sliced tongue

2012-01-20T19:03:00.003-05:00

PICTURES CAME AND BROKE YOUR HEART

Trouser Press, May 1982
The Buggles
Fade Away/On TV

There are one-hit wonders, and then there are one-hit wonders...

The Buggles are of course best known for Video Killed the Radio Star.

I've always thought of fellow one-hit wonder Pop Muzik by M as an aural twin of Video Killed the Radio Star.

Both songs burble along with bleeps, bloops, bubbles, and highly processed vocals.

They are crisp, cool New Wave Lite in colorful aluminum cans.

But where Pop Muzik is a reverie, Video Killed the Radio Star is a lament. It is Helen Twelvetrees cursing the dawn of the talkies...

Another key point of divergence for the two songs is their performance on the 1979 US charts. Pop Muzik made it all the way to number 1, while Video Killed the Radio Star just scraped into the top 40.

But two years later, the iconic status of the latter song would be sealed when it became the first video played on MTV. (And somewhat shockingly, Pop Muzik was not even among the first 200 videos aired by the station.)

This clear flexi contains two songs by the Buggles that are not Video Killed the Radio Star: Fade Away and On TV. Both tracks play like the intersection of synth-pop and prog that they are-- kind of like Heaven 17, if Heaven 17 were unconcerned with making you shake your groove thang...

2012-01-10T22:08:00.003-05:00

TRYING TO TAKE THIS ALL IN

Trouser Press, April 1982
XTC
Blame the Weather/Tissue Tigers (The Arguers)

What better way to start 2012 than ecstatically...

This flexi is a plumb pretty piece of clear red plastic.

Both Blame the Weather and Tissue Tigers (The Arguers) saw the light of commercial day as B-sides of Senses Working Overtime. They are very strong tracks, and only when measured against something as transcendently great as their A-side do they sound like B-sides.

Back in the summer of '83, I took a job doing landscaping work. I was truly awful at it-- I had none of the practical sense to clean a yard efficiently, nor the strong back and clear lungs to do it for any meaningful stretch of time.

I drove my '73 Ford Maverick to the job each morning. The car didn't have a radio, so I'd sling my boombox across the back seat and let it suck down D batteries. I wore out a copy of XTC's Waxworks cassette that summer, many times reaching over the seat to hit auto-reverse so that I could hear Senses Working Overtime again.

The foreman kept me on the job for a month or so as a favor to my brother, but ultimately we all came to our senses and I moved on...

2012-01-04T19:29:00.002-05:00

COLUMN INCHES

Saw a headline today that Scorpions are calling it quits, which reminded me of my '05 interview with the band's Rudolf Schenker...

Halten rocking, mein dudes. Halten rocking.

2011-12-01T23:12:00.003-05:00

FLEXIDISCOVERING JAPAN

Trouser Press, March 1982
Japan
Life Without Buildings

David Sylvain: We're well chuffed that you're doing a Japan flexi, but we just had a couple of small requests.

Trouser Press: OK, shoot.

DS: Right. First, could you make the disc roughly the same color as David Bowie's eye makeup in the “Life on Mars?” video?

TP: Done.

DS: Second, we'd like the track to be the almost entirely instrumental, six-plus minute long, cod-Asian, sub-Joy Division B-side to our UK single, “The Art of Parties.”

TP: No prob.

DS: Finally, we'd like it to appear in an issue that features a cover story on Abacab-era Genesis and carries a photo of Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, and Tony Banks wearing a set of natty '80s sweaters.

TP: You're in luck!

2011-11-17T21:42:00.004-05:00

TO BE A MUSICIAN SHE GOES TO SCHOOL

Trouser Press, February 1982
Holly and the Italians
1. Poster Boy
2. Medley (I Wanna Go Home/Miles Away/Tell That Girl to Shut Up)

There was a time when it was the ultimate insult to call a band “faceless.”

The appellation was generally reserved for your Foreigners and your Styxes and your Kansases. You know-- bland, colorless, corporate rock.

But I have to admit, I couldn't pick Holly and the Italians from a sassy power-pop lineup of themselves, the Waitresses, Josie Cotton, and say, Martha and the Muffins.

Probably the signal characteristic of Holly and the Italians was the one that was shared by the others of their ilk: a single, defining song.

In the case of Holly and company, that song was Tell That Girl to Shut Up, and it's included on this bright, opaque lipstick-red flexi as part of a medley with two lesser songs.

It is Rip Her to Shreds writ sideways, and awesome at that.

Transvision Vamp covered it in the late '80s, adding a British accent, booming late '80s drums, and a face.

But I'll take the brilliant anonymity of the Holly and the Italians original every time...

2011-11-08T21:35:00.003-05:00

PLACE COIN HERE IF SOUNDSHEET SLIPS

Trouser Press issued its first flexi disc bound into subscriber copies of the January, 1982 issue.

The discs were manufactured by Evatone Soundsheets out of Florida, who had apparently introduced flexible records to the consumer market back in 1960. Evatone closed up shop fairly recently, after declaring bankruptcy back in 2008.

Trouser Press issued these flexis over the next couple of years, alternating between basic black and a rainbow of different colors.

My goal here is to do a quick survey of the color flexis. Or more specifically, the color flexis that I have in my possession.

That very first flexi from back in January of 1982 was this one-sided, canary-yellow disc that contained two songs from Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: New Stone Age (or more properly, The New Stone Age) and Bunker Soldiers, which appeared on their third and first albums, respectively.

If all you know of OMD is If You Leave from the Pretty in Pink soundtrack, you might be surprised at the industrial post-punkiness of the music on this bright yellow sheet...

2011-10-28T17:24:00.006-05:00

IN YOUR HEAD

I have not read The Walking Dead graphic novels, but I'm enjoying the series on AMC well enough.

This year's season premiere had one quick scene that hinted at the subversive potential of the show.

The protagonists were searching for a missing member of their party, and they came across a church. When the group entered the church, they found three or four zombies sitting in pews staring up at a crucifix.

The zombies were dispatched quickly, and the church setting then became a tableau for the various crises of faith among the living.

But I really hope the show gets back to exploring that whole resurrection/zombie angle at some point...

2011-10-19T20:07:00.000-05:00

I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE

October 19.

2011-10-13T19:49:00.004-05:00

I WANT A NEW LIFE FOR EVERYWHERE

Earlier today I was listening to an iTunes playlist named “old school punk.”

It's pretty rudimentary stuff: Ramones, Clash, Sex Pistols, Damned, Buzzcocks. I had thrown in some Wire, X, and Blondie toward the end, in the interest of heterodoxy.

I made a CD of these songs last year for Ma-chan...

When I was in Japan with the family last summer, I had the chance to spend a day with my 23-year old nephew, Ma-chan. His dad took us all to a large park, with the express purpose of playing “catch ball.” This was a reprise of what we had done when I was visiting a few years prior.

As we drove to the park, Ma-chan commandeered the radio, inching the volume up on an Asian Kung-Fu Generation CD. His father, a school Vice Principal, was remarkably tolerant, and simply raised his voice a little to converse above the noise.

The talk turned eventually to punk rock, and Ma-chan was clearly delighted to hear that I had a long acquaintance with the genre. We went back and forth on the topic in broken English/Japanese, relying occasionally on Taeko's translation.

He was not too familiar with the history of punk, so I promised that I would burn a CD for him, which I was able to do right before we left for America.

I could tell that Ma-chan was traveling on a slightly irregular path, and I wanted this mix to convey to him some of what I had always valued most about punk. I wanted it to communicate tenacity, hope, and courage. I wanted it to let him know that he would surely make it through all right...

Last night at about 1:00 am, Taeko's phone rang next to the bed. We both bolted up with a start, and I went to the bathroom. When I returned to bed, she was still on the phone, speaking in Japanese. I could register in her voice equal measures of shock and sympathy. She hung up, and I reached over to touch her on the elbow.

“Ma-chan is dead. A car accident.”

And that's what punk rock means to me...

2011-10-03T19:51:00.003-05:00

WHAT YOU SAY ABOUT SOCIETY

Look, I know that Rush Limbaugh is many moons past his cultural/political sell-by date, but what can I say-- I'm a fan of batshit insanity...

Rush had the following to say about a Michelle Obama shopping trip to Target:

"What a phony-baloney plastic banana good-time rock-and-roller optic photo-op."

Take sec to parse that. It's like a goddam Donovan lyric.

Then consider that he's describing, um, a trip to Target.

Damn, I wanna party with you, Rusholme...

2011-09-28T20:11:00.003-05:00

FIRE MY IMAGINATION

OK, Stevie Jackson from Belle & Sebastian is coming out with a solo album.

The name of the album is "(I Can't Get No) Stevie Jackson."

I think we can all agree that this is the greatest album title ever.

Greatest. Ever.

Stevie Jackson, you magnificent bastard...

2011-09-23T18:23:00.013-05:00

LET'S BEGIN AGAIN

So, the end of R.E.M. sent me scurrying down to the sliced tongue vault in search of artifacts from the early days. Here's some of what I dug up.

