Yelle the art of the dance

Cute French electropop lady Yelle has this great remix out now. I've convinced two of my kids that this is the way people dance in France.

Banksy in the flesh

I spent way too much time on BME the other day and couldn't help but notice that Banksy tattoos are getting pretty popular.

In other news threadless is having a $10 sale.

Ryan's new tats

It's nice to see that Ryan's new tattoos are all healing so well.

BK Cain's: Ryan Reports

Ryan and my wife's nephew Jimmy(Ryan on the left Jimmy on the right BK in the middle) caught Ben Kweller at the Cain's ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma last night. Ryan wrote up a great drunken review last night and posted it on the lamest blog ever. There are some great pictures and videos, make sure you check out the video of In other Words, awesome. Sounds like he put on another great show, his cover selection is always great, i'm surprised he didn't do She Don't Use Jelly by the Flaming Lips like he did the last time he played Ok. I think the most intriguing part of the whole thing is the report of a BK country album in the works.

Double Nickels

Before we moved to Vermont we got rid of a lot of stuff, although looking at our garage it seems like we didn't get rid of enough stuff. I got rid of three boxes of cassette tapes, one carrier full went to Ryan and two big boxes went to goodwill. I hadn't had a tape player in a couple of years so it wasn't a big deal but a lot of the stuff on tape i still don't have on disc or in mp3 so it's time to start rebuilding.
The Minutemen's Double Nickels on a Dime is a great disc. You probably don't need me to talk about the significance of this disc or how it's supposedly a one up of Zen Arcade. I'd never claim to be a punk rocker but some of the stuff that came out of the punk/hardcore scene really speaks to me even today when I'm probably way too old to be listening to it. I had a conversation with a twenty something at work the other day, he had on a jacket with a big misfits patch on the back and a jerry bear on the front(i shit you not) and he had on glasses that looked like the ones the lead singer of the descendants used to wear. To make a long story shirt he'd never even heard of the Descendants although he did like the clash but again had no idea who the minutemen were. I felt old.
Download - Minutemen - Political song for Michael Jackson to sing
Download - Minutemen - Shit from an old notebook

By the way i got in trouble(from the wife) for listening to Danzig and Black Flag videos the other night. I do what i want.

Igloo Tornado Goodness

This box showed up on my doorstep yesterday chock full of Igloo Tornado goodness and light.
Look at this stuff, Zines, t-shirts a graphic novel, the Igloo Tornado boys have been busy.
Here is the product i was most excited about, the Losergoes1st X Lace lock Losers shirt. The graphic is very involved and looks great(The original art looks like it will be on sale soon). Take a moment to notice the custom tag, the reverse even has a print on it. You can kind of see in the second picture that it came in its own silk screened bag, attention to detail kids.
Check the wicked new Igloo Tornado shirt.
Here's my signed copy of Tom's new graphic novel The Blot. Check it out, it's genius.
The new Henry and Glenn is as funny as the first but with 100% more Hall & Oates. Somehow the guys got Henry Rollins to actually autograph a copy(i assume no one was killed in the process) stop by the Igloo Tornado site to see the pictures. Another gem is the zine of poetry inspired by the movie Highlander. I know some of this stuff is still available email Losergoes1st@gmail.com to see what's available.

Band of Horses/ Love as Laughter/ Higher Ground

From what i could tell from last night's show, Band of Horses have been doing two things since Everything all the Time came out; writing great songs and growing kick ass beards. My wife went to the show with me, something that happens too rarely because shows with her are always fun, she knows what she wants to hear and does what she can to make it happen. If you were at the show you probably heard someone yelling out "St. Augustine" between most songs, that was her. While they didn't play St. Augustine they did play most of the album along with quite a few great songs from the upcoming(Oct. 9th) disc(False 45th has a picture of the set list. For up to the minute coverage and photos see False 45th, they had their review up about 45 minutes after the band walked off stage!). The band was funny and talkative during the show and sounded great. It's hard to get over the fact that the vocals sound exactly like they do on disc. It's really amazing that he can hit those notes night after night. I have to take a moment and comment on how hilarious the final song was, i would have thought it would be titled "Don't get fucked on a Tuesday" but apparently it is called "Earl". Before playing it Ben explained that the record company didn't like it so it didn't make the album. At one point in the song it veered close to a hoedown.

Love as Laughter put on a solid set, part of Band of Horses came out and played on a couple of the more rocking tunes. In concert you can hear a bit of country in the indie rock of Love as Laughter. I spent a few minutes talking to the drummer between sets and most of the songs in the set are from an upcoming album they are finishing up now the ep i bought at the show contains some of the songs that will ultimately appear on the album.
Download - Love as Laughter - Coconut Flakes
Download - Band of Horses - Bass Song(Our Swords Demo)

Band of Horses/ Higher Ground

Band of horses will be playing Higher Ground in Burlington tomorrow, I'll be there.
Download - Band of Horses - St. Augustine

Pitchfork Records

On our way to Boston yesterday we stopped in Concord N.H. where my wife had a business meeting. The three youngest kids and i wandered around town while she met and found a great record store called Pitchfork Records. The shop occupies a huge two story space with mostly new product upstairs and used stuff in the basement. The hippie working the counter was super friendly and didn't seem to mind the kids running around half crazy. The vinyl selection was awesome and cheap. They had a huge selection of singles that would be worth the price just for the cover art. They had used cd, vhs tapes DVDs and stereo equipment. I bought this sweet shirt for $10 and a vhs copy of Evil Dead II for $2. I honestly could have spent all morning there digging through the bins but the kids had spotted a toy shop down the block. I highly recommend that you stop in if you are in the neighborhood.

Download - Ash is Back(Evil Dead Remix)
Download - Evil Dead Groovy

Lets get physical

I had a woman come into work today looking for a workout cd not a cd to workout to but something that was made specifically to motivate you while working out(she basically wanted it to say Workout in the title). All I could find were some yoga companion cds and dance mixes for workouts neither of which she wanted. The woman kept saying she wanted "something fast like the Rolling Stones". Guess how I remedied this problem, that's right, i talked her into the Rolling Stones Greatest Hits. I should have told her to go across the street and buy an ipod and put whatever she wants on it.
Any way during the search we talked about what type of music is good to work out to and that made me think of an interview with Henry Rollins i read years ago where he talked about how he works out to slower music so he can focus on his breathing. She was all for really uptempo stuff I, like Rollins, prefer something a bit mellower, but then i'm in terrible shape.

Download - Black Flag - Rise Above