but looks a little like the Fuhrer.

(From CNN.com)

This shirt is available from The National’s merch section. I ordered one for myself.

You’re probably thinking that he’s on Letterman performing a song from his upcoming Sub Pop release, Soft Airplane, right?

Wrong!

He was featured on Dave’s “Stupid Human Tricks” segment a few years ago. He and his friend do some “gymnastics”. This is the gold that YouTube was invented for.

Skip to 2:30 for Chad’s bit.

I occasionally get CDs in bizarre packaging and from labels I’ve never heard of. I usually throw it away if it looks like death metal or emo/singer/songwriter but sometimes it’s just quirky enough to get my attention. Such is the case with Take No Damage and their EP, Shambles. The CD comes to me in a plastic sleave with a couple color inserts. Looks pretty homemade and DIY - in a cool way. So I popped the CD in the player and I actually enjoy the result.

Here’s the skinny. It’s electro-splattered indie rock straight from Columbus, OH. Oh. Think Why? meets Weezer. Ghetto beats and marching drums and keyboard bloops and syntho guitar… sing/speak lyrics with a mild hip-hop edge… Quasi-political lyrics and samples from strange places… It all melds together and makes some sort of sick, twisted sense. If you’re looking for something totally different with a harsh edge, yet totally accessible then figure out a way to grab a copy of Take No Damage’s Shambles EP. I think you might get it for free from All Hail Records.

www.myspace.com/takenodamage

RIYL: Why?, The Emotron, Butthole Surfers

Originally written for Veribicide magazine.

Static Radio NJ
An Evening of Bad Decisions
Black Numbers

New Jersey punk rock with a hardcore history. Nothing new-fangled about that set up, but as the guys in Static Radio NJ remind us on their debut full-length, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. An Evening Of Bad Decisions is an excellent introduction to SRNJ (or the Srunge as I like to call them) for fans of early Bouncing Souls, Paint It Black or Lifetime. Sure, singer Mike isn’t redefining punk with his melodic rasp and the rest of the band isn’t blazing new trails with eighth note drums and speedy bar chords. But like mac n’ cheese comfort food, sometimes you just need a fret slide and sing-along chorus to remind you that punk’s still breaking. Clocking in at 27 minutes, AEOBD is a bullet train LP with no stops scheduled. If hardcore’s your bag, check out “Bothered” (“I’ll say it once when I’m talking to you / I’m bothered by everything you do”), if proto-punk’s your thing refer to “Who’s Laughing Now?” (“All these things and nothing’s changed / Your living day to day”) and if you pang for emo, cut yourself to “Fin” (“My heart is wrenching from these bonds you’re throwing out”). Static Radio NJ aren’t raising the bar, but they’re drinking heavily at it.

As posted earlier, I had plans to go and check out a few bands at Sunset Junction, Silverlake’s yearly street fest that took place this weekend. What a goat rope. Right off the bat I’m a little annoyed that I have to dish out $15-20 to even step foot on Sunset Blvd, which I’m pretty sure my $800 LLC tax that’s due in a couple months aught to entitle me to do, but I digress. I understand that it’s a street festival and they have to pay bands to perform and all that jazz. And I also understand that the street fest is part of Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance, a non-profit company with aims to better the neighborhood.

What I don’t understand is why, even with will call receipt in hand, I wasn’t able to enter the fenced in street fair. I paid for the ticket - didn’t try to get a press pass or anything. Yet, after walking two miles from where I parked the car, the first gate I came to at Sunset Blvd wasn’t allowing will call, only pre-printed tickets. A sign at the gate said to go to Bates Ave for will call. At Bates, there was a police officer telling people to go around to the other side where the fest ended on Sunset, right behind the main stage. So I went there. The ticketing tent was all sheeted up and no one was taking tickets. Someone said to go to the OTHER side of Bates Ave. I went there and the Junction employees there said they weren’t doing will call and to go back to the other gate. See where this is going? At that point, I saw that you could see the side of the stage where Broken Social Scene was performing, so I decided to hang there and avoid the seething mass of sweaty drunk hipsters. After one song, BSS had to stop playing because some mikes and guitar lines were on the fritz and it took about 10 minutes of Kevin Drew asking for someone who works here to come fix it. They even threatened to stop playing because no one was fixing the problem and it was getting ridiculous. After some piercing feedback squeels, stuff started working again and BSS finished their set. After that I walked to the car vowing never to give Sunset Junction and their clusterfuck of a street fest another red cent.

