The first ten songs on my ipod after hitting shuffle. 1. Ready to Start - The Arcade Fire 2. Drunk Girls - LCD Soundsystem 3. Tree By The River - Iron & Wine 4. Bottled in Cork - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists 5. So Lonely - The Police 6. Things Are What You Make Of Them - Bishop Allen 7. We Could Be Friends - Freelance Whales 8. Come On Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners 9. Rip Off - Ryan Adams 10. louder Than Ever - Cold War Kids
At the Drive in's final album hasn't left regular rotation in my house since it came out way back in 2000. I really regret that I didn't get to see them live but they imploded not long after I first became aware of them. I have had the good fortune to see The Mars Volta and they did melt my face but if ATDI was anything like reports and you tube clips indicate they were a force of nature live. They really had something with their sound back in the day. Losing Jim Ward really stripped away that hard core, punk edge that I really loved. It doesn't sound like they will ever be reuniting and even if they did twelve plus years on down the road it just wouldn't be the same. Not that I wouldn't travel a ridiculous distance to see them. Hey, I never thought I'd get to see The Pixies live but I won't hold my breath.
This album makes me think of other exceptional final efforts from some of the bands I love.
Whiskeytown - Pneumonia is another album that I constantly listen to. This was released in 2001 a couple of years after it was recorded. I actually found this album because Ryan's debut solo album Heartbreaker managed to get released before Pneumonia.
The Pixies - Trompe le Monde was released in 1991 and I still listen to it. Damn I'm getting old. Everything awesome about the band is on this disc. It may not be quite as good as Debaser but it has three of my all time favorite Pixies songs on it.
Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne was released in 1993. The argument could be made that the breakup of the band was a good thing since it gave us both Son Volt and Wilco but Uncle Tupelo was a pretty amazing band even though on this disc it's easy to hear which song is a Tweedy composition and which one was a Farrar. How great would they have been if they could have written together? This is an album of gem after gem. I might go out on a limb and call it the pinnacle of the alt country genre.
I'm sure I've forgotten some other great final albums but sadly the rule for most bands is to fade away after a couple of crappy albums. It must be nice to go out on top. That having been said would I prefer that R.E.M. had gone out on top and be deprived of the handful of great songs sprinkled across their last few albums, I'm not sure.
Alien Workshop has come out with the second set of their collaboration with Warhol and I'd say this batch is better than the last (see below)! I love skateboards as art so it's nice to see recognized art set in the skate world.
I've got to say that Andy Warhol has been on my radar in a big way since his big retrospective last year at the Grand Palaise. That show really opened my eyes to what he had done outside of the soup cans and the boring movies he's probably best known for. The guy had vision and chops and got stuff done.
If anyone wants to send me one I'm partial to the pink and black self portrait.
My wife and I made it to the opening of the JACE / Shepard Fairey print show at Gallery Magda Danysz this weekend. Somehow I didn't take any shots of JACE's work which was on the ground floor. It could be due to the fact that the free bar was down there, but I did take a couple of short videos of the OBEY pieces on the first floor. The show was hipster thick, cider fueled and a lot of fun.
The JACE work was really cool and very funny. Let me take a shot at explaining the series. It looked like he had found a kids book from the sixties or seventies and then painted weird things or situations into them. Picture a page from a Dick and Jane book but one of them is stabbing an alien or taking a hit from a big joint. I think I'll go back and take a few pictures because my description just ain't cutting it.
The Shepard Fairey print show was cool. It was comprised of prints of some of his most famous pieces, from the classic OBEY Andre the Giant stuff to his series with Glenn Friedmann to the Obama print. Last year the gallery had a show of his original pieces and this paled a bit in the comparison but was still very impressive.
This amazing piece was done by my brother. I thought it was cool enough that he had a hand in the construction of Cowboy's Stadium(he didn't make the giant T.V.) but out of left field he created this amazing piece.
I suppose it shouldn't come as a complete surprise, anyone who is friends with him on facebook can see his creative side come out in his excellent writing that just drips with a bold, recognizable voice that's chock full of humor. The fate of this piece is up in the air but if anyone is interested in it email me and I'll put you in touch with him.
I don't know much about sculpture even though I'm surrounded by it here in Paris. But even as an art idiot it is easy to see the skill and vision it takes to create something in three dimensions whether the media is granite, steel or paper mache. To infuse that piece with life is even more difficult and rare. Many apologies for the image quality, my photoshop skills are weak. Full Disclosure: My favorite sculpture is Cupid and Psyche by Antonio Canova in the Louvre. My second favorite is in the Orsay and it depicts a dog with a giant penis. Humor and nudity are big pluses in my book.
