So for those of you who really know me, (which I’m going to guess is about 0.001% of you readers out there) know how much I’m in love with Jane’s Addiction; well old Jane’s anyways (86-91). You’ve probably seen me losing my mind air-drumming to songs like “Whores” or “Trip Away” behind the DJ booth with my homeboy Travis… “This is my new friend Roxy, isn’t she swell?” “GET INTO IT ROXY”

Jane’s Addiction - “Whores”

Help Wanted - “All Remote And No Control”

I don’t think I should have to say anything else about this band, other than, If your weren’t into them at some point in your life, you were probably a huge DORK!!! You might wanna go out and buy their first (pseudo) live record on XXX records. They actually do a couple sick covers, The Rolling Stone’s - “Sympathy For The Devil” and The Velvet Underground’s - “Rock n Roll”. Then you might wanna move on to “Nothings Shocking”, their first studio album. Aside from the weird production, and the fact that “Whores” wasn’t on this thing, the record is amazing. And “Ritual De Lo Habitual” their 3rd record is a master piece… period.

About a year ago I read WHORES: An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell and Jane’s Addiction and I have to say it’s a pretty nice read… This book pretty much covers everything: Dave Navarro’s mother’s murder, controversy over album covers, Psi Com (Farrell’s first band) and even Jane Bainter herself. Turns out she wasn’t totally psyched about Perry using her heroin problem as a band name.
Another thing I found from this read was how much Eric Avery rules, and how important his role was in Jane’s. It ends up most of their best songs were based around the bass lines that he came up with. “Whores”, “Mountain Song”, “Pigs in Zen” and “Three Days” just to name a few. And since homeboy left the band, they were never the same.

Avery has kept a fairly low profile since the demise of Jane’s Addiction. However, he did participate in the Deconstruction project with Navarro immediately after the Jane’s break up. He was also invited to play bass with Tool but declined to concentrate on his own band Polar Bear that he formed in 1994. Since then he’s worked on a hand full of other shit: recorded a few tracks with Alanis Morissette, Toured with Garbage for a bit and even auditioned for Metallica after the departure of Jason Newsted.
Anyways, Avery has been working on his own solo project called Help Wanted and is due to be released April 8th on Dangerbird and should be pretty good from what I’ve heard so far. I’ve only heard one track and it sounds a little like a futuristic Joy Division to me. Maybe I’m totally tripping on this one, please let me know if I am… I also hear that Taylor Hawkins and Flea will be holding down the rhythm section on most of these tunes. I have to say it’s a little ironic that Flea is playing bass when in fact he filled in on bass after Avery declined on the whole Relapse tour that totally sucked balls.

Anyways, here are some tracks from one of my all time
favorite bands and one new track from this “Help Wanted”. Tell me what you think of this.

Oh, and check out Jane’s live just ripping it.

And the softer side…

The Raconteurs put out a new record that’s cleverly titled “Consolers of the Lonely”. I’ve only had time to give it the once over in between all the elbow-rubbing, couch surfing and all the hard travelin’ I’ve been hittin’ too. At first listen it sonically sounds great… cept for that track with the horns and shit on it… but doesn’t seem to be as good or as catchy as their debut. Maybe it’ll grow on me…

Either way you slice it, these dudes are better than 99.9% of all the other bands out there and this video made up of 2,500 still photographs taken by Autumn de Wilde rules. I love it. It’s called art… get into it kids.

Here’s the new video for “Strange Times” by The Black Keys…. thumbs up or thumbs down kids? Laser tag? Not really sure I’m following them here.

Hi, I’m Meathead.  You know what really pisses me the hell off?  I mean seriously?  Child rape.  But that’s probably not a topic that really jibes with the whole Buddyhead aesthetic, so I’ll talk about that some other time when I can’t think of anything else.  So you know what else pisses me off?  Really vague ads that don’t tell you anything about the product and/or service being shilled, so as to make you say “Ooooo! I wonder what this could be!” and become so consumed by burning curiosity that you would have no choice but to shoot a kitten if that’s what it takes to find out more (and someday, it will).  Like this one, for instance:

Provigil.   What the hell is it?  The name sounds vaguely vaginal, but it’s got a picture of a dude on it, so that’s a little confusing.  Is it an anti-depressant?  Does it make your testicles bigger and shinier?  Does it provide much-needed relief for middle-aged white guys who suffer from the inability to stroke their chin convincingly?  Judging from this ad, it could be any of these things.  So what is it?  Why won’t you fucking just tell us?  Call me old-fashioned, but I pine for the days when advertisements would just tell you right up front what they’re trying to push on you.  (Fun fact: that’s the first time I’ve used the word “pine” as a verb since 2002.)

