I took a vote and said yes: K. TOK triannual yearly music lists #2 out of 3 2006 end of August

Best albums
Liars - Drum's Not Dead
Girl Talk - Night Ripper
Man Man - Six Demon Bag
Herbert - Scale
Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
T.I. - King
The Thermals - The Body The Blood The Machine
Islands - Return To The Sea
Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy

Shut Up I Am Dreaming Of The Weekend (or The Man Man Are Called HorseMen Men There)

90+ page assignment due sometime next week, essay due thursday, photo day so we can still look our summer best thursday, race friday, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

MAN MAN SATURDAY
first concert I'm going to with Chelsea and her first indie concert and we're meeting her Temple friends Cory and Ian and undoubtedly we'll talk music and eat scores of cheese steaks from Jim's the perfect pre-concert meal for--who better?
MAN MAN

This couldn't be better if CSS came in and gave me a gift certificate for $500 of Jim's steaks while Boredoms played circle and while Lovefoxxx jumps between the crowd and stage, J Mascis and eYe sing a duet of improvised words to the Super Mario Bros. theme played by The Advantage and Black Dice comes in and they play a totally made-up crazy version of Duck Tales - Moon and Stuart Murdoch invites me to dance but he gets suffocated by Will Butler who then cues Brian Wilson to start singing "Good Vibrations" with not the Wondermints but Black Dice/Boredoms/CSS/Advantage/Black Dice and T.I. freestyles over the theremin part and I rehydrate myself with a nice bottle of Banana Colada Fuze.

Why? Because that would be terrible!

Besides the $500 in steaks of course

Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Tortoise fan

I'm dying for this Tortoise box set to come to my record store UGH I should have bought it at Pitchfork fest but for some reason I didn't and now I'm agonizing for Main St. Jukebox to get the thing and it still hasn't come! I refuse to download this because Tortoise is just one of those bands (Black Dice, Modest Mouse etc.) and I'm paying for it. I sounded like a maniac when I went back and asked for it again today. Damn!

Black Dice @ Studio B 8/26/06

After two hours of some DJ playing the same thing over and over again Black Dice came on around 11:00 PM and played a 45 minute set. Not bad, not great. Though they started the set with something new that had me excited, they soon jumped into "Motorcycle" which was fun to see live. I thought that would be it, but in the end they only played one or two songs I haven't heard. I always thought that they play only new stuff, but this time they pretty much played Broken Ear Record and then "Manoman" which disappointed me because I really wanted to hear "Gore". The video projections on the back were pretty great and the venue was really nice. They played so many dance tracks but no one was dancing; it was weird.

I am a blogger and he is my father's son

If you guys saw this article: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/38154/Revealed_White_Stripes_on_The_Simpsons#38154

and this picture


then guess what; my brother wrote this episode, so he wrote the scene that became animated and turned into a picture that you looked at on Pitchfork!!! Two Chuns made it on Pitchfork now and also make sure you watch the episode. That particular scene is a parody of the Michel Gondry video for that White Stripes song with like 200 drum sets and 1000 amps so it's pretty awesome. I saw the animatic too and it was good, even though it was just a bunch of black and white sketches with voice acting. The episode will be great.

This picture is actually pretty funny

And here's the track review

Frightening discovery that I just made while looking at Facebook

There are those ads for college posters and I looked at them and my jaw dropped; my roommates are going to COVER my walls with Family Guy and Garden State posters. I was born in the exact wrong time for college posters. At least people 10-20 years older than me get that guy with that shirt that says "COLLEGE" and Simpsons posters. I got these:

06-07 school

I don't believe that anyone is ever excited for the school year to start. All lies. I might be seeing friends I haven't been in school with for a year or two, but really I'm dreading high school. Summer 07 won't come soon enough

Oh, and one more thing

I snatched the new Thermals album as soon as it came out just to help my ratio on OiNK (it's helping a lot), but I really like it. Really sounds like John Darnielle got a band and an electric guitar and put all of his loud tracks on one album. I really love the lyrics, they don't get needlessly convoluted. I agree with Amanda Petrusich here: "Both in theory and execution, The Body, The Blood, The Machine hits like a less playful, less suburban American Idiot, its apocalyptic, heavily religious iconography conveniently layered over pounding, Ramones-style pop-punk." I really heard a Mountain Goats-esque thing going on there, with Hutch Harris' sort of nasally voice and the story-like lyrics. I'm glad Amanda Petrusich noticed that too, when I read the review later. Gosh, when was the last time a genuinely good, angry straight-up rock album came out? A while ago, that's for sure.

I'm unoriginal

Wow, just when I think I've thought of a cool name for my blog, I see this.

My Pitchfork Debut

Black Dice - Manoman 12"

The ride back from cross country was excruciatingly long to wait to see this. Exciting!

