Ever since I wrote about Neil Young’s out of print live album “Time Fades Away” (here and here) I’ve been getting emails about it. At first, people were writing me to say thank you for throwing it up for download because the album only came out on LP and has since been long out of print. Lately the emails I’ve been getting are asking me to put the record back up. Well, I’ve finally gotten around to it. So here it is kids, enjoy. Hopefully this shit will be on the new Neil Young boxset coming out soon. Speaking of, when is that big motherfucker of a boxset coming out? Anyone know?

(Download Neil Young - “Time Fades Away” LP)

And here’s my favorite song off the album, along with Jubilee’s cover of it which you can find as a b-side on their first single “Rebel Hiss” over @ http://www.jubilee.LA

Neil Young - “LA”

Jubilee - “LA”

The past few days have been a crazy rock n’ roll week… if you want you can listen to the new muxtape I made while you read exactly why this week ruled. http://buddyhead4.muxtape.com/

On Wednesday, I invited myself to DJ with Shepard Fairy at the Glasshouse in Pomona,CA before Love & Rockets played their first full show in nine years. I’m not counting them playing the Mick Jones song “Should I Stay or Should I Go” twice at the Joe Strummer tribute show a few months ago at the Key Club as a real show. Did anyone else realize they played a Mick Jones song or am I the only one? What the fuck?!?

Anyways, Shepard and I hung out for the first time in about six years and DJed everything from Richard Hell to The Stooges to Ultra Vivid Scene to CSNY (yeah I dropped “Carry On” into the mix) to Redd Kross. It was a fun DJ set and good to catch up with Shepard after all these years. The guy is seriously one of the nicest and coolest dudes around, it’s no wonder he’s had all the success he’s had. Who else would be cool with me bum-rushing their DJ gig opening for Love & Rockets?

Anyways, enough about us… Love & Rockets took the stage and to be honest I didn’t know what to expect from one of my favorite bands dusting off their hits live for the first time in long while… but they straight up FUCKING KILLED IT! Even with the sound guy fucking up a ton the band sounded great and tight as fuck. Daniel Ash’s guitar sounded like a chainsaw and those fuckers can sing like birds!

Sure, being the super-fan that I am, I’m convinced I could have wrote a better set list… like how about not opening (”Ball Of Confusion”) and closing (”Should I Stay or Should I Go”) with covers dudes? And how about you guys play at least one song off your best record “Sweet FA”? I was really hoping to hear Judgement Day (should have been on the greatest hits too) but once they tore into “Kundalini Express” I wouldn’t have known if the roof caved in cuz I was head banging so hard. Hopefully these dudes make a new record and do a proper tour. By the way, if you haven’t picked up the last Bauhaus record “Go Away White”… buy that shit now. I’ve been DJing “Endless Summer Of The Damned” every-time I get the chance. Shit rules.

Love & Rockets - “Kundalini Express” live @ The Glasshouse

Last week Troy Boy posted about how Jane’s Addiction was reuniting with Eric Avery for the first time in SEVENTEEN years and begged the powers that be to slide us into this seated event. Well, as you would have guessed, we didn’t get invited. So instead I planned on going to see the Joy Division documentary that Grant Gee made (he also made Radiohead’s “Meeting People Is Easy”) but when I arrived at the Arclight with my friend (who’s also named Travis) the movie was sold out.

So with nothing to do we decided to stop by the El Rey where the first-ever U.S. NME Awards show and the Jane’s/Eric reunion was going to go down hoping we could somehow sneak in. Well, the rock gods were on our side cuz as soon as we showed up we ran into Z Berg of The Like and with her help did the old switch-er-roo of badges and walked right in. Thanks Z, I owe you one. Or is it two now?

“NME Awards” video

To make a long and boring story short the awards show sucked just like they usually do… for the most part it was a douchebag fest with a bunch of bands I’ve never heard of and don’t care to ever hear again winning awards. Somehow Oasis was up for an award but didn’t win (must have been a miscount), Har Mar played, some shitbox band dressed in skeleton costumes played, and Evan Dando played two songs acoustic. Mick Jones accepted an award for something, said cool shit, and played a few songs with his band while Sienna Miller danced around with her dress pretty much falling off. Damn shes hot. I’m sure a bunch of other shit happened too but I was too busy waiting for Jane’s Addiction to play and listening to Happy Tom from Turbonegro nuke everyone. I love that guy.

Happy Tom, who’s a new resident to San Diego, had this to say about the first ever US NME awards: “The NME Awards USA is an attempt to bring LA and London closer. Which makes sense, as they’re both shit sandwiches: the less bread you’ve got the more shit you get.” I couldn’t agree more. Tom also went on to tell me about his intimate experience with Evan Dando back in the early 90’s and how “his dick tasted like a stick made out of heroin dipped in chocolate”. Interesting rock trivia for sure. On a side, but related note, Happy Tom ended up being interviewed on San Diego’s Channel 9 News for the story titled “Marijuana Boat Washes Ashore”. I’m fully backing his decoy theory.

So back to the NME awards… after standing around listening to a bunch of bands I couldn’t care less about play and random British people talk, the original Jane’s Addiction line up took the stage and I bum-rushed to the front and center of the stage to check out the rock. Troy Boy (and a few other friends) even texted me saying he saw me on the webcast head banging in the front row and I was a dick for getting in. Sorry dude, didn’t plan it… just happened. Check out a couple shitty camera phone photos I popped off and there’s more on my flickr if you care.