I initially refused to give in to my curiosity, simply out of principle, but for the purposes of this shitty column, I went ahead, said “fuck it” and googled Provigil.  I wasn’t about to give these motherfuckers the satisfaction of actually clicking their stupid banner, so this seemed to be a reasonable compromise.  It would appear that Provigil is “a prescription medicine used to improve wakefulness in adults who experience excessive sleepiness (ES).”  Of course!  It’s so obvious now!  So, wouldn’t you know it, they actually gave being tired a lot its own goddamned medical term, complete with its own fucking acronym and everything.  Okay, that’s great.  But, you know, it’s funny.  I could have sworn there was a drug for excessive sleepiness (ES) already.  Oh, wait, there is.  It’s called COFFEE.  Assholes.

Of course, this bullshit advertising gimmick has been used for years.  Either be a dick and show just a tiny little teaser of whatever mystery product you’re selling and slap the date of THE BIG REVEAL on it, or simply apply your stupid logo to the most non-sequiturial image you can think of.  Such as, perhaps, a guy smiling and stroking his chin, as if to say “Yeah, you’re going to click on me.  You know it and I know it.”  Fucking prick.  But I guess I can’t really blame them too much for it because, after all, it does work.  There are always plenty of idiots who’ll buy into that shit.  I mean, look at Cloverfield.

OH MY GOD MEATHEAD DON’T U DARE MAKE FUN OF CLOVERFIELD ITS THE COOLEST MOVIE I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE AND I WANT J.J. ABRAMS TO MAKE LOVE TO MY ASS

In the spirit of having nothing better to do, I thought I’d take a moment to envision a terrifying alternate reality in which everyone’s marketing department decided to adopt this winning strategy of not getting to the fucking point.  See, that’s a subject much more of Buddyhead caliber– terrifying alternate realities.  Okay!  (Actually I just farted around in Photoshop for a few minutes)

Man last Saturday was so fucked up, I went to this wait nevermind, I’m done writing for tonight.  Bye.

One of Buddyhead’s favorite recording artists, Billy Bragg, has a new record coming out through Anti Records. It hits stores on April 8th in the US and it’s already out in other parts of the world. By the way, how fuckin’ cool is Anti Records? They’ve got Grinderman, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Merle Haggard, Bob Mould, Elliott Smith, Joe Strummer, The Locust, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, etc… Head on over to their label blog to download their new label sampler (or just click here to simply download the zip file of the sampler) which contains the first single called “I Keep The Faith” off Billy’s new album “Mr. Love & Justice”. Here’s an old hit and the new single kids…

Billy Bragg - “A New England”

Billy Bragg - “I Keep Faith”

Billy Bragg - “I Keep Faith” video

If you’re not already on team Billy Bragg… jump the fuck on board first by checking out “A New England” (which is one of his most well known songs). Think of him as Bob Dylan meets The Clash with a touch of an English Bill Hicks thrown in there too.

When I saw Billy Bragg play live last year in LA at the Fonda, he killed it. I can’t remember the last time I was so captivated by just a man and his guitar (let alone a full band). The show was so good that I even enjoyed his stage banter. If you wanna get a taste of that, check out his blog on his website @ or pick up the book he wrote called “The Progressive Patriot: A Search For Belonging” (that I actually just borrowed from Aaron and started reading today)… The dude has a lot to say. More videos if you click continue reading….

Billy Bragg - “Something Happened”

Billy Bragg - “M for Me”

Billy Bragg - “Farm Boy”

I know this dude Maynard James Keenan, he’s world famous for being the inventor of one of man greatest creations… the lobster tank. On the side he sings for two arena-filling bands, Tool and A Perfect Circle. Yeah, homeboy is rich as fuck, so rich that he bought a vineyard in Arizona so he’s stoked on wine. By the way… has anyone seen that ad for some drum company in the new Revolver (I think.. one of those shitty metal mags) with Danny Carey in a full Laker’s jersey, spinning a basketball on his finger in front of his YELLOW Lamborghini? It’s MINDBLOWING how someone so cool could do something so lame. God I love Danny. By the way… are we getting a new Tool record before 2020 or what guys? Get your shit together and get in the studio asap!

Back to Maynard… In between all that making wine, selling wine and drinking wine… The Nard has found time to release a side project record (with the classy name “V Is For Vagina”) under the moniker Puscifer. And he must be really drunk on wine cuz he asked little old me to make him a video for his new single “Dozo”. Before he changed his mind and asked someone who actually knew what they were doing, I dug around in my DV tape crates for some of my best footage and edited it all together in a fast-food/coffee rage. The final product is what you see above. Keep an eye out for cameos too man…

I think Maynard liked it.

Maynard likes redtube.com.

Josh Freese is addicted to youtube.com. Someone may need to step in an have an intervention.

From what I’ve been told the new Oasis record is done and (the people I know who heard it said) it’s less song oriented, more psychedelic, grooves more and is really fucking good. I can’t wait to hear it.

