

One of the great things about all the Best of the Decade lists that have started circulatingly lately has been rediscovering records that you may have slept-on or too hastily dismissed the first time around. So it's been for me the past couple weeks with the Avalanches' sampledelic odyssey Since I Left You. Originally released in 2001, I errantly judged the record by the US single "Frontier Psychiatrist," which at the time—and recall, this was a crazy, pre-Girl Talk era in which people still enthusiastically employed the term "turntablism"—struck me as just another scratchy sample collage: a hip hop break, a big looming choral/symphonic part, a mess of spoken samples. (I also recall thinking that the video was annoying—it's in fact awesome.) And so I never really gave the record a chance.
So, yeah, it's an amazing album—crate digging as musical world tour, precursor of nu Balearica, etc, etc. Just the vocal on the introductory title track completely kills me. Or the chirpy dial cranking and ducking beat of "Radio." I've even really warmed to "Frontier Psychiatrist" in the context of the album, where it's pomp and chatter and humor land as not a relief but as kind of a detour from the half hour of breezy, beachy beats that precede it. I've come to appreciate the odd aleatoric effect of all those those dialogue samples (and they get bonus points for use of John Waters' Polyester).
I'm leaving on a little trip tomorrow night, and although I'm not sure how I'll be bringing my music with me—burn some CDs? buy an old, disposable iPod?—I know for sure that this record will be coming.
Music consumers say the damnedest things. The House of Cat site collects—and will, I hope, continue to collect—some of their LOL utterances. For example:
“This is one of those bands that, thank god no one knows about, so I can keep them private.”“I smoke outside. I don’t care about my lungs but I don’t want to ruin my records.”
Dude. Epic.
One of my favorites from when I was working at Everyday Music in the dark days of 2003-04, directed at me: "Has anyone ever told you that you look like Perry Farrell? Because you do." And then there was the EM classic, "Do you sell CDs?" No, really.
Add your own hilarious encounters in comments, if you wish.

Revisiting my Witchman records recently, I came to the realization that some of the material he was creating in the mid ’90s foreshadowed dubstep.
On his 1997 LP Explorimenting Beats and the EPs compiled on the double-CD collection Heavy Traffic, Witchman (Britain’s John Roome) fused illbient with drum & bass, forging expansive tracks that foreshadowed Burial's mournful, desolate atmospheres (but minus the soul/R&B vocal samples). See especially "Offworld" and "Amok II." And titles like "Chemical Noir," "Light at the Edge," "Post Trauma Blues, and "Heavy Mental" are redolent of Burial, too.
Sadly, no Witchman videos exist on YouTube. But the curious should seek out the aforementioned CDs or scan eBay and gemm.com for the vinyl. Witchman's work has aged well; he was a maverick during drum & bass' last really innovative phase.
But what the hell, it's a great track that you should hear, and this is its 30th anniversary.
1/2 of the duo (John Flansburgh, foreground in the photo) just left Oddfellows accompanied by the Long Winters' John Roderick. They can't have made it much further than Rancho Bravo yet.
Quick, go ask them something quirky about science!
They Might Be Giants perform tonight at Showbox SoDo.
Below are the greatest television theme songs ever composed, in my brash opinion. Note: I haven’t watched TV with any regularity since Twin Peaks and Cheers; there’s just been too much music to listen to and too many books to read, you know what I’m sayin’?
This is where you come in. Present your favorites in comments and fill me in on what I’ve missed over the last 16-17 years. YouTube links are welcome (however, you must register for your links to work).
Sanford & Son (composed by Quincy Jones; sampled by Diplo for M.I.A.’s “URAQT”; converted into a Baltimore club joint and remixed at least a few times)
Barney Miller (composed by Jack Elliot and Allyn Ferguson)
Dr. Who (composed by Delia Derbyshire [of White Noise] and Ron Grainer)
Um, best rap lyrics ever? Bangs, you cwazy.
There's a surprising revelation contained within the Invisible Jukebox interview with Lou Reed in The Wire's October issue. The interviewer, Alan Licht, plays Miles Davis' "He Loved Him Madly," and Reed, seemingly hearing the 32-minute threnody for Duke Ellington for the first time, nearly has a heart attack over how fantastic it is, comparing the lead-off track from Miles' Get Up With It to his own Metal Machine Music—no, really. (Reed later relates a brief meeting with Miles in which the legendary trumpeter/keyboardist complimented his snakeskin shirt. I am absurdly happy to know this encounter happened.)
The funniest part of the piece, though, occurs when Licht tells Reed the LP title, and Reed asks his "assistant" to write it down. Lou Reed has an assistant?
I encourage you to read the whole interview (I don't think it's online, so find a hard copy; Broadcast are on the cover). Lou Reed is a curmudgeon, but an eminently lovable, brilliant curmudgeon who's still voraciously curious about music at the age of 67. Plus, he's written more immortal songs than most mortals have. Recognize.
I realized last night that Craig Finn is the adult version of the hyperactive weirdo/rad kid from the movie Spellbound. He moves like him and twitches like him and I bet if he ever talked in a robot voice, he'd sound like him too.

