The only thing that’s been keeping me going the past few days at work was the Dark Meat record. For some reason I only gave it two listens or so when it was first released — for that I’d like to apologize to everyone in Athens, GA (1/3 of you are in this band, I think). The record’s tons of fun and a great kick-start to your summer break.
MP3:Dark Meat - Well Fuck You Then
It’d be so easy to write a song called “Well F*ck You Then” and have it as an angry punk song. Well Dark Meat take that energy and passion and somehow manage to turn it into what I can only describe as a fairly joyful song. I’d imagine there’s a good bit of (middle?) finger pointing and shouting by the crowd when it gets to this song in the band’s setlist. I’m fairly jealous of that, actually. Oh well, I’ll just keep on rocking the album.
In other news. Iron Man is the best movie I’ve seen since the twofer of No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. Definitely the best action movie I’ve seen in forever.
Here’s that bootleg I promised you all a little while ago. The Duke Spirit stopped off with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club to celebrate Record Store Day at CD Central (my work). They absolutely rocked it — as evidenced by the dozens of their CDs we sold — and now you can have that performance to keep.
In one of the weirder covers of the year so far, De Novo Dahl have just turned in their version of the classic Speed Racer theme song. The original is full of just about as much pep as De Novo Dahl’s sugar-coated new record Move Every Muscle…, so it makes sense.
As the story goes, Warner approaced DND about covering the song for possible use in the movie. They had two days to record the track and it made it all the way to the Wachowski brothers before being turned down. Now they’re releasing it exclusively on iTunes today.
And let’s not forget: De Novo Dahl will be playing for FREE in Lexington at CD Central’s July 4th party downtown. The Nudie suits will have been heat-tested previously in the fires of Bonnaroo’s lineup. Looks like a fun summer for us and them.
For Beulah fans, the past few years have been rough. Beulah broke up in 2004 and since then we’ve occasionally heard bits of news regarding Beulah frontman Miles Kurosky’s new album. Well wait no more. Miles fixed himself up with a myspace last month and has a new tune waiting for us.
“An Apple for an Apple” is a really good song. I would ordinarily rip it from his Myspace and post it here, but out of respect for Miles, I’ll just encourage you to hit up his Myspace and stream it. It actually reminds me a little bit of the first Islands record.
In a fake press conference (see below for video), Tom Waits announced his tour dates for the southern US. Now excuse me while I go mapquest which is closer to my house, Knoxville or Columbus.
Fishboy was nice enough to stop off at the Shrieking Shack and share the entirety of their album Albatross with us. I’d never noticed how much Fishboy remind me of the who until I watched their guitarist Eric do his version of Townshend’s windmill arms. Once that happened, everything just clicked. The record’s fantastic and they’re a really fun live band. They’ll be hitting up Popfest later this summer, so here’s hoping I can make it down there this year.
I had quite the Kentucky day yesterday. I enjoyed the Derby atmosphere that permeated the whole state (trust me — you’d know it was Derby day even if you didn’t have a calendar), listened to some My Morning Jacket, sampled a few bourbons at night and closed out with Will Oldham’s music. If you find yourself in Kentucky this summer, I strongly suggest listening to this song shortly after the sun sets.
MP3:Bonnie Prince Billy - Death to Everyone
I have to say that my favorite thing about this song is how restrained it is. Will Oldham isn’t exactly known for flipping out mid-song, but for a song about impending death and doom, this one is played fairly straight-faced. That gives it a vibe only matched by old blues death songs (the ones that would really throaty singing and one chord through the whole thing). It’s a beautiful song with an underrated bass line running through the whole song that makes me believe that not only does Oldham know that death is on the way, but that he might be the only one who knows exactly when that’ll be.
I’ve been on a Sly and the Family Stone kick lately and was youtubing around for various concert footage when I ran into this gem. On the first Lollapalooza tour, Perry Farrell’s Jane’s Addiction and Ice T covered Sly’s “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey.”
For even more fun and racial awkwardness, here’s a version of the cover that starts with Perry telling a joke about black people!
