Continuăm Retrospectiva anilor 2000.

Astăzi începem seria de articole In Memoriam Teo Peter.

Albume 2003. Alfabetic

…

Beck. Sea Change

Belle and Sebastian. Dear Catastrophe Waitress

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Take Them On On Your Own

Cat Power. You Are Free

Elvis Costello. North

Dandy Warhols. Welcome to the Monkey House

Death Cab For Cutie. Transatlanticism

Brian Eno. Bell Studies for The Clock of The Long Now

Killing Joke. Killing Joke

Lamb. Between Darkness and Wonder

Mogwai. Happy Songs For Happy People

Radiohead. Hail To The Thief

White Stripes. Elephant

Xiu Xiu. A Promise

Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Fever To Tell

…

Autor: Eddie Better

(Soundtrack: “Folk Death 95″ – Mogwai)

Drappelli di penitenti nel parcheggio: i riti d’acquisto del tardo pomeriggio.
Il tintinnio delle bottiglie e dei vasi di marmellata annuncia piccoli branchi di giovenche dai garretti scattanti che scalpitano attorno ai carrelli carichi, traballanti sull’asfalto sconnesso del parcheggio.
Ragazze con cronografi d’acciaio. Polsi tatuati, snelli e decisi. Abbronzature nucleari.
Giovani madri-fanciulle in fiore.
Ridono rumorose, scambiano commenti in un parlottio fitto, tra imbarazzi simulati ed esclamazioni di finta sorpresa: impliciti richiami sessuali assieme ai capezzoli puntuti che coronano mammelle compatte sotto maglioni costosi di colore chiaro.

Con chi devo prendermela se non riesco a definirmi morto?

Così, sceglierne una, di queste madri ancora in boccio, bellezze placide, sofisticate e semplici, occhi chiari dietro gocce di cristallo scuro.
Sceglierne una mentre è ancora dentro, seguirla e corteggiarla: una danza distante di sguardi obliqui, svolte improvvise del carrello, finte di corpo tra gli scaffali e indugi calcolati davanti al banco degli yogurt.

Voglio una alcova in teflon.

Sceglierne una. Soffiarle larve di passione, lievi, lungo il collo, parole di miele ed ambrosia nelle orecchie.
E poi mangiarle l’anima.

Perché siamo morti. Morti, sepolti e risorti.
E fottuti.
Fottuti. Da questo Giudizio apocrifo e inatteso, dalla fame e dagli spettri di ricordi labili, finché cadiamo a pezzi.
Ti ricordo che smagliavi e splendevi.
Così non possiamo che aspettare le squadre d’assalto.
E una fucilata al cervello, macchina in putrefazione non del tutto esausta, che ancora sussulta, e sfrigola.
Nel frattempo rivedrò l’aurora, petali di rosa glaciali nel cielo morto come e più di noi, e una luce bianca, come di ossa già nude sulla tua faccia.
Perché siamo morti. Morti, sepolti e risorti.
E comunque la giri, fottuti.

Mogwai’s Take Me Somewhere Nice is hauntingly charming and perfectly suited for accompanying any city explorer as their boots crush leaves.

This is a Mogwai post.

Get it?

Nevermind…

So, Happy Songs for Happy People. Ever heard it? If not, stop reading and go buy it. The first track, alone, is worth the purchase and worth my writing.

“Hunted by a Freak” may go down as one the best instrumentals of the decade. Yes, there is a guy singing into a crazy vocal box thing, but the lyrics are indecipherable and a thing of internet legend. The pure style this album oozes fills your ears like wax, and is just as sticky. Before listening to Mogwai I thought this type of music was ultimately unfulfillable and unable to compete with the musical world, given the lack of lyrics and free-form wankery that throbs throughout. Knowing what I know now, and seeing what I’ve seen live, I take it all back.

Honestly, this album is not amazing. I know, I know, I told you to buy it already.

It has a few excellent songs, and when you hear “Killing all the Flies” live and the sudden orgasm of clusterfucked chords warbles through their amps and into the sky, your life may very well change. Coachella provided the space and environment for these guys to really show the power of this style and I thank Jebus they did.

