Charlyn, Please Report To Me

It seems all hear about these days is karaoke. This is probably due to the fact that Saturday at the wonderful Marie Macbain's 24th birthday party, I witnessed some knee buckling displays of karaoke magic. It was so magical that a small group of us sought out a private booth Sunday afternoon because we needed to satiate our fix. It's probably a good thing all we came out with on that trek was one of those Japanese message beans ("I'm sorry") and a couple tickets to Animal Collective. Feeding an addiction like that could be disastrous and awesome.

In the light of all this madness, I'm posting a clip of the lovely Chan Marshall aka Cat Power performing Enimem on what presumably was to become a similar bender I experienced this weekend. And at the same time, I buy another day to consider posting a substantial entry...

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With death comes new life

... or something like that. Pitchfork dropped two huge pieces of news today.

RIP Grandaddy.



They were my band at the turn of the millenium, defining every move I made. I think in a moment of true sensitivity, I might have shed a tear the first time I heard that Jed the Humanoid died. In these tough times, we must stick together.

But let me interject this line from Amazon Women on the Moon, "Is this a party or is this a funeral?" It certainly wouldn't be Backfield in Motion party without the mention of a Friedberger. Looks like we're getting some new Matthew solo stuff come this summer. Play on playa.


I couldn't leave Eleanor out of this entry completely.

Both articles can be read at Pitchfork.

Aside from that, sorry about the lack of updates. I'm currently wading into the "seeking a new job" pool, when I really should be cannonballing in there. But I'll always have time for you guys. You guys are pretty good. So, look out for some legit updates soon, not ones where I just steal shit from Pitchfork.

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For the Headz: Songz of the Day

The Advantage "SOLAR JETMAN - Braveheart Level" and "AIR FORTRESS - not fat iced caramel hazlenut soy latte with extra whipped cream" from Elf-Titled (5RC)




So... Which one is which?

Nostalgic video game revivalism seems so rampant these days, it's almost tired. There are serious problems when I can say I've gone three straight halloweens where I saw a Mario, or even worse run into a bro wearing a 1up mushroom t-shirt. Yup, you can find that right next to the jokey pot shirts in any Hot Topic. Where is the decency in our social construct? These relics are meant to be sacred, to be upheld with the sense of great pride. And what have the youth and young adult population of America done? They've taken a Double Dragon bandana and wiped their collective asses with it.

Okay fine, let's take it down a notch. Perhaps the reason I feel violated by this oversaturation of vintage gaming is because I don't know jack shit. It turns out I wasn't the only dude who made an all girl team on Baseball Stars (named Hooters Aurtles, "Hooters" because I was an avid watcher of Married... With Children back in the day, and Aurtles because we essed up the default name of Turtles and didn't feel like fixing it). Like everything I love, I believed I was the only person in the world playing Nintendo and I wanted to keep it a secret. Wake up shitbrick, almost every kid had a grey box in their living room (some luck ones had black flat boxes, SEGAHEADZ). Yeah, I played Duck Hunt like I was blind, but there seriously were blind kids playing Duck Hunt. I saw it on the internet, I think.

So, as I establish the fact that nearly everyone is a Nintendo lover, why isn't Sacramento's top-tier Nintendo cover act, The Advantage the most popular band in the world? Because I was right all along folks. This stuff is for real nerds, real headz. Videogameheadz. Sure people can bop their head to The Legend of Zelda and even some of the levels of Zelda 2: The Adventures of Link, but Solar Jetman? Air Fortress? Frank, you are blowing my mind.

Admittedly, I had never heard of these games either. Shit, when asked to identify certain songs on previous releases, three-quarters of my guesses are "Uh... Mega Man 2?". And I totally get a little tingle in my dingle when I hear Super Mario 2's jazzy pop stylings. Perhaps my highly self-touted memory is not good in the "obscure games from your childhood" category. But the way I see it is, just because a looney vet doesn't actually remember what happened in 'Nam, it doesn't mean he wasn't in the shit.

But how could I not remember? These songs are the catchiest songs ever. Both "Air Fortress" and "Solar Jetman" feature guitar harmonies that put Thin Lizzy to shame and melodic complexity that rival the top songwriters in pop music history. Dorky Japanese dudes on midi players were real rock gods, wizards of Oz, humble men in stature behind a great force to be reckoned with. The Advantage stays true to that idea. Live, they're nothing interesting, underwhelming at best, yet the sound they emit is truly awesome. The two hand tapping must have been cultured under simultaneous B-A tapping. Seriously, from the surface, these dudes are the most dexterous creatures in the world, naturally skilled in executing complicated guitar licks, defeating difficult stage bosses and rubbing quick ones out. However, the beauty of The Advantage lies in the fact that their mixing of jazzy math rock and interesting epic guitar riffage doesn't subtract from their ability to mimic the general feeling of a certain, sometimes recognizable song. Ultimately, they'll always be just another cover band, but they've successfully made each one of these songs their own.

