The Thrills - So Much for the City (2003)

The Thrills - So Much for the City (2003)





Well, it’s been about 11 months since I’ve written a blog, shame on me. Anywho let me fire up iTunes and see what it has in store for us today…
The Thrills! Hooray. What can I say about the thrills? First off, I love this record. It’s an Americana, Alt-Country style of music even the band is from Dublin, Ireland. There are several great tracks on here to love, Big Sur, Santa Cruz, Old Friends, New Lovers being some of my favorites. As far as memories go it takes me back to a very bittersweet time of my life, and I mean that in the most extreme sense of the word. I was first introduced to this band by my cousin Stephanie. Now, I have a confession to make. I hate admitting that anyone ever introduces me to a band. I live in a little fantasy world that I am an omniscient force of musical knowledge, and that I know all about the best music before it s even conceived by the musician who will produce it. I’ve probably told about 100 people about The Thrills claiming I discovered them, but it was you Steph, I love you, forgive me.
This band came along at the right time in my life, right when I was getting into a bunch of acoustic rock bands like The Shins, Bright Eyes, and Wilco to name a few. Plus I was a sucker for “The” bands; if your band was named “The (place plural noun here)” then I was sure to at least give you a chance. The early 2000’s was cranking ‘em out like a mofo, The Strokes, The Shins, The White Stripes, The Vines, The Hives. Then here come The Thrills, a powerhouse of Alt-Country Rock that fit into my record rotation like a glove. They offer some of the sweetest melodies and vocal harmonies I’ve ever heard. They take a real retro approach to the music production and even the cover art of “So Much for the City.” It looks like a record that could be hidden in a stack of worn out records at a goodwill that you’d pass up unless you already knew what a jewel it was. They sound like the Beach Boys meet Wilco with a sprinkle of Hank Williams thrown in there for good measure. Great Stuff!
Anyway, this album came around when my cousins Jeremy and Laura had moved from Albuquerque back to *home town* because their father was very, very ill and they needed to be closer to family. He was a very good uncle to me and all my family and a terrific father and husband to my aunt. I won’t go into detail but this was a painful experience for the whole family. Rest in Peace Uncle. But with the bad comes the good. I had my cousins back in my life that I’ve always been very close to and this experience brought us even closer. See, if my memory serves me correct, my cousin Steph was never really fond of me and probably thought I was a big dork (true by the way), or at least that was the way I felt perceived by her.*Steph, feel free to disagree in the comments* But she was always very close to Laura, and Laura was close to me and there came the bridge. For the first time it was me, Laura and Steph vs. The World…all the time. Now I had Steph in my life which closes the circle on why I love The Thrills. We were ripe at our coming-of-age time and now had each other. Now our new little clique, we would party every night, listen to great jams, drink coffee, drink beer, go to shows and concerts, get wasted and repeat. Every day was a new adventure and made of really great memories and I strong highlight period in my life. I have great memories of listing to The Thrills and taxi…ing these girls all over town looking for our next shenanigan and plotting how we were going to get beer for the night. Good Times.
Laura and I even had the good fortune of seeing The Thrills at Coachella 2004, which was also a life changing experience. But I can go on and on about Coachella so I’ll just stop here.
Conclusion: The Thrills = Thrills
Go Listen Here
www.mediafire.com/?z2yytmgzwho

Death From Above 1979 - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine (2004)

This is a great album from a very short lived band. Death From Above 1979. Just look at the cover! You know it's gonna be far out. (Reminded of Pink Elephants on Parade from Dumbo) This album blew my mind when I first heard it in 2005. I believe I heard the band from listening to Bloc Party's shitty remix album. DFA'79 did a remix of Luno which was one of the better ones. So I checked them out. It was and continues to be a very inspiration milestone in my library. I was going through a phase of Dance-Punk lust. I could not get enough of it. LCD Soundsystem, Le Tigre, Liars, Moving Units, The Rapture, Beep Beep, were a short few of the bands in circulation at the time. This came out at just the right time in my life to fully appreciate it. Now that I think about it, it was solely this album that got me into making electronic music. If you've heard it, you might say that the electronics are minimal, and right you are. But on Romantic Rights there is a little synthesizer solo in the second verse that I fell in love with! I needed to be able to do that. As far back as 1998 I was dabbling with electronic music on a program called Fruity Loops. I had a demo version and spent a lot of time trying to emulate NIN and failing miserably. I didn't fully understand the concept of step sequencing and then gave it up. Fortunately my little bro took to it like a duck in water. His music is extremely impressive by the way and he continues to bloom exponentially. So he kept up with it but would only use the stock capabilities of the program. Well fast-forward to 2005 when I heard DFA'79 I decided to try my hand at Dance-Punk. I couldn't afford to buy a vintage 1970's synthesizer so I started researching techniques to perhaps do it on a computer.I found VSTs! VSTs are what are knows as virtual instruments. They are complete synthesizers in the form of a computer program. I was able to snag a demo of GForce's Oddity. So I began playing with it and discovered that VSTs could be integrated into a step sequencing programing such as FL Studio in the form of a plug in. Upon more research I discovered that virtual instruments could be controlled with MIDI keyboards and actually played like a real synthesizer. Well it just took off from there and I'm still making music with VSTs and MIDI keyboards. Daniel's music has greatly improved with VSTs as well. We always get excited over the next new virtual instrument. There are 1000's of them just calling me at all times. It kinda possesses me.