I also heard that The Verve might play a show at The Greek right after Coachella (which I’m excited for - Love & rockets, Verve, Spiritualized, Raconteurs, Roger Waters, Portishead, Kraftwerk, My Morning Jacket and Stephen Malkmus). If the rumors of The Greek show are true, I’m super amped like Aaron is on energy drink… one of my favorite bands playing at one of my favorite venues in the city I live in. Actually it’s one of the my favorites in the world. The only place I can think of that smokes it is Red Rocks outside of Denver, Colorado. That place is life changing, if you ever get a chance to go… GO!

The Raconteurs have announced that they just finished their new album “Consolers Of The Lonely” and it will be stores next week on March 25. The band are just releasing the album with out any promotion or marketing because - “We wanted to explore the idea of releasing an album everywhere at once and THEN marketing and promoting it thereafter, The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first week sales, pre-release promotion or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it.” The band also stated they won’t be selling the new album track-by-track on itunes but it will be sold on their website digitally at 320 kbps. You can read more at their official website here. If you wanna know what I think about of all this you’ve come to the right place… I think their whole “statement” is pointless and borderline retarded. First off I don’t wanna hear my rockstars talk about business… make me think all you care about is rippin’ solos, slaying chicks, getting wasted and having a good time! Is that so much to ask? It’s called rock n’ roll for Christ’s sake. On a slightly more positive tip, I am very excited to hear the record in four days cuz I’m sure it’s better than the last one, which I thought was a great first album.

The Raconteurs Tour Dates:
04/20 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom
04/21 Seattle, WA - Neumo’s
04/22 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom
04/23 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo’s 365 Club
04/25 Indio, CA - Coachella
04\26 Las Vegas, NV - The Joint
04/28 Denver, CO - The Fillmore Auditorium
04/29 Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theatre
05/01 Dallas, TX - House of Blues
05/02 Austin, TX - Stubb’s BBQ
05/04 New Orleans, LA - New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
06/13 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo
06/26 Arendal, Norway - Hove Festival
07/12 Kinross, Scotland - T in the Park
07/13 Naas, Ireland - Oxegen Festival

The McRib is not back, but I’m fully backin’ the new Snack Wraps.

I remember when I first started seeing billboards for CBS’ hot new series, The Big Bang Theory.  My first thought was, “Oh, fantastic, it’s another post-mortem spasm in the corpse of the sitcom format, this time in a weak attempt to cash in on the bullshit ‘nerds are cool now’ trend.”  Then I thought, well, maybe I’m just being too quick to judge.  I hadn’t actually seen the show yet.  Maybe there was more to it.  Maybe it wasn’t a giant steaming pile of shit.

It wasn’t long until I started hearing people talking about it.  The weird thing, though, was that every time I’d hear someone mention it, they would say almost exactly the same thing, as if it were scripted.  “Oh my god, The Big Bang Theory is sooo funny!  The acting is so good, and the jokes are so witty!” And yet, not once would anyone actually mention any particular moment or even a line from the show that they found particularly amusing.  Sweet Jesus, I think CBS has actually been planting stealth marketers to bring up The Big Bang Theory in conversations.  Wow, it must be good, then!

Finally, I got my chance to witness this alleged cultural phenomenon that’s sweeping the nation (allegedly) for myself.  I just happened to have the TV tuned to CBS one night a while back (I still don’t know how that happened), and you can just imagine my delight when it was announced that a hilarious new episode of The Big Bang Theory was about to begin.  I decided to give it a shot, partially due to sheer morbid curiosity, but mostly because the remote was all the way across the room.  And so it began.

Simply put, the above advertisement sums up the show perfectly, to the point where there’s no need whatsoever to actually watch it.  There’s the totally mega-hot blonde (who’s really kind of average-looking but we’re obviously supposed to think she’s mega-hot so okay)  making flirty eyes to the nerd (read: “guy with glasses”) on the right, not because she actually likes him, but because she just likes stringing him along and making him think he has a chance with her so he will let her crash at his place whenever she needs a break from her like totally annoying roommate.  See, look at him, he’s looking back at her like “yeah, we’re so going to have sex later.”  Now look at the guy on the left.  You might remember him from this marginally-amusing Quiznos commercial from a few years ago:

Yeah, so apparently some genius saw that commercial and thought he should have his own TV series.  Anyway, the totally mega-hot blonde has her arm on his shoulder because, as I previously pointed out, she’s a manipulative bitch.  The Quiznos nerd isn’t having any of that, though.  Not because he sees through her ruse or anything, but simply because he’s really uptight and only cares about playing Halo and watching Dr. Who, and doesn’t have time for girls.  And that’s funny!