Addendum

Oh yeah, Little Miss Sunshine was pretty good. Old people filled the theater, and apparently they love Alan Arkin's antics and Steve Carell's deadpan delivery (person sitting next to Brian: "I don't get any of these jokes. What is Proust?"). The entire audience was screaming with laughter during that last scene, I just had to smile.

And I've had this Herbert album for a while but now I'm really loving it. I was listening to it today while looking through The Way Things Work for no reason, right after cross country practice. The second song, "The Movers and The Shakers" sounds like Black Dice's "Treetops" is being sampled and also it is such an excellent track

Concert Binge

I've actually got quite a few concerts lined up -- more than usual.

Dinosaur Jr 8/27/06 Lancaster, PA (I don't know about this)
Man Man 9/2/06 Philadelphia (My parents are letting me go just because they know Cougar)
Wolf Eyes 10/7/06 Allentown, PA (I can't believe they're playing so close to me!)
Steve Reich 10/15/06 NYC (I'm allowed to go to any concert if I call it "classical")

I'm trying to go to CSS too, if I can

My journal exposedq

Why don't people listen to you when you tell them a good band or movie or book or food they'll like

And then they just you know and it's like you'd really like Sunset Rubdown I promise or why don't you check out this movie I know Wes Anderson isn't the greatest director but boy Rushmore's good

And some people are like well this totally sucks how can you like this crap dude these bands, these artists you listen to are just trying to be different they aren't actually good you know

Chelsea is cool, and Cory seems like he knows what he's talking about too (never actually met the guy though).

Just check them out, check that out, check it out, check this out and it'll make you happier and make your life better I swear

Man Man (in general): 5 stars

K. TOK is a runner and I am my blogger's post

How about that Chips Ahoy! song, huh? It's no Your Little Hoodrat Friend, definitely, but Ryan Schreiber apparently is going to give it a 10,000 or something and best album of the A.D. years. And I hope it does, I really like The Hold Steady and Separation Sunday is one of those albums that I said I liked last year and still do like, so expect me to grab Boys and Girls as soon as it leaks(leakproof? Craig Finn wishes)/releases and then I'll blog about it and everything, it'll be fun I promise!

B. Jaxx impressions

This Jax(x) is better than Crazy Itch Radio

I am The World's Biggest Rooty Fan, so this is kind of disappointing. Crazy Itch Radio isn't really wowing me. It's definitely same old Basement Jaxx, but there's no "Romeo" moments, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Not even any "Cish Cash" moments, I guess. Or "Plug It In" moments. This is the least interesting Basement Jaxx thing I've heard. But then again, I've only listened to this once so far and the first time I listened to Kish Kash I hated it and now I like it so don't be surprised when I'm giving this #7 album of 2006 or something.

Best Pitchfork list ever

Man, the Beach Boys dominated Pitchfork's 200 songs of the 60s list. I'm kind of annoyed "Good Vibrations" was only at #21, but I could only smile when "God Only Knows" took the prize, with a write-up by one of my favorite Pitchfork writers, Dominique Leone, too. I'm surprised the list turned out pretty well, haven't a lot of these guys missed the '60s by a few decades?

Well now when my friends make fun of me for liking the Beach Boys, all I gotta do is pull out my print-out of the list and just grin and point at #1.

"Professor Murder" mystery solved

I just realized: Professor Murder = name of rapper on Mr. Show! If Professor Murder (band) are fans of Mr. Show, then they are alllllllllll right with me!

Champion: 4/5 stars

"Runnin wide open"

was really good. Not the kind of Holocaust movie that I was expecting; the director didn't force the viewers into being scared senseless by showing the Nazis torturing/shooting/killing prisoners. Instead he focuses more on a kid's views of the experience: losing friends, making friends, scrounging for food, both the upsides and downsides of being herded around the camps. The movie had a very segmented editing style, with a bunch of fades, like it was being told in a series of distinct chapters rather than one long narrative. It very much felt like watching a novel that was adapted for the screen, which is what it was.

Cross country is definitely more difficult than last year. Admittedly, our team is a lot better this year, but I'm running twice what I ran last year. This week looks like it's going to turn out to be a 40 mile week, much more than I've ever run within a week. Eight miles a day? Sounds like overkill, but it's actually not that hard. Usually I just hum a song to myself or don't think at all. I rely on simple tunes that don't require much thought.

Some good songs for running:
"Young Folks"
"7/4"
I don't remember any more

Criterion November

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

KID KINEMA

I didn't post for a week because I was at NYFA AMC 1-week film camp. I made friends, we hung out at Princeton, went to Wawa, went to the U-Store, went to the movie theater (of course), did stuff with other kids, played in the courtyard while some kid walked around blasting Missy Elliott over his iPod speakers at the late hours, played poker etc. Really fun despite my roommates blasting Coldplay's "Fix You" on repeat on their tinny laptop speakers.