Right?
It makes me love them both just a little bit more.
(Photo of Craig Finn by Shawn Hinojosa, via Flickr's Creative Commons.)
This video is a serious nerd session, but I'd be pretty stoked to sit around there and play with that stuff for a while, preferably without Moby.
h/t: Chris Cairns
When I search the word "fuck" in my iTunes*, I get 43 results. When I search "shit" I get 3. I've got about 2500 songs loaded. How do you fare in this completely pointless exercise?
*substitute your preferred mp3 player.
Who would win in a fight? Hardcore clowncore...
...the rave-accordian "hardcordian" stylings of Ed Cox? Or juggalo kings ICP*?
*On a related note, ICP has a new album and tour. The tour does NOT include Seattle.
Something occurred to me over the weekend: Throw Me the Statue are the closest thing Seattle has to its own Vampire Weekend. Both bands are slightly, harmlessly preppy (with—gasp!—college educations to match), both make pretty and playful pop rock that balances wordiness and/or nerdiness with a not entirely chaste charm, both have a good ear for a hook and an arrangement, etc, etc, etc. This shared musical/aesthetic DNA is no doubt part of why I'm so fond of Throw Me the Statue.
(More on the Line Out-commenter-infuriating Vampire Weekend here and here.)
I've been meaning to tell you this for a while, but it slipped my mind. Perhaps some of you know about it already, but what the hell, here goes: Over a decade before Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo sculpted their first feedback symphony, Chicago Transit Authority's Terry Kath beat them to the idea with "Free Form Guitar" off 1969's Chicago Transit Authority (I just scored the vinyl for a buck, which is why it's fresh in my mind).
Yeah, the same group that went on to record such dentist-office fluff as "If You Leave Me Now" and "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" were on some proto-Sonic Youth (hell, proto-Glenn Branca and proto-Rhys Chatham, too) shit. Even Jimi Hendrix, whom Kath was homaging with "Free Form Guitar," reportedly thought the CTA axe master was better than he was.
Grant Brissey (after singing the chorus to "18 and Life"): "I used to be really into Skid Row. Then I got smart and traded my Skid Row tape for a Metallica tape."
Any major dude will tell you that Steely Dan hire nothing but the baddest of the badass instrumentalists when they tour or record. Sitting behind the drumkit for the Dan's upcoming jaunt in which they cover Aja and The Royal Scam in their entirety is Keith Carlock. Check out his skills in the videos below. Tight. Carlock's a fine successor to Steve Gadd, Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, and Jeff Porcaro.
(You're welcome, Trent.)
Steely Dan perform Aja (plus various hits from other albums) and The Royal Scam (plus various hits from other albums) Oct. 12 and 13 at Paramount Theatre.
ht: Ryan Richter
Listening to Neu!’s “Hallogallo” recently, it struck me that this song was an incredible way to launch one’s recording career. It also spurred me to ponder the idea of groups and solo artists bowing into the recording sphere with a sonic nuclear bomb. It’s crazy (and wonderful, too) to realize that some groups peak with the first song they issue into the world.
So below I’ve compiled some opening tracks from debut releases that qualify for that hallowed pantheon of songs that announces to the world, “Head’s up, motherfuckers! We’re gonna be important!”—which is not to say that I think every song here represents these artists’ peaks, although sometimes they do.
Just as interesting to consider is the number of classic artists whose initial efforts don’t merit inclusion here (ymmv, of course): The Beatles, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, Captain Beefheart, Black Dice, Animal Collective, Tim Buckley, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, etc.
Contribute your ideas in comments, if you’re so inclined.
*Indicates an album’s first track after what I consider an insignificant “Intro.”
Neu!- “Hallogallo” (Neu!)
Kraftwerk- “Ruckzuck” (Kraftwerk)
Funkadelic- “Mommy, What’s a Funkadelic?” (Funkadelic)
Hawkwind- “Hurry On Sundown” (Hawkwind)
Can- “Father Cannot Yell” (Monster Movie)
Roxy Music- “Remake/Remodel” (Roxy Music)
The Velvet Underground- “Sunday Morning” (The Velvet Underground & Nico)
Jimi Hendrix Experience- “Purple Haze” (Are You Experienced)
The Who- “I Can’t Explain” (I Can’t Explain 7”)
M.I.A.- “Galang” (Galang EP)
Public Enemy- “You’re Gonna Get Yours” (Yo! Bum Rush the Show!)
Mercury Rev- “Chasing a Bee” (Yerself Is Steam)
The Move- “Night of Fear” (single)
LCD Soundsystem- “Losing My Edge” (Losing My Edge 12”)
Catching up on the wacky Wavves vs Black Lips blood feud that's burning up the Internets has led me to an important realization: Wavves is lucky as hell to have Hella's Zach Hill as his new drummer. Just look how dude totally turns Wavves' poppy punk anthem "So Bored" into the fucking Zach Hill Animal Drums Show:
Yesterday was a good day. For $36, I obtained the following nine LPs at the Big Dig Saturday at Lo-Fi Performance Gallery:
Lucifer (aka Mort Garson)- Black Mass (Amazingly, this was the record I was most hoping to find.)
Tonto’s Expanding Head Band- Zero Time (Amazingly, this was the second-most-coveted record I was hoping to find.)
James Brown- Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off
Tony Williams Lifetime- Believe It
Quincy Jones- Walking in Space
Fleetwood Mac- Kiln House
Fleetwood Mac- Tusk (2LP for $1)
Bob James- BJ4 (for $1)
Alice Cooper- Killer (for $1)
Here are the LPs that I dearly wanted, but that were out of my price range or about which I didn’t know enough to risk the gamble, but looked very intriguing:
David Axelrod- Seriously Deep
Cannonball Adderley- Soul Zodiac
Goblin- Tenebre (title track sampled by Justice on "Phantom")
Julian Priester- Polarization
James Blood Ulmer- Tales of Captain Black
Gil Mellé- Tome VI
Alice Coltrane- Universal Consciousness
Alice Coltrane- World Galaxy
You find anything noteworthy?
But, holy shit, Dookie is just un-fucking-beatable when you need a little righteous, nostalgic pop punk kick in the ass—especially the opening combination of "Burnout and "Having a Blast." Here those songs are, albeit at less than ideal audio quality (insert joke about pop punk audiophilia here):
Noel Gallagher has quit Oasis; his statement:
“It’s with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight. People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.“Apologies to all the people who bought tickets for the shows in Paris, Konstanz and Milan.
Tough break, Milan.
Those sassy pants over at Babeland, my #1 all-time-favorite-sex-toy-store-in-the-world, um, they sent me a new toy:

DJ your orgasm with the fabulously innovative Freestyle, from our friends at OhMiBod. Freestyle is the world’s first music-responsive vibrator combining state-of-the-art technology, ease of use, and unparalleled satisfaction; just hook it up to your iPod/iPhone/mp3 player/home audio system, and thrill to the rhythmic vibrations your favorite bump-and-grind music provides (or set it on manual to use like a regular vibrator). The wireless controls, shower-friendly insertable body, and 25-foot remote range liberate you to dance, gyrate, and come closer to the music than you’ve ever come before. And when you’re done exploring the seven programmed vibration patterns (adjustable independently from intensity with simple controls), just plug it in for two hours to recharge for up to five hours of continuous use. Perfect for the techie or music lover in your life!
They wondered if I might like to test it out before tomorrow's in-store event, "Sex and Rock N Roll", 8/29, from 3-6 pm, at Babeland, Capitol Hill. Problem is, I can't decide on a song. Please help!
Recently, I was arguing with a loved one about the self-evident awesomeness of Modest Mouse. This loved one was trying to dis the band for a variety of wrong-headed reason, one of which was that Modest Mouse should be judged harshly due to the countless crappy indie rock bands they've ostensibly inspired. Obviously, though, you can't hold an artist responsible for what future generations of artists do with their art (why, without the Beatles, none of this crap would've happened!), right?
What made me think of this argument today was not Bumbershoot, which Modest Mouse are headlining this year, but songwriter Ellie Greenwich, who passed away today at the age of 69, and who can only really be held responsible for one of the following songs:

The AP reports:
LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles County coroner has ruled Michael Jackson’s death a homicide, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press, a finding that makes it more likely criminal charges will be filed against the doctor who was with the pop star when he died on June 25.