So I was watching this thing, and I really tried to find at least one thing to like about it.  First of all, the acting was not “good.”  It was “bad.”  Granted, that’s kind of a moot point, as the material doesn’t exactly give them much to work with in the first place.  You could put Morgan Freeman in it and it probably wouldn’t make things any better.  The entire premise of the show is simply to drive home the point that Quiznos nerd has a broomstick up his ass.  Seriously, that’s pretty much it.  Nearly every one of the “jokes” (each of which you can see coming a mile away) stems from this one-dimensional character’s lack of any desire to be spontaneous.  How can they keep finding creative and funny new ways to squeeze material from this singular idea?  Simple.  They can’t.

If you actually emitted so much as a muted chuckle at that clip, you probably have an IQ of ~30 and think Steve Martin is still funny.  I get more laughs from C-SPAN than from The Big Bang Theory, but because “everybody else” likes this flaccid stab at humor, we’re supposed to like it too.   In the past couple weeks, there have been at least three separate occasions in which I managed to overhear this show’s name get dropped, followed by the obligatory scripted praise for its supposed genius.  I don’t know, maybe I should try watching it while simultaneously huffing nitrous and hitting myself in the head with a hammer.  Then I guess I would be experiencing it from the point of view of the average TV viewer.

I haven’t had enough time to spend time with the new Portishead record to tell you if it holds up against the first two and the live record or not. I’ve been busy hanging-ten on couches and whatever else it is I do. Aaron probably could give you a track by track break down on this bad boy, but getting him to write something for this site right now while he’s recording is like trying to get Michael Harris laid. Near impossible. So you’re gonna have to do some research yourself…

Start here and check out the new Portishead video for “Machine Gun”, their new website where you gotta give em all your info for less than I’m giving you here and jam out with two tracks from their new and “Third” album.

Portishead - “Silence”

Portishead -”Machine Gun”

“Machine Gun” music video

While you’re at it… tell me how much you love me. And if you are female and wanna sleep with Michael Harris, there is a pool of money with your name all over it. Come and get it!

This video is amazing! I’d never seen it before so thanks to the person who emailed me this shit…

In the video this kid tries to interview Henry Rollins and Greg Ginn of Black Flag and instead gets facial-ed super hard and gets called a poser/idiot 90 million different ways by the insanely intimidating Rollins. It looks like homeboy is just gonna grab him, ring his neck and then bench-press the kid for his mid-day workout.

Speaking of Rollins and working out…. what the fuck is up with that man? I mean…. we all know he’s massive and shit… but did you know that dude called the record his band made in 1994 “WEIGHT”, and then thought it’d be a good idea to called the one they did in 2003 “WEIGHTING”! Wow, right?

HR… don’t kick my ass for that tiny joke. Don’t get me wrong… you’re rad, you win. You were in Black Flag, buddies with Ian McKaye, saw and did tons of cool shit and your new TV show is pretty cool… you pick interesting guests, killer lives bands and I’m way into the “Letter” section where you drop bombs on people… good work dude.

Letter to Woody Allen

Letter to Ann Coulter

Letter to the FCC

Letter to Carrot Top

Letter to Laura Bush

Letter to David Beckham

But as for the lifting weights crap dude, OK we get it… you work out. Noted. Now, no more naming rock records after things that have to do with exercise. You’ve filled your quota on that topic… time to move on.

Plus, working out sucks. The only way I would work out is if Henry Rollins were my personal trainer. Not only would I get rid of my skinny guy beer gut, but I could introduce him to the world’s biggest Gone fan… My Uncle Scott. Everyone would win.

Rollins, if you read Buddyhead and you’re down to spot me… email me bro, travis@buddyhead.com. The only other dudes I’d work out with would be Danny Bonaduce or Danzig. Danny, cuz he’s always got pills. And Danzig, cuz it’d be fuckin’ funny as shit to be able to tell people that story.

And for the record… my favorite singer of Black Flag is Keith Morris. Henry Rollins was the FOURTH singer of Black Flag. And, living on Aaron North’s couch isn’t all that bad, he’s got cable!

Also, Aaron likes Black Flag way more than I do, so if you like Black Flag, run into us and you wanna talk about hardcore… make sure you talk to him. He’s the hardcore talking with people guy.

Wow, I wasn’t expecting my half-assed Phil Collins write-up to stir up such a heated debate.  Honestly, my only true beef with that particular video, besides the fact that the song sucks, is that no matter which way you look at it, be it from the point of view of the band or that of the person who thinks Phil Collins sucks, there is a gaping hole in the logic that simply can’t be ignored.  From the band’s perspective, they’ve played all their shitty songs that nobody wants to hear, then closing with their one “good” song.  Who the hell does that?  Seriously, open with your good song(s), then by the time you get to your shittier stuff, hopefully everyone will be too drunk to care.  Looking at it the other way, one must wonder why they are actually playing something cool at the opening of the video, then immediately launch into an orgy of 80’s synth-pop bullshit.  It’s pretty much a lose-lose situation.

Anyway, enough about that.   I want to talk about something else that’s equally inconsequential and will inevitably piss off most of Buddyhead’s readers who would rather read about Travis’ aventures in homelessness or whatever.

