The demo for the new version of Championship Manager is available for download, either from Sigames or several unoficial mirrors. A soccer (football outside my country) simulation without peer, it is one of the few computer games that holds my interest and has repeat playability.
ESPN lists the phoniest records in sports. Baseball represents with 5 of the top ten, which is understandable, being the most staistic-driven major sport.
Interesting press conference (RealMovie link), Ari Fleischer is laughed off the stage when he insists that leaders of other countries can't be bought (about 28 minutes into the briefing). Text of the briefing.
MR. FLEISCHER: I haven't seen the story. And you already have the answer, about what this will be decided on. But think about the implications of what you're saying. You're saying that the leaders of other nations are buyable. And that is not an acceptable proposition. (Laughter.)
Congratulations to a fellow Guided By Voices fan, whose label Must Destroy Music is celebrating their first UK Top 40 single, "Get Your Hands Off My Woman
Motherf*cker," by The Darkness. Their Radio 1 session was broadcast last night, which included a cover of Radiohead's "2 Minutes To Midnight" and Metallica's "Creeping Death," grab the mp3's at their website.
Reading: Stones From The River, by Ursula Hegi; Morning Poems, by Robert Bly
Listening: Jeff Tweedy live shows (in the car); Enon and Deerhoof (at home)
Eating: Stout Chili (my own recipe, made with love and beer)
Drinking: Black Swan Shiraz (direct from Wal-Mart, in a bottle no less)
Thawing: After playing a round of golf today in the rain with temps in the lower 40's.
You have to love a site that uses men's briefs instead of the common stars to rate records. This was one of the few reviews I found of Bishop Allen's cd, "Charm School," which was recommended by a friend. Visit their website for downloadable mp3's from the album, maybe you'll be like me and order yourself a copy after hearing only one song.
Senator Orrin Hatch (Utah) announces payola investigation. Perhaps he's still upset at his poor album sales.
Glorious Noise reviews a show by Syd Straw, my favorite recurring co-star of the amazingly fabutastic series, The Adventures Of Pete And Pete, a show astounding for its use of alternative rock music and musicians.
Music piracy has caused a change in the Chinese music industry:
‘‘There is no income from the royalties, so artists in China record single songs for radio play instead of albums for consumers,’’ said Lachie Rutherford, the president of Warner Music Asia-Pacific. ‘‘Stars need to look elsewhere to finance the rock-star lifestyle.’’ Industry executives say this reality also is beginning to draw attention in Europe and the United States, where music companies face falling revenue from compact disk sales as Internet piracy increases.
Since we first met, my wife has tormented me by humming or singing an innocuous tune first thing in the morning, then laughing at me when I'm humming it over dinner. Apparently, this article sums me up quite well:
people most frequently plagued by this phenomenon are those with slightly neurotic tendencies, and people who enjoy and listen to music often.
Noise Pop 2003 kicks off tomorrow (Tuesday) with a free Har Mar Superstar show at Thee Parkside (with free beer). Some days, I wish I lived in San Francisco.
For the Har Mar Superstar fans out there, he will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight (Monday).
Catch the Apples In Stereo on Live With Carson Daly tonight (Monday).
Two Quasi live Peel sessions are available for download, catch the indie pop duo in the studio with the legendary John Peel.
Another original vinyl copy (#241/500) is available on eBay, put up by a resident of Leland, Michigan. The last copy sold by Toby sold for over $1000. Why, oh why, did I sell off my vinyl (which included a copy of the original Propellor) six years ago?
The obligatory Grammy post: I don't care. When a masterpiece like Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot doesn't garner a single nomination, then I am sure I have lost interest in the beauty pageant.
John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats sends a missive from the road, extolling the virtues of road music.
About people downloading the new album and kicking Beck out of the bathtub :
i'm very sad at some of you for peeking at you christmas presents before christmas morning, can't you wait? i can, well i do, we want you to have it when we want you to have it, it's unfair that some get a taste and confuse others before they have the chance to have it for themselves, but the devil is at work here and you will pay for your impatience. this world of have it now, millisecond attention span and gross neglect for quality is getting old.