The earliest review I could find was a quick and complimentary write up of the original Hib-Tone Radio Free Europe single. This appeared in the "America Underground" section of the April, 1982 issue of Trouser Press:

The December, 1982 "Green Circles" column in TP contained a favorable review of Chronic Town:

The same issue also contained a flexi disc of Wolves, Lower, the other side of which featured one of the two good Lords of the New Church singles (Russian Roulette).

I realize that these black flexis don't scan particularly well. Someday soon I'll do a more comprehensive post on the Trouser Press flexis, which came in a rainbow of cool colors beyond basic black...

Finally, here's a Creem profile from October, 1984, just for kicks:

2011-09-21T21:04:00.003-05:00

RAPID EYE MOVEMENT

It was about a week and a half ago, and I was driving home on 7100. My family had returned at the end of August, but I was still experiencing pockets of the anxiety I typically feel when they're out of the country.

My rational mind knows that they will come back from Japan, but while they're gone I tend to get weighted down by a foundational loneliness that does not answer to reason. And I was still stuck in that rut...

I came to a red light and slid my way through the iTunes menu, looking for something I needed to hear. Looking for anything I needed to hear.

“That's it!”

I selected the track, and the drum fills came tripping through the speakers.

“That's great, it starts with an earthquake...”

Now, I don't quite understand the Tufnelian logic behind my car stereo, but I immediately turned the volume up past 40. Loud. It felt good.

Folks did not know what to make of It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) when it came out back in '87. Hell, R.E.M. didn't know what to make of it. I can remember reading an interview with Peter Buck right before Document was released, and he said that it was either the best or the worst thing they'd ever done.

The beauty of the song is that beyond its nihilistic feint, it's propulsive and metallic and goddam life affirming.

It's not the end of the world, remember. It's the end of the world as we know it. And I feel fine.

So thank you, R.E.M., for all the murmurs and reckonings and fables and documents you've left behind.

I just know that somewhere right now at some red light someone is turning the volume up past 40...

“That's great, it starts with an earthquake...”

2011-09-20T20:32:00.002-05:00

LET'S ALL EMOTE

I tend to serialize albums.

Back in the day, I spent months listening to the first side of Murmur, then eventually, more months listening to the second side.

When I fell for Hissing Fauna, it was initially enough to listen up to or through The Past is a Grotesque Animal, and then stop. After about six months of that, I would either start with that song or right after it, and then on through to the end, my obsession unabated.

I've now made it through the first five songs of David Comes to Life by Fucked Up. Which, frankly, is further than I might have expected to get with an album that is so centered on retro hardcore hoarse-whispering vocals. I mean, Christ, I had no use for Henry Rollins in 1984, let alone now...

But I am finding something charming about the whole affair, right down to its four-act rock-opera lightbulb-factory soul.

In my dream world, where EPs are king, this thing would have come out as four individual one-act discs, with a new disc released every other month or so. Which would have saved me the trouble of trying to self-serialize the damn thing.

But since the responsibility is on my shoulders now, I don't know if I'll ever get past Act 1...

2011-09-09T20:49:00.003-05:00

SEE SPOTIFY RUN

I'm finding that Spotify is a great research tool.

For example, let's say I was reading an interview with Kevin Ayers in the Oct/Nov 1976 edition of Trouser Press, and the references to Soft Machine made me realize that there's a whole strain of English art rock about which I know some of the history, but precious little of the sound.

I could then use Spotify to listen to a bit of Soft Machine, and probably find I didn't have the patience for it. Then, I might listen to some of Ayers solo stuff, and determine that his most-lauded tracks left me unmoved.

From there, I'd indulge a long-term curiosity in Robert Wyatt, and come out of it kind of obsessed with his 1997 album, Shleep. I'd probably think that Shleep reminds me of solo Jim O'Rourke, except with a gravity and whimsy that I didn't realize I was missing in O'Rourke until I heard Wyatt.

This is all theoretical, you understand. The thought that I might actually sit around reading 35-year-old copies of Trouser Press is just absurd.

Um, yeah...

Anyway, here's a clip of Wyatt performing September the 9th. Because, well, check your calendars...

2011-08-29T17:42:00.003-05:00

HUDDLED IN STORMS

Beyond earthquakes, hurricanes, and root canals, here's what has occupied my time while the family was in Japan:

I took the plunge on a Spotify premium subscription. I'm liking the idea of having access to lots of music without the burden of ownership.

I've developed a completely nonironic love of Rick Steves' Europe. I could watch it for hours.

A Bon Iver obsession didn't take, but honestly I never gave it much of a chance. Can't force these things, after all-- they need to just happen...

I compiled a small yet vital collection of low-res cell-phone pics of Taeko, shot by Lana.

Finished that 33 1/3 book on Some Girls-- it remained sloppy to the end. Then I started the one on Marquee Moon, although I was somewhat dismayed to find that the author had co-written a book with the guy who wrote the Some Girls entry. Incest much, Continuum?

Started reading Stone Arabia yesterday. So far, so good.

Still haven't quite finished that copy of Bob Dylan in America that my boss shared with me. I'm a little over halfway through, and we're already on '90s Dylan, which is kind of dampening my enthusiasm for the rest of the book.

I had what must be one of my top 5 most-liberating haircuts this past Friday. As I watched the brown and gray hair cascade down the front of my slick maroon smock, I swear I could feel my soul getting lighter...

2011-08-11T21:00:00.002-05:00

BOHEMIAN'S RHAPSODY

I realized just last weekend that there are two consecutive songs on Beggars Banquet that use the phrase "poor boy."

There's no thesis here beyond this simple one: I am a dumbass.

2011-07-29T17:54:00.004-05:00

PAID ON FRIDAY

If I ever curate a rock festival, I'm going to call it “Humdinger.”

It amazes me that the mainstream media still has not figured out a way to reproduce George Steinbrenner's full quote regarding Hideki Irabu. Try “pus-y” people, as in pus-filled-- “pussy” will just get your editors' collective drawers in a knot...

A few years ago, I got deep into Ships by Danielson while my family was in Japan for the summer. Well, they're back over there for another visit, and my early pick to click is the new Bon Iver.

And sorry, Fleet Foxes, but I'm pretty sure it's just not going to happen. I mean, there were a lot of nice, right-thinking people who liked Crosby, Stills, and Nash back in the day too, but I would not have been one of them either.

A suburban legend from my childhood: You know in Miss You, when Mick sings “Puerto Rican girls that are just dyin' to meechu”? Well “meechu” means “fuck” in Spanish. For real. Ms Krebs of our 7th-grade Spanish class would neither confirm nor deny...

From my 15-year old niece last weekend: “Do you still have any Sonic Youth CDs? I found the ones you gave my mom a few years ago, and I wanted to hear some more.” Youth against fascism, bitches!

Dear Rebecca Black,
“Friday” was transcendently pure and awful-- we've been singing it around the house for months now. I love it because it's the exact thing a 13-year old should produce with a $4,000 bankroll from mom. It's a cultural bellwether right up there with the first Ramones album. But this new American-Idolesque self-empowerment anthem? You just stepped off the curb, sweetheart.

And so I leave you all today with this...

2011-07-23T13:53:00.002-05:00

AMY WINEHOUSE

Shit, shit, shit ...

2011-07-15T19:57:00.002-05:00

MY BOY LOLLIPOP

Sebastian was playing candy shop with his friends today, selling Tootsie Pops from a foot-long red-plastic candy machine that we've had for years now.

This was his business model: one for 10 cents, two for a quarter.

Methinks the boy is onto something...

2011-07-08T20:08:00.006-05:00

FAR AWAY EYES

OK, just like last week, I begin by declaring that I'm a fan of Continuum's
33 1/3 series.

But I just started reading the entry on Some Girls, and encountered further sloppiness not a quarter of the way in:

Now, I put this picture in front of 12-year old Lana and told her there was a problem, and she sniffed it out in under 12 seconds.

Note to caption writer: Mayor Beame is holding a copy of the Daily News, not the Post.

Which leads us to today's tabloid headline:

sliced tongue to Continuum: Get a Fecking Proofreader

2011-07-06T20:16:00.003-05:00

LIKE AVERSION

I bought a $4 used copy of Madonna's Immaculate Collection at Bookoff in Manhattan on the 4th of July.

Which leads us to this week's maxim: Never trust anyone who wouldn't spend $4 on Madonna's Immaculate Collection.

2011-06-30T20:03:00.003-05:00

EVERYONE'S ACCUSING ME

I'm a fan of Continuum's 33 1/3 series. These are bite-sized books each dedicated to a single album, and some are quite insightful and entertaining.

However, others feel like they're fighting a bit too hard for a tenure track.

To wit, I just finished reading the entry on the Ramones' debut album, and commenting on the “second verse, same as the first” refrain in Judy is a Punk, the author notes:

"Although too much could be made of the affinities between these self-reflexive lines and experiments in metafiction-- fiction that breaks the frame and refers to the fact that it is fiction-- it's clear that the songs self-aware qualities were products of the same cultural trends that made possible the experimental, frame-breaking novels of Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, Hubert Selby, Charles Bukowski, William Gaddis, and others.”