I like David Lynch’s stuff.  Some people think he tries too hard to be weird simply for the sake of being weird, but to me, he seems like a guy who is genuinely on his own planet.  He does whatever the fuck he wants, and if you don’t like it, that’s your problem.  He’s a master of creating situations that can be simultaneously creepy, tense, and sometimes hilarious.  Not to mention downright terrifying, as seen in this particular scene from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me that still scares the ever-loving shit out of me even after seeing it hundreds of times:

That being said, the purpose of this isn’t to simply talk about how cool David Lynch is.  I want to talk about Sesame Street.

Anyone reading this who grew up in the 70’s and/or 80’s most likely watched Sesame Street.  I know I sure did.  Man, I watched the hell out of that show.   My favorite regular character was probably Oscar the Grouch, as I felt (and still do) that I could truly relate to him on a deeper personal level than I could with the others.  I was also a fan of the Yip Yip aliens, who would beam themselves down to Earth and become fascinated by rotary phones and Apple II computers and shit.  Big Bird was an annoying little bitch, though.  Never cared for him.

Now, I know it seems like I just made a hairpin turn from one topic to another for no particular reason, and to be fair, I do do that on occasion, just because I’m a dick.  But this time I actually have a reason.  I guess I missed this when it originally aired, but Sesame Street actually paid an homage to Twin Peaks at one point, with Cookie Monster playing Kyle MacLachlan’s part.  While the bit is pretty innocuous in and of itself (there’s no murder or incestuous rape, unfortunately), when you consider what it’s based on, including the above clip, it’s pretty fucking weird.  Please enjoy.

See getting older CAN be cool. Just look at Sub Pop and Mudhoney, they’re both turning 20 this year. And to celebrate their wrinkles Sub Pop is putting out as many Mudhoney records as they can. And that kicks ass in my book.

Speaking of Mudhoney records, someone at Sub Pop (I know one of your fuckers read this site) needs to send me that “Live Mud” LP you put out last year as well as everything below too as payment for writing about this band so much. Come on dudes… you owe me.

Anyways, back to Mudhoney… Yeah, these dudes are back with their best record in ten years called “The Lucky Ones”. It’s their eighth record and it’s a fuckin’ rock n’ roll classic! Now that’s rare. It’s a must buy for any non-pussy rock fan! Check out track number uno on this baby called “I’m Now”, it rips!

Mudhoney - “I’m Now”

As well as a new Mudhoney record, Sub Pop is also putting out a remastered deluxe edition of Superfuzz Bigmuff (which the label “unfortunately, failed to convince the band to call Superduperfuzz Biggermuff??…) that contains the original ??Superfuzz… EP in its correct running order, the singles, a couple demos , nine songs live in Berlin 1988 and six songs live on KCSB. All of which is pretty sick, which made it hard to pick what to share with you…

Check out the first two tracks from the live in Berlin 1988 show. You gotta love stage banter like “Ich bin Berliner” which was a reference to JFK’s “I am a donut” bloop in Germany back in the day. Mudhoney was rad, is rad and most likely will always be rad.

Mudhoney - No One Has (live in Berlin 1988)

Mudhoney - Sweet Young Thing (live in Berlin 1988)

And if that wasn’t enough Mudhoney for you then check out the interview I did with Mark Arm for Buddyhead back in 2005 (which because we haven’t had time to upload the archives - isn’t even on Buddyhead anymore), their cover of Void’s “Dehumanized” (which sounds amazing really loud through a PA) and the “Gimme Skelter” version of “Hard-On For War”.

Mudhoney - “Dehumanized” (Void cover)

Mudhoney - Hard-On For War (Gimme Skelter version)

Update: Mark Arm among other “grunge icons” are in the new TAD DVD titled “Busted Circuits And Ringing Ears“. Which is actually more about the whole Sub Pop scene than it is about TAD so it’s a pretty good watch. I recommend it.

TAD “Busted Circuits And Ringing Ears” trailer

The Cassettes could be winners with your help. Here’s the deal, the music video that illustrated by Shelby Cinca and animated by Stephen Guidry (both members of the band) for their song “Rogue Gnome” is up for a 2008 Yahoo! video award, which they could possibly win something for. Sweet huh?

I dunno what they win, but I bet it’s something really fuckin’ cool like a new laptop, free hookers, gourmet coffee or a brand new apartment/loft for me to live in. Whatever the prize maybe, you need to take 10 seconds outta your busy day that you’d normally spend jacking off and vote for The Cassette’s video “Rogue Gnome” by clicking the “Vote for me 2008 Yahoo! Video Awards” banner below. Do it!

“Rogue Gnome” music video

The Cassettes - “Swampy Song” from “O’er the Mountain”

The Cassettes - “This Will Pass” from “O’er the Mountain”

Here’s two jams, “Swampy Song” and “This Will Pass”, from The Cassette’s second record (“O’er the Mountain”) which we released digitally. And because everything somehow comes back to Oasis on this site… I’ve posted their b-side “The Swamp Song” (in response to The Cassettes’ swamp song) and the edit called “” that ended up on “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory”.

