Notes: haunts me in my sleep and every waking hour 2) Lil Wayne Notes: Reminded me how much I love rap music and people who are absurdly prolific (see also: hunter, Deer) 3) Nine Inch Nails Notes: Reminded me how much I love not having girlfriends to sway me from listening (and screaming along to) very loud music at very loud volumes. 4) Pains of Being Pure at Heart Notes: Biggest, gayest heart. I will be Alex's biggest groupie until i die. 5) Jay Reatard Notes: Wonderful statesman for the Great Nexus Of Punk Meets Pop--a man who clearly loves music more than just about anyone. Labels: loved sounds, random lists posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/24/2009 11:06:00 AM 0 comments Monday, February 23, 2009 PLEASEEEEEEEEE watch this fucking LeBron video Dear lord, watch this display of non-human CRAZINESS: I am floored and speechless. This is just out of control, from LeBron's 55 point game--this is a stretch where LeBron scored 16 points in two minutes during an 18-4 Cavs run. The thing is, the shots he takes here.... are literally the most ridiculous selection of shots i've ever seen in my life. Like, so fucking bad and ugly that if he were anyone else in the NBA he'd prob get benched for taking shots like these... And some how he makes them ALL, except, most bizarrely, the two free throws he takes. The confidence he displays in throwing these shots up... it's like he just KNOWS that he's going to make 'em all in. And it looks like he's this guy.... but you know it's not the same kind of luck. Totally insane. This man. Insane. I cannot wait for the fucking playoffs. Labels: basketball, CRAZY posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/23/2009 07:49:00 PM 2 comments 2
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Friday, February 20, 2009 First There Is A Mountain--Does The Baby Come Next?
JeffreyBeaumont: i think 2008 was the year i gave up my dream to bear children jaychampionvinyl: Email from Jeffrey Beaumont sent June 8, 2008: "right now i'm so desperately hating the fuck factories i work for that i'd give up my quest to birth children for a better job." jaychampionvinyl: Also, another email from Jeffrey Beaumont, sent October 10, 2008: "First there is a mountain. Things come in steps. Duane communicated with wolves. Derek and the Dominoes to testifies to that. Then there is a mountain. Just let the music slide within and out of your ears and into each little nuance of your brain. Let go of expectations and beards. Don't be afraid to jam. Jam. Mountain. Sent from my iPhone" JeffreyBeaumont: oh man, i think i dreamt that i sent that JeffreyBeaumont: but was fairly sure i never actually did jaychampionvinyl: you didn't jaychampionvinyl: I just pulled it and transcribed it directly out of your dreamscape posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/20/2009 05:29:00 PM 0 comments ...Or Maybe It's The Age Of Universal Stab-Myself-In-The-Eye  I have probably had worse luck with automobiles than just about anybody alive. Today, I discovered that my mom's car--which I was watching while she visited friends in Florida for the week--has been stolen. Awesome, and depressingly hilarious given that I don't even have a car of my own any more (returned home after too many parking tickets and break-in debacles). A HISTORY OF CAR OWNERSHIP BY JEFFREY BEAUMONT From the ages of 16-21, I owned FIVE cars: 1) '91 Toyota Corolla wagon, light blue Owned: August 1998-October 2000 From: old car from parents Issue 1: girl at party backed into my car and then drove away Issue 2: Car died, October 2000 Reason for loss: Ran the engine dry--my own stupidity 2) '89 Plymouth Sundance, maroon Owned: November 2000-April 2001 From: grandparents to replace Corolla Issue 1: only ran on three of four cylinders and had a giant leak in oil tank Issue 2: Car died, April 2001 Reason for loss: Old age. No fault. 3) '90 Plymouth Sundance V6, white Owned: May 2001-February 2002 From: Purchased from local car garage for $1700 Issue 1: Unnecessary V6 guzzled hilarious amounts of gas for a tiny car Reason for loss: found better car to replace; sold for $1500 4) '89 Honda Accord, navy blue Owned: February 2002-February 2004 From: Purchased from local car garage for $2000 Issue 1: I loved this fucking car, and basically got it for an extra $500 Issue 2: Was 13 years old and 173,000 miles upon purchase and had already had engine replaced Issue 3: Overheated constantly Reason for loss: Old age. No fault. 5) 2001 Saturn, beige Owned: May 2004-December 2004 From: Given to me as college graduation present Issue 1: I also loved this fucking car, and drove it on five-week cross-country road trip. Driven approximately 17,000 miles throughout ownership Issue 2: Did not need a car after moving to NYC in October 2004 Issue 3: Dad did not want to continue paying insurance and I didn't want to pay either Reason for loss: Not needed in New York, or to sit in a garage upstate, so sold (for more than originally purchased). Seriously--that's fucking ridiculous, right?? I guess I am pretty much done with cars. Labels: cockblocking, FAIL, fucktactics, HATEFUL posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/20/2009 11:11:00 AM 1 comments 1
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Thursday, February 19, 2009 The Onset of the Age of Universal Deafness     Labels: CRAZY, deafness, fucktactics, god letters, INSANITY, junkjunk, thoughts posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/19/2009 08:35:00 PM 1 comments 1
