Thu. August 11th, 2011

Over The Top:

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia: Going to get to see this 1974 Peckenpah flick on a big screen this weekend. Part of a Warren Oates double feature. Missing this is like giving in to being a little girl.



Michael Yonkers: Microminiature Love is just as incredible as everyone tells you that it is. I have 2 other LPs by him, but I've recently gotten into Grimwood (1974.) If you're into psychedelia at all, you owe yourself this album.

Sat. August 6th, 2011

En Fuego:

- Y2K Thrash: My early 20s were crammed full of punk records, house shows and Maximum Rock'n'Roll columns. This was the era that we now call Y2K thrash. If you ever wanted the copy of the Tear it Up: Zero to Suicidal 7" with the glass shards glued onto the cover, then you probably remember this season of throwback hardcore. Everyone name-checked The F.U.s. Tight jeans & black canvas Vans were everywhere. After the 1990s, punk needed to be fun again. I've been on a real kick of those bands recently. Some of them are awful. Some of them were even better than I remembered. And I still miss the Rev Board.

- Deion Sanders: "Prime Time" high-stepped his way into the Hall of Fame today. Sure, there was always a lot of swagger and show to Sanders, but he backed it up. He had 53 INTs! You know why he didn't have over a hundred? Because no one would throw it to his side of the field. He changed the way offenses would play. He's a lot of talk, but he's not lying when he says he is the best.


- Air Conditioning: Sure, it's bad for the environment. Yes, it costs a lot of money. But the heat index has been in the triple digits. So I use it.

Wed. August 3rd, 2011

Hot List:

- The Bad Sports: I finally caught these guys at the Final Glenn Danzig's house show. If you haven't heard these kids, you need to get down with some Denton, TX power pop. Get a hold of their records, while they are still easy to find. The great Ryan Brush & less-great Ryan Sweeney will be doing a 7" for them this fall.

- Fantasy Football: The NFL lockout was similar to being a kid at your best friend's house when his parents got into a fight. You don't know who's right or wrong - you just want it to be over so you can awkwardly pretend it never happened. But now it's through. The millionaires and billionaires can go back to watching us all gamble away our wages on their games. Why do we love it? Because we are fools with an insatiable hunger for sports.

- Vanishing Point: It's perhaps the greatest car chase film ever made. I had the opportunity to catch it on the big screen on Sunday. It's pretty much everything you need in 70's auto-sploitation. An ex-army/ex-cop/ex-racecar driver takes his white-hot Dodge Challenger cross country in a blur of blue pills and beautiful blonds, all the while running from the law and listening to the perfect soundtrack of the doobie-era.

- Voting: Tomorrow is the big day in my little part of this democratic republic. The mayor & our fully incapable city council are up on the chopping block. It's really like a holiday for me.

- Dave Cloud: It's the Springwater king's birthday. Blow out the candles, big guy. In the last decade or so, I've had countless chances to watch Dave & the GOP shroud rooms with noise-drenched magic. Here's a crowd pleaser of his his first album.