Um, yeah. Either that, or it is a direct quote from one of the biggest hits by British Invasion popsters Herman's Hermits: I'm Henry the VIII, I Am:

Just my opinion you understand, but I think it's important for someone writing a book on the Ramones to know their Herman's Hermits at least as well as they know their Horkheimer and Adorno...

2011-06-24T20:05:00.003-05:00

THERE'S NO REASON TO GRIEVE

Click. Refresh. Click. Refresh. Click. Refresh. Click. Refresh. Click. Sold out. Fuck.

That was the sound from a few days ago of not getting tickets to either of two September Jeff Mangum shows in Baltimore.

However, my disappointment turned fairly quickly, and I found it heartening that there is such apparent enthusiasm for these shows.

It says to me that there are a good number of people out there in the mid-Atlantic states for whom Neutral Milk Hotel (and probably more to the point, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea) remains meaningful.

And when you get right down to it, a world in which In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is meaningful is a pretty good world.

So I'll recast my initial reaction in retrospect:

Click. Refresh. Click. Refresh. Click. Refresh. Click. Refresh. Click. Sold out. Fantastic.

Enjoy the show, friends!

2011-06-22T20:30:00.004-05:00

LOVE AND SPECIAL THINGS

It's been a long time since I've written a song. This one pestered me the other night until I got out of bed and took 10 minutes to type out the words...

DECORATIVE MONEY

What's wrong with us?
Just decorative money.

That's all it was,
Just decorative money.

The wallpaper
Is decorative money.

We've got albums of it...
Fucking decorative money.

It's in my sinuses--
Decorative money.

I can't sing because
Of decorative money.

I shine my shoes
With decorative money.

I stand accused--
Decorative money.

What a lot of misery
The junkman comes to visit me
He brings me bags of credit
And he brings me sacks of cash.

My interest compounds dai-lily
I bank this month's fidelity
And all the shit you're selling me
Is decorative money.

And then I waltz away with it...

2011-06-01T20:12:00.001-05:00

VERB AND REVERB

What's new with me beyond Tune-Yards?

Wait, sorry.

wHaT's NeW wItH mE bEyOnD tUnE-YaRdS?

Sweet of you to ask...

I like Tomboy well enough, but my mind starts to drift by around track 5. So, like Person Pitch, only less so (or more so, maybe).

I really like Moondance, but I've never met anyone I really like who really likes Moondance. Am I a self-hating Van man?

I decided long ago that my favorite coin ever is the 1908-1929 US half eagle. Nothing even comes close.

Hurry up with the 64GB iPhone, Apple. I'm tired of having to decide which albums/apps to sideline whenever I load up something new.

There's a good chance I'll never play the live set that came free with my copy of Tomboy. Apologies, Panda Bear.

I impulse bought the new Fleet Foxes a couple of weeks ago at Nordstrom while I was paying for a Chicago Cubs t-shirt. I'm not a Cubs fan, but I like their shirts. Not really a Fleet Foxes fan either-- haven't even unsealed the CD yet...

I scoffed when I saw that iTunes was going to be offering the Beatles Anthology set for $80. That's a lot of money for a lot of chaff. But then I saw that they're also going to sell something called Anthology Highlights for $13-- that's got potential.

I don't get Death Cab for Cutie. Never have.

Likewise The Shins.

And finally, this, from the Sept 1966 issue of Mad (which, yes, I was reading last weekend):

2011-05-19T20:03:00.002-05:00

WH OK ILL

The new tUnE-yArDs scratches much the same itch as Bitte Orca by the Dirty Projectors except with longer fingernails and sometimes it hurts and then she sneaks up under your armpits and you giggle because it tickles but you still want her to stop just like you wanted her to stop when she was scratching you until it bled. But then you have to admit, the itch is pretty much gone...

2011-05-02T21:07:00.002-05:00

DEATH OR GLORY

When I see a stadium full of people chanting "U-S-A!" in celebration of someone's death, I feel terribly out of step with you, America...

2011-04-29T20:06:00.006-05:00

BEEN TOO LONG I'M GLAD TO BE BACK

So, uh, what have you been up to lately?

I confess I needed to take a bit of a breather after the events of March/April.

One thing that definitely helped was the Danielson show a couple of weekends ago at Red Palace in DC.

I'm an atheist with a devout Buddhist for a wife, so I wrestle with my attraction to Danielson. Their lyrics trade in Christian tropes that I'm familiar with from my childhood days in the Episcopal church.

But I don't think it's the message that resonates so much as the means.

The only part of church that I had any use for as a kid was the singing. I was literally a choirboy until my voice changed, and I always relished the spirit of raising voices together.

Red Palace was small, holding maybe 50-75 people in the performance space, and Danielson raised their voices for sure. The energy was unrelentingly positive but hardly saccharine, and they were an anodyne for what ailed me.

I queued up after the show to say hello to the band and thank them for the music, but the line was moving slowly and midnight was fast approaching, so I broke formation and left the club.

So let me say it here and now: Thanks Danielson, for a wonderful show!

2011-03-31T20:47:00.003-05:00

AFTERSHOCKS

1.

The ground shook four or five times a day.

The circular fluorescent light above the kitchen table would begin to judder and sway, and then the floor would pitch gently for about half a minute.

"How big was that one?"

Suddenly, Lana and Sebastian trusted in me as a seismologist.

"That was a 3."

They were pretty much all 3s.

Oh, I might have thrown in a couple of 4s here and there, just for the sake of my credibility. But mostly they were 3s...

We were in Japan for the funeral of my father-in-law, who had passed away on March 17.

2.

My own father died when I was 12.

I don't recall the last time that I saw him. One day in the spring he left for the hospital, and he just never came back.

I didn't visit him while he was in the hospital. He was in an advanced cirrhotic state, and I suppose my family thought it was better if I didn't see him like that. Not sure who made that choice. Maybe he did.

I didn't attend the funeral, either. It was held in late May, and I ended that school year with perfect attendance.

3.

We arrived at the apartment, and I pulled off my sneakers. We were all tired from the flight, and the kids and I were ready to crash in the tatami room.

As we made our way down the short hallway to the room, something caught the corner of my eye. It was my father-in-law's body, which was laid out in the tatami room under a thick blue and white futon. His face was covered by a handkerchief.

Taeko led us into the room, and she kneeled down to remove the covering from his face. I felt myself retreating.

We started to discuss sleeping arrangements for the night, and I was troubled by the idea of spending the night in the small apartment with the body.

“Maybe the kids can sleep at your brothers. I can go with them.”

But I didn't press the issue.

And as the evening went on, I began to get more comfortable. I realized that my father-in-law was giving me a gift.

It was the gift of learning how to say goodbye.

4.

The next day, the mortician came to the house and prepared the body to be moved. He brought a simple white casket made of pressed wood, with hinged flaps that opened to expose my father-in-law's face. When the body was placed in the casket, it was covered from the neck down by a board that was designed to look like a suit. Which is a very practical vestment for a cremation...

My family chanted over the casket for a few minutes, and then the mortician and his assistant carried the box outside and lifted it into a Toyota Crown hearse. We all faced the car and bowed as it pulled away, and we said thank you to my father-in-law.

“Arigato, ojichan.”

5.

The wake was a simple and moving ceremony.

The family sat at the front of the room, and two-by-two we stood up to face the mourners. Taeko and I went together-- we bowed to thank everyone for coming, then turned and faced my father-in-law at the front of the hall. There were two small boxes on a table, and each box contained a pile of ground incense on one side and a burning silver ember on the other. We grabbed a pinch of incense, lifted it to our foreheads, and then placed it on the ember.

We repeated this rite three times, and then said a quick, silent prayer. Lana later told me that I “did a good job pretending to be Buddhist”...

When we had finished that segment, the mourners began to come up in twos and threes to another table that contained the same type of incense boxes. We bowed to each group from our chairs, and they went on to perform the same basic ritual that we had performed earlier. Their prayers completed, we bowed to them again.

It all felt so much like a funeral that I wondered what the next day would bring.

6.

The initial part of the funeral was indeed very much like the wake. But when the prayers and chanting were over, three or four employees of the funeral home began to break down the area surrounding my father-in-law's casket. Then they placed a couple of metal stands in the center of the room, about 5 feet apart. They moved the casket onto these stands, and slid off the lid.

We gathered around my father-in-law, and the mortician brought in a plate of succulent green sprigs. We each grabbed a small handful and placed them in the casket. This was followed by multiple trays of flowers, which we spread around as well. By the time we were finished, the interior of the casket was dazzlingly bright, and exuded a sweet, floral perfume.

The casket was covered again, and I joined my nephews and some of Taeko's cousins as we carried it out of the hall and placed it on a large gurney. A procession of mourners followed the gurney to the crematorium, where the casket was wheeled into an oven. The steel doors of the oven were then sealed shut, and we heard the muted whoosh of fire.

