I had some dreadful dreams last night. And they both had the same storyline to it. Pancreatic cancer.
I've heard many things about this horrible disease. Back when I was married, I became friends with some already friends that my ex-husband knew. I was a bridesmaid in their wedding. We had holiday barbeques and were even together during the Janet Jackson "slip" we all know on the Super Bowl. I really felt we had become somewhat of a family. The guys mom, whom I will call Lorraine, often told me that she didn't like how my ex treated me. She was the only one who ever said anything, and for that I completely respected her. "Lorraine" even threw me a little birthday party at her place, with everyone invited. She treated me like I was her own.
After my split, the friends and I never saw each other again (and I had no reason to contact Lorraine. ) And then they simply avoided my calls altogether. Why, exactly, I don't know. Understandably, their loyalty lies with my ex. But deep down, it hurt that they decided to drop the friendship.
In mid 2007, for whatever reason, I started googling random people. Lorraine was one of them. I originally wanted to get her address to just send her a little note saying hello.
What I found was her obituary.........from two months prior.
Though I felt immense sadness for her family (because I knew how close her son and his wife were to her), I was maddened. Maddened to the point of tears. Why couldn't my ex tell me what was going on? So I called him. She had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer less than a month before she passed away. I was heartbroken. Such a wonderful woman. Gone. I expressed my anger at him for not telling me. I couldn't understand why he and his friends couldn't put aside whatever issue they had with me so I could pay my respects to someone who meant something to me.
I swallowed my pride, and went out and bought a condolence card and mailed it to the friends that I no longer spoke to. And I still never heard from them.
About a month ago, I borrowed "The Last Lecture", and was immediately captivated by the author and his story. It's heart wrenching and inspiring. I often check his website on how he's doing (as he posts regularly about his condition), but sadly he hasn't updated in a month. I emailed a colleague he had mentioned on his website inquiring as to how he's doing (and pointing out that he hasn't updated). In response, II was told that though he doesn't regularly speak to his colleague, the simple fact that he hasn't updated in this long is not a good sign. I will keep Randy in my prayers.
I suggest that if you haven't read his book yet, you MUST. I also suggest watching his "Last Lecture". If anything inspires you to live life to the fullest, it's that.
So, I ran about 3.5 miles last night, but my speed wasn't exactly a personal best. This guy outpaced me.
After running, I drank a beer and equilibrium was restored.
/
OK, show of hands: how many of y'all reading this have dropped acid? Strangely enough, considering my interests in neurology and altered states of consciousness, I never have. Nope. Not once. A friend of mine once said that I acted as though I were on acid all the time, just by default. Therefore, I've always been afraid that eating a tab or two might, paradoxically, make me normal. Can't have that now, can we?
Well, thanks to London, Ontario's Golden Death Music, you do not need to resort to illegal pharmaceuticals to experience seriously altered states--I'm talking the kind that can potentially mutate you into a Homo erectus or a telekinetic, maggotlike far-future form, so be careful when listening. Also, if you're forced to take a piss test at your job, do not be surprised if traces of Golden Death Music's stunningly beautiful first album, Ephemera Blues, turn up in your urine. This is the kind of bizarre, edgy, yet still tranquil music that will permeate your entire being after a few listens, lighting up your chakra, opening your Third Nostril, and perhaps transforming your pineal gland.
Golden Death Music is singer/songwriter Michael Ramey, but the album sounds as though it's been composed by a whole studio full of musicians. Nope. It's all Michael Ramey, who has written and recorded every song himself--a sizable achievement, since Ephemera Blues has a very large sound. Mixing elements of Pink Floyd, Donovan, 13th Floor Elevators, Legendary Pink Dots, Radiohead, and Jethro Tull into a swirling, multicolored and multitextured album, Ramey has created a record that literally defines the word "psychedelic." Though most songs are primarily driven by acoustic guitar and vocals, drifting in and out and through these primary elements like noctilucent clouds are eerie synths, glitchy electronic touches, flutes, cellos, electric guitars, horns, and heavily-reverbed backing vocals. Though the sounds all blend together nicely to create a languid, sleepy texture, all instruments are still distinct and nicely arranged in space, which makes this album a wonderfully immersive headphones experience. Coloured waves of sound will fill your mind with disembodied bliss...and best of all, there's no nasty come-down or flashbacks to worry about!
Much like Pink Floyd, Golden Death Music acknowledges that melody is the keystone of any piece, and Ephemera Blues is built on a solid foundation of melody and songwriting. Ramey's lyrics are often rather dark, as on the album closer "Into the Ocean"--"Throw yourself into the water / Feel the changed and tainted ocean / Let the damaged waves caress you / Feel the change"--but not morbid. In fact, there is an airy lightness to this album that gives it the feeling of a peaceful near-death experience and greatly justifies the name Golden Death Music. "Waking Nightmare" may be constructed from a tense, unnerving electro-glitch base, but the melody itself and the vocals are quiet and pretty, as though Ramey is observing the waking nightmare of life from the stance of someone who's left it all behind. Even "Lost in Violence," my favorite track on the album, manages to depict our earthly hell with a relaxed peacefulness.