Anywho, back to the album. So You're a Woman, I'm a Machine is very "In Your Face" kinda album. No bullshit mellow love ballads or 15+ minute experimental tracks, just rough, raw dance-punk. It's just drums, and distorted bass guitar. That's it! I couldn't believe a band could be so minimal and kick so much ass. They set the songs up quickly, tear it up, scream it out and get out. I imagine it would be a great album to get down to although I've yet to try it, I'm sure many people have. It's a very sexual album. Allow the lyrics to demonstrate.

Come here baby I love your company
We could do it and start a family
She was living alone unhappily
We could do it, it's right romantically
----------------------------------------------------------------
I love my girl
I want to get her off
Turn the lights up
So I can see
Turn the lights up
1-2-3
Push in
1-2-3
Pull out
Let your spirit free girl
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Sexy girl meet me in the bathroom
Sexy girl call me on the phone
Woman friend take me to your bedroom
Let me show how I'm full grown

Sexy woman call me to your office
Sexy woman meet me after work
I wanna show you how I handle business
I wanna show you how the mail-boy flirts

My man wants to buy you something
He wants to take you out for dinner and dancing
My friend wants to take you out then home
Then home alone
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As a matter of fact one group named CSS made a song called "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above". Which is a really kick-ass track and would also be great to get down to.

Too bad DFA'79 broke up so quickly, they were high on my list of band I wanted to see live. I check their website from time to time in hopes of a reunion but no dice yet. Although a spin-off group emerged from the ashes and has become one of my favorites called MSTRKRFT, but thats a whole other blog.

I just realized I never figured out that little synth solo. I'm gonna go try it right now, now that I have my sea legs.

Her Space Holiday - The Young Machines (2003)

I heard this band from Chrissie Pie when we started our band "In Science and Love", circa 2007 and I must say that this album has made a real lasting influence on my personal music. I had written the music for "This Little Time" in Ableton Live but had failed to write a vocal melody that I was satisfied with. Chrissie and I were just starting to write together and this was the 4th song that we did. I passed the music on to her and she came up with a repeating chorus that I fell in love with. It's still my favorite song that we do. She told me that she had sort of lifted the melody from "Something To Do With My Hands" from this album. I really don't think they sound anything alike but I appreciate the influence it had on her. So I had to check it out. Now that I think about it, my music these days owes a great debt to Her Space Holiday: the simple electronic loops, the deeply personal lyrics, and passive-aggressive delivery. I didn't know that they were already doing what I had been trying to do before I ever heard them. It kinda pissed me off. But just because two things are extremely similar does mean that can't both be great in their own right. i.e. The Terminator and The Matrix, Daft Punk and Justice, Amber Bock and Shiner Bock, Windows and OSX. (Wow! those examples really demonstrate what is usually on my mind: Movies, Music, Beer and Computers)
...anyway, I still have not given up on my musical approach just because I've heard this album. Maybe I'm giving my music too much credit by even making the comparison. HSH's lyrics are way more beautiful than anything I could ever hope to write. I think I can hang in the composition aspect though. Maybe not.

To Her Space Holiday:
Please don't sue me. I really respect you.

Love Gabe

Brand New -Deja Entendu (2003)

Ok, it's been a while since my last blog yet again. This trip down memory lane has led me back to a real dark time with this entry. My EMO days. (Oh, the shame!) If my memory servers me correctly I acquired this CD from my little bro Dan when it came out in 2003. I might have purchased it for him and then stolen it back. I can't remember. This came out at a time that I like to call "the second coming of Emo." Because there was the first wave stuff like Sunny Day Real Estate, Mineral and The Promise Ring back when Emo was pure and good and not called Emo. I dabbled in this stuff in 6th and 7th grade
( 1996ish) because it was popular with the older kids at the school I was attending, but I never knew it was called Emo. Any who fast forward to 2002 and this genre was becoming popular again. I blame it on Thursday, at lease that was the band that got me into it.