Oasis - “The Swamp Song”

Oasis - “Untitled”

In other Cassettes-World news, the band finished up their latest album and are now in the process of getting it mixed. Stay tuned for what we’ve been told is a “darker and more rock” Cassettes album coming our way. I for one, can not fuckin’ wait!

In the meantime, their last album (and Buddyhead debut) “Neath The Pale Moon” will see an Australian release with a new cover (which is actually the one I wanted for ours and I’m still holding a grudge against Shelby over that) as well as an extra disc with bonus tracks. Aaron always calls those “boner tracks”. So in Aaron’s voice… “Here’s the boner track disc tracklisting dudes:”

1. Intermission
2. Old Man
3. 43% Burnt (Dillinger Escape Plan cover)
4. Requiem For a Radio
5. Sno

And as if shit was going well enough for our good friends from DC, The Cassettes are going to be playing a show at NASA Space Flight Center in April! Yeah, I said NASA! Don’t believe me? Just feast your eyes on this letter they got from HQ:

Dear The Cassettes,

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is proud to host the 2008 DC-area Yuri’s Night World Space Party. Yuri’s Night is an annual party of planetary proportion hosted in over 25 countries around the world to honor the first humans in space. Every year, thousands of DC-area space enthusiasts come out to party, and this year they (and you) are invited to the home of space exploration - NASA!

The people of NASA are big fans of The Cassettes and would be honored to have you play at Yuri’s Night on April 12th, 2008. Please carefully consider this immense opportunity and let us know your rates, production requirements, and any other details you can provide. We are confident that the World Space Party will be an epic experience you won’t soon forget!

With kindest regards,
################
Yuri’s Night Event
Coordinator
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD

I’m not really sure why I’m even calling this a “Mix Tape” series, I haven’t touched an actual cassette tape since the days of my first car which was a Dodge Omni for the record back in 1998. These days I drive around with a pile of 30 CD’s flying around my truck . I know, BIG leap into the future huh? By the way, you should be using our new Yahoo Player (which is the gray thing in the bottom left hand corner of your browser window) to get the full experience of my expert mix of MP3s.

Anyways, here are some jams that I like to dance to, rock to and air-drum to. All at the same time and while pounding beers too. Suck on these tits…

Track 1. Gallon Drunk - “Up On Fire”
I’ve just gotten into this band recently and have to say I’m pretty stoked on them. They formed in 1990 in London, England and remind of The Doors and The Birthday Party… This song is from their 4th album “In The Long Still Night” and is hand down Troy Boy’s favorite.

Track 2. Two Lone Swordsmen - “Puritan Fist”
Yo, Andrew Weatherall and the other dude I don’t know… you owe me some free shit. What’s up with you only releasing “Wrong Meeting vol. 1″ on vinyl? I bought “Wrong Meeting vol. 2″ via internet for like 14 quid and ended with all the shitty songs. And I have to buy some fucking Japanese import double CD for 30 bucks you slimy limeys. What the fuck? I want one of cool t-shirts with the gun on em (throw another one in for Travis too - we both where size Medium) and some of those stickers that came with the limited box sets. Fuck… just send us two box sets dude. You owe us!

Track 3. Unkle - “Nursery Rhyme Breather”
I was so in awe of Unkle’s resent 2007 release “War Stories” that I had to go out and by all their records. None of their previous albums compared to it but I liked this song from their first album “Psyence Fiction” the best.

Track 4. Radiohead - “Myxomatosis”
Yo, Thom, Johnny, Colin, Ed and the drummer guy no one knows the name of… stop fuckin around with whatever with it you’re doing now and start writing songs I can’t actually dance too. Like this one dudes.

Track 5. Whitey - “Whay You Have To Be Me”
I don’t really know anything about this guy except he let Steve Adorki put his record out and this song rules. Hey Whitey, in this country that means your 1 for 1.

Track 6. Broadcast - “Pendulum”
I’m tired now. It’s late and I think I’m going to bed. Travis claims he knows the drummer who played on this song and we DJ it pretty much every time someone let’s us play records through a pa.

If you missed Mix Tape #1, click here.

Meet Michael Harris, he’s the mastermind engineer who confidently wearing a rainbow sweatshirt behind the board at Shabbey Road. He is currently engineering the new Jubilee single and full length. Welcome to my world.

So yeah now that I’m couch surfing (and living at Shabbey Road Studios), I’ve keep diggin up old gems that I think you all might like. Here’s a video I filmed back in 1999 when we drove one of our shitty cars up the west coast (in record time) from Los Angeles to Olympia, WA for the “Yo Yo A Go Go” music festival to see Elliott Smith play (as well a bunch of other bands). We needed rock n’ roll bad and we really got it when we happened to ran into these two extremely talented (not to mention cool) accordion players who also happened to be Black Sabbath fans.