Speaking of Pink Floyd, Ramey is one hell of a good guitar-player, and his acoustic guitar work will no doubt remind you a lot of David Gilmour. There are no guitar solos in his songs, however: they are trim, economical tracks that usually measure about four to six minutes in length--just long enough to let you lose yourself in them without becoming overlong or tedious.
In many ways, Golden Death Music's Ephemera Blues is musical theosophy. Much like the literary work of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Golden Death Music gathers together elements from many, many sources and attempts to synthesize them into a mystical, transcendent, syncretic unity. However, unlike theosophy, Michael Ramey actually succeeds. Whereas Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled was a hefty tome of absolutely insane religio-babble, Ephemera Blues is a tight, complex, but manageable assemblage of musical concepts and ideas that really will make you feel as though you've tapped into the Pistis Sophia, the gnostic truth, the one-ness, behind the confusion of reality. And it will bring you the peace of musical enlightenment.
)
It's another big CD-Tuesday for us, we've managed to cover most all of them:
- Sunfold - Toy Tugboats
- Mouth of the Architect - Quietly
- Lackthereof - Your Anchor
- Samantha Crain - The Confiscation EP
- The Avett Brothers - The Second Gleam
Man, I'm so glad that it will be a light release date for July 29th, but looking ahead, it looks like another big day for us for August 5th: The May Fire - The List, Peter Bradley Adams - Leavetaking, /Passenger. - Wicked Man's Rest, Trapt - Only Through The Pain, and Telepathique - Last Time on Earth... so looking forward to tackling those, since I am also assuming we will get more, the closer we get to that date. So below are last minute submissions for July 22nd:
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07/22/08 DC 9 DC, Washington DC
07/23/08 M Room Philadelphia, PA 07/25/08 Union Hall Brooklyn, NY 07/26/08 Mercury Lounge New York 07/27/08 Middle East (upstairs) Boston, MA 07/29/08 Local 506 Chapel Hill, NC |
SUNFOLD
myspace.com/sunfold
With the release of Toy Tugboats, released today, July 22th, this North Carolina band, Sunfold, is kicking off a mini tour on the East coast.
Even though some of you might not know the name Sedona (the original name for the band) or Sunfold, you might know them through Annuals. What's interesting to note is that Sunfold includes all the members of Annuals, just under a different name.
Their biography lists that basically Annuals is headed by music singer/singer Adam Baker, while Sunfold is under songwriter Kenny Florence's direction.... and under his direction, it looks like Sunfold are gearing to a refreshing wide range of instruments (hammered dulcimer, lap guitar, cello), in addition to the standard guitar/bass/drums rock and roll fare.
I do like what Sunfold is doing here, trying out different genre of music. Take a listen to "Gnosis" and you'll think this must've been inspired by popular jazz and 70s progressive rock. The banjo and lyrics on "Shapeshiftin'" sounds very old-time music, while "To Wake the Eye" is pretty much jazz. "Sailed off to Sea" is their most country-sounding song, and "Gorgée de Rubis" is experimenting with artificial sound as well as a hint of Hindi music. As you can see, all songs are all over the place.
This might be a good thing if you consider that they are still growing and trying to find where they fit in. It should be interesting to see how the two bands exists parallel to each other as time goes by.
Toy Tugboats is out today on Terpsikhore Records. Look for their mini tour and/or see Annuals.
LACKTHEREOF
lackthereof.com ♥ myspace.com
Speaking of side projects, Lackthereof began life in 1997, before Danny Seim started another band in 2000 called Menomena, which took over as the main project. Seim have decided to return back to Lackthereof with this latest release called Your Anchor, released today, July 22nd on one of our favorite record label, Barsuk Records.
The promotional song Barsuk want us to us is "Last November", which makes my choice a lot easier, but if you ask me, I would've prefer to use "Ask Permission" as I felt that song edge out November slightly.
Since the songs on this album were probably closely watched and mixed by Seim, himself, he controls all you hear - so the songs seems to fall on the more experimental side. There's odd melodies and unconventional music shifts, making it not very pop radio friendly.
The most radio-friendly song is his cover of The National's "Fake Empire", one of his favorite bands. To be honest, I haven't had a chance to check out the National, due partly to all the hype for the band last year. After hearing Lackthereof's version of "Fake Empire", I might check out what all the fuss is about..... Although, I would hazard a guess that it sounds very unlike the original.
PS, the most interesting thing, if you ever get a chance to see photographs of Seim and his pug. Apparently, Ms Geddy Lee, the dog, is the manager of Menomena.
