song of the day - 11.29.08: amadou and mariam - sabali

I'd never heard of this duo before two days ago, but apparently Amadou & Mariam have been around for quite a while now, doing their thing. They are a blind couple from Mali who mix traditional and modern sounds to make some really cool songs like this one, "Sabali." This song sound simultaneously old and new, and either way, it's just a stunning melody that needs no context or explanation. It was produced by Damon Albarn of Gorillaz and Blur fame. Also, apparently they have a huge fan in Manu Chao, who approached them to collaborate on a previous album, and I haven't found anything saying this, but I swear he's on at least one of the tracks on the album Welcome to Mali, off which "Sabali" is the first single,. Expect to see this album somewhere on my soon-to-be-posted "Top [some number] Albums of 2008" list.

Concert Review: Dr. Dog - 11.28.08 at Starlight Ballroom in Philadelphia

I'm seeing Dr. Dog again in 3 days in DC, so I'm gonna do a full review of both shows then. For now, here's the set list of the Philly show. Sorry, kinda blurry on the encores.

Set list:

1. The Old Days
   
2. Hang On
   
3. The Way the Lazy Do
   
4. Fate
   
5. Today
   
6. Worst Trip
   
7. From
   
8. The Ark
   
9. The Breeze
   
10. Say Something
11. Army of Ancients
12. My Friend (?)
13. Fat Dog (?)
14. 100 Years
15. The Girl
16. My Old Ways
17. Alaska
18. The Rabbit, The Bat, and The Reindeer 

Encore

1. Keep a Friend (?)
2. Ain't It Strange (?)
3. Die, Die, Die (?)

song of the day - 11.27.08: maritime - guns of navarone

Maritime is kind of an indie supergroup, except the word "super" implies that the members were previously in well-known bands. If you consider The Dismemberment Plan and The Promise Ring well-known, you're probably a pretty devoted music fan. Maritime's original lineup featured two members of the Promise Ring, and Eric Axelson of the Dismemberment Plan. (D-Plan happens to be one of my favorite bands of all time, and I actually found myself dancing next to Axelson at Wonderland Ballroom last year, and I think he was surprised I knew who he was.) Both of the bands had broken up, and those three got together and made some good stuff. Axelson had already left the band by the time "Guns of Navarone" was written for their third studio album. I'm not sure what makes this song and the album it comes from (Heresy and the Hotel Choir) so appealing to me. The sound is poppier than I usually like, but they're just good, catchy tunes that deserve recognition for being so.

Giving Thanks for the Little Things

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I thought I'd list some things I'm thankful for. I'm not gonna bother with the obvious things (family, friends, health, etc.). I'd rather focus on the littler things that bring the little joys to my life (many of which are foods):

ice cream sandwiches, cheese, Gmail chat, Crisp & Juicy, The Onion, Twitter, dimsum, Gatorade, Honey Bunches of Oats, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Popeyes, U-Topia, Jameson's Irish Whiskey, Jack Daniels, Knob Creek, bacon, craigslist, perforated edges, high thread-count sheets, Moleskine notebooks, Pilot Precise pens, foosball, fantasy sports, Everton, the Redskins, Five Guys, costillas, Rafa Nadal, Zooey Deschanel, Fiona Apple, Daniel Day Lewis, Shure headphones, Apple, Microsoft, American Apparel, Converse, Ibuprofen, earplugs, text messaging, Slate magazine, the BBC, NPR, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, David Simon & Ed Burns, dance parties, Skype, electric toothbrushes, mayonnaise,  Old Bay, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Beau Biden, Banana Fana Fo Fiden, butter, Black Cat, Girl Scout Cookies, sunsets, clouds, Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce, Wikipedia, Klean Kanteens, Fatwallet, murses, hoodies, shoe horns, graffiti, Sharpies, Kurt Vonnegut, the National Park Service, Ikea, the Dude and Walter, sand, wind, rain, rocking chairs, Grandma Utz potato chips, YouTube, Hillary Clinton, onion rings, clementines, dark chocolate, Facebook, Bell's Oberon, Hunter S. Thompson, Mitch Hedberg, HBO, DVR, On Demand, Ledo pizza, Tastee Diner, mix tapes, fire, tennis, Kinder Buenos, Boggle, and rainbows

Amazing Feat

I accomplished something amazing the other night, something I doubt many people can claim to have done. I chipped a tooth in my sleep. That's right. I chipped one of my upper teeth with one of my lower teeth.... while sleeping. How, you ask? I wonder how myself. I must have made some sort of sudden movement in my sleep, perhaps something dream-related. I don't remember. I woke up to the disturbing sensation of something going terribly wrong in my mouth.