I think they actually played the festival… if you know any information about these girls please email me at travis@budyhead.com.

Thanks and enjoy,
Travis keller

P.S. Sorry about the last post, it was jive.

Hi, I’m Meathead.  I’m not 100% sure, but I think I posted on this site before at some point.  I don’t really have much of anything worthwhile to say most of the time, and today is certainly no exception, so let’s talk about Phil Collins.  Specifically the video for his supersmash ultra-megahit “Sussudio.”  I asked that guy Travis if it would be okay to write about this, and he said it was okay, so deal with it.  Actually, that’s a lie, I asked him if I could write about Billy Joel.   See, what I did there was an ancient technique known as the “bait and switch.”  Kind of like if I were to invite you over for some hot, delicious Pizza Hut pizza, and then go and punch your sister in the face.   (Just kidding, I would never do that.   Domino’s is way better.)

So, let’s get this shit over with so I can go do something else.   It’s been nearly 35 years (roughly) since Phil Collins’ “Sussudio” first sodomized our ears and, thanks to the magic of MTV, our eyes.  Many respected scholars contend that if it weren’t for Phil Collins’ “Sussudio,” the U.S. economic recession of the early 1990’s would never have occurred, and Fidel Castro would have shaved his beard and produced the Butthole Surfers’ Locust Abortion Technician album.  Way to go, Phil.

This goddamned piece of shit starts out at some lame hole-in-the-wall bar, presumably in England (because that’s where Phil Collins is from).  Sorry, I guess the proper word is “pub.”  They don’t have “bars” in England.  But I digress.  See, here’s the thing.  At the very opening of the video, Phil and his band are actually rocking the fuck out.  Fuck this 80’s corporate rock bullshit, I want to hear what they’re playing at the beginning.  It’s like they’re taunting us with the fact that they actually possess the capability to be cool, which makes the rest of the video all the more heartbreaking and, dare I say, morally reprehensible.  Shame on you, Phil Collins.  You could actually be on Buddyhead Records and touring with Shat right now (provided you include some thought-provoking lyrics about fucking our respective moms in a Ferrari), but no, you had to go all “Against All Odds” on us.  Hey, your loss.

So there they are, tearing shit up on stage, and Phil, as best as a total square like himself can, appears to be sincerely having a good time.   But, as you’ll soon discover, nobody else in the pub seems to give a fuck.  It’s kind of like that part in Back to the Future when Marty spazzes out on “Johnny B. Goode,” only to remember with embarrassment that it’s the 1950’s and they haven’t invented the devil horns yet.  Obviously Phil is ahead of his time, and none of those 80’s dorks know how to mentally process his band’s asskickery.  So what does Phil do?

I’ll tell you what Phil does.  If you pay close attention, at around the 0:33 mark, you can actually see Phil make the conscious decision to start sucking Satan’s cock.  He turns to his band and says, “Hey guys, let’s go ahead and play that song that we swore we’d never ever play in public unless we officially gave up all remaining self-respect and decided we’re not above doing anything for some quick cash.”  “Oh, you mean ‘Sussudio’?”   “Yeah, that one!  And a 1, and a 2…”

At this point, the bored pub patrons with the Flock of Seagulls hair remain unimpressed.  They’re thinking, understandably, “If we didn’t enjoy ‘(I Want To) Shit In Your Mouth’ or ‘Come Get Some VD,’ what makes you think we’ll enjoy this song either?”  But boy do they have another thing coming!  The drummer starts to kick out a beat that sounds incredibly like something from some sort of “drum machine,” and a bunch of magical black dudes in snappy white suits appear out of nowhere to form a fucking horn section.  Then comes one of the cheesiest synth riffs in the history of mankind.  Of course, since it’s the 80’s, this automatically captures the audience’s interest.  Woo!  Yeah!

While he waits for his cue to start singing, watch in awe as Phil claps in total independence of the beat and plays some wack-ass air guitar (even by air guitar standards).  His goddamned microphone has more stage presence.  But the suddenly packed house is too enraptured by the corntastic music to care.  I guess they just now noticed that he’s Phil Collins.

The rest of the video is pretty much a showcase for how cool and hip Phil is.  The audience gradually starts getting into it, and by the time the Lord mercifully allows this thing to draw to a close, they’re even doing something that vaguely resembles dancing.  Christ, that’s just depressing.  I mean, I’ve had enough drinks before to actually think “What’s Up” by Four Non-Blondes was an underrated song, but I’ve never, ever been so trashed that I’ve wanted to get down to some Phil Collins.  Okay, to be fair, I’ve never been drunk in the 80’s.  But still, I mean, really.  Don’t these people have anything better to do?  Could they not get tickets for Huey Lewis?  Are they just trying to avoid going home for some reason?  There’s no excuse for this shit, and I hope they’re all ashamed of themselves.