Baaahd
- Inability to get out of bed before 8, regardless of time I go to sleep.
- meetings
- stains
- low bank balance
- dust
- apathy
- John McCain
- electronic tomfoolery
- microsoft
- Vicodin
- Photographing and Ikea-ing to look forward to
- NOT having kids
- IMAX batman Thursday
- Red wine
- new possibilities on the horizon
- working with people who want to grow
- movies on the big screen in my living room
- bird luv
- weird dreams
- guys who walk backwards on freeway overpasses
- long days
- Ali Smith
She and her band The Midnight Shivers are currently on tour promoting The Confiscation EP.
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Tour Dates
07/28/08 Jackpot Music Hall Lawrence, KS
07/29/08 Dulcineas Denver, CO
07/30/08 The Palladium Salt Lake City, UT
08/01/08 Pickathon Roots Music Festival Portland, OR
08/02/08 Pickathon Roots Music Festival Portland, OR
08/04/08 Triple Door Mayfield! Seattle, WA
08/06/08 Sam Bond’s Garage Eugene, OR
08/07/08 Axe and Fiddle Pub and Music Club Cottage Grove, OR
08/08/08 Sophia’s Davis, CA
08/12/08 Hotel Cafe Los Angeles, CA
08/14/08 Santa Monica Pier Santa Monica, CA
09/06/08 Old Town School of Folk Music Chicago, IL
09/07/08 Old Town School of Folk Music Chicago, IL
09/27/08 International Festival Lawton, OK
10/09/08 Taste Orlando, FL
10/10/08 The Globe Saint Petersburg, FL
10/11/08 New World Brewery Tampa, FL
Links: Official Website | MySpace | Virb
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26 Jul 2008 DAYTON DIRT COLLECTIVE DAYTON, Ohio
01 Aug 2008 Ravari Room Columbus, Ohio 02 Aug 2008 Zanies Too Indianapolis, Indiana 03 Aug 2008 Howler’s Coyote Cafe Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 04 Aug 2008 Xtreme Wheels Buffalo, New York 05 Aug 2008 The Downtown Quarterback Endicott, New York 06 Aug 2008 The Middle East Cambridge, Massachusetts 07 Aug 2008 The Living Room Providence, Rhode Island 08 Aug 2008 Knitting Factory Tap Bar New York, New York 09 Aug 2008 Broad Street Minstries Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 10 Aug 2008 DC9 Washington, DC, Washington DC 11 Aug 2008 Nara Sushi Richmond, Virginia 12 Aug 2008 The Milestone Charlotte, North Carolina 13 Aug 2008 Drunken Unicorn Atlanta, Georgia 14 Aug 2008 The Haven Winter Park, orlando?, Florida 15 Aug 2008 Brass Mug Tampa, FL 16 Aug 2008 Atlantic Gainesville, FL 17 Aug 2008 High Ground Venue Metarie, Louisiana 18 Aug 2008 Hi Tone Cafe Memphis,TN 19 Aug 2008 OPO Downstairs @ The Urban Table Fayetteville, Arkansas 20 Aug 2008 Downtown Music Little Rock, Arkansas 21 Aug 2008 Club Dada Dallas, TX 22 Aug 2008 Red 7 Austin, Texas 23 Aug 2008 Conservatory Ok City 25 Aug 2008 Gator’s Farmington,NM 26 Aug 2008 Clubhouse Tempe, AZ 27 Aug 2008 Knitting Factory Hollywood, California 28 Aug 2008 Chaser’s (fka Scolari’s) San Diego, California 29 Aug 2008 Thee Parkside San Francisco, California 30 Aug 2008 Rotture Portland, Oregon 31 Aug 2008 Riversdale Grange Roseburg, Oregon 01 Sep 2008 Studio Seven Seattle, Washington 03 Sep 2008 Marquis Theater Denver, Colorado 04 Sep 2008 Replay Lounge Lawrence, Kansas 05 Sep 2008 2 Cents Plain St Louis, Missouri 06 Sep 2008 Vaudeville Mews Des Moines, Iowa 07 Sep 2008 Reggie’s Rock Club Chicago, Illinois |
One of my best friends has been telling me to check out Dayton, Ohio's Mouth of the Architect for about a year. He'd played some songs for me, and I'd dug them, and I don't really know why, but I never really got around to checking them out. And now, here I am, reviewing their new album, Quietly, and wishing I had.
Mouth of the Architect do the “post-metal” thing like few other bands. Rather than leaning heavily in one direction or the other, the more Explosions in the Sky style is mixed seamlessly with something more along the lines of Isis, creating something that's almost entirely their own.