It was only a tiny chip, hardly noticeable, but I could feel the bits of tooth floating around my mouth. Few things make me cringe more than even the thought of my teeth cracking. I'm cringing right now, while I write this. (Cringe... I like that word. It sounds like what it means.) It's even more frightening to think that, since it happened once, it could happen again, and I have no protection against it. Basically, I could permanently fuck up my teeth in my sleep. What do I do? Wear a mouth-guard to bed? That's a quality-of-life sacrifice I'm not willing to make.

Ugh. I might as well get dentures now and get it over with.

Prop 8 Protest & March in DC

When Proposition 8 in California passed on Nov 4, marriage equality for gay couples in the entire U.S., not just CA, suffered a huge blow. Anti-gay groups across the nation will doubtless be emboldened by the "success" of their CA (and Utah) counterparts' vicious and unnecessary attack on civil rights. More of these propositions may arise, and more state Constitutions may be amended to deny the right of marriage to many citizens. All they have to do is collect (or forge) some signatures, then pour a lot of church money into highly deceptive advertising and marketing.

Now that Prop 8 and similarly disastrous initiatives in other states have passed, there's no imminent election on which to focus the marriage equality movement's attention. The goal now is more vague, and there's a risk of losing momentum after such a disappointing loss.

There's hope that this won't happen, though. Facebook members across the country organized protest marches for Sat., Nov. 15, and the Event Invitation for the DC march got over 3,000 "attending" responses. I have no idea how many people actually showed, but I'd guess it was at least 1,500, possibly thinned out by some unfortunately-timed torrential downpour. 

This was a protest against a vote that already happened. It was about being angry. It was about continuing the fight. I hope there's a backlash against this kind of injustice, now that the focus can move away from the biggest election of the past few decades. This is a start, but it needs to keep going. And it needs to grow. 

That's my sign! If you don't get it, watch this Keith Olbermann's Special Comment. Photo by flickr member: dcjay64

Photo by Jamison Grella

Photo by JG

Photo by JG

Photo by JG

Photo by JG

song of the day - 11.16.08: dave grohl - everlong (live acoustic on howard stern)

This could just as easily go under the post from a few days back about stuff that reminds me of my college days, but I forgot about it when I wrote it, and I haven't done a song o' the day in a while, so here you go. It's one of the better-known Foo-Fighters songs out there, but I much prefer this acoustic version from the Howard Stern Show, which, if you're to believe the banter on the recording, was the first time Grohl played it unplugged. I listened to this version so many times that the talking by Stern and Grohl are part of the song in my mind.

Album Review: "In Ear Park" by Department of Eagles

We're coming up on the end of 2008. I decided that this year, I'm finally going to actually try and listen to as many "significant" albums as possible and put together a "best of" list. So the new stuff is hitting my iTunes fast and furious, and there's a lot to like.

Department of Eagles' second album, In Ear Park, is one of the ones to like. In their follow-up to 2003's The Cold Nose (a lost gem of an album), they've really come up with a formula for beautiful music. Nose, brilliant as it was, was disjointed and immature. Each individual track carried some completely different idea, and the album as a whole suffered for its lack of cohesion. Park has no such problems. The indie experimentalists from Brooklyn have found their musical voice; it's simultaneously chilling and warm, tight and free.

The original band-members, Fred Nicolaus and Daniel Rossen, welcome members of Rossen's other band, Grizzly Bear, to the mix and form a sort of hybrid of the two bands. The engine of ideas for DoE remains with its original members, but the tightness and psychedelic melancholy are influenced by Grizzly Bear.

The album is emotional and haunting, and strikingly beautiful. Have a listen to some of the sweet sweet magic here:

This is a pretty faithful live performance of the opening and title track. The album stays thoroughly interesting from beginning to end despite never rising to the playful energy of Nose. Other highlights include "Phantom Other", "Herringbone", and "Floating on the Lehigh", but the album is best appreciated as a whole. Not to spoil a surprise, but this album will surely make that top 10 list I'm working on.

stuff that reminds me of my college days

Cannibal! The Musical


End of Ze World


Don Hertzfeldt


Wesley Willis


Gonads and Strife

Strong Bad Emails

Napster and Dispatch

Battlebots

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

Where the Hell is Matt?