Sorry, I know this stuff is fairly old news by now, and I know it’s not nice to speak ill of the dead, but this video has caused me untold amounts of suffering while growing up, and I just really needed to get this off my chest.   Thanks for listening.

Advertise on Buddyhead? Sounds crazy at first I know, but trust me… it’s a sweet idea. Yeah yeah… the thought of giving us money totally freaks some of you people out. But you people are pussies, so who cares?

If you’d like to advertise on Buddyhead.com, please email Fred@buddyhead.com and within minutes (if not seconds) our French-red-wine-loving label manager (and now “the head dude in charge of all things advertising”) will hit you back with all the details on how to promote whateverthefuckyouwant (yes, even porn… at this point we don’t get a fuck, we just wanna get paid… sue us) on this distasteful, poorly written, legendary and complete broke site.

I’m warning you to get in now while the “ad rates” are good and cheap. Nothing this good lasts forever… cept Beatles’ records and gay jokes.

We havn’t been charging for advertising for the past few years because it didn’t seem fair. We were preoccupied with a plethora of other things (aka world travel, decadence and shit loads of promiscuous sex) which means in short… we haven’t written much a shit in a very long time. Well we’d like to change that… and from the sound of things we’re already on the right track cuz I’m unemployed (got my first unemployment check today - fuck yeah bitch), homeless and got nothing but time to wok on Buddyhead related shit with Aaron. Now all we need is some cash… so we can like eat and pay bills while we write and put out cool shit for you.

Once money is injected into our lives (hopefully via you) only will you start to see some of the infamous “Buddyhead Gossip” pop up on here again but you’ll also start to see a whole lot of videos from the last ten years of Buddyhead that we recently rediscovered. And the photography book that I’ve been threatening to put out for years as well as a bunch of other cool records and items we’ll be releasing… tell you all the details at a later date.

If you’re rich, you like this site, you like to see it continue and you feel like sharing the wealth… feel free to paypal money to traviskeller@gmail.com or mail checks made out to Travis Keller to PO BOX 1268 Hollywood,CA 90078.

Hey, it’s worth a shot… right?

Update: I uploaded a version of this interview to Vimeo because I think it looks better. Click here to view that one. Otherwise the Youtube clip is still above (yes, they are the same fuckin’ thing).

I just accidentally found this video we did with Nardwuar on a random hard drive and couldn’t believe we’d never posted it before. God, we’re losers but check out this “interview”, it’s pretty intense. Also check out http://www.nardwuar.com/.

One of these days I’m gonna edit and post the BRMC interview we did about this time last year…. never posted that one either.

I just got word… Josh “Youtube” Freese is back in America. The party can’t be stopped!

Here’s the new R.E.M. video, “Supernatural Superserious”. Sounds a bit like their IRS days to me… I’m surprised and I’m diggin’ it. These old men are on tour right now… if someone wants to buy me two tickets to the Hollywood Bowl show I’ll jack you off… or at least Troy Boy will.

Tour dates:
May 23 Vancouver - Deer Lake Park
May 29 Los Angeles - Hollywood Bowl
May 31 Berkeley - The Greek Theatre
June 03 Denver - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
June 06 Chicago - United Center
June 08 Toronto - Molson Amphitheatre
June 10 Raleigh - Walnut Creek Amphitheatre
June 11 Washington, DC - Merriweather Post Pavilion
June 13 Boston - Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts
June 14 Long Island - Jones Beach Theater
June 18 Philadelphia - Mann Center for the Performing Arts
June 19 New York City - TBA
June 21 Atlanta - Lakewood Amphitheatre

R.E.M. - “Supernatural Superserious” (new guy)

R.E.M. - Fall On Me (old guy)

Some of you may not be aware of this fact.. not only is Buddyhead for the children, but we make their dreams come true as well with a section of our site called “Buddyhead Contests”. And there’s no way in hell we’d be able to pull this off without one very hard working man named Chris Ekstedt. Please give Chris a very warm round of applause (in the form of sweet comments below) for being such an asskicker for no pay what-so-ever. Homeboy hooks up all the sweet shit you can win for free as well as maintains the contest section (@ http://www.buddyhead.com/contests) as well the Buddyhead Contests myspace page (@ http://www.buddyhead.com/contests). And as if he wasn’t already rad enough… Mr. Ekstedt drives a bitchin’ lady-magnet mini-van and took me to my first Laker’s game recently which was fun as shit (we were about 15 rows behind Jack Nicholson). Thanks Chris.

Right now you can win the new DVD documentary about Kurt Cobain called “About A Son”, which is pretty cool for what it is. Watch the trailer below and click here to enter. We’re also giving away tickets to see Bob Mould live, tickets to see The Guttertwins live and tons more! Check it out @ http://www.buddyhead.com/contests.