I wish I started the band Master Musicians of Bukkake, God that's a great name.

A few good things have happened to me:

One: Dead Meadow has put out another excellent album, Feathers. A really massive album, this time with an extra guitar player. Their production is nearly perfect for their sound, giving it a full, earthy, and dark gleam. Their heavy brand of psychedelia is fantasic live, but on record has always left something to be desired. Live they create a sonic wall of fuzzy sound, nearly pushing you against the back wall. They finally realized this isn't possible in a recording and Feathers is the result of a band finding itself more comfortable in the studio.

Two: M. Ward has put out a new record, Transistor Radio. I liked what I heard so far, but I was really hungover and only half-listening. More on this at a later date. Let's just say if it's anything like The Transfiguration of Vincent it could be record of the year.

Three: I found a copy of The Archers of Loaf's Vs. the Greatest of All Time on 10" vinyl. AOL has always been one of my favorite bands, ever since I heard their brown name from a tour they did with the Poster Children (PCJC USA...). It's a shame they're not around anymore, but Eric Bachmann's new outfit, Crooked Fingers, is fine by me ("New Drink For the Old Drunk"). Chapel Thrill represent. If you don't know the Loaf, please see "Web in Front", all I ever wanted was to be your spine. They were also signed to Elektra. What?? Other songs: "Chumming the Ocean" (fun fact: I used to smoke cigs to this song in industrial parks when I felt lonely in high school), "Wrong", "Greatest of All Time".

Four: Olivia Tremor Control is still really amazing (from a few posts ago). I'm listening to Black Foilage: Anamation Music Vol. 1, now and, boy, is it great. They found a perfect medium of experimentation and effortless pop. And by pop, I don't mean some people might like it kinda sorta if they like indie music. I mean pop like, the 3 minute songs would definitely been on the radio in the 60's. Oh, what hast thou done Clear Channel?

Sounds about right...

'My good friend Billy Dixon was my center in football from seventh through twelfth grade. One day during practice, our coach yelled, "If anybody sees anybody standing around with his thumb up his ass doing nothing, run over and knock him on his ass." Five minutes later, Coach was standing on the sidelines drinking a cup of coffee. Billy ran over an knocked him on his ass. I learned that day that, for the most part, we're all just standing around with thumbs up our asses.'
-Robert Pollard

Happy Valentine's Day

- I'm really glad that people are starting to listen to Archer Prewitt. Both Pitchforkmedia.com and Stylusmagazine.com gave him some glowing reviews for his new record, Wilderness. It's quite nice, in an adult-contemporary kind of way -- some good songwriting and fancy orchestrating. His previous record, Three, is alot like this one, only a little more smooth-FM ready. From that record try "Over the Line".

- I'm not so thrilled with allmusic.com's new interface. (How new is this? 6-months?) Too many click throughs and hidden stuff gets me frustrated. I like for everything to be laid out in front of me.

- I love my girlfriend, Christine Simpson, very much. She's a very, very special girl to me! We had a fantastic weekend in Winston-Salem, NC this weekend where we went to a winery (Sideways is having a bigger influence than you can imagine on white men everywhere), had a classy dinner, and topped our weekend off with one of the worst movies ever, The Day After Tomorrow. How come they don't make action movies like Diehard (which we saw the previous day) anymore? Movies like Diehard make me so happy I'm in love and not a terrorist, like Hans.

- Has Olivia Tremor Control always been really amazing? Man...

- I finished Bob Dylan's Chronicles. It was fun to read. He's an interesting person who has some very interesting things to say about the things that influence and affect him. My only complaint: he could write longer sentences every once and a while. His short, dramatic descriptions got kind of old after a while. "The music was like a car going over a cliff." But 300 pages long. (It's not that bad: I just used the dramatic flair he did. Clever, huh?)

- My Sirius satellite radio is really nice to listen to. Right now, I'm getting into "The Vault". They play classic rock tracks that don't normally play on the radio. Usually they're by bands that were never really that good (Alan Parsons Project, Chicago), but sometimes they're really great in their averageness. (Bonus points for "First Wave": they played a song from North Shore. Fuck yes!)