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Bastard Tested, Bastard Approved?

I’m not sure that a discussion about this band is allowed on this forum, but I need to weigh in on Tool.

I hadn’t hear one of their songs(except Sober)  until a couple of weeks ago, after they released a new song, and finally got their stuff on streaming platforms. I was too busy studying the pie hole back in to 90’s to pay attention to them, and I certainly wasn’t going to spend money on a CD from a band who’s logo is a wrench that looks like a dick. Plus their songs are really long, and that’s saying something coming from a jam band fan boy.

Fast forward to Labor Day weekend… I’m hooked. I basically spent last weekend working my way through their albums, and I’m digging me some Tool. I don’t even know what you’d call it… metal? It’s prog rock for sure, and it’s pretty heavy.

Any of you bastards listen to these guys? They’re a bit different from the normal stuff here on the blargh. If you haven’t heard them, here’s a few to get you started. If you like really long songs with a shit ton of fuzzy distorted guitar, and a drummer that sounds just like Neil Peart, you might like Tool. Here’s a couple to get you started…

https://youtu.be/07pLGIgyfjw

So I guess I’m in the Tool army, and I’ll be seeing them November 8…

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Difficult Pills

Chaos, bad teeth, difficult interview…that’s right, it’s PIL.

Favorite comment: “I still remember Nana humming this as she baked biscuits.”

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Good Girl Says Dirty Things

Surprise! Liz Phair has a new memoir coming out in October called Horror Stories. In the meantime, here’s a fan-fucking-tastic Vulture interview.

So when your indie record Guyville became a phenomenon, was that difficult?

Yes. If I’d only had success in the indie world, my music would have been contextualized more accurately. They would have understood a little more of the art project behind it. Rather than thinking that I was literally saying I wanted to be your blow-job queen, you know?

Once you’re in a wider world, and People magazine picks it up, the nuance is gone. And of course, Matador was like, “Keep going! We’re doing great!”

Full article here.

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Oh, Baby!

New Pernice Brothers record is gonna be a corker! Listen to the first track!

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Dracula And The Shitty Piece Of Cardboard

If Target can put up Halloween costumes and decorations the first week of September, I can talk about Dracula. I never noticed this before …

Extreme Nerdy Horror Trivia! In the classic 1931 Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, why is there a piece of cardboard on a lamp? An error, or was it actually something intentional?

And best YouTube quote …

Why is there so much Dracula in my cardboard movie?

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Hooray for Algorithms

Anyone heard this Icelandic trio, Samaris?  They just popped up on my YouTube home screen yesterday.  Great synth player, and the clarinetist reminds me of Andy McKay’s oboe and sax playing on some early Roxy Music songs.  Nerdgasmic fact:  clarinet melody very close to one by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.  She must have picked it up in youth orchestra.  Anyway, if you don’t like the music, I think we can all agree that the singer is uber-hot.

Below is a more recent KEXP broadcast that I’ve only watched a bit of.  I’m curious to see if they can stay interesting for half an hour.

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Project Magenta

Co-creating with AI. Fascinating stuff.

New technologies have fundamentally changed the way we make and experience music. In this session Claire Evans, artist, author and one half of the pop duo YACHT talks about deep learning as a tool in their creative process. Their new album explores Google AI’s research project, Magenta, an open-source music-making package using machine learning models.

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The Song That Started It All

For The Replacements, I mean. This is the demo version of “Raised in the City,” which I hadn’t heard until Other Other Elvis hipped me to that song-ranking site. Far superior to the album version.

The band soon recorded a four-song demo tape in Mars’s basement and handed it to Peter Jesperson in May 1980. Westerberg originally handed in the tape to see if the band could perform at Jay’s Longhorn Bar, a local venue where Jesperson worked as a disc jockey. He eavesdropped as Jesperson put in the tape, only to run away as soon as the first song, “Raised in the City,” played. Jesperson played the song again and again. “If I’ve ever had a magic moment in my life, it was popping that tape in,” said Jesperson. “I didn’t even get through the first song before I thought my head was going to explode.”

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Get In My Eyes

In space no one can hear you squeal like a little girl.

Take an in depth voyage into the sci-fi masterpiece ALIEN with the visionary filmmakers who created it. See how one of the most terrifying movies of all time burst to life 40 years ago, inspired by ancient mythology and our universal fears.

Available in some theaters and OnDemand starting October 4!