7.

We were whisked to a long, narrow room for lunch.

Bento boxes with colorful block letters for the kids: A is for Apple, B is for Banana, and the like. Larger blue sets decorated with white flowers for the adults.

Taeko reached into her bag and handed me an onion bagel sealed in a Ziploc.

8.

After about an hour, the door opened, and we were led out, back to the crematorium. We gathered in an anteroom while Taeko, her mother, and her brother went into a large reception area. The kids and I craned our necks and looked around corners in an effort to see what they were doing.

One of the assistants came around with a bucket containing large chopsticks-- they were the size of drumsticks, and the tips were darkened with ash. We were each encouraged to take two. I rolled them around in my hand, and tried to grip them like regular chopsticks. But they were too big for that.

When we entered the reception hall, we found the burnt remains of the casket, intermingled with my father-in-law's ashes and his deep white bones. Working in pairs, we chose a bone from the skeletal array and picked it up with our chopsticks. If my sketchy knowledge of human anatomy is correct, my partner and I selected his right ulna.

We all placed the bones in a small white box.

9.

It was a beautiful ritual.

If you had asked me in the cold light of a previous day how I might have felt about such an experience, I can't honestly say I would have embraced it. I might have been concerned about how it would affect the kids. I might have been concerned about how it would affect me.

But in the moment, I felt connected to something real and profound. It felt fittingly similar to the experience of witnessing Lana's birth.

10.

I sat in the passenger's seat on the drive home, with the box of my father-in-law's bones warming my lap.

Arigato, ojichan.

11.

We did not feel a single aftershock during our last two days in Japan.

2011-03-17T20:15:00.002-05:00

DAUGHTERS WILL TUNE YOU

Rest in peace, Mitsuo Kato.

2011-03-11T21:06:00.003-05:00

MIND-CRAZED BANJO

So, Titus Andronicus and The Pogues...

brain coral and I were able to score our usual slots in the balcony, cozied up next to the rail. Nice to have something to lean on as the years go by...

I think we were both more excited to see Titus, and they did not disappoint.

They charged right into A More Perfect Union although the floor was only half full, and their energy never flagged. (They begged the indulgence of a slow moment once, to play No Future Part Three, which of course explodes at about the two-minute mark.)

They were pogo-worthy, although the guitarist seemed to think she was in a Dance Workout with Barbie VHS.

The Pogues were fairly predictable, which is not meant as a criticism. Circumstances pretty much dictate that they need to stay on script.

They did play a couple of songs that I have not heard them attempt previously on these 21st Century resurrection tours. Boat Train from Peace and Love sank in the docks-- Shane started on the second verse, which threw the band off for the remainder.

They fared better on London Girl from Poguetry in Motion, its somewhat tricky meter notwithstanding.

And of course they came on stage to Straight to Hell. Which reminded me that Joe Strummer is still dead.

But then the show kind of reminded me that he is not...

2011-03-04T20:44:00.002-05:00

BUT THE AD

So I hear that Beavis & Butthead are coming back.

I always get a little nervous when icons from a bygone era try to stride into a new age. Not that it can’t be done—it’s just tricky is all.

So much of the value of Beavis & Butthead rested in their genius as cultural meta-critics, particularly music/video critics.

(I mean, have you ever seen the DVD releases of the old shows, which excise all of the interstitial video segments? It's like pouring out a box of Cap’n Crunch with Crunch Berries and getting nothing but a bowl of Crunch.)

But of course, these are different times. The music business has lost much of the gravitational pull that it had back in the early to mid ‘90s, and music videos are now just means for the Gagas and Kanyes of the world to indulge their own cultural nostalgia.

I’m sure there are plans afoot to update the perspective. Maybe the boys will focus on viral videos or reality TV. Both of which, yeah, are kind of over.

However, I do have faith in Mike Judge and his ability to summon the Swiftian anger these times deserve (see Idiocracy), so I’ll give their return a long, hard look.

Huh huh uh huh. He said “long, hard”….

2011-02-24T20:55:00.011-05:00

YOUR COVER'S BLOWN

Yesterday for sport I was compiling a list of all my iTunes album art images that don't match the actual recordings to which they're attached.

Many of the missteps are pretty benign: a stock image of Bjork instead of the Debut cover, or the Still Cruisin' cover in place of Pet Sounds.

However, some of the combinations are just weird and random and awesome. Here's a list of my top 5 favorites.

5. John Cale, The Island Years (Disc 2)

John Tracy's shit is mellow. “Slow down,” he says, as he reclines against his guitar case picking out a tune. “Slow down,” says his laid-back black and white tropical shirt. “Slow down,” he whispers through his porn-star stache. John Tracy's shit is super mellow.

4. Various Artists, Like, Omigod! The 80s Pop Culture Box (Totally)

It's got all your 80s favs: Tainted Love, Let's Go to Bed, Too Shy, Nocturne #2 in E flat Major Op 9,2...

3. LCD Soundsystem, LCD Soundsystem

Um, WTF Soundsystem?

2. The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses

My first guess would have been that Stones Throe were a 90s metal band, what with the intentional misspelling and the implied umlaut. The shot of the neo-Goth Brooklyn Bridge behind sheets of rain lends that notion further support. Turns out they're some sort of blues combo...

1. Marvin Gaye, What's Going On

Because nothing says soul like Tiffany, Lisa, Jake, and Spencer, the Finalists of Star Search...

2011-02-18T20:39:00.002-05:00

HE'S GOT A FORD CORTINA

There's something to be said for the first day of the year that you can roll the car windows down halfway and play Janie Jones at top volume.

You're a tease February, but I wouldn't have it any other way...

2011-02-11T20:43:00.003-05:00

COOLER WEATHER IT'S NOT COOL TO SMILE

Random classic-rock thoughts for a Friday.

After the Gold Rush came up in a mix on my iPhone yesterday, as a blue Toyota Echo with the words “The Merry Maids” printed in pink block letters on the passenger door pulled up next to me at a light. And if a blue Toyota Echo with the words “The Merry Maids” printed in pink block letters on the passenger door could sing, surely it would sing After the Gold Rush...

I have very little use for live versions of songs in general, but Hang On To Yourself from the Ziggy soundtrack is a step up from the studio version. The less said about Arnold Corns, the better...

Moonlight Feels Right by Starbuck is noxious post-hippie piffle, but the marimba solo on the bridge is kickass...

Top 2 Songs That Contain Video-Game Sound Effects
1. Ivan Meets GI Joe, The Clash (Space Invaders)
2. The Logical Song, Supertramp (Mattel handheld electronic football)

Question of the week, from Lana: “Daddy, why does he have $26 in his hand?”

I've been infecting people with Popcorn by Hot Butter all week-- it's your turn now:

2011-01-31T20:57:00.003-05:00

I DREAM OF GENIUS

OK, Apple, you decided to call it Genius. Not me.

If you’d have gone with something less presumptuous (like say “iMix” or “24 Algorithmically Related Songs in the Same Genre as the Song You’re Playing Currently”), then we would not be where we find ourselves today.

I’d keep the gloves on, and simply thank you for the added functionality.

But no. You had to go and call it Genius.

And so now I have to gripe.

My first complaint is likely not even Apple’s fault. But it is very annoying that Beatles’ songs cannot be incorporated into Genius mixes.

This is probably some fine-print directive from McCartney/Starkey/Estate of Lennon/Estate of Harrison.

Can’t have the unwashed masses curating and recontextualizing the sacred texts…

Well let it go, gang. You cannot fight this tide.

Secondly, I’m concerned with the tendency to beat certain tracks into submission, like an old FM radio DJ. I have 8,294 songs loaded up on iTunes, but I swear that one of the following titles shows up on every Genius mix I make:

Age of Consent, New Order
Teen-Age Riot, Sonic Youth
Just Like Honey, JAMC
Milk Man, Deerhoof
Papercuts, Broadcast

Now I understand that these songs are probably a pretty accurate genetic mapping of my library, but I would encourage the Genius to learn that there are indeed other songs that share similar strands of DNA.

Finally, trying to figure out why the Genius can find 24 songs related to The Emergency Kisses, but cannot find “enough related songs to create a Playlist” for Come and Play in the Milky Night is the kind of thing that keeps me up all hours…

2011-01-26T20:05:00.004-05:00

IN CONCERT

I have tickets for the Titus Andronicus/Pogues show in March, and I just bought a couple for Danielson in April.

But so help me, if Jeff Mangum comes within two states of the District in the fall, I might just lose my mind...

2011-01-21T21:17:00.003-05:00

LINES FORM ON MY FACE AND HANDS

This past Sunday was our wedding anniversary. I'll let Alice tell you how many years:

With all sorts of freaky, glammy love, Taeko...

2011-01-14T21:17:00.001-05:00

BROADCAST

Last night I was in a Palo Alto hotel room. I was bleary eyed, just checking e-mail and the internet before I went to bed. I came across rumors that Trish from Broadcast was seriously ill, and at first it just seemed like cruel and pointless misinformation.