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Wednesday, February 18, 2009 Spring Is Coming, Lassie styrofoamfuror: i can just tell that spring is coming on styrofoamfuror: because my joints are getting loosened up styrofoamfuror: and i'm starting to feel rock music course through my veins again styrofoamfuror: all i need is a car and some cigarettes hotdoorknobs: hahah yr like a farm dog hotdoorknobs: IT'S ABOUT TO RAIN, PA... LASSIE IS ACKKIN FUNNY posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/18/2009 11:28:00 AM 0 comments Tuesday, February 17, 2009 write on "An Ending" vs "Circassian" posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/17/2009 04:05:00 PM 0 comments Sunday, February 15, 2009 afx styrofoamfuror: aphex twin did a brilliant remix of Gavin Bryar's Sinking the Titanic styrofoamfuror: that i prefer to the original jaychampvinyl: ooh nice! styrofoamfuror: called Raising the Titanic jaychampvinyl: BA ZING jaychampvinyl: haha styrofoamfuror: he combines melodicism with minimalist drone in a generally interesting way styrofoamfuror: afx adds a huge drum sound to the piece styrofoamfuror: this man kind of kills me jaychampvinyl: Richard D.? jaychampvinyl: yeah styrofoamfuror: i really think he was one of the genuises of the last 25 years jaychampvinyl: he seems like exactly your kind of person jaychampvinyl: ;-) jaychampvinyl: brilliant, completely perverse, insanely prolific, ever-changing styrofoamfuror: he hasn't really done anything too worthy since '99 jaychampvinyl: committed to an aesthetic styrofoamfuror: but i truly think it's because he got bored styrofoamfuror: and intentionally tried to compromise his shit by setting up absurd methods for creating music styrofoamfuror: like putting out ten 12" of music recorded only with analog pre-'95 instruments jaychampvinyl: hahah jaychampvinyl: yeah jaychampvinyl: that usually means boredom styrofoamfuror: or insisting upon recording an album alternating only between prepared piano and electronic thrash jaychampvinyl: Reminds me of how Jack White decided he had to use only, like, the marimba and piano to record Get Behind Me, Satan -- a record I've still never heard jaychampvinyl: such stupid rules styrofoamfuror: Zzzzzzzzzzz styrofoamfuror: but AFX work from '94-'97 I believe is still the peak of electronic music as a future medium jaychampvinyl: that marked the exact point, I think, where I stopped caring at all what White Stripes ever did jaychampvinyl: (yes to AFX, btw) jaychampvinyl: agreed styrofoamfuror: i think he both bored and also afraid of the pressure put upon him to continue breaking ground styrofoamfuror: which is also why he limited himself so much styrofoamfuror: so it's like, "Well guys, OBVIOUSLY i couldnt be making groundbreaking shit--i'm using analog synths!" styrofoamfuror: which, actually more than anything else about him, is a feeling i understand all to well styrofoamfuror: limiting or even sabotaging your efforts to make sure you don't fail or let people down styrofoamfuror: which works for a minute until your absence of quality output begins to speak louder than your failure to followthrough on your ambition styrofoamfuror: and then eventually people more or less forget you ever had that magic in the first place jaychampvinyl: haha, all excellent points jaychampvinyl: do you really think he was unconsciously sabotaging himself? styrofoamfuror: yes styrofoamfuror: sort of styrofoamfuror: at the very least i think he became very afraid of his success and trepid about how to move forward jaychampvinyl: around what time? jaychampvinyl: mid 90s? styrofoamfuror: 97 styrofoamfuror: after Richard D James album came out in 95 he was suddenly annointed King of Electronic music and great seer of the digital future styrofoamfuror: then he waited a bit and two years later put out the Come to Daddy EP styrofoamfuror: which is great but also only 25 minutes styrofoamfuror: and then in '99 he put out the Windowlicker single styrofoamfuror: which is also great styrofoamfuror: but only 3 songs styrofoamfuror: one of which is just worthless noise jaychampvinyl: right jaychampvinyl: then jaychampvinyl: nothing posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/15/2009 11:02:00 AM 0 comments Wednesday, February 11, 2009 Tainted Love, At the Heart of It All It's 4:30 and I should be asleep but instead of I am here typing up a storm. And Nine Inch Nails, "At the Heart of It All (created by Aphex Twin)" Labels: curiosities, mp3 posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/11/2009 04:28:00 AM 0 comments Digging Through the Past: Cutout Bins  In part of fueling my recent Nine Inch Nails obsession, I suddenly felt compelled to go backwards tonight looking for my copies of The Downward Spiral and Further Down the Spiral. This involved opening up some taped cardboard boxes and rifling through many spindles containing hundreds and hundreds of cds, storebought, burned, blank and otherwise. It was a strange blast through the past. I found Downward but not Further; however, in its stead were a great many strange relics that I wasn't quite sure what to do with. Some I decided to rip to computer--Prefuse 73, One Word Extinguisher** Detroit Cobras, Baby; U2, Achtung Baby, Allman Brothers, 2nd Set (seriously)--and others I could only laugh about. Some of the laughers I also ripped to my computer (AK1200, Lock & Roll????