Album opener “Quietly” opens... uh... quietly, with something that sounds like one of Mogwai's more contemplative moments with some added distortion and builds up over the course of ten minutes into a sludge epic. The returning original vocalist, Alex Vernon gives a really awesome, powerful performance here, and every time you think the track couldn't possibly get any heavier, it does, and yet, it never sacrifices the post-rock and psychedelic undertones that differentiate them from every other heavy band out there.
Most of the tracks on the album follow this general template of layers of noise stacked on top of each other, with some lengthy psych-sludge jam parts, but thankfully, it never feels like a template. The first part of “Guilt and the Like” is defined by cool, delirious sounding guitar riffs that would probably sound really hackneyed in the hands of a less competent band, but sound awesome here. “Generation of Ghosts,” on the other hand, starts with a trem-picked guitar riff reminiscent of the classic Godspeed You! Black Emperor crescendo, stretched out into an oddly ambient lead-in to something that would sound like a classic metal intro if it weren't for the softly sung vocals underlying it. The crescendo has a keyboard riff that adds an uplifting feel to the skull-crushing riffs. The intro to “Rocking Chairs and Shotguns” is reminiscent of Tool's more contemplative moments, with more time to contemplate, and none of the polish, with a fading guitar noodle that sounds like maybe someone wrote it hanging out in their rocking chair with their shotgun. The track returns to the theme set forth on the intro numerous times throughout in subtle ways. The last track, “A Beautiful Corpse,” on the other hand, just busts down the door and goes straight for the jugular. This is about as sludgy as this band gets, and they don't let up until the ending's shouted vocals without any instrumental accompaniment.
Overall if you like post-metal, you'll
probably dig this album. I found myself wishing I'd checked this band
out earlier, and I'm glad I have now. The album is out today, and the
band is about to head out on a huge US tour. More information and tour dates (because there are way too many of them to post them here. Vu can, though, if he wants to apply some of that fancy formatting I have no idea how to do) can be found at the band's official MySpace page. They're hitting about three quarters of the lower 48, so most of our American readers can probably catch them in the next couple months!
-Soup
Gimme a V! Gimme an O! Gimme an X! What's that spell? VOX!
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If Cheekymonkey's co-workers take her to lunch. And that lunch includes something called Chocolate Nachos, then how many miles will Cheekymonkey have to run tonight in order to atone for such decadence?
A) 3
B) 5
C) Just keep going until you collapse, and then MAYBE that will be enough.
last week, a federal ruling/reversal sets a dangerous precedent - oh, what's that you say? - another one? - yeah - well, get used to it
http://www.iht.com//articles/2008/07/20/opinion/edmarri.php?WT.mc_id=newsalert
Opinion
The White House wins a disturbing legal victory
The Bush administration has been a waging a fierce battle for the power to lock people up indefinitely simply on the president's say-so. It scored a disturbing victory last week when a federal appeals court ruled that it could continue to detain Ali al-Marri, who has been held for more than five years as an enemy combatant. The decision gives the president sweeping power to deprive anyone - citizens as well as noncitizens - of their freedom. The Supreme Court should reverse this terrible ruling.
Al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar legally residing in the United States, was initially arrested in his home in Peoria, Illinois, on ordinary criminal charges, then imprisoned by military authorities.
The government, which says he has ties to Al Qaeda, designated him an enemy combatant, even though it never alleged that he was in an army or carried arms on a battlefield. He was held on the basis of extremely thin hearsay evidence.
Last year, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, Virginia, declared that the government could not hold al-Marri, or any other civilian, simply on the president's orders. If it wanted to prosecute him, the court ruled, it could do so in the civilian court system.
That was the right answer. Unfortunately, last week the full 4th Circuit reversed the decision, and with a tangle of difficult-to-decipher opinions, upheld the government's right to hold al-Marri indefinitely. The court ruled that al-Marri must be given greater rights to challenge his detention. But this part of the decision is weak, and he is unlikely to get the sort of procedural protections necessary to ensure that justice is done.
The implications are breathtaking. The designation "enemy combatant," which should apply only to people captured on a battlefield, can now be applied to people detained inside the United States. Even though al-Marri is not a U.S. citizen, the court's reasoning appears to apply equally to citizens.
Equally troubling, the ruling supports President George W. Bush's ludicrous argument that when Congress authorized the use of force against those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, it gave the president essentially unlimited powers. If a president ever wants to round up Americans on vague charges and detain them indefinitely, this ruling gives him a dangerous green light.
Al-Marri's lawyers say they will ask the Supreme Court to review the ruling. Without doubt, it should. The case raises critically important issues for a free society, and the 4th Circuit's convoluted set of opinions is too confusing to give proper guidance to other courts, the executive branch, or the people.
The jumble reflects how badly the administration has butchered the law in this area. People accused of bad deeds should be tried in court - not in sham proceedings. They should be put in jail - not in secret detention. If they are not proved guilty, they should be set free. It is up to the Supreme Court to restore these principles of American justice.
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