However, as time wore on, it became clear that the rumors were true. Then I woke up this morning, my fourth day away from home, and saw confirmation that Trish had passed.

Part of me hoped I would get back home to my own couch, flip open my laptop, and find no trace of this information. All the mournful threads would be gone, and in their place would be typically enigmatic plans for the future. New albums, new collaborations, new art...

But being home has not made this any less real. Trish is dead.

I am sad beyond measure, and my thoughts are with her family and friends.

Thank you for the music, Trish...

2011-01-13T23:23:00.000-05:00

CORPOREAL

Dammit.

Get well soon, Trish!

2011-01-04T21:08:00.002-05:00

YOU'RE GOING HOME

If you're a child of the '70s and can claim to be untouched completely by Baker Street, well then you're a liar or something worse.

RIP, Gerry Rafferty...

2010-12-24T21:02:00.001-05:00

ANOTHER YEAR OVER

Winter break time-- I'll be back posting in early January.

Happy holidays to you and yours!

Peace.

2010-12-22T22:16:00.003-05:00

SO FRESH, SO CLEAN

My iPod has been talking to me again...

This morning on my way to work, it served up Do It Clean by Echo and the Bunnymen and then followed with Keep It Clean by Camera Obscura.

iPod, do you think I'm dirty?

2010-12-16T20:45:00.003-05:00

MUSIC FOR BOYS

No amount of year-end persuasion is going to convince me that The Suburbs is a good album.

I will admit, though, that Sprawl II is a larf.

I'm beginning to think I might have Win Butler issues...

2010-12-14T20:56:00.002-05:00

I'LL TUMBLE 4 YA

Big ups to Sebastian for helping his team take first place at their gymnastics meet this past weekend down at William & Mary. He won three gold medals overall, including the all around. (Then I spent the first half hour of the drive home explaining that the medals are not really made out of gold.)

Here's his winning floor routine...

2010-12-09T21:08:00.004-05:00

YOU AND ME

We got our iPhones this past weekend.

I downloaded a ringtones app, and it's like deep-fried crack to me.

I've made about a dozen or so. Right now my all-purpose tone is the first 5 seconds of We're Not Adult Orientated.

My dedicated tone for when Taeko calls is the opening of Du Og Meg:

She fell in love with a boy
Who spoke her second language
And who lived across the ocean
In the Evil Empire

Which is pretty perfect...

2010-12-08T21:06:00.000-05:00

WHO MADE THE GRADE

2010-12-02T20:51:00.003-05:00

A ONE-A TOKE-A OVER THE LINE

Over on the other blog, I'm about to drop a reference to Brewer and Shipley (worst tease ever, I know).

Which led me to this. Gail and Dale doing "one of the newer songs" on the Lawrence Welk Show.

Hang around to the end and hear Mr Welk call it a "modern spiritual."

Sweet Jesus...

2010-11-30T20:47:00.002-05:00

SMOKE AND LIGHTNING

It took me quite a while to get around to watching Anvil: The Story of Anvil.

I tend to react snarkily to heavy metal of any stripe, from Black Sabbath to, um, Stryper.

But it turns out the movie has a lot to say about the value of friendship and family and dreams. It’s subtle in ways you might not expect.

Hell, by the time they got to Stonehenge (and they did, literally, get to Stonehenge), I was too caught up in the small-scale human drama to get tripped up by the large-scale Spinal Tappiness of it all.

I think the best thing I can say about Anvil: The Story of Anvil is that I rarely laughed…

2010-11-23T19:07:00.003-05:00

BROKEN GLASS EVERYWHERE

My hip-hop history?

Well, I can rap about 45% of Rapper’s Delight. Probably deliver about 90% of The Message. And I'm familiar with varying degrees of PE and BDP. But not much beyond that.

I know Kanye West more as a meme-tastic media figure than as an artist.

But all this buzz about My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (10.0! A! *****!) has inspired me to take the plunge.

OK, accolades, plus a $3.99 price tag from Amazon.

We'll see how it works out...

2010-11-18T20:40:00.002-05:00

KNOT MUSIC

So while the official release date for the new Stereolab was 11/16, apparently it was available on iTunes about a week prior.

The curious thing is that it’s not currently available for download from Amazon.

Which leads to the question: Does Apple’s business model really get micro enough to cut deals for windows of exclusivity with relatively low-end unit shifters such as Stereolab?

If so, I don’t know whether to lean toward outright awe or plain derision.

Fun fact: Sebastian took a quick look at this cover the other day and thought it was pretty cool that someone would name an album “Snot Mucis”…

2010-11-16T20:42:00.002-05:00

ZING! WENT THE STRINGS

New Stereolab released? Check.

Beatles on iTunes? Check.

The musical highlight of my day? Here...

2010-11-10T21:06:00.001-05:00

IF YOU WANNA GROW UP

OK, one good thing about the Xbox motion-gaming appendage: it's got semi-obscure new-wave nugget Kinetic by Hilary stuck in my head...

2010-11-08T20:58:00.003-05:00

RAKE AT THE (BILL) GATES OF HELL

When all is said and done, I guess I appreciated the irony of that Cadillac “lust for vomit” commercial from a few years back.

Once upon a time, Caddies were emblems of a version of the European immigrant dream (see “The Cadillac stood by the house/And the Yanks they were within” from The Body of an American), and I could see something circular and clean about GM putting a bit of money in the Pogues’ pockets.

That being said, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to reconcile the sandblasting irony of Microsoft using Natural’s Not In It by Gang of Four to sell the Xbox Kinect.

They‘re just utilizing the instrumental opening, but here are the subsequent lyrics:

The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
The body is good business
Sell out, maintain the interest
Ideal love a new purchase
A market of the senses
Dream of the perfect life
Economic circumstances
Ideal love a new purchase
A market of the senses
Remember Lot's wife
Renounce all sin and vice
Dream of the bourgeois life
This heaven gives me migraine

Coercion of the senses
We are not so gullible
We all have good intentions
But all with strings attatched

Fornication makes you happy
No escape from society
Natural is not in it
Your relations are of power
We all have good intentions
But all with strings attached
The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure

Repackaged sex, your interest
Repackaged sex, your interest
Repackaged sex, your interest
Repackaged sex, your interest
Repackaged sex, your interest
Repackaged sex, your interest

The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
The body is good business
Sell out, maintain the interest
Dream of the perfect life
Economic circumstances
Ideal love a new purchase
A market of the senses
Remember Lot's wife
Renounce all sin and vice
Dream of the bourgeois life
This heaven gives me migraine
This heaven gives me migraine
This heaven gives me migraine

So, no. Just, fuck no...

2010-11-04T20:15:00.002-05:00

PARAN MAUM

Finally got around to watching the slight but sweet Japanese movie Linda Linda Linda.

I’ve long had a soft spot for the Blue Hearts song that informs the plot, but it took Netflix to put the movie back on my radar.

It’s the story of a band of teenage girls preparing to play at a high school festival. They lose their singer, and end up recruiting a new one on a whim— a Korean exchange student who speaks very little Japanese.

The singer is played by Korean actress Doona Bae, who was in The Host (which is an entirely different flavor of awesome). She has a nice comedic touch— Keatonesque, minus the buster.

In case you never feel motivated to see the movie, take a few minutes now to watch the climactic festival performance…

2010-10-28T20:00:00.003-05:00

NANKER

I should be nothing but indifferent to Keith Richards' memoirs.

But I read a couple of excerpts this week, and I was actually kind of disgusted. Not morally or ethically or aesthetically-- just sort of boringly disgusted...

2010-10-26T19:43:00.003-05:00

SCOTLAND IS FOR ME

The iTunes genius was playing an 80s mix last night.

It hit Don't Talk to Me About Love by Altered Images, which I was sure would be familiar to Taeko.

Nope, never heard it.

Next up was Oblivious by Aztec Camera. Didn't think she'd know it from Adam's off ox.

And of course, she was singing along not 5 seconds in.

Her knowledge of 80s British pop (OK, Scottish pop) is so very unpredictable.

Full disclosure: This post was originally supposed to cover my current indifference to Belle and Sebastian's Write About Love. And in a way, I guess it did...

2010-10-21T20:01:00.004-05:00

WE DON'T CARE ABOUT LONG HAIR

This showed up in my box the other day. It's a pic of one of the members of this band.

Can't remember which one...

Accoutrements of note: safety pins (natch), bike-chain lei, choke collar, spray-painted Clash shirt, indeterminate heart-shaped pin, and curling bar from a set of free weights.

2010-10-18T18:12:00.000-05:00

HOUSE OF CARDS

Launch

2010-10-15T19:55:00.003-05:00

ONE TIME IS ALL I NEED

Taeko loves the taste of coffee, and I really like the way it smells. By reasonable extension, I think you can say that we both like coffee.

Brain Coral and I have a similar relationship when it comes to musical taste. He noted this the other day when he was discussing Everything in Between. His current favorite track is Chem Trails, and he suspected that mine might be something different.