All the movies had to be music videos, pretty much. No sound was allowed. I made a movie that I'm pretty satisfied with and it'll be on Youtube soon. Some girl named Anna (who wore a Pipettes dress one day) made a movie that blew me away. If she reads this, seriously contact me, I need a copy of that. Most of the kids made funny movies and even though they weren't excellently made, it's pretty crazy how they were so much better than the ones the adults (also there was an adult camp) made. Do you really lose so much inspiration and your sense of fun when you get that old? Those movies were such a bore, even the serious ones. I'll stop now before they try to hunt me down.

Anyway, Anna, what a beautiful movie.

Yo Scotty

i dont care if my blog pisses u off scott maybe my list needs more bell an sebastian nico brit rock and stephin merritt and movies

well

thats ur opinion and every1 is entitleld to a opinion but its just urs, and well i like dada more than pop art so if you dont like that then u don't have to read my blog and well so u stay out and i can just write what i want and u can write ur own movie reviews i dont do that stuff as much but thats my opinion, and u have ur opinion, and, i have my black dice and u have your quenten quarenteno and well lets agree to disagree kool?

Single Again

What a relief.

Fiery Furnaces - EP
Not great

Black Dice - Manoman 12"
Great

Weezer - Pinkerton
Very great

Let's get this over with - my old top 100 albums

About 6 months ago, after my friend Jonno made his list of top 100 albums of all time. I think #1 was Olivia Tremor Control's Dusk At Cubist Castle, but the list is offline now. I decided to start my own list. Here are the first four installments from my old blog. They are so long and boring and I got sick of writing them and even after a few weeks I changed my opinions. Anyway here's the full list, which is not my top 100 albums of all time, but my top 100 albums of all time as of March 2006, and things have changed a lot since then. Some things haven't changed, and I still stick with my choice for #1. I still really like almost all of the albums on there, too.

1 Slint Spiderland
2 Minutemen Double Nickels on the Dime
3 Neutral Milk Hotel In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
4 Talk Talk Laughing Stock
5 The Arcade Fire Funeral
6 Broken Social Scene You Forgot It In People
7 The Replacements Let It Be
8 The Avalanches Since I Left You
9 Silver Jews American Water
10 Sufjan Stevens Illinois
11 Animal Collective Sung Tongs
12 The Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs
13 XTC Skylarking
14 The Fiery Furnaces Blueberry Boat
15 Tortoise TNT
16 The Beach Boys Pet Sounds
17 Brian Wilson Smile
18 M83 Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
19 Modest Mouse The Lonesome Crowded West
20 Songs:Ohia Magnolia Electric Co.
21 DJ Shadow Endtroducing
22 Weezer Blue
23 Brainiac Bonsai Superstar
24 Boredoms Vision Creation Newsun
25 Black Dice Creature Comforts
26 Belle & Sebastian If You're Feeling Sinister
27 Pixies Doolittle
28 Dinosaur Jr You're Living All Over Me
29 The Olivia Tremor Control Dusk At Cubist Castle
30 Sonic Youth Daydream Nation
31 Sleater-Kinney The Woods
32 The Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin
33 2 Many Djs As Heard On Radio Soulwax, Pt. 2
34 The Hold Steady Separation Sunday
35 Dave Brubeck Time Out
36 The Streets A Grand Don't Come For Free
37 Weezer Pinkerton
38 The Unicorns Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?
39 Brian Eno Another Green World
40 Bonnie "Prince" Billy I See A Darkness
41 Les Savy Fav Inches
42 The Wrens The Meadowlands
43 Four Tet Rounds
44 Can Ege Bamyasi
45 Godspeed You! Black Emperor F#A#∞
46 Menomena I Am The Fun Blame Monster
47 Elliott Smith XO
48 Portishead Dummy
49 Liars Drum's Not Dead
50 Deerhoof The Runners Four
51 The Books The Lemon Of Pink
52 Sigur Rós Ágætis Byrjun
53 Modest Mouse The Moon And Antarctica
54 Pavement Slanted And Enchanted
55 Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
56 Yo La Tengo I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One
57 Sufjan Stevens Michigan
58 My Bloody Valentine Loveless
59 They Might Be Giants Lincoln
60 The Notwist Neon Golden
61 The Microphones The Glow, Pt. 2
62 Black Dice Beaches & Canyons
63 Roxy Music For Your Pleasure
64 The Olivia Tremor Control Black Foliage Vol 1
65 Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
66 Built To Spill There's Nothing Wrong With Love
67 Explosions In The Sky The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place
68 The Velvet Underground & Nico
69 Pixies Surfer Rosa
70 Kanye West The College Dropout
71 Steve Reich Music For 18 Musicians
72 The Go! Team Thunder, Lightning, Strike
73 The Dismemberment Plan Emergency & I
74 Dizzee Rascal Boy In Da Corner
75 Black Dice Broken Ear Record
76 Thunderbirds Are Now! Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief
77 Devendra Banhart Rejoicing in the Hands
78 Ornette Coleman The Shape Of Jazz To Come
79 Konono No. 1 Congotronics
80 Sonic Youth Sister
81 Annie Anniemal
82 Kraftwerk Trans-Europe Express
83 Excepter KA
84 The Samuel Jackson Five Easily Misunderstood
85 Joy Division Closer
86 Guided By Voices Bee Thousand
87 Deltron 3030 Deltron 3030
88 Boredoms Super Ae
89 Castanets Cathedral
90 Talking Heads Remain In Light
91 Big Black Songs About Fucking
92 Brainiac Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
93 Built To Spill Perfect From Now On
94 David Bowie Low
95 The Fall This Nation's Saving Grace
96 Wolf Eyes Burned Mind
97 Wire 154
98 Hüsker Dü Zen Arcade
99 Radiohead Kid A
100 Talk Talk The Colour of Spring