Here’s my review…. they totally fucking ruled. Hopefully this little event made Eric Avery realize a full-on tour with those three other dudes is a good idea. It’s mind blowing how one guy can de-jive a band so much. Eric Avery is Jane’s. And yes, for the record… of course Navarro had his shirt off and is still full of cheese. But together as a band the original line up of Jane’s Addiction, even in 2008, fucking slay. They played “Stop”, “Mountain Song”, “Trip Away” and “Jane’s Says”. I was hoping for them to kick into “Whores” but none the less, it was an awesome mini-show. Let’s hope they bail on the idea of getting back together with the douche from Satellite Party and can talk Eric Avery into at least playing a few more shows with them. Here’s some video footage of what you missed. Bummed you weren’t there Troy Boy.

(The photo above was taken by Travis Schneider)

“Stop”

“Mountain Song”

“Ocean Size” (camera phone)

I was considering going into detail here about the insane Sly Stone show I attended with Ian Rogers (who has Sly’s face tattooed on his arm) and his wife Julie Saturday night at the House of Blues but I’m sure Ian will post something on his blog about it. And not only is Ian way more of a Sly fan/expert (Ian should be Sly’s manager) but this page already has way too many grammatical errors so I’m gonna quit while I’m ahead. I will say this about the Sly show though… I’ve never seen anyone vocally announce so many “piss breaks” during a set. Dude is WAY out there on “planet outer-space”. Oh and check out Paranorm’s post on Sly… shit’s rad.

I ‘d like to welcome an OG Buddyhead alumni, Nate Cavilerri, back to the head. You can check out his first post in a while called “Party Mountain“. Much more to come. Good to have you back Nate. Sorry that was so long everyone… it’s just been a while.

Welcome to Party Mountain.

Instead of playing Rock Band or watching The Wire or stuff on YouTube, these are the kinds of things that people do on Party Mountain.

Good bands play on Party Mountain all the time. When No Age played they were so good that Party Mountain started on fire. That was, like, four years ago though.

The guy with the Ray Bans and scarf might be like “What the hell is *he* doing on Party Mountain? Oh great.” But don’t worry about it. His friend on the bike is nice. She’s just shy.

Mad Superdelegates.

Young Bob Dylan put a free fro yo machine on Party Mountain, but the cast of Superbad can’t have any.

Come back soon to Party Mountain!

Jane’s Addiction are going to get “back together” AGAIN for another reunion tour, this time it’s gonna be some dork named Carl (who played bass in Satellite Party) pretending to be Eric Avery. All I have to say on that subject is… FUCKING WEAK DUDES.

BUT… get this, Eric Avery has agreed to reunite with the band for one night only. Yeah, I just ejaculated in my shorts right now. To say I’m psyched would be a huge understatement… WOOO! FUCK YEAH!

“Trip Away”

So the real Jane’s Addiction will be performing at the first-ever U.S. NME Awards show at the El Rey here in Los Angeles. I guess they are getting crowned with some “Godlike Genius Award” during the ceremony and then will be playing a few songs.

In the press release we got emailed Eric totally nukes the other dudes in the band with this statement:

“I’ve chosen to reject the prospects of reuniting in the past for personal and philosophical reasons. I have always considered reunions to be a way to make a quick buck, and it sells short my own experience of it the first time around,” He adds, “The reason I started to even consider this is because it’s honoring the past instead of trying to recreate it.”

If Travis and I don’t get into this show there is zero justice in the world of rock n’ roll… not only do we DJ pretty much every show at the El Rey but I’m one of the biggest Jane’s fans on the planet. I mean who the fuck is getting into this? I’ll prolly end up standing outside cause that’s life but I’ll do whatever it takes to get in… except suck off an aids infested dick. I swear. Hey, Uncle Scott, you feel like crushing some heads that night? Let me get on your shoulder while you moshing through the front doors. Let’s do this shit!!!

So yeah, if you got an a couple tickets to this seated event and you wanna get two of the most “rock n’ roll” dudes in this town in… hit me up. And if Navarro is reading this like I know he is… Yo dude, stop waxing your chest for two seconds, get the dreadlocks rocking again (see photo above if you forgot how much cooler you were) and call Travis back… WE NEED TICKETS BRO! WOO! And you guys better play “Trip Away”, “Ocean Size” and “Whores”… in that order. Do it!

- Troy Boy

After putting it off for a few months, I finally got around to jumping on the Muxtape bandwagon.  I rummaged through my mp3 library and arranged a selection of hip, happenin’ tunes for you to enjoy bitch and complain about.  If you’ve got roughly 37 minutes and 10 seconds to kill, please feel free to click on the image of the obsolete music format below:

Hi, I’m Meathead.  As you may recall, I’ve posted several articles here on Buddyhead over the past few weeks.   But it’s all been a sham.  I thought I could get away with it, but I soon realized that I had underestimated the intelligence of the average Buddyheadite.  I now know better, and I hope you can forgive my mistakes.