Mogwai really strikes that happy medium for me that bands like Sigur Ros and Appleseed Cast just can’t seem to get to: ambiance with power. I enjoy all the post-rock shoegazing you can throw at me, but if there isn’t a release of that emotion, it feels wasted. With Mogwai, I know that when a track starts off slow, that it’s going to get somewhere and tell me a story. A story without words. That’s pretty awesome.

Enjoy the video!

I’ve been meaning to post this here for ages, it’s a collection of songs that myself and JP Keenan churned out during our time working together. We shared a keen interest in a good handful of bands, Mogwai, Redhouse Painters, Wilco, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Broken Social Scene and Sigur Ros. It was one of the most productive periods of music making I’ve been involved in, JP is a hard taskmaster and he milked all kinds of music from my finger-ends and I like to think I returned the favour.

My favourite track is probably Tick Tock with Sleep a close second. All tracks are offered as a free mp3 download, just click the relevant button.

The project eventually morphed into a live band that I couldn’t commit to, they’re alive and well and writing some amazing songs. You can find out a little more about them at heatvslight.co.uk

Will I won’t I shall I shan’t I?  Write?  Well.  I’m unwell.  A long felt awareness of continually running at sub-par always seems to manifest whenever I take some time off.  Maybe the energy and stresses of work allowing my immune system to keep trucking on, keeping a low profile from the distracted awareness of my brain, crash and burn when I stop.  When the long weekend and relaxation kicked in it translated into rapid sinus congestion, sore throat and muzzy head.

Reasons to write?  One being the fun weekend we all had in Akaroa.  Got monumentally drunk Friday night with good friends and to my immense sense of self satisfaction I managed to play the entirety of Tarot Sport to a room full of people in a party type situation.  And only 2 people asked me to turn it off (cunningly by this point of the evening attention spans had been tequilaed down to bare seconds so I just ignored their pleas for musical leniency).  I actually played Street Horrrsing too but there was only one other left drinking and awake by that point so not sure I can claim that one.

Our sortie on Saturday for a bit of a ramble was scuppered when we arrived on the desolate beach to find a freaked out surfer who pointed us out to his 2 mates who were being swept out by the rip.  Our mate jumped in his kayak and went out to help the swept away guy (the other one made it to the rocks) while we went to call the coast guard.

One helicopter later, lots of standing around for us (plus a fuck load of paddling our mate) and all 3 were safe.  Good result and they were sheepishly nonplussed once it was all over.  Surfers are stupid.  We on the other hand went sea kayaking the following day and didn’t need helicopter rescue.  We did need burgers though.

Then we all got to see this:

And finally, perhaps the most joyous thing of all is that someone has posted the boot of the Royal Albert Hall gig by Mogwai from 2006.  In the 7 times I’ve seen them this was and still is the best they’ve ever been and I’ve been hoping for a copy ever since.  Everything about that night was perfect.  The venue was immense; the crowd were real fans, committed and politely quiet; the sound was enormous, it filled and decimated everything else in the hall, you could feel it through every inch of your body (I thought the bass on 2 rights was going to rupture my sternum); the version of 2 rights was the best I’ve ever heard live, the welcome return of Tracy and the second surprise encore (which I almost missed thinking they had gone) of a monumental and righteous MFMK was perfect.  I was there with a sweet Jewish San Franciscan girl I was sort of dating at the time at the end of a brief summer of letting go; she jumped a mile out of her seat at the noise mid way through fear satan and half way through MFMK said, ‘wait, this is…’

Yes it is; with a smile.  It felt better sharing it with someone and I was elated for days.  The recording’s pretty good so please download, listen and share it with me.

Veréis qué bien dormís escuchando esto, cuanto tiempo ignorándolos. Pero son enormes, viva Mogwai!

This is the latest album from the young Hamburg team who play their post-rock with a pinch of electronica.

Opening track Captured Moments is a promising start with its bleary-eyed guitars that explode into white noise, layered by fuzzy underwater strings and piano. Matthew Jason and Chris Burda then continue this winning streak with former single Crawling and the vibrant, dramatic title track.