***), but the rest... man. Whoa. Included among these were my copies of the "classic" Roni Size '97 album New Forms, a jungle album heralded upon release as part of music's great future... and over time one which revealed itself to be an amazing 120 minute snooZZzzzzer. I remember buying this immediately after it came out, having read Rolling Stone's 3.5 star review telling me that it was as good as everyone had been saying. And for my young and inexposed '97 ears, it was: it was fucking amazing. Yeah, it was a little long, and yeah, Onalee's vocals wore on me a bit, and yeah, a lot of it sorta seemed like boring jazz.... but I think there was something immensely exciting, promising and powerful about jungle in the late 90s that electrified the music due to its sheer newness. Now, of course, we are old, and tired of jungle and its jazzy ways, and you can find New Forms in more cutout bins than just about anything besides Last Splash. Post-script **-- I thought of this album a few weeks ago because for whatever reason I decided to rip the Mr. Lif album I, Phantom to my laptop and was reminded of the fact that my second favorite track from this album is, for reasons I can't quite explain, "Huevos with Rani and Jeff", 1:15 track with Mr. Lif rapping. I can't really stand up for this shit but I can't seem to sit down for it either. ***--The AK1200 remix of Cleveland Lounge's "Drowning" was sent to me on a TAPE by an internet penpal from Atlanta in May 1999 (which I received the day before the post-Columbine Heritage High School shootings, which took place at the school she went to--Amy, where are you now?) and which I listened to more than perhaps any other song between 1999 and 2001, putting it on countless mixes, sending to friends, and loving it to fucking pieces. (There were many remixes of this song and two AK1200 mixes in particular were the best, the first featured on the AK1200 album Fully Automatic--"Dave Aude Drum and Space mix" and the second featured on 12"s and just called "AK1200 mix"). And then there's Lock and Roll, the album referenced above, which has a great drum n' bass remix of the classic Tribe track "1nce Again" that showed that hiphop worked perfectly with jungle about a year before Outkast made waves with "B.O.B" god!!! Some tunes: And finally, video for the original "Drowning", which is not as cool but features this silly dancing: Labels: memories, mp3, old flames, quicksnaps posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/11/2009 12:56:00 AM 0 comments Tuesday, February 10, 2009 H-to-the-Izzo (Dreams Comes True) From the wires today! Three chosen to play H-O-R-S-EDefinitely rad news, I say. More so than a dunk contest even. Amusing to me it took them so long to come up with the idea, but it's definitely a dream fifteen years in the making: ever since Bird battled Jordan in 93's McDonald's HORSE commercials, I've wanted to see real NBA stars battle it out on something ridiculous. Here's the original commercial: Labels: basketball, curiosities, memories, old flames posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/10/2009 05:37:00 PM 0 comments Keys on the Subway
Labels: curiosities, quicksnaps posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/10/2009 02:47:00 AM 0 comments Monday, February 09, 2009 Customer Service ExhaustedFriend: egad JeffreyBeaumont: hi JeffreyBeaumont: what up JeffreyBeaumont: ? ExhaustedFriend: hahaha ExhaustedFriend: maybe you dont want to know ExhaustedFriend: there is one of two possible reasons for how im feeling right now ExhaustedFriend: one: im just PMSing or something ExhaustedFriend: two: i just fucking cant handle customer service anythign anymore JeffreyBeaumont: always i want to know such things JeffreyBeaumont: i was a women's studies major! JeffreyBeaumont: the latter is a given JeffreyBeaumont: regardless of No. 1 being true JeffreyBeaumont: customer's service is a life drain JeffreyBeaumont: and you, unlike a lot of people, care WAY too much about other humans JeffreyBeaumont: customer service is an area where you get to see humans at their worst: in moments of greed, lusting after commercial products, angry at not getting their immediate gratification, and being given to outlet to vent their anger without a warm human face-to-face connection JeffreyBeaumont: it's a confluence of factors that lead any person doing customer service to feel like they see the dark black depths of humanity on an all too frequent basis JeffreyBeaumont: i'm sure you get the occasional, "Thanks Cassie, you're the best!" reprieves JeffreyBeaumont: but i would guess they don't outweigh the number of angry thoughtless barkers who talk to you like you are a robot they were born to hate JeffreyBeaumont: or the last person standing in the way of the newborn child ExhaustedFriend: haha WOW ExhaustedFriend: it's true, though ExhaustedFriend: it's all true ExhaustedFriend: and i could say so much more ExhaustedFriend: WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/09/2009 05:45:00 PM 1 comments 1
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Sunday, February 08, 2009 David Lynch Cuts My Heart Open / CREAMED CORN  I am watching Fire Walk With Me for the first time since summer 2002 and I am reminded once again how, more than anything in the world, the work of David Lynch influenced the development of my brain aesthetics through adolescence into adulthood. And, for better or worse, really: i'm not sure it's so great that any child be so heavily affected by his darkworld alternatAmerica dreamscapes. David Lynch left an imprint on me like nothing else. Two tracks from the Fire Walk With Me soundtrack: This movie is insanely creepy.  Labels: friends, memories, old flames, thoughts posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/08/2009 11:36:00 PM 0 comments Saturday, February 07, 2009 Those Were Different Times....