When a person, regardless of sexual orientation, logs on to the internet and surfs to Buddyhead.com, they come to be informed of the latest happenings in the music business (or “biz,” as they’re calling it these days).  People, like you, are very busy with everyday things like work, school, kids, mortgages, band practice, fixing that damn screen door again, Clive Barker novels, angioplasties, earwax, robbing Office Depot at knifepoint, potstickers, prayer meetings, getting your necktie caught in the ATM, oil changes, laundry, waterboarding, wearing form-fitting rubber suits, the Yankees, pushin’ th’ little daisies and makin’ ‘em come up, store-brand barbecue sauce, tax returns — you know, the daily grind.  You simply do not have the time to sift through a bunch of unnecessary tripe, like a photograph of Hulk Hogan on acid.  I mean, honestly, why should that even be on Buddyhead?  What does it have to do with music, or anything else for that matter?  No, you don’t want to see Hulk Hogan on acid.  You come to Buddyhead for the straight-up facts; nothing more or less.  You deserve to be presented with quality, informative writings, accompanied by relevant and visually appealing images.

When I first heard that Buddyhead was looking for new contributors for their website, I have to admit I got really excited.  I thought it would be my big chance to finally be “in with the cool crowd,” or “down with the in crowd,” or whatever their slogan is.  I’d finally have something more interesting to talk about at parties than the history of aluminum foil.  Well, first I’d actually get invited to parties, and then I’d have something more interesting to talk about while I covertly transfer the contents of the cheese platter to my jacket pockets.  I’d also get to finally have a cool haircut and maybe even get one of those wallet chains.  All I had to do was convince Aaron (North) and Travis that I’m a normal person who enjoys and knows a lot of things about music.

I have to be honest here.  I don’t really know a lot of things about music.  I mean, I know who Eddie Vedder is, but I wouldn’t say that makes me an expert, and therefore I wasn’t sure I could even be a Buddyhead writer.   But then I remembered those famous words uttered by Thomas Jefferson just before he was shot by Mexicans: “Fake it until you make it.”  So I faked it.  I wrote a letter to the Buddyhead guys telling them I know a lot of cool stuff about today’s music and that I have many rock stars’ phone numbers in my Rolodex.   As proof of my alleged expertise, I lifted a review of some popular new band from the trendy Pitchfork website and attached it, along with my résumé, to my application.   I don’t know why I thought Aaron and Travis wouldn’t catch on to my blatant plagiarism, but wouldn’t you know it, they didn’t.  Aaron wrote back a short time later to tell me I’d gotten the job!  Aaron reminded me, however, of the responsibilities that come with this prestigious job.  He told me to stick to serious music journalism only: “None of that Meathead Perspective shit here, brah, this is Buddyhead!”  Wow, it was so easy!  He even referred to me as “brah.”  I was finally a brah!

Unfortunately, due to my relatively low IQ, it didn’t occur to me until numerous hours later that I would need to find a way to maintain this façade of brahness.  Certainly I couldn’t continue stealing ideas from Pitchfork.  After giving it some earnest thought, I decided to take a break for a while, and do some Crown Royal shots while watching CNN.   Suddenly, as if by magic, I broke free from the soothing, hypnotic trance caused by the whiter-than-whiteness of Lou Dobbs’ teeth, and the thought hit me: why don’t I just try to bullshit my way through it?  It doesn’t matter what I say as long as I sound like I’m right when I say it.  I mean, it works for Lou Dobbs.

And that’s exactly what I did.  I wrote some articles which I thought would appear informative enough to pass muster at Buddyhead, then sat back and waited for the cool points to start racking up.  Boy, was I in for a surprise!  Turns out that my lack of knowledge didn’t go unnoticed, after all.  I was quickly scolded by a number of eagle-eyed readers for not doing sufficient research before critiquing hot bands like Radiohead, Phil Collins, and So-And-So and the What’s-Their-Faces.  Most recently, I attempted to review a new music video by the musical group Crystal Castles, and was immediately shot down.  Apparently I’d gotten many crucial facts wrong, things that any real journalist would have known.  I thought Crystal Castles had gotten their name from a computer game, but instead they got it from somewhere else.  Rats!  These glaring inaccuracies rendered my point, that the video sucked, completely and irrevocably moot.  And more importantly, I had tarnished the Buddyhead name that Aaron and Travis had worked so hard to build over the years.  For this, I am deeply sorry.

I can only hope that they, and you, can forgive my careless and grossly irresponsible charade, and allow me to continue my tenure here.  While I may not be as “in the know” as the rest of you, I promise that I will do my best to educate myself as much as I can before writing about the artists you hold near and dear to your hearts, lest I offend anyone yet again.  That is simply not what Buddyhead stands for.

Thank you for your understanding,

Meathead

P.S.: I was going to dedicate this column to the memory of Charlton Heston, but I don’t really want to get shot in the afterlife, so n/m.

P.P.S.: Vampire Weekend sucks so hard.  I mean what the hell.

In the last four to seven years (depending what you count) the world of independent rock music has been trading its riffs for hi-hats and any of the lo-fi aesthetic that once defined it for a slick dance-floor gloss. Now, I’m not hating on all of this—I’ve got my share of Rapture records—but if I have to hear one more radio-ready disco-pop act described as “post punk,” I’m going to shiv someone.

No Age - Eraser

In the late ‘70s/early ‘80s when punk rock got it’s guts cut out of it and sold back to the kids as “new wave” (note: I also have my share of New Order, so don’t start) the inevitable backlash came in one form as “no wave,” a New York movement most famous perhaps for a little band called Sonic Youth.
Now I can’t speak to whether there’s a burgeoning re-emergence of “no wave” or whether LA punks No Age would want to be associated with it, but they seem to be cut from the same noise-as-pop cloth. I just picked up Weirdo Rippers, a compilation of the young band’s early singles and b-sides and I gotta say, I’m sold. The duo swing back and forth between tracks like “Sun Spots” a wash of atmosphere and “Every Artist Needs a Tragedy” that start as a wall of white noise before the hooks sneak up underneath. The most straight-up asskicker of the bunch is definitely “Everybody’s Down,” which rides a wiry guitar riff straight to the end.

