Music

Wondering how many more opportunities I’ll have to miss Iron Maiden live.

It is an election year, and as our president and other political incumbents across the country dust off their dirtiest tricks to retain their posts, so too do our returning regional air guitar champions. Of our first six cities this year, only Portland and Boston are sending new blood to the finals, and neither of their winners from last year returned to defend their titles. So as we pulled up to Washington, DC’s legendary 9:30… See more →

Boston’s air guitar faithful assembled at Brighton Music Hall on Friday night. They came to talk loudly over the judges’ commentary, and they stayed to marvel at performances that were by turns inspiring and reviling.

The air guitarists of Boston have long toiled fruitlessly in the glittery shadow of four-time champ McNallica (Erin McNally), whose charisma and fire was insurmountable even on the rare occasion she faced a worthy challenger. But with McNallica’s retirement came… See more →

There are two things that make New York City one of the toughest markets in US Air Guitar:

1. The staggering amount of top tier talent, both local and imported, and
2. The Daily Show’s Jason Jones, whose commentary has reduced all but the most thick-skinned competitors to quivering heaps in the backstage bathroom.

Alongside ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner and music biz free agent Leigh Lust, Jones returned on Thursday night to his perch in the… See more →

The Duke of Nothing’s gravelly tough-guy vocals are just the sort of thing you’d expect from a band like Turbonegro, which makes me appreciate former singer Hank von Helvete even more. I hadn’t realized it before, but his shrill, somewhat nerdy exuberance had a lot to do with what elevated this band beyond the sum of its parts.

Best song title of 2012 so far? I think so.

A magnificent solo piano performance of Mastodon’s entire Leviathan album in one uninterrupted take: youtube.com/watch?v=h85KV5… (via @kolbywolby)

Hey NYC friends, I’m curating a fun segment in @notcoming’s Mix Tapes screening tonight at 92YTribeca: 92y.org/tribeca/ticket…

Improbably, I have made a Diamond Head fan out of @ChamberMonster.

Wedding DJs need like fifty songs max.

Ten years ago today, I bought the t-shirt that remains my favorite today.

Twenty years ago today, Faith No More released Angel Dust. The public didn’t really go for it. But oh man, I did.

I’ve never been more than a casual GBV fan because their discography is too huge and uneven to sift through. In all my scattered listening over the years, I never realized how many great songs they made, even though I recognized most of the stuff on here. And I guess that’s exactly what a best-of collection is supposed to do. So, bravo, Matador!

Hey, what music are parents scared of these days? I can’t think of anything.

Who is the lead guitarist leading? Isn’t he actually following the lead of what the rhythm players are putting down?

Called one for the treble, the rhythm is the rebel.

It just occurred to me that this is Van Hagar’s attempt at a Beatles song.

Actually, Lucid Scrutiny sounds like a technical death metal band that writes hyper-polysyllabic polemics about religion’s war on science.

Woke up with an exciting idea. Now to see how it stands up to lucid scrutiny (sung to the tune of Queensrÿche’s “Silent Lucidity”.)

Rest in peace, Duck Dunn. Looks like I’ll be digging into some Stax stuff this week.

Twelve years ago, Relapse Records was my first and last design job interview to send me home with a stack of grindcore CDs. #FunFactFriday

“Having listened to the CDs on three different pairs of headphones and two different stereo systems…” Oh, fuck you. feedproxy.google.com/~r/Pitchfork…

Weird dream. Joined Mission of Burma. Bunch of guys my age playing MoB songs. I explained that the real MoB still exists. They were stunned.

Day: Cloudy.
Hum: You’d Prefer an Astronaut.
Volume: Loud.

“I am Steve Albini, ask me anything.” And there goes my day. reddit.com/r/IAmA/comment…

145 Beastie Boys tracks in one day, almost everything they ever recorded. Don’t say I didn’t give you a sendoff, MCA. last.fm/user/cowpiesur…

Spun it all chronologically from License to Ill through Hot Sauce Committee, then Some Old Bullshit to finish on a youthful, cyclical note.

It is not unheard of to make an album defined almost entirely by extreme dynamic shifts, but it can be difficult to make it work. The problem with this album isn’t necessarily that metalcore and drone require mutually exclusive moods, it’s the trouble of getting them to dovetail well, and the mechanically alternating sequencing here prevents that from happening. The odd tracks float and the even ones stomp, and as soon as you get to… See more →

Some of my friends on Rdio are currently listening to stuff that is not Beastie Boys, and I am confused.

It is a fittingly gray day in Brooklyn. Rest in peace, MCA.

This song was first recorded in 1998, intended for Quicksand’s third album, which was never completed. I’m surprised it didn’t wind up on the first Rival Schools album (as “So Down On” did, also from those Quicksand sessions), since it would have been right at home there.

Finally starting to get the hang of tremolo picking. 200 BPM sixty-fourth notes, here I come!

“How to Enjoy Turntables Without Obsessing Over Them” does the exact opposite of what it promises. I’m done with vinyl. nytimes.com/2012/04/19/techno…

Radio Time Machine (radiotimemachine.herokuapp.com) is neat, but its use of Billboard charts makes it painful. I’d love a CMJ NMR option. @westervelt?

Um holy shit Refused.

First time I’ve listened to Use Your Illusion in close to two decades. It is still a total mess. Give me Appetite or give me death.

The guitar won’t let me out of the house. Send help.

I usually scoff at remasters, preferring that musicians just let their original documents stand, warts and all, rather than engaging in technology-driven revisionism every ten years or so. But I have to admit they did a nice, unobtrusive job here with the Smiths catalog, cleaning things up without interfering with the spirit or balance of the original recordings. The one piece that does sound markedly different is Rank, the live album, whose new mix sounds… See more →

Any refusal to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Lame gets an unconditional thumbs up from me. facebook.com/notes/guns-n-ros…

What is it about coffee shops and shitty covers of great songs? (@ Starbucks w/ @AaronGustafson) 4sq.com/HrMqyy

Fun fact: @jasonsantamaria didn’t know I was in this photo when he captured it. instagr.am/p/I8PcbJgZ44/

The last four days:

1. Andrew WK show #11.
2. Batman party. Everyone was Batman.
3. Easter egg dyeing.
4. Andrew WK show #12.

Not bad.

All @mSutters ever wanted from an @AndrewWk show was a bloody nose, and now I have given it to him.

Numbers eleven and twelve. instagr.am/p/Izb_AShMzW/

Of the At the Drive-In / Mars Volta oeuvre, I love De-Loused in the Comatorium and dislike everything else. Not sure how that happened.

Spurred by winter’s return, I palmed the radiator, said, “The heat is on,” and instantly regretted it. Somewhere, Glenn Frey is cackling.

Trans Am Yankees #indiehairbands