And sure enough, so far I'm favoring the shimmery atmospherics of Katerpillar, and those weird In Utero guitar squalls on Fever Dreaming.

But by reasonable extension, I think you can say that we both like No Age...

2010-10-13T19:53:00.002-05:00

COMFORTABLY NUMBER

The 69 Love Songs entry in the 33 1/3 canon is too clever by 1/2...

2010-10-06T20:00:00.003-05:00

CASH FROM CHAOS

(Turns out that Tubthumping had been used already as a theme song for FIFA 98. I have got to get out more.)

One day in the advertising office, early 2010…

Boss: OK, we need to come up with a campaign for FIFA 2011. Music ideas? Yes, Jenkins.

Jenkins: How about Tubthumping?

Boss: Tubthumping?

Jenkins: Yeah, you know (thumping his tub): “I get knocked down, but I get up again, you’re never gonna keep me down. I get…”

Boss: (Interrupting) I know the GD song, Jenkins. Particularly since it was used as a theme for FIFA 98. No, what we need is something equally as mindlessly Anglo and rousing, but obscure enough that music bloggers can feel self-satisfied as they point out that they recognize the song. Perhaps these bloggers will even embed videos of the group miming the song on some old show, like, I don’t know, Top of the Pops.

Jenkins: Top of the Whuh?

Boss: You're dead weight, Jenkins. Clean out your cubby.

Jones: I’ve got it, boss! How about Swords of a Thousand Men by Tenpole Tudor? It’s sort of like Skids if Skids weren’t Scottish. The singer Eddie Tenpole was once pegged as the replacement for Johnny Rotten in the Sex Pistols. He sang The Great Rock 'n Roll Swindle.

Boss: Jones, you're a genius! Cocaine for everyone, on me!

2010-10-05T19:45:00.006-05:00

HOPE IN OUR ENGLISH HEARTS

So the ad wizards behind the new FIFA 2011 video game went a little left field (uh, left pitch?) and used Swords of a Thousand Men by Tenpole Tudor in their campaign.

Bravo, says I. This is infinitely preferable to, say, Tubthumping, which was probably Monday's choice.

I'm still not buying the game. Or soccer, for that matter. Sorry, Rest of World...

2010-10-01T19:37:00.002-05:00

THE RENTALS

A Japanese business model that never made its bones in America is CD rental.

Many of the large media stores in Japan offer this service, and have for at least the last 20 years or so.

It costs about $2 a pop to rent a disc for a day. When we were there, I grabbed 5 of the Beatles remasters that I had not bought, ripped them losslessly, and returned them the next day.

The selection of Western music skewed pretty heavily to classic rock, with some occasional veins of weirdness, but it's a good way to round out your catalog a bit.

2010-09-28T19:36:00.001-05:00

MUSIC HAS THE RIGHT TO CHILDREN

It struck me on Sunday that listening to music has been a solitary pursuit for many years.

Once upon a time it was different. We sprawled out on the ring of a sump on summer nights and blasted My Eyes Have Seen You. We sat in Mike’s bedroom and listened to the Stones, trying to make out the words. We “borrowed” Howie’s mom’s old Peugot and hung out in the high school parking lot at dawn, dancing to Generation X.

Then slowly but surely, our lives became more compartmentalized, separate, private. Growing up, I think they call it.

I became more and more accustomed to listening to music through headphones or alone on half-hour commutes.

Having kids presented an opportunity to commune with new ears, and Lana in particular has developed a temporary passion for things like Deerhoof and The Go Team. But in general, my kids latch on to Taeko’s J-Pop with greater enthusiasm.

And that’s what we usually listen to when we’re out together on the weekends. But on Sunday, we were using my car. I put on Magical Mystery Tour, figuring you can easily form a consensus around the Beatles.

During one quiet moment, I Am the Walrus came on. The moment remained quiet throughout the song, and in this context I really heard it for the first time in decades.

Because we hear music better when we are together…

2010-09-23T19:39:00.002-05:00

DESIGNED TO BLOW OUR MINDS

I took a six-month subscription to Rolling Stone for $1. Here are a couple of Arcade Fire facts I learned therein recently:

-Their latest album, The Suburbs, is their finest album to date.
-Their best song is No Cars Go. Because, you know, they released it on two different albums. So it must be good.

I'm enjoying my subscription immensely. It's like a bi-weekly ticket to Bizarro World...

2010-09-21T19:53:00.003-05:00

TUESDAY'S OFFERING

Seemingly out of nowhere, Broadcast released an EP last month.

It's called (deep breath, now) Broadcast & The Focus Group, Study Series 4, "Familiar Shapes & Noises."

And it's more of the same psych Broadcast + library records stuff that they released on the last mini album (deep breath number two) Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age.

They're so inscrutable that it tickles...

2010-09-17T19:31:00.002-05:00

LOSING MY EDGE

I’ve been very lethargic recently when it comes to new music, more so than usual.

A certain languor is part of my MO: I’ll listen to something a couple of times, find a reason to dismiss it, and then circle back later, sometimes to develop an obsession (say, Ships by Danielson), sometimes just to confirm my initial impression (say, Veckatimest).

I’m in this cycle now with Janelle Monae (“Waahh,” says I, “It’s toooo looonnng and schizo”), Arcade Fire (*cough* one-trick pony *cough*), and I fear I’m about to enter the cycle with False Priest (libido + logorrhea = libidorrhea).

But I’m troubled by the fact that I still have not even listened to the most-recent LCD Soundsystem. It’s sitting there on my iPod just taunting me…

2010-09-15T19:47:00.002-05:00

CONTROLLER SPHERE

I bought False Priest on the cheap from Amazon yesterday.

So far, the last 1:30 of Our Riotous Defects has been worth the $2.99.

Probably not a great sign that this makes two OM albums in a row where I've been grabbed more by soundscapes than by songs...

2010-09-13T19:20:00.003-05:00

WAIT AND SEE THE LIST OF SHIT YOU MADE

Of all the new release-y goodness on tap for fall/winter, I think I'm most looking forward to the new No Age.

I mean, I have a pretty good idea of what a 2010 Belle and Sebastian album will do for me.

I've listened to a bit of the NPR stream of the new Of Montreal, and I expect it will be more lamping than hissing.

And we are down to the last wispy contrails of Stereolab at this point...

But I don't know quite what to expect from No Age, which is one of their essential strengths...

2010-09-07T20:25:00.002-05:00

AGAIN, I SWORE OFF CANADA

My friend He Knew He Was Right (HKHWR, as the kids call him) has been in the blogging business now for six months.

He writes primarily about family, horticulture, music, travel, sports. And don't be scared off by the moniker-- he's not a Glenn Beck or a Rush Limbaugh. It's just the title of a Trollope novel that neither you nor I have ever read...

In my 'umble opinion, this is his most affecting post to date. His conflation of the trials and tribulations of landscaping and his efforts to fill out his family tree have particular resonance for me, what with my black thumb and meager family line.

The piece is what I consider the best of HKHWR-- it is eloquent, elegant, and teaches me about things I know and do not know.

I thank him for it, and look forward to more.

Happy Anniversary!

2010-08-30T20:00:00.002-05:00

BITTERSWEET SYMPHONY

My box of Japanese snacks is getting light.

I had budgeted $100 to buy snacks for the office, and another $150 for myself. The last traces of the office snacks (cheese and almond Doritos, ramune corn puffs) were gone by the start of the second week of my return.

My box is now down to some gum and watermelon hard candy. (I do have two bags of taco Doritos that I bought at the Costco in Chiba— I just need to reconfirm that they’re veg friendly.)

But all of my chocolates and my various vending-machine drinks are gone.

I expect that I’ll restock a bit up at Mitsuwa in November, but it just won’t be the same…

2010-08-27T20:02:00.006-05:00

ICE ICE BABY

At the end of our street in Shibuya there was a kakigori stand. It was an elegant little box of a building, with dark wood paneling and a tropical feel.

Kakigori is a typical summer treat in Japan— ice is shaved from a block, and then covered in sweet syrups. Basically, it is the diamond to a Sno Cone's quartz...

We did not find the right time to stop and have a taste until the afternoon of our last day in town. It was 3:00 pm— lunch was enough of a memory and dinner sufficiently far off, and the temperature was skimming 100 degrees.

So we paused under one of the umbrellas in front of the stand and looked over the pictures of all the flavors. Grape, melon, sweet red bean, lemon, strawberry— it was quite a list.

Our choices made, we went around to the window and placed our orders with the lone man inside. He first filled a bowl halfway with ice, and then swirled a cloudy syrup of condensed milk over the top. The kids had ordered caramel, so that was the next syrup flavor to be drizzled over the ice.

He then added a second layer of ice, until a Fuji-esque mound teetered in the bowl. Another dressing of milk and caramel syrups, and he was done. He handed it through the window to Lana and Sebastian, who quickly found a table for two and began deconstructing it with their spoons.

I ordered a ramune-flavored ice— ramune is essentially lemon-lime soda, but with a longer finish than Sprite or 7-Up. I assumed there was no way I'd be able to polish it off, but 10 minutes later I was staring at an empty bowl, scraping the bottom with my spoon in vain...