The band is fairly new, having formed in 2005 out of the ashes of Wives, but they’ve already signed to Sub Pop (which may help me forgive them for dropping The Thermals, but that’s neither here nor there.) Watch for a new full length from No Age this year; from the variety of sounds on Weirdo Rippers, they could go anywhere with it, and I’m sure there’ll be a lot of writers like me trying to come up with clever-sounding new genre names for it. Oh well, call it art-punk, noise-pop, distorted-dreamscape-dissatisfacti-core or whatever. I call it a welcome relief.

Sorry if I made anyone upset with my last post about Radiohead.  I honestly didn’t mean to be so hard on them, seeing as how they did have some decent songs back in the 90’s.   Sure, In Rainbows may have been a complete and utter disappointment, but that certainly doesn’t mean that Radiohead doesn’t have at least one more hit in them before they’re crushed to death under the weight of their own self-importance.   I should have chosen my words a little more carefully, as we all know that Radiohead fans are an emotionally fragile bunch, and I’d hate to be responsible for yet another mass suicide.  So please accept my most sincere apologies for my lack of sensitivity.  Buddyhead deserves better.

While I’m throwing sorries around,  I’d also like to apologize to the guy who pointed out my lack of research when writing about that Provigil ad banner a couple of weeks ago.   Oh shit, busted!  I thought I could get away with it, but Inspector DZK is on the case.  Thanks for setting me straight, dude.  I bet you’re a real hit at parties.  And you’re right, Buddyhead readers don’t come here for that shit.  They come here to read the infamous gossip page watch Raconteurs videos.  In that spirit, I thought I’d talk about a video I saw on the internet today.

I log on to MySpace every now and then, mainly so they won’t delete my account for inactivity or some bullshit like that.   Inevitably, as soon as I get there, I see a plug for some new horrible flavor-of-the-week hipster band that is apparently all the rage right now but nobody will give a shit about by the time you’re done reading this sentence.  Usually I just ignore them — I mean, what’s the point of looking at hipsters if you’re not able to reach out and physically strangle them?  Maybe the next Firefox update will let me do that, but in the meantime, my only options are to A) log out of MySpace and lock myself in the closet, or B) buy some piano wire and go for a walk down Vermont Ave.

For reasons known only to the Lord Jesus Christ, I let my masochistic curiosity get the best of me this time and clicked on the latest piece of shit that MySpace is telling me to like.  It’s a video by some group with the oh-so-ironically retro-cool name “Crystal Castles.”  Yeah, Crystal Castles was an Atari game from the early 80’s.  I played it for about five minutes once, then turned it off because it was fucking retarded, and I played some Zaxxon instead.  I would bet a substantial amount of money that there’s an indie hipster band somewhere out there with that name too.  Hopefully DZK, the official Buddyhead fact-checker, will drop by soon to let us know.  Or what about Jungle Hunt?  Anybody remember that game?  Anybody want to start a band called that?

Even more idiotic than the band’s name is the name of this particular song: “Courtship Dating.”  Are you kidding me?  What in the fuck kind of dumb-ass title is that?  The kind that makes me want to click on the link just so I can have something to regret later.  So I did.  And I do.  For a brief moment as the video was loading, I felt a little guilty.  Maybe I was being unfair by judging them so harshly before even giving them a chance.  Who knows, maybe they’re actually really talented!  Maybe I was wrong about them!

Nope, I was right.  You know those songs that start out sounding kind of cool, like it’s building up to something interesting, and then it makes a hard left and immediately starts hemorrhaging gallon after gallon of suck as you frantically scramble to find the button to turn it off?   Well, “Courtship Dating” isn’t one of them.  It blows chunks right from the get-go.  Oh, what’s this?  Retro-sounding 8-bit noises?  No fucking way!  That’s so unexpected and innovative!  Like, it totally takes me back to when I was a kid with my Commodore 64, and I have fond memories of that (even though, let’s be honest, it was a piece of shit), so naturally I’ll just transfer these warm, fuzzy feelings of nostalgia onto “Courtship Dating” and enjoy that too!  I’ll ignore the fact that I can’t understand one goddamned word this dumb girl is “singing,” because I’m just so enthralled by those Nintendo-esque arpeggios!

One thing I can say in favor of this heaping helping of audio/visual tragedy is that, at least, the quality of the video is on pretty much the same level as the quality of the so-called music.  They put about as much effort into making an interesting visual accompaniment as I put into heating up a Pop-Tart.  Actually, no, fuck that, I make damn good Pop-Tarts.

It all begins with Lil’ Miss Poser in a dark room with a strobe light, half-heartedly mouthing along to the non-words that someone actually allowed her to record in a studio, while some shithead in a Slayer t-shirt (seriously? Slayer?) pretends to be rocking out with some unidentifiable object that resembles a large toothbrush.  I can only imagine that this is something they thought other people would actually enjoy watching.  This goes on for roughly 40 seconds, and then we’re treated to a shot of them performing live in front of their eight fans, accompanied by an extremely brief noise interlude that, quite frankly, is the only part of the entire song that even approaches vaguely resembling interesting.  Then it’s back to more of the same strobe light shit.  Thankfully, the question “Could this music video possibly be any less enjoyable?” is finally answered.