I must admit It was a fresh sound. All throughout high school I was real into the grunge and alternative rock thing. You know the classic shit like Nirvana, Tool, NIN, Smashing Pumpkins, Bush, Soundgarden etc. It happened to be that period of time right out of high school and first year in college that my whole perspective on music changed. I had a lot more freedoms than I did in HS. I had a car, a job, more friends, more parties, more concerts and shows, less parental involvement, less peer judgment, a computer with CD-R capabilities, Google, Kazaa, AllMusicGuide, Wednesday Music Cafe, EP What's Up Weekly (My Deepest Thanks Chrissie!) oh and did I mentition more friends, more parties and more concerts! And what was popular at the time...Emo baby!

So I had all these new avenues to explore more music and it came flooding in. Thursday, Cursive, Piebald, The Get-Up Kids, Alkaline Trio, The Rocking Horse Winner, Bright Eyes, Poison the Well, Glassjaw, Saves the Day, Taking Back Sunday, Sparta, At the Drive-In, Dashboard Confessional, The Appleseed Cast and of course Brand New to name a few.

I can't say anything bad about this album nor anything bad about the above mentioned bands other than they led music into a very dark place that it has yet to find its way out of. I won't go there. In fact I still love this album. The guitar work is fantastic and the lyrics (though extremely melodramatic) are probably the best I've ever heard. I don't give a fuck about what anybody thinks of this next statement or how self-absorbed it may sound, the following lyrics perfectly describe how I feel about myself.

I am heaven sent,
Don't you dare forget.
I am all you've ever wanted,
What all the other boys all promised.
Sorry I told. I just needed you to know.
I think in decimals and dollars.
I am the cause to all your problems,
Shelter from cold. we are never alone.
Coordinate brain and mouth.
Then ask me whats it like to have
Myself so figured out.
I wish I knew...

Yeah, Sorry I told, but it's my blog.

Now I have 2 stories about this album, I'll try to keep them short.

1) My brother also liked this album a lot and I kinda pulled him into the Emo thing too. He started High School during this period of time and was adamant about dating an "Emo Girl". He found a girl who also liked Brand New amongst other bands we were listening to. She comes to mind because she bought Dan a Brand New shirt for his birthday. She ended up being a real bitch. I can't remember her name but I FUCKING HATE HER! See my bro was a great dancer as a young boy. He could do the robot and emulate Usher and Michael Jackson like a pro. He would dance around the kitchen floor all the time and entertain my family with his awesome and sometimes humorous moves. So he started dating this girl and took her to the homecoming dance where she put down his dance moves and told him that he was embarrassing to her or something along those lines. After that he gave it up and to this day will only bust a move on occasion. She stole something great from him and I'll never forgive her.

2) My cousin Jeremy would have "Play Crack the Sky" in his guitar repertoire and play it at parties and such. It was St. Patty's day and my friends and I were getting shitfaced at Milhouse's apartment. I met this dude who claimed to be a rapper. I think he called himself "Martin SCARsese". Anyways I was drunk I caught myself rapping with him as the night progressed. 30 mins later I see him down a tequila glass full of Crown Royal in one shot. (No Bull) So with Jeremy playing Brand New in the background I see SCARsese being dragged away with two guys on each side and his feet dragging. I don't know if he survived.

Get Emotional Here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RPYDK8ZQ

Porno for Pyros - Porno for Pyros (1993)

I attribute my loss of innocence entirely to this album. The song that came up was, "Blood Rag" by Porno For Pyros. Even the name of the band is risque.

Part 1 - It was 1993 when I first heard this album. I found it in my grandparents CD collection which was comprised mostly of Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. It must have belonged to my cousin Beth who was living with my grandparents at the time. My cousins Jacob and Sam found it and were like, "What is this doing here?" and put it on. The first song they put on was, "Orgasm". Which to this day I have tried to emulate the feel and the bassline continuously in my personal music. This album had so many wordw that were introduced into my vocabulary my too soon - Porno, Pyro, Orgasm, Come, Bad Shit, Blood Rag - to name a few. Of course the name, "Porno for Pyros" and the name, "Orgasm" raised a lot of questions in my mind. "What is 'porno'?" - being the most relevant.