I am, however, reminded of how things used to be. Remember when things were REALLY crazy? Say, mid 90s, Coors Field crazy? Coors Field is still a hard place to pitch, but it has come slightly down to earth since it's era of insanity in the late 90s, seemingly due to the humidor. Back in the 90s though, dear god, it was a haven for home runs, power and roids. Check out the chart above--THREE 40+ HR hitters, plus Ellis Burks at 32 over only 119 games and then Dante Bichette's 26 for good measure (and he hit 40 in '95 there anyway). The Rockies also had three 40HRers in '96. One thing worth noting is the age of these guys: 30, 36, 29, 32, 33. Nothing is impossible, of course, but the confluence of power and age, even at Coors Field in 1997, seems to lead to one conclusion... oh yes. Anyway, these were crazy times. The Rockies finished 83-79, which is amazing considering that "ace" Kevin Ritz went 17-11 with a 5.28 ERA; their best starter ERA was Armando Reynoso at 4.93 and they didn't have a single pitcher, starter, reliever or part-timer with an ERA below 3.96. Glory years indeed. posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/07/2009 07:38:00 PM 0 comments Breathing Easy The weather broke for warmth today and I decided to go for a bike ride with my friend Mark, for a few loops around Prospect Park. The last time I went out was probably a month ago and probably about 25-30 degrees out. I was (and still am) very much out of shape and it showed. I went out today though, and yes, it was warmer, but I am in no better shape than I was a month ago but I felt great and felt like I could have kept riding for a long time. Mainly, I'm convinced that five weeks of not smoking is making a big difference and that my body is finally feeling healthy and cleared out. Coming up the hill portion of the Prospect loop had felt so shitty the past two times out, but today was nothing but a sweet breeze. here's to good health. -JB posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/07/2009 05:58:00 PM 0 comments Friday, February 06, 2009 Pains of Being Awesome I must give a tremendous shout today to the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Their album is dropping next week and the results are in: it's great and they are winning! Alex, I love you too much. Congratulations. Here's a bonus mp3 not on the actual album: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart -- "The Pains of Being Pure at Heart," b-side from Everything With You 7" And watch the "Everything With You" video if you somehow haven't seen it already: Labels: friends, INSANITY, loved sounds, mp3 posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/06/2009 10:49:00 AM 0 comments Wednesday, February 04, 2009 Crazy T-Wolves Power Scene  Line-up for a recent T-Wolves game: Starters: Ryan Gomes, PF Craig Smith, PF Al Jefferson, C Randy Foye, PG Sebastian Telfair, PG Bench: Kevin Love, PF Mike Miller, SG Rodney Carney, SF Brian Cardinal, PF Mark Madsen, PF Jason Collins, C Rashad McCants, SG DOOOOOOODDDZ. They have FIVE power forwards, and two centers. Are you fucking kidding me?? They have FIVE power forwards, and the best of them--rookie Kevin Love--is on the bench!! When you keep in mind the fact that neither Foye nor Bassy Telfair are actually point guards, you get to the realization that this team has zero point guards and one small forward. And FIVE power forwards (never mind if two of them are the stiffest white dudes in the NBA). Weird, just weird. PS--Pleazzz check out "Mad Dog" Mark Madsen's amazing BLOG. YES. posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/04/2009 11:21:00 PM 0 comments Soul Loss Reading a book now on the cultural complication of the new lives of the refugee Hmong people, who immigrated to the US from Thailand after being forced to leave their homeland in Laos. These fierce, proud people truly come from a different world with mindsets that, as far as I can tell, run literally opposite to those of their new American neighbors. The book is called The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, which is a description for the way the Hmong translate epilepsy, as they literally believe that epilepsy is the result of a malevolent spirit called a "dab" coming and kidnapping the soul from a person, causing them to fall down. One part that caught my attention in particular was the following description of "soul loss": Your soul is like your shadow. Sometimes it just wanders off like a butterfly, and that is when you are sad and that is when you get sick, and if it comes back to you, that is when you are happy and you are well again. I like this understanding, and it seems to be more true than we Americans allow ourselves to acknowledge. Medicine and clinical objectivity do not and can not bring happiness or fullness into a person's life without that person injecting their own soul with a necessary thrust of humanity. We overmedicate our society and rely too much on other people and other factors beyond what lies within ourselves to find happiness and fulfillment (let alone "good health"). It's worth remembering that there is not a person alive on this planet who is above learning new lessons from any other person--there is no limit to our infinite levels of inexperience. Open minds and open hearts are the surest paths to continued physical, mental, and emotional freedom. Also: the Hmong people have a phrase for "the truth eventually comes to light," called "yuav paim quav," which literally means "feces will be excreted." Labels: books, junkjunk, thoughts posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/04/2009 01:43:00 AM 1 comments 1