The answer is a resounding “YES!”  First we get another moment of pointless-as-everything-else noise (sorry, it might have worked once, but twice is pushing it), and then WOW!  It’s poser-girl standing around in the kitchen eating something.  I wish it were my excrement — maybe someday!  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t condone violence, especially against women, but am I the only one who gets the uncontrollable urge to beat her with a shovel just from looking at her?  I bet she likes The Killers.  Oh look, she’s drinking a can of Pepsi!  Yeah, that’s something I really want to sit and watch for an extended period of time!  Maybe she’ll defrost the freezer next! Could I please watch her cook some ramen for three minutes?  That’s what I call compelling entertainment.

Instead we get some more self-gratifying live footage and some “hey look at us, we’re out on the road touring” footage.  Honestly, this is the most unsettling thing about this video.  The thought that someone may have actually gone out of their way to see these losers, and possibly even paid for admission, causes me the kind of physical pain that can only be dulled by hard liquor and possibly an Oxycontin or two.   Then again, maybe they’re just the openers, and the audience is just humoring them while awaiting the headlining act.   I can’t really take comfort in that idea, though, because what band worth a shit would want these guys to open for them?  Goddamn it.

I guess this is the kind of stuff MySpace Tom listens to.   Look, Tom, if you want to listen to this shit in the privacy of your own home, that’s your business.  You have that right as an American (or Canadian or whatever the fuck you are).  But you really might want to keep this sort of thing to yourself.  Next thing we know, you’ll be pushing Neutral Milk Hotel on us again.

Oh, I almost forgot to share Crystal Castles - “Courtship Dating” with you guys!  How silly of me!  Here it is.  I hope it has the same effect on you as it did on me.

About a two weeks ago I went to Amoeba and dropped about 50 bucks on a bunch of crap I didn’t really need. As always I hit the Ride section in hopes that I would discover something that I don’t already have, like a new album. And to my surprise I found “Hurricane #1″…

Later that night I picked up Travis and headed over to the Wiltern to check out BRMC for the 30th time. Which for the record was borderline depressing because they didn’t play any of the heavy shit and didn’t play very well. I love them, but the show almost put me to sleep. On the way over we listened to few of these Hurricane tracks and ended up singing along to almost all the songs which was so weird since neither of us had ever heard this album before. The good thing is, is that the songs are pretty catchy, but the lyrics are little predictable. Hence the reason why Travis and I were singing over this shit at first listen. It was actually pretty funny listening to Travis sing.

Hurricane #1 - “Just Another Illusion”

Hurricane #1 - “Touchdown”

Hurricane #1 - “Faces In A Dream”

Anyhoo, about a year after Ride disbanded Andy Bell decided to put together this band. Hurricane #1, put out two records on Creation, but the band drew a ton of bad press, and borderline ridicule due to their similarity to Oasis… Then in 1999 Andy took some time off the play guitar for some band called “Gay Dad”. Yeah, I’m not really sure what that was all about. But the Gallagher bros saved him and now the guy plays bass in Oasis and is totally winning right. In case you aren’t sold just throw on the live Oasis album, “Familiar to Millions” album, and listen to Noel cays “Can I have everybody singing Who the fuck is Andy Bell?“. And check out who wrote “Turn Up The Sun” which is the first song on the last Oasis record. Guy wins.

So here are a couple of tracks that I dig from this.
Hope you like em too.

Love,

Troy Boy

Speaking of Madchester…. This is a really cool documentary about (my favorite band from Manchester) The Stone Roses that someone sent me a DVD of a few years ago (thank you whoever that was) and now, like everything, it’s on youtube in six parts. Get into it. Also get into my third muxtape @ http://buddyhead3.muxtape.com/.

Blood On The Turntable Documentary 1/6

And here are some of my favorite early songs by The Roses to accompany the video… Listen to these while you practice the Ian Brown dance.

The Stone Roses - “Tell Me”

The Stone Roses - “I Am The Resurrection”

The Stone Roses - “Waterfall”

The Stone Roses - “Sally Cinnamon”

The Stone Roses - “I Wanna Be Adored”

Blood On The Turntable Documentary 2/6

Blood On The Turntable Documentary 3/6

Blood On The Turntable Documentary 4/6

Blood On The Turntable Documentary 5/6

Blood On The Turntable Documentary 6/6

Because of Meathead’s post about Radiohead I’ve gotten some pretty sweet hate mail. It’s like Buddyhead 1999 in my inbox the last few days, reminds of back when people actually read what we wrote here and stuff. Ahh, the glory days! Anyways you gotta check out the hate after the jump.

With the goal of cheering this place up, I figured it was time I posted a photo that displays one of my favorite sayings… “SET PHASERS TO RAVE!” This photo was taken in a shitty backstage on this past Jubilee UK tour in Leeds. It’s titled “Set Phasers To Rave!” Click to make it bigger so you can read all that.

I just like the idea of Setting my phaser to rave. Sounds like it’d be a good time. Whatever it is.

Here’s the hatemail I got form THIS post Meathead wrote.