But further in, the album collapses under its own weight. Tranquillity is an uncomfortable mix of hair-metal guitar and rigid, sequenced backing tracks. Lacking the ragged rock rush of Mogwai, much of this album has the synthetic sound of an overproduced bedroom recording. Angle Of Incidence and the unfortunately titled A Smell Of Boiled Greens drift in to the sterile realms of Muzak, whilst Far To The Past could be an Editors’ instrumental outtake.

Intelligence and Take A Shot On Me do however give the album a rousing end, almost returning to the impressive form of the opening tracks. But ultimately, despite the flashes of brilliance, this duo doesn’t do enough with this well-trodden genre to warrant repeated listens.

Batcat, single tirado do último disco (e pra mim, sensacional) da banda escocesa de post-rock, Mogwai, The Hawk Is Hawking.

Nele, acompanhamos uma garota camponesa que começa a ser perseguida por outros dois garotos mascarados, aparentemente interessados em algo que ela carrega consigo. A perseguição passa por campos, florestas e adentra numa caverna. Dentro dela, os garotos acabam encontrando por algo que não esperavam.

Esse clipe já tem mais de um ano, na verdade, mas como o roch é poderosíssimo (lolol) achei justo colocar aqui agora, aproveitando que estou voltando à minha programação normal.

Mas então, além desse disco ter músicas com alguns dos títulos mais geniais que eu já vi (I’m Jim Morrison, I’m dead; I Love You, I’m Going to Blow Up Your School;The Sun Smells Too Loud), as próprias músicas são ótimas e valem cada play que você der.

A direção de Batcat é do Dominic Hailstone, um ingles doido que começou fazendo maquiagem e já trabalhou com diretores como Danny Boyle, Chris Columbus e Chris Cunningham. Foi ele quem dirigiu também o Holy Tears do ISIS (que também merece um post aqui).

Destaque também pra fotografia e a arte, que no caso do Dominic são sempre detalhes à parte.

I listened to post-rock so much in college I can still feel my life adhering to a constant state of crescendo. I’ll be walking down the street and suddenly it’ll be like the beginning of the first 28 Days movie, a lone mind-guitar chiming in the background; others will join in, the tempo quickens and I end up running away from invisible, swelling orchestras. 

It sounds exciting but, more than anything, it’s scary. Bands like Mogwai, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Mono, Explosions In The Sky, Apse, Tristeza, Saxon Shore, Unwed Sailor … they’ll haunt … your dreams.

Finfangfoom, named for a reoccurring Marvel comic-book character – are what you would call a post-POST-rock band. Their guitar arpeggios, bass gallops and high-hat taps drain every ounce of drama from every measure, to be sure.

But there’s more to it than that; Virginia, we have vocals! Finfangfoom’s singer sounds a lot like Jake Snider from Minus The Bear, maybe with a deeper timbre. I can take ‘r leave the vocals, but they’re not near as annoying as those of Minus The Bear because the arrangements are fluid and consistently engaging.

Despite this quality, I don’t care for Foom’s breed of p-p-rock enough to recommend Monomyth with too much enthusiasm, especially when bands like Appleseed Cast, Isis, Pelican, Red Stars Theory (well, maybe not them) have done this before and done it just a lil’-bit better (save Two Conversations; yuck).

There are times, mostly during “Exploding Coast,” where F-f-foom show signs of breaking out of their shell. In the end though, tedium becomes a part-time companion Monomyth can’t shake.

I guess it doesn’t get plainer than that. As with groups like Anoice and many of the herd mentioned four paragraphs up, I respect what they’re doing but, respectfully, often reach for something else when it’s time to ROCK-circa-ROLL.