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Tuesday, February 03, 2009 Lonely Soul  I'm listening right now to a bleak you've-been-dumped-and-you're-alone mix I made for myself in 2003 called Crying and am having an odd love affair all over again with a wonderful song called "Lonely Soul" from the 1998 DJ Shadow-helmed UNKLE superproject Psyence Fiction (James Lavelle, founder and later director of UNKLE, was also "involved", but at the time the music was entirely Shadow's). The album, featuring guest appearances from Thom Yorke, Mike D, and Badly Drawn Boy, among others, was considered to be somewhat of a flop when it dropped in '98, after tons and tons AND TONS of hype. It's not that it wasn't good, but it had just way too many over-the-top expectations and, yes, it wasn't as good or important (at all) as Endtroducing... and so people gushed, they booed, and then they forgot. But really, it's a good, fun album, and is enjoyable to listen to, especially in the context of late 90s electronic-pop/trip-hop, and worth a spin if you haven't heard in forever. The two "Drums of Death" hip-hop experiments are pretty boring, but the rest is pretty solid, and two tracks tower above the rest as truly inspired pieces of music worth holding onto: the obvious one, "Rabbit In Your Headlights," featuring Thom Yorke, and the other, "Lonely Soul," featuring Richard Ashcroft of the Verve. "Rabbit in Your Headlights" is stunning, and frankly deserves it's own post, as it is in some ways the ultimate "Thom Yorke, Cultural Figure" vehicle he has ever had (and certainly the best of the many "guest appearances" he's had in his career). I will get to this one someday. "Lonely Soul," though, is its own wonderful monstrous beast: nine minutes, multiple parts, beginning with quiet and silence before slowing building and erupting into a special kind of bombastic "melancholia-phoria" that Ashcroft (and the late 90s) specialized in. The song is absolutely epic, in the traditional sense of the word, and even given the gloss and age still does a number on me today. It's no coincidence that both of these songs appear on the Crying mix, as one challenges to trump the other in a battle of over the throne of King of Mega-meloncholia-melodrama--albeit in different ways: "Rabbit in Your Headlights" in first person Lynchian-darkness narrative, "Lonely Soul" in a distanced, bright-lights full blast. But both are great, and both slay me still.  Listen: Which reminds me... sometime coming down the pike: first entry in upcoming "Revisiting The Mixes" series, on Crying. xo, JB Labels: loved sounds, memories, mp3 posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/03/2009 11:17:00 PM 0 comments Monday, February 02, 2009 Unexpected Reactions / Power In Old Age  My musical tastes have always been all over the map, but in the past year they've really been something else entirely. For most of my life I never felt inclined to be obsessive about particular tracks or artists--there was always so much music out there that it seems too easy to always listen to "something else". Something has clicked within me though in the last 12 months though that has lead me to great obsessions, over artists and individual tracks in particular. I haven't the time to name them all but "It's All Over Now," "Sea of Love," "Untitled 2," "Isolation," and, most recently, "Dreams" (in covers, not the original) have eaten my soul alive with their infectious goodness. And beyond the songs are a few "artists" whose tunes have rained down upon my brain like drizzling napalm over the past six months are Deerhunter/Atlas Sound, Lil Wayne, Nina Simone, 50s rock/60s soul, and--most curiously--Nine Inch Nails. Deerhunter and Lil Wayne both came into my life in 2008 as new and previously unexplored artists who each share the talents of being both immensely creative and insanely prolific. Bradford Cox emits a nonending stream of albums, EPs, singles, "bonus projects" and internet-only nonsense under both Deerhunter and Atlas Sound outfits, and Lil Wayne drops a new mixtape more or less every time he sneezes. The quality control for both isn't amazing (Bradford sometimes too cute and boring; Wayne sometimes just terrible), but their genius is unquestionable and their tenacity unrivaled. Therefore, it's not too surprising how much these men have affected me, but that it took me so long to hear (and love) them. The 50s rock/60s soul comes as a direct outcropping of Bradford's obsession with both of these musics, feeding my brain both with his covers of such songs as well as his constant discussions of them. Hearing swaying, swooning reverb guitar, or soulful paeans to a time forgotten make me well up into a ball of fake-nostalgic nothing. It's a kind of haunting empty reductiveness that makes me think of my childhood, my grandparents, David Lynch, and a time that I imagined once existed but never really did. Which is to say the same general "theme" of shit I've cared about for most of my life. So that's all very sensible. But then we get to the outlier--NINE INCH NAILS. [Should I be writing that as "NINE INCH NAILS (!!!?!!?!)"