“you’re fronting like you are mocking Radiohead and all their fame, but here’s the bottom line deal:

you are manipulating their competition to gain exposure for your cynical and ugly blog. you are actually riding on the backs of what Radiohead have created through sincere musical efforts in order to gain mention in the music press… ha ha.. you’re fucking clever… you can get all those pussies at the indie press sites like Pitchfork to write whiny posts about how Meathead won the competiion…. and everything will point to your website… how fucking clever
you will have succesffuly mocked hte band and all their fans and anyone who put time and effort into making a mix… because all those remixers are fags anyway right? little hipster fags… isn’t that what you guys think?

just remember… the exposure that you are trying to gain from this is ultimately coming from Radiohead’s fame and history, which you can’t fucking touch…. you’re scummy little shits compared to what they’ve accomplished… so go eat a fuckign dick”"

Replacement’s reissue’s are coming out this month and there’s a rumor they might be the band to hop on Coachella last minute. It’d be neat, but it’s not gonna happen. At least they’re gonna put these records out with bonus tracks… We’ll have a contest for them really soon. Keep an eye out. Pretty sure this song isn’t on any of the reissues.

The Replacements - “If Only You Were Lonely”

If you’ve been following the hottest band in the world, Radiohead, as much as I have lately, you’d know by now that they are, without question, the leaders of the music revolution that’s happening today.  You can tell by the way everyone else is trying to copy all of their brilliant, innovative new ideas.

For instance, when Radiohead decided to be totally badass and say “Fuck you record label, taking all our money, we’re going to sell our own records now,” they’d do the same thing, simply walking away from their legally-binding record contracts.  Naturally, some haters out there want to imply that Radiohead’s contract was simply fulfilled sooner, thereby giving them the chance to split before other big-name bands could, but that’s bullshit.  Most bands love their friendly, caring, creatively nurturing record companies and would have no reason whatsoever to want to leave them, until Thom Yorke determines that it’s cool to do so.

When they chose to give away their groundbreaking new album In Rainbows and let people pay whatever they want for it, other bands immediately said “We gotta get in on that action!”  Unfortunately for them, though, those other bands didn’t receive the massive windfall that Radiohead got.  In Rainbows brought in somewhere around £483 billion (actually that’s a guesstimate, seeing as Radiohead never officially said how much they made, but I’m sure it’s right on the mark since, since, well, it’s fucking Radiohead).

At this point, Yorke & Co. had clearly set the new standard for the music business, and I’m sure many bands would be content to rest on their laurels at this point.  But not Radiohead!  They’re always coming up with new and clever ways to surprise everyone.  Not too long ago, they announced an exciting contest in which fans were invited to create a visual accompaniment for any song from In Rainbows.  Wow!  And whoever submits the best creation will receive $10,000!  Then they’re supposed to take that $10,000 and make a better visual accompaniment (a “music video,” let’s say) than the one that they used to win the contest.  Can you imagine it?  Seeing your own Radiohead music video on MTV once, or maybe even twice (dare to dream!), presumably at 3:45 in the morning?  I honestly can’t think of anything that would be better than that.

But Radiohead didn’t stop there!  No way!  Now they have unleashed yet another massively innovative new concept upon the world.  Get this: a remix contest!  You may not be aware of this, but generally whenever a musical group records music in a studio, all the different parts are recorded separately.  There’s a track for the drums, a track for the guitar, one for the vocals, etc. etc.  Then they’re all mixed together into a complete song.  Now, if someone wants to remix the song, the best way to do so is to have these individual, separate tracks to work with, and unfortunately, most bands don’t release these to the public.  In fact, I can’t think of any that have.  Seriously, I’m really trying to think right now, and no one’s springing to mind.  Score another first for Radiohead!  They’ve released the tracks for their smash hit single “Nude,” with the help of iTunes!  Anyone who’s used iTunes knows how easy it is to purchase music from there.  Hats off to Radiohead for making it so easy for their fans to pay for the individual “Nude” tracks.  I bet nobody else would have thought to go through iTunes.  But, seriously, what could be easier than that?  Shit, I accidentally made that into a hyperlink, and I can’t figure out how to unlink it.  This WordPress editor is weird.  Just ignore that link and don’t click on it, please.  Thanks.

Of course, as you know, I am a very accomplished remixer.  I’ve made very popular remixes of songs by acts like Four Non-Blondes, Peter Cetera, and possibly Duran Duran (I forget).  So naturally I couldn’t resist jumping face-first into this Radiohead contest.  Over the past week or so, I’ve been slaving away at my own “Nude” remix, spending well over twelve hours a day on making the finest mix possible.  Well, I’ve finally put the finishing touches on it, and I feel it’s now ready to share with the world.  I’d really appreciate it if you guys would check it out and vote for it.  Thanks! <3

Radiohead - Nude (Meathead’s Awesome Remix!)

God, I can’t wait to see what Thom comes up with next!  I guess we’ll see in a few months!

From what Amazon.com says… it looks like we will all be able to buy a physical copy of the new Spiritualized album (called “Songs in A&E”) on May 27th, 2008. You can pre-order the regular version or prove you’re a real fan and buy the “Deluxe Edition” for a mere $42.99. Sweet right? Not really… check out this fucked up bummer… I’ve already got it on my ipod. Most likely you do too. Or will soon after reading this.

Spiritualized - “I Gotta Fire”

Spiritualized - “Death Take Your Fiddle”

Spiritualized - “Sweet Talk”

In case you haven’t had to read me ranting about what a huge Spiritualized, Spacemen 3 and Jason Pierce fan before, let me just set the record straight… I’m a big fan dork.

