Barbotian Ocean 2.0

What Album Are You Most Looking Forward To Next Week?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:42:59 -0500

What Album Are You Most Looking Forward To Next Week?:

Self-serving? I have no idea what you’re talking about. I voted for “Various Artists.” But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t vote for Jawbox. I think we win a turkey or something if we can take out Ike Reilly.

Amazon.com: Laptop Steering Wheel Desk: Electronics Look at this...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:29:04 -0500

Amazon.com: Laptop Steering Wheel Desk: Electronics

Look at this product and then read the user reviews if you want to laugh and laugh and laugh. And laugh.

Dining alone. It seemed like a great idea at the time. But...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:47:15 -0500

Dining alone. It seemed like a great idea at the time. But apparently, Texas, or at least this part of Austin, scorns sidewalks. So I offroaded here, dodging traffic and tree roots in the gloom (they also scorn streetlights) on the ten-minute walk down Arboretum Boulevard to the … What is this place? It’s neither a strip mall nor an office park. In the mid-November darkness, it’s a neon sign on the opposite side of a parking lot. But it’s noisy and warm. The football game about which I care nothing is on the silent flat screen above the bar, and large tables of mostly women, blonde and Texan, chatter against the noise in way that allows me only to hear accents, not words. The ceiling here is immense, vaulted and barn-like, with exposed trusses and faux-rustic knotty pine, amplifying the voices into a babble of volume, a violence of talk. Across the room, another solo diner, a woman, fifties and alone, rifles through the sweetener boat, clearly missing something. A desperate, failed attempt to flag down the busboy: “Sir, Sir, SIR!” yields nothing. Maybe “hermano” would have worked. The toddler at the next table staggers like a frat boy at a kegger, coughing loudly on my shoe. “Remember how we taught you to cover your mouth?” No, he doesn’t. Neither do I. Neither do I.

Push, Push … struggle! I love Jaz Coleman. There were...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:53:00 -0500

Push, Push … struggle!

I love Jaz Coleman. There were those who dared to think that Jaz and Killing Joke had lost their edge by the time Night Time came out in 1985. The sound may have matured, but the intensity is only barely dialed back half a notch from the first four records. For my money, this particular track pushes the aggression past where many of the songs on Fire Dances ended up. And what a riff.

Killing Joke - Eighties (via CarolineRecords)

A couple days late for ghost notes, but they’re no less...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:10:22 -0500

A couple days late for ghost notes, but they’re no less fun than they would have been on Halloween. Purdie’s a master. And he’s clearly enjoying himself.

Peter Gabriel, Radiohead, Neil Young, Bon Iver, Others To Release Covers Album - All Songs Considered Blog : NPR

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:49:49 -0400

Peter Gabriel, Radiohead, Neil Young, Bon Iver, Others To Release Covers Album - All Songs Considered Blog : NPR:

Yeah, I could get excited about this. Although getting some new material from some of these people (Gabriel, Bowie, to name a couple) would beat covers … but I guess you take what you can get.

Team Ownership Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means, Rush

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:10:11 -0400

Team Ownership Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means, Rush:

Consider the word “hate”: I really, really have to hate someone, hate everything they represent, say, and do, before I can say it out loud, let alone, in public or to their face. It’s easy to say you hate Rush Limbaugh in private - there’s so much to hate - but it’s kind of like flipping someone off in the car: when there are no repercussions, like the person who cut you off actually engaging you in a debate on driving etiquette, you can go around hating all you want. It’s impotent hate, rhetorical hate, stage hate. Real hate comes from a place where repercussions are immaterial. So I could say, “I hate Rush” to you, but could I say it to Rush if he showed up at a family gathering as my niece’s date? There’s big fat cigar-chomping Rush, playing with babies, petting the dog, and helping my sister load the dishwasher. Could I at that moment walk up to him, yank the stogie from his porcine jowls, and pointedly utter the H-word?

Probably not. So I leave it to the good folks at ASSME to write clever, biting blog posts like this one, “correcting” Rush’s assumption that owning the Rams would be like owning slaves. Sharp, perhaps unfair, blatantly slanted, but … funny.

My last post was too political and depressing. This one is much...

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:13:00 -0400

My last post was too political and depressing. This one is much more fun.

Hard to believe that a scant two-odd months after this performance in 1982, Andy collapsed on stage in France and shortly thereafter swore never to play live again. An incredible shame; the talent of these guys live was only outshone by their brilliance in the studio. He looks to be enjoying himself immensely, but apparently, that look is deceiving.