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

This video was sent to me months ago, but I never thought to put on here til now. It serves no real purpose but to put a smile on your face or a tear in your eye as you marvel at how such a simple act can bring people together in the furthest corners of the world. 

Album Review: "Exit" by Shugo Tokumaru

I think I might forego doing numerical ratings for my album reviews here, because clearly, I'm only writing about the ones I like anyway. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that I liked Exit by Shugo Tokumaru quite a bit. Maybe even a 10. I didn't think there would be an album to challenge TV on the Radio's Dear Science for my favorite album of the year, but here it is. (Stay tuned for the results of that contest.)

Shugo Tokumaru is a Japanese multi-instrumentalist who has shockingly little biographical information on his Wikipedia page. After this album, he deserves to be a star. Even though I'm Japanese, most Japanese music doesn't appeal to me. This album is different. Way different. It has  opened my mind to a whole new kind of rock music that is exciting to say the least.

Tokumaru's sound is filled with acoustic instruments and organic sound effects accompanying his sweet, high pitched Japanese pop crooning. It's definitely aptly labelled as psychadelic, but it doesn't use the typical psychadelic techniques like trippy electric guitar and electronic sounds. It acheives its trippiness with haunting harmonies, droning acoustic instrumentation, lots of out-of-tune bells, and other natural-sounding effects that remind me of an acid trip in the woods of Bambi.

There isn't a loser on this album. The highlights are "Green Rain," with its complex rhythms and its use of all the instruments you'd expect to find in the closet of an elementary school music classroom; "Clocca," mystically dissonant pop song; "DPO," a dizzying romp that sounds like a punk song played with a ukelele and a Fisher Price xylophone; and "Wedding," which opens with a beautiful banjo (or steel guitar?) part that gives way to a frantically joyous refrain of the same melody.

This is one of those albums that makes me happy that I am a fiend for finding new music. It's not likely that I'd have found this if I was even slightly less obsessive about music. I can't imagine an album like this existing and my never hearing it. Sadly, there are probably many such albums, and I'm not obsessed enough to find them all. But Exit is the kind of prized find that will sustain my interest in digging through the obscure, because it is a true gem of an album.

Who are you, Russ Merva, and what did the gays ever do to you?

Russ Merva holds up a "Yes On 8" sign as a bus emblazoned with "Vote No On Prop 8" passes in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, Nov. 3, 2008. Both sides of Proposition 8, were out the day before Tuesday's election trying to drum up support. If approved, Prop. 8 would change California's constitution to ban same-sex marriage.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

The AP picture above ran in a lot of newspapers on Thursday after Proposition 8 in California passed. The ballot measure called for an amendment to the State Constitution saying, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." The measure passed with a 500,000 vote cushion.

Here's my question: WHAT THE FUCK?!

I am so disappointed in California right now. That state has dropped ten notches in my eyes. This is supposed to be the bastion of liberal ideas, the trailblazer of progressive policy. How could they so overwhelmingly pass a bill that annulls the 18,000 same-sex marriages that have occurred in the state since June 17, after the State Supreme Court ruled that gays could marry?

So, Mr. Russ Merva with your yellow "Yes on 8" sign, what do you have to say for yourself? What was it that not only made you vote for such a measure, but actively campaign for it? I don't mean to pick on you, as there were about 5 million other Californians with you on this issue, but you obviously consented to being in this picture by giving your name. You clearly wouldn't mind being a poster-boy against gay rights. 

So what the hell did the gays ever do to you, Russ? What's it matter to you whether Dan and Tom are married or not? I don't tell you you can't marry a woman because it goes against my morals do I? Maybe I should say it's against my morals to have idiot douchebags marry and procreate, so we should prohibit it by amending the constitution. How about that?

Of course, that'd be ridiculous. But no more ridiculous than what your movement managed to get passed. 