At least I agree with the "gross neglect for quality" part, in both music and the world in general.
The ILM thread. My vote goes to Peter Buck. His band Tuatara has put out a couple of good records, not to mention the Hindu Love Gods or the Minus Five. Also, when I was a freshman in college in 1981 and REM was getting an incredible amount of hype and attention around Athens, I saw firsthand Michael Stipe turn into a primadonna, while Buck would still hang out at the Wuxtry, talking about bands and music with the regulars.
Like a movie mummy, poopoochoochoo has been revived! Long live the belly laughs!
Super Mario Brothers: Hit '80's Video Game Or Communist Propaganda?
The Flaming Lips will be performing "Do You Realize" tonight on David Letterman. I've been listening to some Flaming Lips live shows lately, Wayne Coyne's banter is possibly even more enjoyable than the music. Also entertaining is their choice of covers, I've linked to several live Lips covers below:
the one i love (rem)
ode to billie joe (bobbie gentry)
divine hammer (breeders)
Rolling Stone runs a small piece on Cex:
"I'm not doing any work right now, but I got to soon, 'cause I'm really broke," says Cex, a twenty-one-year-old white-boy rapper. Cex, who's currently considering work as a doorman or a record-store clerk, blew his album royalties and tour money supporting his party-hearty lifestyle.
Rock on, dude. Cex for the Nobel Peace Prize! (renamed the Nobel Party Prize, of course)
Paul's Page has posted more live Paul Westerberg tunes, these coming from his performance at the Troubadour in West Hollywood in 1996.
Coachella, the spring muxic festival in Indio, California, officially announced its lineup today:
April 26: Beastie Boys, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Queens Of The Stone Age, Groove Armada (live), Blue Man Group, the Donnas, N*E*R*D, Ladytron, Felix Da Housecat, Masters At Work, Kinky, Roger Sanchez, Darren Emerson, Talib Kweli, Peanut Butter Wolf/Jaylib, Badly Drawn Boy, the Libertines, Gomez, the Music, Hot Hot Heat, Idlewild, Amon Tobin, Ben Kweller, Joseph Arthur, Particle, Christopher Lawrence, Division Of Laura Lee, South, Stereo Total, the Mooney Suzuki, Nightmares On Wax, Herman Cantanneo, D:Fuse, Spymob.
April 27: Red Hot Chili Peppers, the White Stripes, Underworld, Jack Johnson, Primal Scream, Blue Man Group, Sonic Youth, Thievery Corporation, Cafe Tacuba, Fischerspooner, Dirty Vegas, Deep Dish, Richie Hawtin, Timo Mass, the Mars Volta, Johnny Marr and the Healers, G. Love and Special Sauce, Rooney, Ben Folds, Tortoise, the Soundtrack of Our Lives, the Polyphonic Spree, Mouse On Mars, El-P/Aesop Rock/RJD2/Mr. Lif/Murs, Black Eyed Peas, the Von Bondies, Whirlwind Heat, the Kinison, DJ Irene, 22-20's, DB, Eisley.
Send your female children to Rock 'n' Roll Camp For Girls this summer if they're aged 8-18 and want to learn "the basics of creating and playing rock 'n' roll music on their instrument of choice - vocals, drums, electric guitar, keyboard or bass."
I'm guilty of #2, #3 and #6 on this list. I make no apologies about my messenger bag, though, it holds a couple of books, my laptop, a legal pad and many CD's comfortably.
Doug Gillard, superior axeman for Guided By Voices, has completed work on the soundtrack for the short film Creative Process 473. The trailer for the film and an MP3 sample are online, this soundtrack will have to do until Gillard releases his side project (with Robert Pollard), The Lifeguards this summer (as part of Pollard's Fading Captain series).
I missed this around Valentine's Day, but Excellent Online has posted an interesting "Flirt mix," two CD's of gushy love music. Catch the Of Montreal track, at the very least.