Let’s run down the list… Do I own all of the two prior band’s albums? Check. Do I own tons of their singles? Check. Have I seen Spiritualized live over 15 times in about 7 different countries? Oh yeah motherfucker! Was I even lucky enough to catch their first Australian show? Yeah and it in a bar that only held about 100 people, it totally fuckin’ ruled and they played a set heavy on the Spacemen 3 material to make things even better. I may be homless and poor but I’ve got to see and do some cool shit. So no regrets.

On a semi-related note, I went and saw Sonic Boom play live this past summer while we were on tour in Norway… Wow, did he suck. Yo, Sonic! Dude, if you are reading this or can read… the Casio keyboard with those shitty delay pedals and you mumbling over it… that shit does not rock. No one wants to hear that shit and it doesn’t fly around here so knock it off. Get a rock band together or OD, pick one.

Anyways, sorry about that…

I think Jason Pierce is one of our lazy generation’s best songwriters. There’s not much competition but the guy has made some great records and wrote some of my favorite songs about drugs, jesus and dying. With all that said I was pretty excited when a friend shot me an email with a link to download this new album. I like it and I think you should buy it when it comes out. But as always, I’ve got a few things to complain about. I’m writing Jason a letter about what’s bothering me.

Dear Jason… Mr. Spaceman… dude,

Just want to say thanks for making so much rad music and let you know I just heard your new record… you know the one that took you six years to make… HALF A DECADE… anyways, I’ve got some light-bulbs over my head right now and you’ve got time (about two months) to make it a little bit better…

And in the meantime… Jason, Crack a beer, forget some worries… cheer up lad! Look at it this way, you don’t have a 9 to 5 job and from the sound of your voice on the new record you’ve got a super-tits pill hookup. Life could be much worse my pill poppin’ friend… much worse. So have a pint of the finest ale your bar serves, send me the bill and paint on a smile once in a while… fuck, maybe try rocking while you’re at it.

Here we go… First, the whole harmony theme you have here is totally boring and retarded. I get what you’re going for and lemme tell you… I’m pretty high myself and it doesn’t sound good to me. Translation, you’re too high and here’s your new tracklisting with all the interludes deleted, boring pussy songs deleted and bemoted to b-sides and the songs in the correct new order. I tried to space out the songs with “on fire” in the title… what’s up with that dude? And what’s up with all the sad songs? Cheer up! You’re Jason Fuckin’ Peirce! Have the fuckin’ beer like I mentioned already, lighten up and let’s get back to rockin’ like you did on “Never Goin’ Back”. Gimme a record like that next time, bang it out in two weeks and gimme some songs to turn on in the morning that make me wanna stay alive. Loud guitars, cool lyrics, strobe lights, feedback… you know the drill!

This is your original tracklisting that makes no sense…

1. Harmony 1
2. Sweet Talk
3. Death Take Your Fiddle
4. I Gotta Fire
5. Soul on Fire
6. Harmony 2
7. Sitting on Fire
8. Yeah Yeah
9. You Lie You Cheat
10. Harmony 3
11. Baby I’m Just a Fool
12. Don’t Hold Me Close
13. Harmony 4
14. The Waves Crash In
15. Harmony 5
16. Borrowed Your Gun
17. Harmony 6
18. Goodnight Goodnight

This is your new and improved tracklisting I made…

1. I Gotta Fire
2. Death Take Your Fiddle
3. Sweet Talk
4. Yeah Yeah
5. You Lie You Cheat
6. The Waves Crash In
7. Don’t Hold Me Close
8. Sitting on Fire
9. Borrowed Your Gun
10. Goodnight Goodnight

To wrap things up, you’re welcome and you can run with that new tracklisting - free of charge. Plus, now it’s a perfectly rounded ten songs, no one needs more in one sitting. Now how about we press a 10 inch record with all the pussy songs I just kicked off your record and put them out on my label? Indie cred dude. But I was just told that “Cred Don’t Get You Fed” by Danny Lohne so maybe that’s not such a good idea.

I’m gonna change gears…. Over @ Jubilee.LA you can either buy the new Jubilee “Rebel Hiss” single, individual songs or sign up for the yearly membership and get everything Jubilee puts out this year first directly from the band. Plus we’re throwing in an exclusive 7 inch vinyl for everyone who goes for the yearly membership cuz we rule like that.

I’ve got a new favorite site and it’s http://muxtape.com/. It’s the mixtape for the internet generation. Upload a bunch of Mp3s, put em in order and share it with your friends. For those of you that care… I made a new Muxtape over @ http://buddyhead.muxtape.com/. Do what I tell you and make your own Muxtape. Post the link to it below. Share music. Do cool shit.

Seeing as how I’m rambling and this post has already hit rant status…. I wanna say thanks to all the contributors who’ve been writing here lately. I’m stoked that more people are saying shit here more… Readers make sure you say hi to Troy Boy, Simon Keeler, Stevie Chick, Matt Skiba, Kathleen and everyone else. Also thank you to everyone who’s been sending me cool links and/or cool shit in the mail for me to write about. Now where are you fuckers? Send me some new shit man!

And yes, we are still and always looking for smart people to contribute. Send all things under that umbrella to travis@buddyhead.com.

For some reason Facebook deleted our Buddyhead profile…. so here’s the new one. We got our Buddyhead Facebook page back.

I love going to the movies. Just to go. I like the whole act of just going, escaping from real life for two hours, paying shtiloads for junk food and maybe on an ideal day even grabbing some ass with the girl you tricked into coming with you.