I'm gonna take a wild stab at the real reasons you voted for this amendment:

1. You realize that the wheels of social progress are turning, faster and faster, and the social construct you put all your chips into (presumably the church life) is going to look more and more antiquated and stupid. You don't want to look stupid, right? So you fight back against those who would make you look stupid, the more enlightened human beings who accept the realities of the world instead of the gospel from thousands of years ago that isn't relevant or even fully understood. That, and you've always had a thing for fairy tales.
2. You find gay people repulsive because you grew up never seeing any. And like most other people with a tiny little underdeveloped brain, your instincts make you hate what you don't understand.
3. You think "traditional marriage" is actually a real thing, even though your own is in shambles. Perhaps the tradition you're referring to is the get-married-for-the-wrong-reasons-and-being-miserable tradition that so many Americans follow, leading to a ridiculously high divorce rate.
4. This is your issue. You don't go out and picket against people who steal, deceive, and murder. You go out and picket against people who love each other but happen to be of the same gender. To you, this makes perfect sense, somehow.
5. You think it's about evolution. You think, "we were meant to procreate, and same-sex couples can't, so it's wrong." Well, Einstein, does that mean if some crazy person had cut your dick off in a fight, you shouldn't be allowed to marry either? How about that?
6. You heard some smart-sounding person say that it's not government's place to be involved in gay marriage, and it should be up to the faith communities, since marriage is traditionally a religious practice. Of course, you forgot to consider that, well, if government shouldn't be involved in gay marriage, should it be involved in straight marriage? Bah, don't be ridiculous.

I'm sure there are other reasons those 5 million people voted to take away the rights of people who never did them any harm whatsoever. It just hurts my brain to try and come up with them, because they're all SO STUPID. The only smart thing in that picture is what's on the bus: "Unfair, Unnecessary, Wrong."

Concert Review: The Mountain Goats - 11.06.08 at the 9:30 Club

This was the third time I saw the Mountain Goats in the past year or so. The other two times, both at the Black Cat, were better shows for me. Not that John Darnielle and Co. did a poor job or anything. They are excellent showmen, and really do try to connect with their audiences. I just think they're much better suited for the more intimate setting of the Black Cat. 

For some reason, I was really tired and couldn't get pumped up for this show. Maybe it was the enormous "Educated Consumer" cheeseburger I had at DC9 before the show. Maybe I'm still drained from Election Week. Maybe my nightly sleep-deprivation is catching up to me. Whatever the reason, I managed to fall asleep for bits of this show. It's not the first time I've done that at the 9:30 club; I fell asleep at an Iron & Wine / Calexico show a few years ago, too, but the circumstances of that night (dramatic fight with GF, lullaby-like songs) made it more understandable, I think.

What I do remember between catching a few Zs was Darnielle being his normal self-depricating, hilarious self, telling long, ridiculous, dramatic stories leading up to his songs, then singing his heart out. He is one of my favorite performers to see, and I'm glad that he is back on his feet and touring. Last time I saw him, he hinted at some grave illness that would keep him out of action for some time. Well, it wasn't very long. I'm glad he's feeling better. Next time, just play at the Black Cat. Thanks! 

Come Together

This blogger Ze has a good idea. He figures, with the election finally over and the real task of fixing the ills of America ahead of us, it's time for red and blue to unite. So he started a project called "from 52 to 48 with love," where Obama voters can reach out to McCain voters with photographic gestures of reconciliation. I like it.

Living in the most liberal part of one of the most liberal states in the Union, I don't know very many Republicans. The few I do know are wonderful people who happen to have different opinions about what the country needs. In the heat of election season, it was easy for me to focus on the worst parts of the opponent party: the mega-rich corporate thieves, the bigots, and those who would use God's name to hurt people who mean them no harm. But looking around objectively, I can see that most of these so-called opponents want pretty much the same things I do: peace, prosperity, opportunity, fairness. 

After the unnecessarily long and agonizing election process has stirred up all this antagonism and division, it's important to remember what we're actually voting for: the leaders who will create the best situation for our country and our families. That can't be accomplished when half the country is moaning about how their choices would be doing a better job and the other half is laughing at them for not being able to do anything about it. No, that just won't do. The country and the world are in some very difficult and dangerous times, and there's no time for partisanship. I'm not saying to stifle dissent and disagreement. Without those, the fight is already lost. I'm saying we shouldn't let the differences that separated us over the last two years of election-mania keep us from working toward meaningful solutions. A few pictures won't can't fix much, but it's a start.

#44

Marylanders: Vote NO on Slots

Voters in Maryland will doubtless be handing Barack Obama ten electoral votes tomorrow. While I do urge anyone reading this in VA, PA, or any other swing state to vote Obama, that argument has been beat to hell by greater minds than mine. I'd like to use this space to encourage Maryland voters to reject Question 2 on the ballot, a measure that would allow slot machines at racetracks around the state.