I Like American Music has posted these, and as they say, "here's five ways to remind yourself of the right reasons to love your country":
1. Edwin Starr - War
2. Sun Ra - Muclear War
3. Steve Earle - Best That We Can Do
4. War Is A Crime - Antibalas
5. Slayer - War Ensemble
Stop by their website, download the mp3's and play them loud.
Kate Moses writes an interesting piece in the Guardian chronicling her baking habits while she wrote a fictional account of the last days of Sylvia Plath (also an avid baker). Since I'm both an admirer of Plath and an avid cook, this article (complete with SP's recipe for Tomato Soup Cake) is too wonderful for this cold grey day.
Observations From A Reluctant Anti-Warrior, pretty funny, even if I don't necessarily agree. If you like this cartoon, check out his others.
The Bonnaroo Festival announced some of their lineup for the June 13th-15th event, including surprises like James Brown, Sonic Youth, the Roots, the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players and Tortoise to play alongside jam band staples Widespread Panic and The Dead. We may go this year, the show is under a hundred miles from our house and I'm always up for live music.
Never one to overlook a light meme when busy, here are the ten songs that were played today when I loaded every digital music file on my system into Winamp and hit "shuffle":
1. Polyphonic Spree - Baptism (2001-10-06 Denton, Texas)
2. Destroyer - Students Carve Hearts Out Of Coal
3. Pinback - XIY
4. PJ Harvey - Darling Be Here.mp3
5. Tori Amos - Horses.mp3
6. Sunshine Fix - Ordinary Extraordinary
7. Swearing At Motorists - Leaving Adams Morgan
8. Bob Dylan - It's All Over Now Baby Blue
9. Arkon Daraul - Horsing & The Damn French
10. Kleenex Girl Wonder - Five Guitars
<-- the rub, et al
Excellent Online asked British bands to cover American originals, and vice versa, and is serving up the resulting CD as mp3's, complete with cover art. It's a great way to sample new bands, with personal favorites Marshmallow Coast and the Autumns representing.
Some items need no introduction: Fred "Vanilla Ice" Durst's 1989 demo video.
Many tracks from John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show are linked at à Radio Plus. Lots of variety here, from J.Mascis to Liars, McLusky to Hefner.
<-- I Love Music (if you're not reading ILX, start now! You can thank me later)
Magnet interviews Johnny Marr:
The general reaction people have had to me telling them there’s a Johnny Marr album is, “Oh, he can sing?”
It’s only been the last week or so that I’ve started doing interviews and therefore getting feedback from people who don’t have a vested interest in telling me that it’s good—no, I’m joking. But what I realized pretty quickly was that people were asking me about other stuff rather than singing, so I took that as being a really good thing.
Donkey Kong did come out a long time ago...
Rodrigo has posted mp3's of albums ranging from early Mission of Burma to Oneida, all zipped and ready to download.
Morrissey and Johnny Marr are cashing in on Tatu's cover of "How Soon Is Now":
The one-time Smiths singer and guitarist/songwriters have already netted around £200,000 from Tatu’s cover of their 1984 classic ‘How Soon Is Now?’.
This was inevitable, making companies and universities liable for their employees online activities. More scare tactics from one of the scariest organizations out there.
I just finished my Valentine's mix in time to give my wife a copy before dinner.
Which Colossal Death Robot Are You?
I'm Bea Arthur... oops, wrong quiz. Actually it says I'm Optimus Prime.
Another piece from Nerve, examining the history of osculation.
Nerve looks at the best "agony anthems" from 1934 to present. Some good songs are included, from the obvious ("I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry") to the not-so-obvious ("He Stopped Loving Her Today," one of my favorite country songs). Be sure to read the write-ups, that Michelangelo Matos guy is pretty funny.
In Baghdad, blogging away. Read his take as an Iraqi in these times.
<-- the rub (whose weekly mp3 downloads are especially cool this week: : a Robyn Hitchcock cover of "Eight Miles High" and The Cavedogs' "Tayter Country")
Buy the old pacemaker of the drummer of Mogwai (thankfully already removed). Bid on eBay now!