Fast forward one year -

I am now in the 4th grade and I'm 10 years old. Are all of you ready for a true coming-of-age tale? This is the story of my first experience with poronography! My friend David from Jesus Chapel had come over to spend the night. We went for a walk and we walked to my church. It was there (at church of all places) where we found a dried up, crusty porno. The church had a very large plot of land was frequently irrigated. Some pervo must have thrown the porn into the canal and it washed up into the church. So, we found it and we're completely confused. I remember from listening to the Porno For Pyros CD that my cousins had given me a very vague explanation of what porno was. They just told me it was pictures of naked people and that an orgasm was a "funny tickle". When we came upon this washed up porn, I realized that this is what they were talking about. We couldn't believe it! I'll never forget the images I saw that day. It was two girls and one guy. One was blonde with long hair, one was a brunette with short hair. The guy was very muscular and tan.

Rewind 6 years -

I remember my mother telling me that boys have an "outtie" and girls have an "innie". I was sure it meant that girls did not have a penis, but if there was no penis, then what was there? I just imagined a Barbie doll.

Back to the story...

So I saw a va-jay-jay for the first time. And everything had come to light. It was weird in a few ways. It was surprising to actually see that there was no penis there and was more surprising to see what looked to me like a second mouth. David and I kept trying to figure it out. And both of these girls were performing oral sex on the guy. This was even weirder. We thought he was peeing in their mouth! How gross! But the weirdest part was that this guy was HUGE, it looked, to my young mind, like a baseball bat! I had never seen an adult male erect penis before. And thank God I hadn't! Or I would be telling this story on a couch instead of on a blog. I remember it making me feel ashamed about my body for the first time, when I made a mental comparison of his Kielbasa compared to my pre-puberty Vienna! In the next frame he was inside one of them and it was more confusing that the girl looked like she was in pain. *She was actually doing that thing that girls do when they breathe in through their teeth and make a hiss face when they are really enjoying themselves.* (I know this now.) I had seen boobies before so I was not surprised by those but they were nice to look at. We crumbled it up and threw it behind the wall. And spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what we had just seen. Inside the porno I saw the word, "orgasm" and remembered the song. And I realized what this band is all about. David must have had crazy dreams that night, because he wet the bed and I never invited him back.

Part II - Fast forward to 1999

I was very into Jane's Addiction in High School as a Freshman and Sophomore. I think I drew everybody crazy with Perry Ferrel's screaming voice. And of course Jane's Addiction led me to Porno for Pyros again. I had not made a connection until then, that this was the same band that I heard as a little kid. I bought it at All That Music for $6.99 in the used CD pile which was thrilling. And "Pets" had become my favorite song. Which is the only modest song on the album. I was in a speech class where I met a girl named Amy. And she was the only other girl that had ever heard of Porno For Pyros. And we were talking about it and at the same time we shouted out, "'Pets' is so cool!" This single event caused me to crush on her. Sometime later , during class time I went out to use the restroom and I caught her making out in the hall with a girl who I had previously dated as a Freshman. This really hurt my feelings. On two levels - 1) I lost Amy and 2) I felt like I made the other girl gay. I can't remember her name.


Part III - Fast Forward to 2002/2003

At this period in my life, everybody I knew had been gaining some sexual experience. And some of the girls that I would talk to who had had sex said they never achieved orgasm. Maybe by themselves but not with a guy, anyway. And the album immediately came back to mind with the lyrics, "I met a girl who never had an orgasm / I can't believe she had never had one / Sit back, just let yourself relax" racing through my head. I always wanted to play the girls this song to tell them they are not alone. I guess eventually they had all overcome this obstacle. Yay for them.

Lesson learned: Pornography and Porno For Pyros should be avoided by youngsters at ALL costs. It is a terrific album, but very detrimental to a youngster's vocabulary and sexual development.

THE END.

Destroy your innocence here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ltvdg673

The Smashing Pumpkins - Pisces Iscariot (1994)