The state is running a pretty huge deficit right now: $430 million. Cuts will have to be made from the budget or taxes will have to be raised. No one wants those things to happen, but it's a reality. Slots are being trumpeted as the cure-all for Maryland's budget woes. They will single-handedly fill the budget gap with $600 million in new revenues, supporters say.

Well, that's garbage. The numbers for revenue are based on having current MD gamblers who travel to PA, WV, and DE gamble MORE in their own state, and for a large number of new gamblers to start the nasty habit. Also, the $600 million number was pondered before our current economic downturn, and that number will be much lower, just from people having less money to spend on entertainment, which gambling is supposed to be.

"We'll still bring in a lot of revenue," you say? Well, that's true, but where will it come from? MD will not draw out-of-state gamblers in any significant numbers. Thirty-seven states have slots approved in one form or another, including the aforementioned neighbors. So the people putting dollars into those machines in MD will be MD residents. So, it's a tax on our own people. Fine. But it just so happens that the demographic of slot-users are disproportionately low- and moderate-income residents. So, it's a tax on our own poor people. Am I missing something here? How is that helping our state's economy?

The revenue gained from gambling will be at least partially offset by the costs required to deal with public health and social issues such as gambling addiction, alcoholism, and broken up families. People living within ten miles of a casino are 90% more likely to have a pathological gambling problem than those who don't. So, we're gonna create a whole bunch of addicts so we can save some money on property taxes? I don't like it. Why not just have crack-dispensers that we can tax the hell out of? We'd be the richest state in the Union!

So, we're gonna make more people poor, and tax the hell out the current and future poor, and give people something to blow their money on instead of food, clothing, or savings? Where do I sign up?!

Oh yes, then there's the "save the horseracing industry" argument. That was once the main reason for supporting slots, after all. You know what? Screw the horse-racing industry. Fully 1/6 of the revenue from slots will go into the pockets of these already-wealthy breeders and owners who often aren't even from MD. Not to mention the fact that horse-racing is a cruel practice where the animals are forced to race with injuries and pumped with steroids, often resulting in early deaths. I say the horse-racing industry isn't worth saving.

Unfortunately, the support for this question has come from Democrats like Gov. Martin O'Malley, Baltimore's Mayor Sheila Dixon, and Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett. They seem to be taking the approach of holding their noses and closing their eyes while they push the "Yes" key on their no-paper-trail Diebold voting machines. It's understandable that our leaders are under enormous pressure to fix the state's economy, but I think they've lost sight of the sacrifices they'd be making for an unknown number of extra dollars. 

So, there you go. PLEASE, VOTE NO ON SLOTS TOMORROW!

I did a poor job citing in here, but I assure you, everything I said in this article comes from one of these four sources:

Washington Post editorial

Baltimore Sun editorial

Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks

Daily Kos article

comments?

I've updated the settings on this blog to allow comments from anyone, not just blogger-users, so go nuts everyone. Comment away! I look forward to any reactions, suggestions, critiques, and praise you'd like to post. Especially praise.

song of the day - 11.2.08: billy bragg & wilco - california stars

In 1998, Nora Guthrie, daughter of American folk singer Woody Guthrie, organized the recording of some of her father's lyrics by an unlikely pairing of American folk band Wilco and British singer Billy Bragg. California Stars is one of the tracks off the resulting album, Mermaid Avenue. This video isn't an official video, just someone's individual work posted on YouTube, but I really like how it was done. The song itself is a testament to the talents of all three of its creators. It seems more like a song that was always destined to be made than a piecemeal collaboration by three very different musicians.

On an unrelated note, I'm excited to finally get the chance to see Wilco, as I managed to be one of the lucky few to get a ticket to their show in Baltimore on December 14. Hooray.

playlist gadget

I finally added the feature that this blog has been needing since its birth: a playlist gadget. It's on the right-hand side, and it features full-length versions of previous "songs of the day" and whatever other stuff I deem blog-worthy right now. Enjoy!

song of the day - 11.1.08: al green - belle

Al Green has one of the greatest voices in R&B history. With this golden voice, Willie Mitchell's production, and the Hi Rhythm Section, Al Green churned out several of the definitive R&B songs of the 70s. Then in 1977, he left Mitchell and his band and created The Belle Album. The title track, "Belle," is as beautifully crafted and smooth as any of his previous hits. For the first time, he provides the lead guitar track for his own work as well. This album was also the first that he made since being ordained a pastor, and the last of his his records that could be considered secular. He made Gospel albums thereafter. While his best work was probably behind him already, this track is still one of my favorites by Green.