I’m excited for Hell Boy II to hit the movie theatres, it was made by director Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy). Check out the trailer here.

You know what else looks rad? The new Martin Scorsese film on The Rolling Stones called “Shine A Light”. They’re old as fuck and cooler than any of us will ever be. Check the trailer and two mp3s from the soundtrack I got in the mail. First one is Jack White doing a song off “Exile” with them and the second one is The Stones doing “Champagne & Reefer” with Buddy Guy.

The Rolling Stones w/ Jack White - “Loving Cup”

The Rolling stones w/ Buddy Guy - “Champagne & Reefer”

Speaking of Jack White… I can’t say I’ve gotten into The Raconteurs record like I thought I would. The video is cool but I’ve yet to have been sucked in by their album like I was with their last one. Have you guys? Let’s hear some reviews!!

As for a personal update… I’m still living the dream and couch surfing right now. Weirdly enough, I’ve never been happier. Of course my back hurts from couches and I’d like to have a place to put all my shit… We’ve been home from tour for two months almost and I still haven’t unpacked, I’m living out of the same suitcase.

If you happen to know anyone renting a room in the LA area for cheap, or better yet… FREE! Lemme know dudes. Pay it Forward.

And my photobook is a week away from getting shipped to Shelbot to lay it out. I’m very excited to finally get it out. I’m expecting sometime around my birthday in July… give or take a month. It’s gonna have some crazy packaging that I’ll fill you in on at a late date (so no one can rip me off before mine comes out), some “postcards” of my photos as well as two exclusive Jubilee songs on a picture disc vinyl inside. It’s gonna be somewhat of a Buddyhead boxset. Oh, and the really gay photo at the top of this post… it gonna be in the book. And it’s only the second gayest in the book… oh yeah!

I can’t not go off.

Ian Rogers introduced me to Bob Ritchie last night. He’s cool as shit. Before that Casper met these people here.

By the way… the new Oasis record is the best record of 2008 and I haven’t even heard it yet.

Love,

Travis

So, I have been wanting to yak- yak yakety yak about something on Buddyhead for ages, the list of records, bands, cobblers and fashion I wanted to blather on about has grown and grown, I always put it off, too lazy, too busy, and sure you don’t want to hear a rant / ramble of a mid life crisee.

Having said that, I got home recently and found the double bollocksed remastered (deluxe packaging to boot) “Bummed” release had appeared in my house, Rhino Records had delivered the goods..Now I am not a fan of much UK stuff, aside from the Stones, Beatles, Sabbath, Venom, Motorhead, Walkingseeds, Loop, Deviated Instinct, Electro Hippies, Gallon Drunk etc, all of them more than worthy, but most else total shite, however “Bummed” came out when my listening mind was at its most receptive and my memories of that time pretty vivid even though there was a lot of old vim and vigour going up my nose, and along with the discovery of ecstasy - my thrash head was obsessed with grunge, noisy American hardcore, noise, Australian pop, noise, sludge… then I heard the remix of “Wrote For Luck” whilst out of my pile in some shitty “indie / alternative” club in some shitty part of north London, armed with a pill and a bottle of thunderbird wine. It was revelatory! I went to another “club” a week later, this time with another of those pills, and witnessed possibly the worst piece of shit ever, the Paris Angels, seriously, they were shit, but I was dancing my ass off (E being the magic number!), and then they stopped, and it seemed like an endless stream of Mondays’ tunes began pouring from the speakers, I didn’t stop till they kicked us out, finding a nightbus whilst dish-eyed and looking like a Mudhoney roadie at 4 am in north London isn’t exactly easy, but it seemed fun.

Happy Mondays - “MadCyril”

Happy Mondays - “Hallelujah”

I was pretty lucky, I was working at a record Distro that did some export also, and got to hear most stuff that got released (indie mind) I seem to remember getting copies of some of the Mondays’ records around this time, it was a pretty mental time, I was homeless for a week, then on floors, going to see gigs almost every night of the week, I had split from my long term girlfriend, I had thrown myself into the grungewars, disowned thrash and yet the Mondays (and the Roses) were making me dance?? WTF? WFL Vince Clarke mix more like…

Happy Mondays - “WFL (Vince Clarke 12 inch Mix)”

The album had enough tough indie swagger, loose phat (!) beats and laconic Manc drawl that either I was losing my mind to like or it was a real case of right place / right time, it seemed so fresh then, “Mad Cyril”, what the fuck is that about…? “Wrote For Luck” blew my mind, “Lazyitis” was just pounding, they released a single called “Hallelujah” and it was like some gospel nonsense baggied up, and that term Baggy? They hit on the right feeling in the UK at that time, I didn’t listen to the album that much then, mainly the WFL single, then the Rave On EP came out, but I did revisit the album a bunch in later 89 / 90… i went and saw them destroy the National Ballroom in Kilburn, some birthday party for DIngwall’s Feet First night, I was force fed a pint of neat vodka, and some small pill, it was carnage, lots of fun and more besides.. And that’s what listening to this essential reissue has done to me. The album, the follow up EP, all the remixes, all of them, some pretty crappy sleeve notes aside, but the music is still amazing and fresh today…it twisted British music so that it was really great…really great. Acid House, baggy nonsense, loutish rhymes, spastic dancing, like a mental manc mardi gras encapsulated on disc….this is a rant, I could go on and on and on, but you have to trust me, this is too damn good…… it’s their best album! It still sounds really great, different and off its bollocks now…. And no, I don’t like the Smiths.