Ok, I got about 20 mins here so I'll make this quick. Pisces Iscariot was a fucking brilliant name for a record! About once a year I slap myself for not thinking of it first. The song that came up today was "A Girl Named Sandoz". I must admit I was never really crazy about this song but I has grown on me. It a cover from The Animals. I bought Pisces Iscariot in 1998 from Blockbuster music. Remember that place? It was so cool. They would open up the CDs for you and let you listen to them way before Internet streaming was available. Thanks to the internet and MP3"s blockbuster has officially closed. I got it in October 1998. It was my second smashing pumpkins CD after Siamese Dream. This album reminds me of very boring times. At the school I used to attend we has a year round schedule so we went early in the summer time and come October we would have the whole month off. I was a freshman in high school so no car. I was stuck at home listening to Pisces Iscariot. All the kids at school though I was so geek because I liked the smashing pumpkins. Everyone was really into KORN and Limp Bizkit which I for the most part dislike. I missed the pumpkin train in the early 90's when I was stuck listing to shitty Christian music like DC Talk and Carmen because thats all my mom would let me listen to. No offense to Christianity but I just don't like the music as a genre. Its very "Inside the Box." I remember being a the music store and trying to decide between "Is this desire? by PJ Harvey, which had just come out, or this one. I chose and the rest is history. In retrospect I like "Is This Desire?" much more. My main memory of A Girl Named Sandoz was that when I was on these intercessions my mom would make me do a bunch of weird projects around the house. I was listening to this while I was trying to refinish an old oak gate that was outside. I remember being pissed off that the power sander I was using was drowning out the sound and I couldn't take the album all in. I must say that Pisces Iscariot is one of the weaker SP releases but there are some great songs on it that remain in circulation to this day. Frail and Bedazzled and the Landslide cover remain some of my favorites.

Listen Here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YKVXT7KI

Danzig - Danzig (1988)

Oh How Hilarious, Danzig! It's been some months since my last post. I have been very busy trying to graduate and I forgot about this blog. Now that I have a little time all start maintaining it. So I fired up itunes today, turned on shuffle and boom! Mother by Danzig comes on. Oh what to say? I love this stupid song! I had first heard it at the T-Lounge, an old club I used to go to, when a band called EGON covered it. They made this big announcement that Glenn Danzig was in the house. I kinda believed it but was skeptical. Anyone who has ever even known a rocker has probably heard of Glenn Danzig. He was the singer from The Misfits, the 70's Misfits, not the shitty 90's re-vamp. You know that band that with the crimson ghost skull logo. You always see these kids wearing T-Shirts and they have stickers and various other accessories with this image. That's the Misfits. The funny thing about these kids is that only a hand full of them have actually listened to the music. I knew a bunch of these kids in high school and there are even more of them now. I talked to this kid I tutor who had a Misfits T-Shirt and I was like "cool band man!, What your favorite song?" And he said just bought the shirt at Hot Topic cause it looked cool. Fuck! The trend continues. Anyway I have never owned a Misfits t-shirt and didn't even hear the band until 2006. I did however pretend to know about their music in high school. The few real fans would always talk about Danzig Misfits vs. Graves Misfits and that when Danzig was this singer the band was much better. So I would bullshit and agree that Danzig Misfits were so much cooler. Poser, yes I know. But later on on 2006 I had decided to educated myself of the history of punk rock and the Misfits were at the top of my list of band to explore. So I actually did get very into them and now I get why they still sell their shit at Hot Topic.
So the Misfits led me to Danzig. After Glenn Danzig had left the Misfits. He did his own solo album and called it "Danzig" The first single he put out was Mother. I remembered hearing the EGON cover the song and I was like "Yeah, this rocks." Danzig really isn't my style. I generally do not like metal but something about Mother really hooked me. I couldn't place it. Then I remembered this reference I had heard on an album Stephanie (a high school friend) had given me along time before. It was on Gizmodgery by Self. The song was "Trunk Fulla Amps" the lyrics go like this.

i've got a trunk fulla amps, motherfucker
like freddy mercury, mother-fucker
i've got a trunk fulla amps, motherfucker
got a trunk fulla amps, motherfucker

i've got a trunkfulla amps, motherfucker
like elo, mamma-fucker
i've got a trunk fulla amps, motherfucker
got a trunk fulla amps, motherfucker

i've got amps from sellin' stamps, motherfucker like glen danzig, MOOOOTHERRR-fucker
i've got amps from sellin' stamps, motherfucker
i've got amps from sellin' stamps, motherfucker

i've got a trunk fulla amps, motherfucker
like lenny kravitz, mother-fucker
i've got a trunk fulla amps, motherfucker
got a trunk fulla amps, motherfucker
fucker
fucker
all right

The singer sings that part exactly like Danzig. As soon as I remembered this I could not stop laughing! I liked the song even more! Ever since then Mother has been in my karaoke repertoire and I sing it ever chance I get. People say I do it very well. Every time I sing it at a bar someone always gives me the "Evil Fingers"
Which always makes me feel a lot cooler than I really am.

Get Danzig here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CRQYQZ10

and Gizmodgery Here:http://mediafire.com/?m3omzqnhqoe