I used to play in a band in Glasgow, and recently some old pictures of us appeared on Facebook, from one of the gigs we played at the original 13th note venue in Merchant City. It made me smile to see them, as it has been many years since I had thought about those days. When I moved away from the UK, I didn’t know anyone who knew me from then, and that part of my life kind of got left behind. Such a shame, as music was a huge part of my life when I lived in Glasgow. I was in two bands with some great,  talented and crazy people; I played guitar in Sourtooth, a young, energetic, chaotic queercore punk band and I contributed god knows what to the chemical insanity that was Multiplex Cineman – a collaboration between me, my then boyfriend Ally and John from Bis when we all shared a flat in Hyndland. Enough alcohol fuelled mayhem for 1 ep and I think, 3 live shows which for a few months were almost legendary in our music scene circles. I use the term live loosely, there was no way we could reproduce on stage what we lovingly crafted at home so we just mimed and tried to put on the craziest show we could – only possible for me under the influence of large amounts of alcohol, otherwise my stage fright was so bad I would never have set foot on stage.

Thinking about it now, I can hardly believe that I ever did perform on stage. I am, in my opinion, quite a shy person, and I don’t think I’d have the guts to get up there now. But whatever it took, I’m eternally glad I did - I wouldn’t trade those experiences for the world.

Favourite memories include: Sourtooth supporting the amazing Sleater-Kinney at King Tuts, touring with Empire Builder in the back of a transit van (Leeds, Colchester and London), seeing our first 7″ single, complete with obligatory cut and paste style sleeve, Multiplex Cineman playing with Mogwai at the Arches in Glasgow (and actually having a couple of hundred people watch us!)…..and that’s just the start. I’ll save the rest for another time.

(If anyone is interested, http://www.myspace.com/multiplexcineman It’s a little out there, but hey, we were young and we drank too much. Don’t bother looking for Sourtooth on there though, you’ll just find a band from Ohio by the same name peddling afro-beat/regional mexican/turntablism and I have no idea what that is…)

“The Scottish band Mogwai performs an incandescent show in front of a stunned crowd. As if time stood still, the audience is transported along by musical waves, both poetic and violent. Burning dives into this wild sensual flow. Directors Vincent Moon and Nathanaël Le Scouarnec guide us into a dream where there is no tomorrow. This is a black and white experience of the senses carved by the raw emotion of this pioneering band that doesn’t need any words to touch the heart of its listeners. Layered and innovative, the movie has its finger firmly on their pulse, a sonic adventure between hope and rebellion. A lifetime of feelings in just one night.”

The film will be presented in Copenhagen, during CPH DOX, 13 november 2009, and I’ll be there. Sweet. Stuart Braithwaite will DJ afterwards.

/ Mikael Nordlander.

This is one of my first guitar-based drone pieces and still it’s one of my all time favourites. The guitar parts themselves are loops were taken from a shorter, cleaner version of the song that featured drums, percussion and rough vocals (this version will be posted in a week or so).

It’s a long piece but to me it never felt that much of a chore to listen through, see for yourself.

Download Rollcage

Some nights I like to sit alone, weeping uncontrollably into the darkness. I’ll pour myself one too many babychams and think about times past. Maybe if I’d been willing to see things differently, maybe if I’d been willing to change, things could have been different. I light another cigarette, lie back, put another record on. Just a coupla more tunes to see me through troublesome times. Sometimes it’s Armchair Boogie by Michael Hurley, sometimes it’s the Never Ending Story by Limahl. Doesn’t matter. Just me, myself and the music. And sometimes – sometimes that’s enough, y’know?

But crapping crikey, do I really need to pay £20 to go and ‘see’ someone perform in near darkness? One of the best things about listening to music in the dark on your own is that YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN. It’s like being serenaded by angels whilst you have a particularly emotional wank. Things change when you’re sat amongst hundreds of other people doing the same.

Hope Sandoval’s last solo album, Bavarian Fruitbread (and most of the Mazzy Star back-catalogue), is one of those albums you can turn to in a crisis. It never lets you down. It’s dreamy, it’s hypnotic and it can completely re-tune your brain. It goes with darkness like civil servants go with a blank absence of ideas and intellectual rigour. But the choice to actually perform in darkness is questionable.

Ok, I’ve seen some bands pull it off: Mogwai, Melt Banana, Spiritualized etc. There are bands that made nineties journalists dribble themselves into a care homes with talk of soundscapes and sonic cathedrals. There are bands creating a noise such that you don’t know whether to punch yourself in the eyes, or shit yourself inside out. Hope’s music aligns her with the former. Trouble is, it’s music that engages through it’s emotional and lyrical resonance. It isn’t just about the sound. For the audience to be fully engaged and immersed, it helps to see the physical nuances of the performer’s delivery as they convey, amplify or even distort the feelings behind the words.