2010-08-25T19:50:00.004-05:00

YOU SET THE SCENE

Shibuya was a scene, once upon a time.

The Shibuya-kei sound was made popular back in the early 90s by artists like Pizzicato Five, Cornelius, and Fantastic Plastic Machine. It was frothy, electronic, and fun.

The scene may be gone, but our weekly mansion was surrounded still by music stores big and small. If I were a gear head, I’m sure I would’ve been in heaven— as it stands, I was satisfied enough to take a picture in front of one particularly impressive guitar shop.

There were also a number of recording studios up and down our street. Every day we’d walk past the kids loading in or loading out, sucking down CC Lemons and smoking Mild Sevens, and I’d wonder what kind of noise they were making inside.

And every day we just kept on walking…

2010-08-18T18:27:00.003-05:00

I WISH YOU COULD SWIM LIKE THE DOLPHINS CAN SWIM

The Shinagawa Prince Hotel has among its amenities a small aquarium and a couple of aqua stadiums. The hotel is right across the street from Shinagawa Station, where we met some old friends from our New York days.

After lunch at the Dean & Deluca in the station, we all walked over to the aquarium. It had the slightly musty feel of a 90s tourist attraction, which registered to me as charm. One of the main features was a glass tunnel that intersected the primary tank—we were lucky enough to be there for feeding time:

There was a 2:30 dolphin show in the main aqua stadium, and Lana, Sebastian, and I staked out our front-row splash-zone seats 30 minutes before it started. I bought two ponchos, in an effort to stay dry from top to bottom. Well, I flinched instinctively with the first impending splash, and tore the poncho covering my pants. I yelled too, ensuring myself a nice lingering taste of dolphin water.

I sat in wet pants through the seal show at the smaller aqua stadium, but I was dry by the time we hit the gift shop. And although I chewed a few pieces of Fits gum on the train ride home, I still tasted the briny salt all the way back to Shibuya.

I didn’t care a bit…

2010-08-16T20:07:00.001-05:00

ART LOVER

I first heard about the Bridgestone Museum back in college.

I was an English major, but a brief half semester with an alcoholic “Bible as Literature” professor once had me considering a switch to Art History. I dropped the class instead, and stayed the course.

So I put the Bridgestone on our itinerary for this trip, and in doing some research I discovered just how deep are the treads of my own ignorance: I never realized that Bridgestone Tire is a Japanese company. The founder’s name was Ishibashi, or “stone bridge”…

It’s a relatively small museum, located in the Bridgestone headquarters, amongst an accumulation of nondescript concrete midrises. We went on a quiet weekday morning, but word is that the foot traffic in the museum is rarely heavy.

The general focus of the collection is on Impressionism/Post-Impressionism, and many of the key players are represented by two or three paintings. The lack of a crowd allows for a leisurely pace—Lana told me somewhat breathlessly that I had spent 117 seconds looking at a Renoir. Which in 11-year-old art-museum time is like 3 hours…

The kids were eager to move on to the Pokemon Center, so we only clocked about an hour and a half total in the museum, but it was a morning well spent.

2010-08-10T20:04:00.003-05:00

MANSION ON THE HILL

In Shibuya we stayed six days in what the Japanese call a “weekly mansion.”

You and I would call it a one-bedroom apartment, but I submit that we'd suffer in the comparison.

Our place was on the 5th floor, and a small elevator with about a 600 lb capacity groaned as it shuttled us up and down.

The apartment itself-- excuse me, mansion-- was comfortable and sleek. There was a single full-size bed, and an appointment of futons for us to lay out on the floor each night. A 37” LCD was in the corner of the living room, and at the other end was a two-person leatherette couch.

The kitchen held a refrigerator the size of the kids, a range, a grill, and a microwave. The WC had a toilet with more buttons than I'm accustomed to seeing on a toilet-- the pictures made it pretty clear what the buttons did, but I was sufficiently happy just to flush.

Not to harp on toilets too much, but it is a common feature of Japanese toilets to have a small faucet on top of the tank that runs every time you flush. This is mainly because the WC is separate from the washroom.

Our washroom contained a small dual-use washer/dryer, and we put it through its paces every sweaty day.

Adjacent to the washroom was the shower room. I love Japanese shower rooms almost beyond reason. First, there is a deep tub for soaking; then, the remainder of the room is essentially a large shower. No concerns here about splashing water on the floor, and not a hint of claustrophobia.

My only disappointment was that Taeko and I could not steal the time to take a bath together...

2010-08-09T08:35:00.001-05:00

WORKING FOR PEANUTS IS ALL VERY FINE

Yachimata in Chiba prefecture is proud of its peanuts.

One morning on the way to take the kids to see the latest Pokemon movie, our gracious hosts stopped at a roadside peanut farm/gift shop.

We milled about for a little while, and soon noticed that a table at the front of the shop was starting to fill up with small, clear cups of peanuts.

In all, about a dozen varieties were brought out, followed by peaked wedges of iced watermelon and cups of cold, simple tea. We were encouraged to sit down and sample.

There were nuts enrobed in white cheese, nuts drenched in dark chocolate, and nuts dusted with a mild, tangy chili powder (my favorite). We tried them all, and leveled our watermelons, and drained our cups of tea.

It didn't cost us a thing, and it might have been my favorite eating experience of the entire trip...

2010-08-05T19:56:00.006-05:00

GHIBLI

The Ghibli Museum was several stations from Shibuya, in Mitaka.

At Mitaka Station, we waited for a bus to take us to the museum. I hoped against hope that it would be a catbus, but it was not quite.

The line in front of the museum snaked in an orderly fashion, and was propelled forward by my constant prayers to escape the heat. After 15 minutes or so, we crossed the threshold and produced our advanced tickets—this got us both admission and tickets to a museum-only short film.

The film tickets were themselves made up of three cels from various Miyazaki movies. Lana and Sebastian got Spirited Away, and Taeko got Ponyo. No one could quite fix the source of mine—it was three nearly identical scenes of Miyazaki greenery.

The film we were going to see was called Mei and the Kittenbus, which is a 12-minute extension of Totoro.

But first we went up to the top floor so that the kids could spend some time on the catbus. Any potential self-consciousness about playing on a giant stuffed animal melted away pretty quickly. Lana crept inside the bus and stuck her head out the window, cooled by an imaginary wind. Sebastian leapt from the roof of the bus, not trying to fly, but flying.

We then walked outside, where a spiral staircase surrounded by a wrought-iron turret brought us to the roof of the museum. There was a small arbor there, where we met this fellow:

It was hot on his watch, but he didn’t seem to care. I stood sentry with him for a bit, gave him a little bow, and then headed back to the air conditioning.

We rushed down to catch the next viewing of Mei and the Kittenbus—the ushers told us we’d need to sit on the steps, but we found some empty bench space there in the Saturn Theater.

The movie was adorable—Sebastian next to me stomped his feet gleefully several times, and talked about it for days after. I was very happy just to spend more time in that world.

We toured the rest of the museum. There were many nice displays that spoke to the sheer mechanical effort of traditional animation. The final thing we looked at was truly amazing—a large wheel filled with figurines from Totoro in slightly different poses. The wheel spun quickly under a strobe light, and the figurines themselves became animated. I was dumbstruck. I want one.

The gift shop was sizable, and contained many items that were not available in the Tokyo toy stores. Sebastian got a pewter Nausicaa robot and Lana got a stuffed Teto; I picked up a t-shirt.

We took the bus back into town for lunch at Pancake Days. I ate a small stack of three fluffy pancakes with a perfect round scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

And days don’t come much better than that…

2010-08-04T19:21:00.003-05:00

E(-)M(A)I(L) UNLIMITED EDITION

The price I paid for two and a half weeks out of the office was 1,847 e-mails. Took the better part of a day to clean them up.

But for damn sure it was worth it...

2010-07-22T03:00:00.003-05:00

COMPACT

Walking around the Shibuya HMV shop, it's clear the world has changed. Four years ago, I was mesmerized by the Tower down the street. But now I don't really need CDs-- I'm happy to download, and bypass the extra cost that comes with the production and marketing of physical media.

So yeah, I bought a few CDs, but they're more like souvenirs-- of the trip, and of a time gone by...

2010-07-21T02:05:00.006-05:00

THERE GOES TOKYO

Spent today in Harajuku. These kids with their crazy fashions...

It was ungodly hot, so we ducked into every little shop on the slightest pretense. I almost bought a "Japan exclusive" pair of Converse for $150, but Taeko was quick to talk me out of it.

Spent a couple of hours in Kiddy Land, a 6-story toy store. I bought a nice selection of blind-box Be@rbricks, a very cool mini robot (Taeko wrinkled her nose at the $35 price tag, but come on: mini robot), and some sundries.

We ate freshly made crepes at a stand around the corner from the Condomania shop. I had the chocolate/fresh cream-- crepe, not condom. If I close my eyes wistfully, I can still taste it.