XTC - Yacht Dance Live (Old Grey Whistle Test) (via theradiator)

Blessed autumn. The rabbit is eating my shoelace.

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:51:12 -0400

Blessed autumn. The rabbit is eating my shoelace.

Let’s Keep In Mind Roman Polanski Raped A Kid http://bit.ly/3M2QVX

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:51:00 -0400

Let’s Keep In Mind Roman Polanski Raped A Kid http://bit.ly/3M2QVX

Jimmy Stewart was 50 when Vertigo was made. Kim Novak was 25....

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:42:53 -0400

Jimmy Stewart was 50 when Vertigo was made. Kim Novak was 25. Jimmy, you dog. TV Pics: about as far out as 1958 was apt to get.

Brilliant. He’s only missing Tempest, Arkanoids, and...

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:31:14 -0400

Brilliant. He’s only missing Tempest, Arkanoids, and Defender to make the series complete.

Lego Arcade (via MlCHAELHlCKOX)

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common..."

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:24:05 -0400

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

- Calvin Coolidge

"I don’t mind kids trying hard and cheating and lying to get to the top"

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:40:03 -0400

““I don’t mind kids trying hard and cheating and lying to get to the top””

- Neil French, on scam ads created solely to win awards. What a scumbag. God, I hope he never had kids.

At Spikes Asia Festival, Neil French Defends Scam Ads - Global News - Advertising Age

One can only hope that after they shut off the cameras, that...

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:19:00 -0400

One can only hope that after they shut off the cameras, that lion ate those freaking people.

I don’t know Czech, but I’m pretty sure “Hej pane zajici” means, “Hey, lion, eat me!”

Vaclav Neckar - Hej pane zajici (via kotrccz)

TV Pics: Scott Walker, 30th Century Man.

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:43:40 -0400

TV Pics: Scott Walker, 30th Century Man.

Clever idea. Execution is hit or miss, but the concept of...

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:17:00 -0400

Clever idea. Execution is hit or miss, but the concept of artists “covering” the covers of other artists is tidily post-modern and occasionally yields some pretty cool results.

The blog is here: http://coveredblog.blogspot.com/ And the Wired article is here: Eye-Popping Blog Remixes Memorable Comic Book Covers | Wired.com

“What would you call it … a break out, wild,...

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:18:16 -0400

“What would you call it … a break out, wild, full-tilt sound.”

Not the finest Huskers performance I’ve seen; the TV mix doesn’t do them any favors (a vocals-up mix was never a boon to their live set), and Grant’s mic really should have been turned off for the interview, as he has nothing more to say besides “huh” to Bob’s pretty articulate responses to the host’s inane questions. That’s a tough stage in an even tougher room. But seeing them on the MPLS equivalent of Good Morning, Washington is suitably surreal, from the host’s incredibly awkward laugh right before the interview to the b-roll of the audience of Minnesota morning matrons who must have been somewhere between mortified and bemused by the assault coming their way from the stage.

Husker Du on Good Company April 1986 (via HUSKERchout)

The Stranglers were always a problematic punk rock band - they...

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:40:11 -0400

The Stranglers were always a problematic punk rock band - they were older and more musically proficient than the young, loud, and snotty crew, and their keyboard-driven sound had more to do with the Doors than the Damned. But as they prove here (in a Baz Warne-fronted incarnation, with Jet Black pushing 70 years old behind the drum kit) in 2007, that maturity of songwriting and musicianship in the composition still pays off 30 years after the 1977 show this commemorates at the Roundhouse. Burnel’s bass sounds as awesome as ever (playing a Shuker, I believe). Would love to know his secret. And Baz had me double-taking to make sure he wasn’t Hugh, his delivery was that spot-on to the original (not to mention the solo). I love old guys who don’t sound it.

My typical anti-hipster prejudices come alive with bands like...

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:42:09 -0400

My typical anti-hipster prejudices come alive with bands like White Rabbits. I can’t put a finger on why: They’re originally from Columbia, Missouri, hardly a mecca for cool, and seemingly far enough from Brooklyn to avoid the spread of hipster swine flu. But the Brooklyn bug bit these boys, and quicker’n you can drain a can of PBR, they’ve packed the U-Haul to Greenpoint to write songs about the Long Island Sound.

And yet, here I am posting their video … because it’s good. I know, I’m self-defeating at the best of times, inherently contradictory at the worst, but I got sucked in by their pretty superior 2007 Daytrotter set, and now I find myself - gasp - a fan.