Each successive Advantage album will be met with tempered excitement. I will never love or hate The Advantage, and eventually that should help curb my disdain for video game posuers. After all, it's been revealed, I'm not even that big of a Head. Expert or not, I still hold a fond place for vintage gaming and the nerve to point out that "DUCKTAILS - Moon" is actually spelled "Ducktales". As my esteemed colleague and serious Nintendohead, Landis "Bionic Commando" Knorr would say, "C'mon, guys."

The Advantage: http://www.theadvantageband.com/

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Yawnnnnn. 172 songs.

Has it really been two weeks since I last posted? I guess the Dave Parker 39 really took it out of me. Well, emerging from hibernation I come with a vengeance. It's as if I came right out of detox and the bus is dropping me off right in front of a happy hour. And it's glorious.

Yes, when we last spoke, I mentioned the songs of 2005 list I was putting together. Last year, I put together string of a hundred songs, alphabetically oragnized and it was magical. Unfortunately, when we rang in the new year this time around, I had nearly double the songs I had the year before. Call it laziness or a lack of selectivity, but I've decided to just drop most of those songs, 172 in total, on one big fat web log. It's like a mix tape for 2005, if it was like... six tapes. And for your information, there were rules to these shenanigans much like the DP39, but I broke them like 30 times. It just wasn't worth depriving you, or to be more exact, depriving me.

Yes, I like music. Indulge me.

Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire - A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head
Animal Collective - Grass
Animal Collective/Vashti Bunyan - Prospect Hummer
Antony and the Johnsons w/Lou Reed- Fistfull of Love
The Apes - The Zookeeper's Night Out
Fiona Apple - Used to Love Him
The Arcade Fire - Cold Wind
Architecture in Helsinki - The Cemetery
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Jules Lost His Jewels
Art Brut - My Little Brother
Baby Shambles - Arebours
Bad Dudes - F.F.B.O.
Devendra Banhart - Long Haired Child
Lou Barlow - Home
Beck - Rental Car
Belle and Sebastian - Photo Jenny
Black Mountain - Druganaut
Bloc Party - Helicopter
The Books - Smells Like Content
The Boy Least Likely To - Fur Soft as Fur
Bright Eyes - At the Bottom of Everything
Bright Eyes - Ship in a Bottle
British Sea Power - The Land Beyond
Broadcast - Tears in a Typing Pool
Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline)
Bunky - Baba
Vashti Bunyan - Here Before
Kate Bush - Pi
Calexico/Iron and Wine - Prison on Route 41
The Cardigans - I Need Some Fine Wine and You, You Need to be Nicer
Caribou - Lord Leopard
Castanets - All That I Know to Have Changed in You
Chixdiggit! - You're Pretty Good
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth
Clearlake - Don't Lie to Yourself
The Clientele - Since K Got Over Me
Clor - Hearts on Fire
The Cloud Room - Hey Now Now
CocoRosie - Honey or Tar
Constantines - Lizaveta
Crooked Fingers - Valerie
Crystal Skulls - Airport Motels
Danger Doom - Crosshairs
Death Cab for Cutie - Soul Meets Body
Death From Above 1979 - Luno
The Decemberists - The Sporting Life
Deerhoof - Scream Team
Des Ark - Some Are Love
Destroyer/Frog Eyes - An Actor's Revenge
The Detroit Cobras - It's Raining
DJ Muggs vs. Gza/Genius f/Raekwon - Destruction of a Guard
Doves - Almost Forgot Myself
Dr. Dog - Oh No
Edan - I see Colours
Electrelane - The Partisan
Enon - Knock That Door
Espers - Black is the Color
Feist - Mushaboom
Field Music - If Only the Moon Were Up
The Fiery Furnaces - Here Comes the Summer
The Fiery Furnaces - The Wayfaring Granddaughter
Floatation Toy Warning - Popstar Researching Oblivion
Foreign Born - In the Remote Woods
Franz Ferdinand - The Fallen
Fruit Bats - Born in the 70s
The Futureheads - Area
Gogogo Airheart - Lie with the Lamb
Gorillaz - Last Living Souls
The Go! Team - We Listen Everyday
Grandaddy - At My Post
Gravenhurst - Cities Beneath the Sea
Adam Green - He's a Brat
Gris Gris - Pick Up Your Raygun
Grizzly Bear - Don't Ask (Alpha Remix)
Grizzly Bear - Don't Ask (Final Fantasy Remix)
Jim Guthrie - Nighttime/Anytime
Petra Haden - Our Love Was
Head of Femur - Ringodom or Proctor
Headphones - Natural Disaster
Help She Can't Swim - I Don't Need You
Hockey Night - The Gallop
The Holdsteady - Cattle and the Creeping Things
Holopaw - 3-Shy-Cubs
Hot Hot Heat - Island of the Honest Man
Holy Ghost Revival - Mr. Fox (A Gnostic Hymn)
Islands - Abominable Snow
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Ramblin' Man
Jennifer Gentle - Tiny Holes
J-Live - Brooklyn Public, Pt. 1
Joggers - We've Been Talked Down
Keren Ann - La Forme et le Fond
The Kills - I Hate the Way You Love (Pt. 1)
Kings of Leon - Soft
Ladytron - Soft Power
LCD Soundsystem - Disco Infiltrator
Jens Lekman - Love is Still a Mystery
Love as Laughter - Dirty Lives
The Lovemakers - Times of Romance
Low - Cue the Strings
The Lucksmiths - A Hiccup in Your Happiness
Lyrics Born f/Dilated Peoples and KRS One - Pack Up (Remix)
M. Ward - Hi-Fi
The Magic Numbers - Morning Eleven
The Mars Volta - The Widow
M.I.A. - Bucky Done Gun
Mahjongg - Hot Lava
Steven Malkmus - Pencil Rot
Marbles - Cruel Sound
Maximo Park - Graffiti
Mazarin - For Energy Infinite
Cass McCombs - Sacred Heart
Menomena - Flour
Mercury Rev - In the Wilderness
Metric - Patriarch on a Vespa
Minus Story - To the Ones You Haunted
Minus the Bear - Hooray
The Mountain Goats - Lion's Teeth
The National - Baby, We'll Be Fine
North American Halloween Prevention Initiative - Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?
Nedelle - World Warrior
The New Pornographers - Sing Me Spanish Techno
Scout Niblett - Ruler of My Heart
Nic Armstrong and the Thieves - Broken Mouth Blues
OCS - Wait All Nite
of Montreal - The Actor's Opprobrium
Okkervil River - No Key, No Plan
Orange Juice - Poor Old Soul (Part 1)
The Oranges Band - White Ride
The Polyphonic Spree - Move Away and Shine
The Ponys - Discoteca
Pony Up - Matthew Modine
The Postal Service - Be Still My Heart
Prefuse 73 f/Ghostface and El-P - Hide Ya Face
Prefuse 73 Reads The Books - Pagina Dos
Quasimoto - Strange Piano
The Raveonettes - Here Comes Mary
Robbers on High Street - Bring on the Terror
Rogue Wave - Catform
The Rosebuds - The Lover's Rights
Russian Futurists - Paul Simon
The Shout Out Louds - Please Please Please
The Silver Jews - Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed
Six Organs of Admittance - Words For Two
Elliott Smith - Thirteen
Sons and Daughters - Medicine
Regina Spektor - Us
The Spinto Band - Brown Boxes
Spoon - I Summon You
Squeak E. Clean f/Karen O - Hello Tomorrow
Stars - Set Yourself on Fire
Sufjan Stevens - Come On! Feel the Illinoise!
The Sun - Lost At Home
Richard Swift - The Novelist
Tangiers - That Russian Bastard
Dreddy Kruger Presents: Think Differently Music (Wu Tang Meets Indie Culture) - Verses f/ Scaramanga Shallah, La The Darkman, Ras Kass & GZA
Thunderbirds and Now! - (Aquatic Cupid's) Harpoons of Love
Tralala - Everybody's Doin' Fine
United States of Electronica - It Is On!
John Vanderslice - Dear Sarah Shu
Chad VanGaalen - 1000 Pound Eyelids
Tom Vek - I Ain't Saying My Goodbyes
Laura Veirs - Through the Glow
Vitalic - Wooo
Von Iva - Feel It!
Kanye West f/Cam'ron and Consequence - Gone
The White Stripes - The Denial Twist
Patrick Wolf - Teignmouth
Wolf Parade - Grounds For Divorce
Yann Tiersen and Shannon Wright - Dragonfly

The end.

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