Visited the Johnny's Shop, to see if Taeko could score some Arashi swag. Turned out they mostly just sold 8 x 10s. A scarily massive number of 8 x 10s, all things considered.

Tomorrow: the Ghibli Museum, and the fulfillment of my years-long dream of meeting Totoro...

2010-07-13T20:32:00.002-05:00

THE EAST'S NOT SO FAR AWAY

Leaving tomorrow morning for a couple of weeks in Japan. See you in early August!

2010-07-09T20:29:00.003-05:00

HOPELESS UNBELIEVER

I finally got to the bottom of this...

The thing wot nicked from The Housemartins was the chorus of If You're Feeling Sinister.

2010-07-07T20:46:00.004-05:00

GOOD TIMES COME TO ME NOW

You ever have one of those nights where compulsion drives you to watch as many videos of Haysi Fantayzee's “Shiny Shiny” as you can dig up?

Well, last night was one of those.

I find the male Haysi particularly compelling. No matter the venue, he does the same bloody “I'm Walking, I'm Walking, Whee! I'm Stepping on the Tiny Ants” dance.

The 80s were the shit...

2010-07-06T20:06:00.002-05:00

BECAUSE THE WORLD IS ROUND

Answer time here:

Michelle
Sun King
Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand/Sie Liebt Dich

2010-06-30T20:02:00.002-05:00

WWWW

Another summertime special here on the tongue.

95th caller to answer today's trivia question scores a pair of free tix to Summerfest out at the Coliseum, featuring Starship and the Speedwagon. Summerfest, brought to you by Burns Ford and AAA Siding!

So strap 'em on, race fans, 'cause here we go:

The Beatles sang significant parts of songs in at least three languages besides English. And we're not talking just balalaikas here, silly Russkies-- we're talking numerous words and phrases. Name at least three songs where those lovable moptoppers were speaking in at least three (sliced!) tongues.

The lines are open now. Remember, you gotta bean it to wean it, weiners!

2010-06-25T20:11:00.007-05:00

MEET A BEATLE

My niece took a field trip down here to DC a few weeks back, and she ran into this guy out riding his bike...

When I was a kid, all I ever saw on my field trips was stuff like the back room of the Waldbaum's butcher shop.

Which leads us to this Reese's Peanut Butter Cup moment:

2010-06-22T20:16:00.003-05:00

UNDERSTANDS ME WHEN I'M FALLING DOWN

Name me a musical archeological dig that was ever more fruitful than the Velvet Underground's VU.

A dozen years after their implosion it was both an illustration of their enduring brilliance and a demonstration of how thoroughly Lou Reed could lose the essential plot.

For evidence, look no further than the VU version of She's My Best Friend and the solo version that showed up on Sally Can't Dance.

One will make you weep, and the other will make you cry...

2010-06-15T22:26:00.003-05:00

I'LL GIVE YOU A MAN WHO WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD

We watched The Spy Next Door for movie night this past weekend.

It's a Jackie Chan family film in which he plays a Chinese spy on loan to the CIA. He is deep undercover as a nebbishy suburban pen salesman. He's dating the divorcee next door, who has two kids and a step kid. The kids all hate Jackie Chan because he's such a square. Little do they know, amiright amiright?

Anyway, the truly surreal aspect of the movie is that it turns on the plot conceit of having the nerdy middle-school son attempt to download a “rare” concert by the early 80s British hardcore band GBH. You see, having this “rare” (and there are those pesky quotation marks again) concert is supposed to be currency with the mouth-breathing bullies who make our young protagonist's life a wedgie-tinged hell.

Well, it turns out that the GBH file is actually an encrypted Russian file, and not an early 80s British hardcore concert. So of course the bullies are enraged. Atomic wedgies ensue.

But here we get our first hint that Jackie Chan is something cool. He comes through for the nerdy boy and burns him a CD of the “rare” Iggy Pop/David Bowie Shanghai concert that all the middle-school bullies are mad for these days.

And how'd he get a hold of it?

He was there, motherfucker. He was there...

2010-06-11T20:29:00.002-05:00

NEVER TOOK NO SHIT FROM NO ONE

There it was in my mailbox. A request from a long-ago friend to write a letter to the judge who is preparing to sentence him to prison.

Looks like it will be 12-18 months, and I suppose it's standard practice for lawyers to solicit letters speaking to the character of the accused, in an effort to draw the shorter end of that sentencing range.

So what to do? Well, if you have a stubborn Irish belief in the concept of redemption, you consider writing the letter.

Aw hell, who I am kidding? I wrote it at lunch today...

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter to speak briefly about my relationship with X.

X and I became friends when we were both 14 years old. X at that young age was distinguished by his expansive heart and his abundant generosity.

I had lost my father three years prior to becoming friends with X, and my family was in a financially vulnerable state. Unbidden, X would pay for the slices of pizza I sometimes couldn’t afford, or help cover the cost of movie tickets that my summer job would not allow.

I recall in particular the car stereo that had been given to him by an uncle who worked in the electronics business, which X gave to me as a gift when I was 14. This act of largesse was the essence of X: the basic impulse was noble and good, if a bit impractical (I was at that point a few years away from even having a driver’s license). The stereo sat on my bookshelf in its box untouched, a dusty symbol of the type of friend I hope everyone has been lucky enough to have at that age.

My conscience requires me to note that X and I have not been in close contact for over 20 years now. He has made me aware of his current situation, and it has taken me back to that 14-year-old boy. He was impetuous, impractical, and impish. He was generous, kind, and fiercely loyal to those he loved. Even separated as we are by years and miles and circumstances, I trust in my heart that X is still all of those things.

It is my hope that the resolution of the current situation will come with its necessary lessons, but allow X to keep intact the abiding spirit of my 14-year-old friend.

2010-06-10T20:15:00.002-05:00

ET CETERA

Just back from a week in Chicago, where I found myself explaining post-rock to a table of people who didn't give a toss. I have got to work on my dinner-conversation skills.

I am going to burn a copy of Millions Now Living Will Never Die for one lucky winner...

2010-06-02T20:01:00.003-05:00

PLEASE RELEASE ME

Lots of comfort food on the way this year...

LCD Soundsystem, This is Happening
Happened already. I bought it, but I haven't listened yet. I'm sure it's yummy.

M.I.A., Maya
Watch yourself, gingers.

Panda Bear, Tomboy
Yes!

Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
This comes out in August, but if the shitilicious first single is any indication, I suspect they really did shoot their wad with Funeral.

Belle and Sebastian, TBD
DAR Constitution Hall in October? OK, I'll be there.

of Montreal, False Priest
Pretty sure this is still on tap for the fall. So... yay.

Stereolab, Not Music
This is the second half of the Chemical Chords sessions. I'm sure the Lab in their grave will continue to drop music Tupac style...

2010-06-01T20:02:00.001-05:00

PHISH

Mother Nature took the brown acid at Woodstock...

2010-05-28T20:23:00.003-05:00

IF YOU BELIEVED THEY PUT A MAN ON THE MOON

OK, first there was this.

And now this:

The Mets just completed a three-game sweep of the first-place Phillies, tossing shutouts in all three games. This is something the Mets have done once before, against... you guessed it... the Phillies, in... wait for it... 1969.

Again, just saying is all...

2010-05-26T19:54:00.003-05:00

FLICK TO KICK

I realized today that I have two songs with the word "Subbuteo" in the lyrics: All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit by Half Man Half Biscuit, and My Perfect Cousin by The Undertones.

Not sure if I've cornered the market yet: drop me a line if you know of another.

2010-05-24T19:42:00.003-05:00

WE WON'T BE SEARCHIN' ANYMORE

Word of the day:

exLostion (n): the quality of langour that attends on a Monday after having stayed up until 11:30 on a Sunday to watch the series finale of a beloved show. (See also, Sopranorific.)

2010-05-21T20:16:00.003-05:00

MAKE EVERY SONG YOUR FAVORITE TUNE

OK, so I worked through my hissy fit, and decided to go ahead and buy the 3 genuine alternate Exile tracks: Loving Cup, Soul Survivor, and Good Time Women (protozoan Tumbling Dice).

So now when my Amazon package with the new LCD Soundsystem and Janelle Monae shows up, I can just get on with my life...

2010-05-19T19:40:00.002-05:00

DON'T NEED NO JEWELS IN MY CROWN

Exile on Main Street didn't really make much sense to me until I was 18 or 19.

But it's been with me-- and vice versa-- ever since.

Of course I was thrilled when I heard that the Stones were compiling a “deluxe” version.

Now, I'm not enough of a trainspotter to go chasing after outtakes and such, but I'd certainly be a willing consumer of Exile-era flotsam if it showed up on a silver platter.

And if the Beatles could squeeze three double-disc anthologies out of their archives, surely the Stones could support at least one disc's worth of interesting 1971-2 material.

But the Stones being the Stones, they apparently decided we couldn't handle the rough stuff, so they went and added new vocals and such to a bunch of the old tracks.

And again their legacy is ill served.

Well, that's $20 that will stay in my pocket, at least...