Don’t get me wrong, the video work is a captivating performance in itself. It’s repetitive enough to draw you in and let the music wash over you.  But without the focus of a visible human being, on it’s own, I’m not sure it’s enough . It may be that performing in darkness is a way for Sandoval to deal with a reported crippling shyness. It may be a way of resisting lazy journalistic reductions of this music to talk about the physical beauty of the performer, which used to happen a lot when she was in Mazzy Star. In which case, all well and good. It’s just a shame that such an unscalable barrier is erected in the process. It begs the question of whether Hope actually needs to attend her own gigs. And that can’t be a good thing.

Mogwai have released a trailer for their new concert film ‘Burning’.

The film will get its premiere showing at the Copenhagen Film Festival on 13th November. In the mean time, salivate over the trailer below.

Really… it’s all been a bit hectic over the past few days. I haven’t written much due to the fact that I’ve now got myself a “no uninspired posting” rule, which mainly consists of ensuring that I don’t post “so, I did x and x but nothing much really happened other than that” which I’m now breaking to do one of these posts… but whatever. My blog, my rules to break.

I’m having a driving test tomorrow, my second and hopefully successful attempt. I think I’ve learned what went wrong last time (note to anyone driving through Swansea: Wind Street can get very cramped), and this time should be better… I hope. To be honest I’m getting kind of impatient at being stuck as a “learner” when actually I can drive perfectly well. And having been driving around on the roads for a while now as a learner, I’ve had ample opportunity to see perfect examples of bad drivers such as Hesitant Woman Getting Stuck In Box Outside Sainsbury’s (god bless her soul, she forgot that you don’t just blast into the box when you can’t get out), Man With Nightclub On Wheels (all that thumping is kind of counterproductive when trying to think about navigating traffic) and Guy Who Doesn’t Understand What A Green Light Means (go!). I’m sure these people all have less convoluted names, but I’d like to thank them for showing me that if they can be considered fit to drive by the state and pass a test, then I most certainly can.

The Plan (hmmm… it’s beginning to sound lame) is coming along fine. I’ve almost gotten everything I need to be in Sussex next year together, and I’ve now started looking at rent and food prices. It seems that I can afford it, although I might have to accept that I can’t have my shopping delivered by Ocado every week, much as I would like to. It’s a more expensive place than Swansea, so I’m going to have to make the money I do have when I go there count. This is roughly the phase I hoped I’d be at now, which is actually putting flesh on the bones of “go to Sussex, do MSc in particle physics”. I had brief flirtations with the idea of Edinburgh and Exeter Universities, but at the end of the day: I want to do particle physics. Although the particle physics/astronomy sector is worried by looming cuts in public spending, I figure that somehow, I’ll end up doing that PhD one day. If all this past two years of crap involving applying for PhD places has taught me anything, it’s that at least for me, it’s a pretty long game. I’ll get there in the end…

Also, Spotify continues to fill me with musical joy. I’ve recently discovered a genre called “post-rock”, which appears to be rock music without any lyrics. Some may ask what the point is, but I find that it’s actually quite relaxing. Well, at least Mogwai does – it’s ideal chillout music. Here is “I’m Jim Morrison and I’m Dead”, one of my favourite tracks.

Mogwai has been making the soundtrack to your dreams and nightmares since 1995. I hope to see them live one day.

Mogwai “Hunted By A Freak”

Like what you see feel free to email me at tad@creativesquall.com and don’t forget to become a fan on Facebook. Check out the Creative Squall website to see how sketches grow up to be complete ideas.

(Above: Former NBA player and current ESPN music columnist Paul Shirley discusses some of his favorite records at Amobea Records in Los Angeles.)

By Joel Francis

Paul Shirley played in the 2005 NBA conference finals as a member of the Phoenix Suns and scrimmaged against Kobe Bryant as a training camp member of the Los Angeles Lakers, but he doesn’t want to talk about any of that right now. Shirley’s telling the story of when he first heard U2’s “Mysterious Ways” in the back of a school bus during high school.