?] Before Nine Inch Nails came into my life again this year, I last cared about them in 1997, when the soundtrack to David Lynch's Lost Highway came out and it not only featured the fantastic Nine Inch Nails "Perfect Drug" single, but was also entirely compiled carefully and lovingly by Trent Reznor as hands-down the best and creepiest "stands-on-its-own" movie soundtrack I've ever heard. Not just a collection of good or appropriate songs, but a disconcertingly spun web of malevolent sonic envelopement that matches perfectly the ghostly darkness and fear-driven disorientation of its cinematic twin. But I digress: because even then, in 1997, all the new music Nine Inch Nails fans got was this soundtrack, featuring one single Nine Inch Nails song. The last new NIN album to come out (not counting the reams of singles and remix collections) was the schoolmom-hating Downward Spiral in 1994, and the time that passed from '94-'97 was a pretty long stretch for a 15 year old boy. By the time Spiral sequel The Fragile dropped in '99 I had already moved too far on to even bother listening to it once. I was pretty ok with this--the second half of the '90s saw a shittening** of both the power of Nine Inch Nails bombast as well as the status of Guru Reznor, who seemed to put more focus on being an alcoholic and helping to further the career of Marilyn Manson (and thus 1,000,000 shitty, terrible, derivative metal/nu-metal/rap-metal/stoner-metal bands popular only in the Midwest). Frankly, by 2001, liking--let alone stepping up for--Nine Inch Nails seemed almost embarrassing. Flash forward many years to May 2008, when I got an email from a friend saying, "Hey dude, you might wanna check this out--Nine Inch Nails just released their first album for free, so grab it if you're interested." For whatever reason I went for it, and then waited three months before listening to the album for the first time, one late night coming home from work at 10pm in late summer. And BOOM. BOOM. BOOOOOOOOOOOM. I cannot for the life of me explain it, but from the beginning drum thuds of first song "1,000,000" I was just blown away. I imagined in my head I would listen to half the album, maybe even only one or two songs, just a few times and then delete it. But instead what I heard was an intense, enrapturing rock and roll assault that left me begging for more. It is clear that above all the success of this album, called The Slip, comes from its non-belabored immediacy. More than most "difficult artists" in the rock industry, Trent Reznor established a reputation over the years as having the Frank Zappa /Billy Corgan-esque maniacal obsession to detail while on an illusory quest for a kind of perverted perfection that would never be found. And frankly, the harder he tried, I think the more he struggled. The Slip just feels fast and fresh--yes, it's got the standard Reznor sonic sheen, but it feels gestational in a raw way that suits Reznor unbelievably well. My only knock against The Slip, if I have any at all, is the fact that it's really more of an EP--six powerful, intense rock songs before suddenly collapsing into an "At The Heart of It All" / "The Beauty of Being Numb" quiet period into >> instrumental soundscape for 5minutes. The disc closes up with one more burner, but the tracks prior just don't rock enough and don't hit the astonishing heights of album highlights, "Discipline", "Echoplex," or "1,000,000". But honestly, this is all quibbling, and there's an even an argument for the slowdown inclusion as helping to supply evidence of "what a 40 minute distillation of everything Nine Inch Nails have done could be". I'm not saying it's bad or even disappointing, I'm just pointing out what isn't perfect. And so my intense reaction to The Slip was such that it has now lead me running backward into the past, beginning first with Reznor's early 2008 double-disc album of shelved instrumentals Ghosts I-IV (ZZzzzzzz; see above) and continuing to 2007's Year Zero--which, after reading the Pitchfork and Allmusic Reviews, I was ready to love even more the The Slip. Sadly, Year Zero just isn't as good--a few good-to-great songs, some unmemorable fare, and a few clunkers--but I am at least, in this still-Slip adled phase, able to enjoy it as the next best thing to The Album I Really Want to Hear. Then, just last week I added the Year Zero remix album Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D (umm yeah) to the feedbag and while it too is inconsistent, it contains a few tracks even more inspired than the source material, namely two remixes by--of all people--the Kronos Quartet and German experimental artist Fennesz. These two tracks, particularly the latter, make me excited for