The Village Voice announces theur annual Pazz & Jop poll results, with few (if any) surprises. A nice feature is the ability to look at the lists by year as well as search the lists by keyword.
A sweet, offbeat love story in time for Valentine's Day:
New York had really lost its luster. Not only was I sick of it, but something much more appealing was 2,000 miles away. I did what any self-respecting hopeless romantic would do: I wrote a country song.
<-- Robot Wisdom
Sleeve Notes posts some ultimate drug music clips this week, a treat even for those of us whose occasional drug of choice is a beer or shiraz. "We Are Phuture" by Phuture is sheer brilliance! While there, stop by the music page for mash-up downloads and bootleg links.
np: John Vanderslice, Insound Tour Support #18
Znet compiles their list of the top 50 anti-war songs, along with their lyrics. Sing them all day, boys and girls.
The next time we're invited to a baby shower, we're giving this "little devil" overall dress for a girl or this "Anarchy In The Pre-K" hoodie for a boy. Baby clothes from this store make me want to have one to dress up and upset little old ladies.
Chunklet interviews Roger Miller of Mission of Burma. I did a double-take when I read he was 50...
Audioscrobbler is a pretty nifty Winamp/XMMS utility, keeping tracking your listening habits and suggesting similar music. For the nosy, here's my recent listens.
<-- metafilter
Clear Channel is starting a new service, where concertgoers can buy a CD of the show they attended minutes after the show is over.
According to the quiz, I am "savvy, sassy and always on the go! Even if it means borrowing someone else's car without asking! Sometimes you say the wrong thing at the wrong time, but that's why we all love you!"
Blissbog adds footnotes to his excellent Village Voice piece on the history of garage rap.
Does anyone make consistently more interesting videos than Bjork? I think not.
P.S. I still miss the Sugarcubes.
Looking for an inexpensive way to enjoy SXSW this year? If you know someone in (or near) Austin, wristbands go on sale locally (walk-ups only, no phone, web or mail sales at this price) for $95 until May 7th or 4000 are sold (whichever comes first). After that, the price is $115.
I listened to the White Stripes new release, Elephant, for the first time today. Initial reaction: it seems much more consistent than its predecessor, White Blood Cells, and the songwriting is very strong.
Rjyan Kidwell of Cex keeps an interesting sporadic weblog, writing about his life and in partiular the creative process. Pretty good stuff for those of us who are fans.
"The latest on Scandanavian music from around the web."
According to the site, Roxette is still a pop phenomenon in Sweden.
Check out the weekly 4AD rare track at the Eyesore database. For the next several hours, the song is Dead Can Dance's "Garden Of Arcane Delights (demo)."
<-- braquage
Hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons is calling for a boycott of Pepsi products, because Pepsi fired rapper Ludacris, then hired Ozzy Osbourne as pitchman.
For the geek in all of us, a gallery of 5.25" floppy sleeves.
<-- ascii rock
Rumors of a 2003 reincarnation of this music festival are surfacing on the web. The lineup would allegedly include Queens Of The Stone Age, Interpol, Jane's Addiction, Jurassic 5, Audioslave, and Incubus. If this does come to fruition, I hope some sonic variety can be added to the bill.
np: Rhett Miller, "The Instigator"
So why does Bush, leader of the free world and a product of Yale and Harvard, consistently mangle this vital and often-used word?
It's possible, Guenter says, that he does it to be liked.
"There is always an appeal to a certain amount of folksiness by a president," Guenter says. "The president is supposed to be populist and of the people. I don't think [presidents] make any overt attempt to come across as learned or scholarly. This country has a big distrust of people that are considered to be too educated."
reading: The Goshawk, by T.H. White
listening: Televise, Calla
eating: Edy's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
drinking: Harp's Lager
Popmatters reviews the latest in Robert Pollard's Fading Captain series, Motel Of Fools:
Motel of Fools might not be the most comfortable recording he's made, but it does constantly spark your interest. It's a motel where ideas, thoughts and sounds come and go. Some of them might mean more to you than others, but all of them will get you thinking or feeling something.