“It dawned on me that I was old enough to have a CD player and I could play whenever I wanted,” Shirley said. “The first time I played ‘Achtung Baby,’ I thought it was the worst purchase ever, but after I played it 8 or 10 times, I thought it was the best.”

When “Zooropa” arrived a few years later, Shirley realized bands could grow and music could evolve. Nearly 20 years later, Shirley is still marveling at inventive new sounds and comforting old ones.

“Music and basketball were both my outlets,” Shirley said. “People don’t understand, but there’s a lot of catharsis in both of them. When I came home from practice, mad at the world, I could put on ‘The Downward Spiral’ and all my troubles would melt away.”

As Shirley migrated from Jefferson West High School in Meriden, Kan. – located about 15 miles outside of Topeka – to Ames, Iowa as a three-year starter for the Iowa State Cyclones men’s basketball squad and a professional ball career that encompassed Spain, Russia, Greece and several stops in the NBA, music was a constant companion.

“The music I have taken with me has allowed me to feel at home in all different places,” said Shirley, who makes his home in Kansas City, Mo. “The ability to put on my headphones and pop in a CD is priceless. It’s like having a set of friends I can take with me wherever I want.”

When not rocking with his aural amigos, Shirley was taking his friends to live shows. An early concert at the Granada Theater in Lawrence, Kan. made a big impression.

“One weekend my brother and I were home from college flipping through the Lawrence weekend paper when we saw an ad for (textural post-rock band) Mogwai,” Shirley said. “We did a little research and decided to check it out for, what, $12 or whatever. When we got there the show was so intense and focused, it was like nothing I’d ever seen. There were four guitars and no vocalist. It was just overwhelming.”

That fix turned Shirley in to a live music junkie, prowling the scene searching for the next high.

“I don’t think of myself as a person on the cutting edge, but there are moments when you see someone who you now is going to be good before anyone else. Like when I saw Ratatat open for the Killers at the Hurricane or the Secret Machines at El Torreon,” Shirley said. “Moments when you see someone destined for, if not stardom, then goodness and that’s really cool.”

Shirley’s pro ball career never took off as planned, but through those trials another passion emerged: writing.

“It never occurred to me that I could write about this stuff,” said Shirley, who saw “Can I Keep My Jersey?,” his basketball memoir, published in 2007.

After writing a column for the Phoenix Suns Website, Shirley was asked to write for ESPN.

“I think they (ESPN) were thinking I’d go back into the NBA and then they’d have a player on the inside,” Shirley said. “Instead I went to summer leagues and overseas.”

The column died when Shirley grew tired of writing about basketball, but when ESPN launched a new, non-sports section of their Website, they asked him to write a music column. Every Tuesday he interviews indie bands, reports on a festival like Austin City Limits or Lollapalloza, reviews a concert or shares his musical opinions.

“It’s nice to be able to contact a band and say, hey, I live in Kansas City and see you are coming to town. Could I go to your show?” Shirley said. “Talking to musicians is nice, too, like when I got to chat with the Dandy Warhols, who I’ve liked for 15 years.”

Today, Shirley juggles the expectations that come with being an athlete writing for the Worldwide Leader with his passion for music.

“There is a disconnect between the athletes and their fans and music nerds and book nerds, and it’s probably exaggerated for me because I write for a jock Website,” Shirley said. “People have a hard time understanding that for me, talking about basketball is like them talking about their day job. It’s not as interesting to me (as music).”

Shirley acknowledges he could be drop stories about star players, or work as an analyst, but that no longer interests him.

“Basketball doesn’t inspire me,” Shirley said. “I can only stay interested in things for so long. Right now writing – specifically writing about music – provides the spark for me.”

Keep reading:

Paul Shirley’s ESPN collumn archive

More music features on The Daily Record:

Peter, Bjorn and John Heart Hip Hop

Jamie Foxx brings it to Sprint Center on Saturday

The Derek Trucks Band makes old-school rock new

Kansas City Rocks Out

Modest Mouse: Johnny Strikes Up the Band

Hail Death Cab

Ever Fallen For The Buzzcocks?