My mouth is watering

It literally is.

Configure your Mac Pro with up to 16GB of 667MHz DDR2 fully buffered ECC memory. This new fully buffered memory architecture allows for greater memory capacity, faster speeds, and better reliability, and at 256 bits wide, it boosts memory bandwidth and application performance.

Mac Pro offers four independent, 3Gb-per-second Serial ATA hard drive channels — twice as many and twice as fast as the previous generation — allowing you to install up to four 500GB drives. Connecting and disconnecting the drives couldn’t be easier thanks to a new cable-free, direct-attach system inside the enclosure.

I want this. I WANT this.

Doododoododoodoo

Young Brubeck


Old Brubeck

After seeing a huge mix of indie rock/drone/electropop/punk/hip-hop in Chicago, I saw the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Pretty disappointing considering he didn't play any of the tough songs from Time Out besides "Take Five", in which he hardly plays at all. The quartet played a mostly classical-sounding set and Dave Brubeck is like 85. I'm disappointed, it seems like he can't play tough songs like my favorite "Blue Rondo A La Turk". The half-filled concert venue mostly seemed bored by the set, but on their last song, when Dave jumped from a pretty boring piano line right into the first chords of "Take Five", everyone simultaneously cheered. That was great.

CSS + Me

This is cool. Today Pitchfork, tomorrow the world. I still don't have CSS's album. If anyone from CSS reads this, please send me a copy or something and I'll write a great review of it! Email me for my address.

I got four shots today; my arms hurt

Forforford

I love how Lovefoxxx pronounces "Cat Power"

Best thing about Pitchfork Music Fest 2006

With Man Man, CSS. What an amazingly fun, great set they played. I've seen videos of Les Savy Fav playing live. This was pretty similar, intentional or not. No blog can describe how exciting it was to see them, without ever hearing them previously, and to see them absolutely destroy. Lovefoxxx made the fact that she did nothing besides sing acceptable by having maybe the absolute best stage presence in the festival, where most of the bands just stood still, either not moving/talking at all or in John Darnielle's case, talking and tuning so much that a song had to be cut out. With my VIP pass that I'm not sure I deserved, I had maybe the best spot in the tent to watch CSS play without being surrounded by sweaty, drunk, unshaven hipsters. Folks, I don't get this excited about a live act very often. Partly because I hardly see concerts and because most bands just play. CSS totally got into the whole thing, not letting the fact that they deserved so much more than a tiny tent get to them. I even met their really cool/nice bassist, Ira (with the glasses) and got to walk to their pretty huge tour bus. I don't even own their CD yet, but wow. If it made me text my brother "You should see this", it's gonna be something special. Best of day 2.







Everyone knows Man Man is something special to see, too. These guys are nice people too. Besides Russell, I got acquainted with that dude with the cool glasses and the guy with the huge beard. Both good guys. Cool moments: Ryan throwing spoons at a bowl of water; the band feathered the crowd and I tried to grab one but the girl in front of me took it and handed it to me; the drummer jumping like 10 feet into the air; those two girls coming out for the last song and me thinking: "Oh yessssss I love this song". Best of day 1.

Apparently Ted Leo drew blood, a D. Banhart fan broke a chair, and Mission of Burma absolutely killed. I wish I saw those.

Top 3:
3. Liars (Maybe because it was so weird. After spraying water everywhere, lying in front of the fan, mooning the audience and changing into a bathrobe, the singer walked off the stage and passed out behind it. The crew couldn't get him to move.)
1 (tied). CSS
1 (tied). Man Man