My pictures of Broken Social Scene

Blue Eyed Blacks “The Wrong Thing” Black Eyed Soul (October, Chicken Ranch Records)
Jason Moon Wilkins (lead) was in a band that was held at gunpoint by the drummers ex right before their lead was incarderated as an accomplice to murder. He wrote a song about it.MySpace.com/BlueEyedBlacks

Electric Touch “Who Put The Fire Out” Electric Touch (August 26th, Justice Records)
These guys have played nearly every Summer music fest in the US, recently adding VFest, Monolith, A.C.L. to their dates as they’re heading out on tour with The Fratellis. They’d love to meet up for interviews, in-studios, beers. Check out their schedule. MySpace.com/ElectricTouchMusic

Houseguest “Iron Oar” Welcome, All That’s Difficult (October, Audio Eagle)
A bit of an XTC vibe, will be the latest release from Patrick Carney’s (The Black Keys) label, “staggeringly beautiful skewed pop” (PopMatters) myspace.com/Houseguest

Mr. Lewis & The Funeral 5 “Black Coffee Night” Murder & The Art of The Dance (2007, Chicken Ranch Records)
Sounds like Tom Waits & The Dresden Dolls go drinking in a 1950’s Cantina. They’re working on a 2009 release, and hitting the West Coast with a tour this week! Check out the dates here: Myspace.com/MrLewisTheFuneral5

The Hush Now “Traditions” The Hush Now (October, self-released)
Consists of a Civil War re-enactor, Rock & Roll Camp counselor, and former guitar player of L.A.’s Celurean, Boston-based band, hybrid of indie rock and shoegaze. mysapce.com/TheHushNow

The Pack A.D. “Making Gestures” Funeral Mixtape (August 12, Mint)
These hard working Vancouver vixens just announced their September Tour dates to continue the support of their new MINT release, Funeral Mixtape (August 12th). A mix of Janis Joplin, The Black Keys, and Jack Daniels. myspace.com/thepackad

Bowery Boy Blue “Come Closer, Sisters” Stalk That Myth (late July, Space Photo)
The Neil Young-ish lead singer, Zeb Gould, can swoon you to a sweet slumber or get you ready for a protest, depending on which track you throw into the mix.MySpace.com/BoweryBoyBlue

www.mergerecords.com

Hey all. This weekend is Silverlake’s Sunset Junction festival. I’ll be heading over this evening to see Broken Social Scene and Cold War Kids. Photos will be up tomorrow. Tomorrow is The Germs, Black Keys and !!!, but I’m good with just a couple hours a year of street festivals or even park festivals. I just don’t like people. They’re creepy and strange. Faces come out in the rain. Luckily it doesn’t rain in LA very much, Mr. Morrison.

Yeah. Pictures soon.

The Wrens

Silver

Grass Records (1994)

The Wrens’ Silver is the kind of record that changes all your preconceptions of what amazing indie rock really is. Unfortunately for me (and many), I didn’t discover the Wrens until around 2000, six years after Silver was released on the formerly cool Grass Records (before it was bought out, sold out and Creeded out). The amazing thing about Silver is that in 2008, it’s more current than many releases to wind up in my mail box. The 23 tracks of Silver are a timeless, fuzz drenched concoction of punk, indie rock and pop. Seething from a year that gave us such grunge staples as Alice in Chains’ Jar of Flies, Stone Temple Pilot’s Purple and Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy, Silver is a testament to the creative forethought of four dudes from New Jersey.

Silver is an album chock full of intertwined genre-bending from the aggro-pop and lyrical balderdash of “Napiers” (”Darken the cram with hard dated words / I have to endure / That this is it”) to the je ne sais quoi (with accordion) of “Minion” (”Stay with me please / Look it can’t you read / Proteje damx mais san sez de vieux”) to the piano and acoustic guitar-driven torch song “William” (”I want you to know how I feel / What it means inside to grow and die”) to Jill’s (and my) favorite song, “Grey Complexion” with its haunting dissonant guitar and vocal harmonies (”It’s your grey complexion that I admire the most”). Variety in spades and yet a thread throughout that is 100% Wrens-centric. Silver achieves 14 years ago what many indie and post-punk bands struggle with today; greatness and diversity. Just listening to the album, I want to review every single song. Which I might do at a later date.

Luckily, you can own The Wrens’ Silver from iTunes for only $7.99. That’s only 35 cents a song! Or if you’re too cool to pay money for music, you can download a few select tracks below.

www.wrens.com

www.myspace.com/thewrens

Listen to The Wrens - “Grey Complexion“(MP3)
Listen to The Wrens - “Napiers” (MP3)
Listen to The Wrens - “Behold Me” (MP3)