post-Slip future that I am already praying might come. So yeah, what the fuck?? This is probably one of the last musical developments I would have expected to have experienced in 2008. But in a bizarre way, I feel like Trent has helped blow the doors off my musical shack and I feel more ready and willing than in many years to seek out and slurp out the most intense and experimental sonic undertakings I can find. I feel a hunger for musical discovery that I haven't felt in probably five years, since I had my experimental electronics radio show in college (RIP, Postmodern Glitch) and i thirsted after new sounds each and every week. And it feels FUCKING GREAT. Hilarious endpoint for tonight's musings: my boss is about to start doing a media industry radio podcast, and I have been tasked as both producer of the show as well as creator of a theme song. I went down to our radio booth with our engineer and combed through the mess of free-rights audio loops in our library and put together a couple of samples, a downbeat jazz bit (which I thought was both talk-radio and age appropriate) and a second more upbeat 60s sounding funk guitar bit. Neither of them felt quite right to me and I had a feeling they wouldn't feel right to him either... and sure enough, they didn't. He said to me, "Look, I just want something edgier, more contemporary. Rocking. Like AC/DC maybe." And so I just said, Ok, fuck it: "Max, this is what I'd use if i were making a theme for my own radioshow" and proceeded to lay down the intro to "1,000,000"... and he absolutely loved it. I then cut the drums in half, looped the guitar riff, and dropped in the vocal parts and BOOM, there was our show intro, much to my astonishment and amusement. And best of all the song (and album) was released under a under a "Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial share-alike license," so I can use it royalty-free in any way I want. Totally fucking crazy! ----------------- Anyway, that's enough for now. I leave you with the following mp3s for your enjoyment and experiential knowledge-gaining: -- Download the entire Nine Inch Nails album The Slip here -- Nine Inch Nails, "Discipline," from The Slip -- Nine Inch Nails, "Echoplex," from The Slip -- Nine Inch Nails, "Another Version of the Truth (Kronos Quartet mix)" from Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D -- Nine Inch Nails, "In This Twilight (Fennesz mix)," from Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D -- Theme song to Max Media, featuring "1,000,000" FROM ABOVE: ** yes i just created the word "shittening" Labels: CRAZY, deerhunter, Lil Wayne, loved sounds, mp3, Nine Inch Nails posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/02/2009 07:34:00 PM 0 comments Balance JeffreyBeaumont: balance is always relative my understanding of "balance" is surely laughable to you Spiffae: i think you're much more highly attuned to balance than me i am essentially balancing on a three foot wide beam with pillows all around and you are walking on a knife edge surrounded by broken glass posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/02/2009 12:36:00 AM 0 comments Sunday, February 01, 2009 Daily Baseball: Rogers Hornby, Superman / 1984, Least Superlative Year Ever? Have been slowing reading through a recent Baseball Analysts article on "Jeff Kent, Hall of Famer?" and I keep getting waylaid in my quest and I stray down various baseball-reference roads. The first was in revisiting the career of Rogers Hornsby--after hitting the topic of who between he and Kent hit with greater power--and I was blown away in looking at his ridiculous numbers and being reminded that Hornsby was the National League's equivalent to Babe Ruth throughout the 1920s, including a five year stretch from 1921-25 where he won two Triple Crowns (Hornsby and Ted Williams are the only men to do it twice) and hit .397, .401, .384, .424 (!!!), and .403--all with power--each year. Overall, Hornsby hit .358 for his career, ranking number two all-time after the illustrious Ty Cobb. Yes, Hornsby was a notorious dick, but lines close to .424/.507/.696 222OPS+ (from Hornsby's amazing '24 season) have happened almost never. Keep all of this in mind the next time you hear someone cite Jeff Kent as the most-power hitting second baseman of all time. Reading about Hornsby took me on so many tangents that I put the BA article down entirely for a few days before picking it up again. Next, however, my attention was turned the 80s, as the merits of Kent's candidacy was laid against HoFer Ryne Sandberg (he compares favorably). I remember thinking growing up that Sandberg had indeed been a great player, thought of among the league's best--and wonderied if I'd ever felt that way about Kent. I remembered Sandberg unexpectedly hit 40 HR in 1990, but did not win the MVP--his one MVP was won instead in 1984. His line though was rather pedestrian. 