Out of the Tar Pit Back Onto the Stage

Local Doctor Claims He’s Treating Elvis

Down on “Cypress Avenue”

Life is filled with lots of big decisions. What to do for a living? Who to spend the rest of our lives with? When to start a family? Where to settle down? But there’s one decision that is more pressure-filled than all others.

That is the pressure of buying toys and beds for your pets.

Pets are fickle when it comes to these things. You cannot figure out what they will or won’t like. Because of this, there’s more pressure and time spent buying your pet a $4 toy than picking out some multi-thousand-dollar bedroom set for yourself.

I have a cat, named Mogwai. She will play with the drawstrings on the blinds in my living room, batting them around like she’s playing a schoolyard game of Tetherball. But if I stop in a pet store and buy her an elaborate cat toy, she’ll look at it once and walk away. Pet stores should have a Cash For Cat Toy Clunkers program, so we can get some money back on shunned toys.

Months ago, I noticed my cat loved lying on blankets that I’d fold and set down momentarily. I decided to take a big chance. Not unlike the chance a fella takes when he begins shopping for, and eventually buying, an engagement ring. Will she say Yes? Will she like the ring? I was at Target, staring at pet beds and felt this same pressure.

If I was a cat, I’d totally dig this bed, I thought. But will she? Will the colors catch her eye? Is the bed big enough, comfortable enough? Will she accept this cat bed I’m giving her? My cat’s never had a pet bed. This would be a big move for her, choosing to walk over to this thing, and using it to sleep in rather than having the freedom to sleep wherever she wants at night.

I committed to it. I dropped $18 on a pet bed. I figured, if she didn’t like it I’d see if my parents’ pets liked it, or donate it to the Humane Society.

I brought it home and noticed it came with catnip. Y’know. Kitty weed. I sprinkled a little catnip inside the bed fibers and set the bed near the window in the sunlight. I stepped back, took a knee, crossed my fingers, and watched for her reaction. And wouldn’t you know it? She flipped out. No, literally, she rolled around in the bed, flipping over and over, getting the catnip all in her fur. But she accepted my offer.

It was such a sigh of relief, for me. For months, now, she’s been using the pet bed on a pretty regular basis. It’s a sigh of relief for me, because while I still don’t know what I want to do for a living, who I want to spend the rest of my life with, when to start a family of my own, or where I want to settle down, I can at least look at all my married, career-established friends with pets and their dozens of unused toys and beds, and know that I accomplished something they couldn’t, yet.

And for me, right now, I’ll take a victory, no matter how minor it is.

Titled after Iggy Pops nickname for Scott Asheton. This album represents one of my first forays into ‘underground’ music. A personal classic.

1. “Sine Wave” – 4:57
2. “Take Me Somewhere Nice” – 6:57
3. “O I Sleep” – 0:57
4. “Dial: Revenge” – 3:30
5. “You Don’t Know Jesus” – 8:04
6. “Robot Chant” – 1:05
7. “2 Rights Make 1 Wrong” – 9:33
8. “Secret Pint” – 3:37
9. “Untitled” (Japanese bonus track) – 7:16
10. “Close Encounters” (Japanese and Brazilian bonus track) – 3:54

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Speaking to a friend last night, he recommended a song by the band Slint. This track is off the soundtrack to the controversial 1995 Larry Clark film Kids (see wiki if you don’t know about it). The movie’s soundtrack was put together by Lou Barlow of Dinosaur Jr fame which also included tracks by Daniel Johnston and The Beastie Boys.

Slint were a post-rock band from the early ’90’s. This 7 minute track Good Morning Captain (from the band’s second release, 1991’s Spiderland) was once compared by the Guardian to Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven saying “the extraordinary Good Morning Captain is [Slint's] Stairway to Heaven, if it’s possible to imagine Stairway to Heaven bleached of all bombast.” If your a fan of Godspeed You Black Emperor! or Mogwai, this is for you, as the album has been created by these band’s and other in the genre as an influence on their sound.