One question: if this woman is so clairvoyant, why does she have to ask the owners their pet's name?
After Colin Powell's speech to the UN yesterday (and the subsequent spin), check out dack.com's "Warlog, All War All The Time" for the rest of the story (as Paul Harvey would say).
The RIAA pulls the plug on Soulseek, temporarily at least. A moment of silence, please, for the passing of a good friend...
Update: According to the FAQ, they may be up soon and are merely having server problems. Thank goodness!
Another Vonnegut interview, this time from In These Times:
How have you gotten involved in the anti-war movement? And how would you compare the movement against a war in Iraq with the anti-war movement of the Vietnam era?
When it became obvious what a dumb and cruel and spiritually and financially and militarily ruinous mistake our war in Vietnam was, every artist worth a damn in this country, every serious writer, painter, stand-up comedian, musician, actor and actress, you name it, came out against the thing. We formed what might be described as a laser beam of protest, with everybody aimed in the same direction, focused and intense. This weapon proved to have the power of a banana-cream pie three feet in diameter when dropped from a stepladder five-feet high.
Do you read and enjoy No Rock And Roll Fun (if you don't, start now)? Simon has put together a new project, chronicling our waltz into war, The War Ticker.
Courtney Love bares it all in an upcoming Q feature.
<-- metafilter
A pictorial history of the Mozzer at famous events (the Hindenberg tragedy, walking on the moon, Iwo Jima, etc.) captioned by Smiths lyrics.
Flak lists their top songs of 2002, with an mp3 of each available for download. The list seems tailored for me: a couple of Mountain Goats songs, some Frank Black, Trail of Dead and Paul Westerberg.
Lou Reed talks to LA Weekly about his new double CD, The Raven, touching on the guest musicians (Ornette Coleman, David Bowie, Laurie Anderson, among others) and the disservice that mp3's will do to this record:
I found this sort of feeling as an audio experience, it's like a huge tidal wave of sound, and it makes you go, like, Damn! Wow.
And if it's gonna go on an MP3, it's like chopping its dick off. People say, "I don't care about that." Well sure, fine, okay, at your own risk, read Ulysses as a comic book. Each to their own.
Rollling Stone accidentally gets some credibility and interviews Jeff Tweedy:
"It's never been one of my dreams to win a Grammy," says Jeff Tweedy, whose band Wilco got zero Grammy nominations for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, perhaps the most acclaimed album of 2002. "I don't think the Grammys have anything to do with artistic merit."
Matador has posted an MP3, "Don't Have o Be So Sad," from the upcoming Yo La Tengo album.
<-- fluxblog
"The Space Race Is Over," Billy Bragg
When I was young I told my mum
I'm going to walk on the Moon someday
Armstrong and Aldrin spoke to me
From Houston and Cape Kennedy
And I watched the Eagle landing
On a night when the Moon was full
And as it tugged the tides, I knew deep inside
I too could feel its pull
I lay in bed and dreamed I walked
On the Sea of Tranquility
I knew that someday soon we'd all sail to the Moon
On the high tide of technology
But the dreams had all been taken
And the window seats taken too
And 2001 has almost come and gone
What am I supposed to do?
Now that the space race is over
It's been and it's gone and I'll never get to the Moon
Because the space race is over
And I can't help but feel that we've all grown up too soon
Now my dreams have all been shattered
And my wings are tattered too
And I still can fly but not half as high
As once I wanted to
Now that the space race is over
It's been and it's gone and I'll never get to the Moon
Because the space race is over
And I can't help but feel that we've all grown up too soon
My son and I stand beneath the great night sky
And gaze up in wonder
I tell him the tale of Apollo
And he says "Why did they ever go?"
It may look like some empty gesture
To go all that way just to come back
But don't offer me a place out in cyberspace
Cos where in the hell's that at?
Now that the space race is over
It's been and it's gone and I'll never get to the Moon
Because the space race is over
And I can't help but feel that we're all just going nowhere