19HR, 84 RBI, 32SB and .314/.367/.520. Granted he was a second baseman, and granted these were the days of the uninflated offense of the early 80s, but the numbers seemed uninspiring nonetheless. I then went and checked out the entire awards section of 1984 and was shocked at the general unexcitingness of the "best of 1984". The Cy Young Winner and AL MVP was Tigers reliever WIllie Hernandez, which should be as good a first sign as any that it was an underwhelming year. I have a general issue with relievers winning Cy Youngs given the few number of innings they throw, but to suggest that there was no one in the entire American League in 1984 than a pitcher who threw 140 innings seems like either a terrible stretch or a damning condemnation of the truly unexciting play of 1984. Hernandez's next in competition for the Cy Young was Dan Quisenberry, another reliever, and number two for MVP was Kent Hrbek and his modest 27HR/.311 AVE/.905 OPS. In the NL, there was Sandberg and his underwhelming line for MVP, and Rick Sutcliffe beat out rookie Dwight Gooden in a half-season of excellent pitching for Cubs. Sutcliffe's time with the Cubs was undoubtedly great, but also very short--only 150 innings, as he came over as a midseason trade. It was Sutcliffe's one moment in the sun, as he rattled off a 16-1 record over 20 games while leading the Cubs to a rare division championship. However, his Cy Young, beyond being silly for covering only 150 innings of pitching, also leaves out from history the fact that prior to the trade he went 4-5 with a 5.15 ERA in 94 innings for the Indians (and remember, a 5.15 ERA was lot worse in 1984 than it is the offense-bloated seasons of the past 14 years). The rest of the list is worth poking through for a trip down memory lane and some examinations of what was weird, underwhelming year of non-memorable seasons culminating with a powerhouse Tigers team slaughtering the Padres in the lone World Series appearance of the franchise. Labels: baseball posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/01/2009 06:10:00 PM 1 comments 1
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Oden Who? Joel What.
MIN FG FT O-D-REB PTS 33 4-5 6-9 6-11-17 14 Przybilla is only averaging PPG, but at in making 94 of 131 baskets, is now shooting an astonishing .718 percent. Only four times in NBA history has a player even shot above 65% for a season--twice by Artis Gilmore, who shot .652 in '81-'82 and .670 in '80-'81, and twice by Wilt Chamblerlain, with .683 in '66-'67 and then the alltime record of .727 in his last season of '72-'73**. Like Przybilla, obviously these two were both centers--you'd pretty much have be a big man shooting next to the basket to be that successful--but additionally, they each led their league in FG% six and seven times each, making them top-class company for comparison. However... as Przybilla seems to have miraculously learned how to make free throws and is now making them at a rate of 63% (and 68% last year, after never previously cracking 53%), he is currently on pace to have the greatest "true shooting percentage"*** of all time at 72.4. It's true that both Gilmore and Chamberlain shot as significantly higher volumes than Przybilla, so I am not suggesting that his achievement "bests" theirs; however, he has played all 46 games this year and he is averaging a solid 5.5 ppg, so it's not like this is a tiny blip of activity. Therefore, Przybilla's TS% this year is astonishing, both in how statistically anomalous it is, and also in the fact that Przybilla has been a bench player his entire life who suddenly started shooting better at the age of 28 last year and now at age 29 seems to have learned how to shoot without missing. And all of this, coupled with his fantastic defense and a 7.9 reb/gm average (which in his mere 22 mpg works out to 14.6 per 40 min), means that Przybilla has turned into a player who is currently as valuable as Greg Oden, and among the better centers in the league. Weird, for a dude who just two years ago out up one of the worst seasons of his life and was deemed to be on his way out of the NBA. He's still got a half season to come back down to earth, but for 46 games he's been flying high among the giants. ** While Wilt Chamberlain's career accomplishments in general are statistically significant from pretty much anyone else's, the fact that he set a far and away record in FG% at age 36, during the last year of his career, is stunning. He also lead the league in rebounding, as well as playing all 82 games and finishing second in total minutes played. A true and crazy monster--basically non-human. *** TS% True Shooting Percentage calculates what a player's shooting percentage would be if also accounting for free throws and 3-pointers. True Shooting Percentage = (Total points x 50) divided by [(FGA + (FTA x 0.44)] posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/01/2009 01:20:00 PM 0 comments Good Times!  Many photos to come from: Royal Scourge and  Labels: friends, photography, quicksnaps, VICTORY posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 2/01/2009 02:47:00 AM 1 comments 1
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GET BEHIND ME DEAD MAN
deprarious?
Tragicomic?
i think "deprarious" in the sphere of what I was looking for, nice one mark. definitely shooting for a word that does not currently exist.
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