You said, “He’s got his teeth fixed.”
I’m gonna break them,
I’ve got a heart on fire.
You said, “He’s got his sight set.”
I’m getting to ya.
I’ve got fists on fire.
- Los Campesinos!

Happy Halloween, people! Who wants me to play The Monster Mash? Yeah, I don’t own that song and I’m not sure where I would get it in MP3 form. You hear that, iTunes? You could be raking in the money from me if you’d go away from a proprietary format. Wait, apple not use a proprietary format? Ha! That’s a little nerd humor for you morning.

I thought that today would be as good of a day as any to mention that The Mountain Goats have a new “pay what you want” EP called Satanic Messiah. I haven’t picked it up yet. I’ll let you know what I think about it. You can find it here.

As I mentioned yesterday, Los Campesinos! have a new album coming out at the end of November (it was released in the UK on the 27th) and they’ve graciously allowed eMusic to sell advanced copies, so I got one. From their website:

27th October sees the release of what the majority of you have decided to call our ’second’ ‘album’. Not that we ever have mind you.

There will be no singles released from this RECORD.

This RELEASE is going to be limited. There will be one, worldwide run of CDs, and then it will be out of print. Done with.

I like the title track. It’s a good back and forth between the lead singers about long-distance relationship and a jealous boyfriend. Luckily I never had to deal with any of that in my circumstances. I wouldn’t have wanted to deal with a jealous boyfriend. Check out We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed.

He’s a cat flushing the toilet,
He’s a cat – meow – flushing the toilet,
He’s a cat flushing the toilet,
He’s a cat flushing the toilet!

Silly youtube and their funny videos. Now I’ve got this song stuck in my head.

This week, there are a couple of interesting new releases. In my opinion, the biggest being the new Bloc Party album, Intimacy. Bloc Party is an interesting band. They really had a great sound in Silent Alarm but with their second album, A Weekend in the City, appeared  to want to delve into anthem rock rather than keep playing their beat-heavy dance rock.

Intimacy sees them heading back to a dancier side of things, albeit yet another take on things. This album finds Bloc Party attempting to increase the amount of electronic noise they’re willing to throw into the mix, which I think really prevents this album from dragging as much as it should.

Some other releases this week include Eagles of Death Metal – Heart On and Deerhunter’s double-CD realease – Microcastle and Weird Era Cont. I’m not sure if you’ll hear either of these albums here. I’m a small fan of Eagles of Death Metal, but Deerhunter has a very divisive sound, and I’ve always found myself on the wrong side of that divide.

On top of all of this, emusic has an advance copy of the new Los Campesinos! album We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, which finds them still at their wacky ways, although with a little more production this time around. I’ll probably play something off of this album on Friday.

Today’s song is the first single off of Bloc Party’s new album and is called Mercury. If you can get past the fact that he says, “Mercury’s in retrograde” about fifty times during this song, you’ll find it growing on you. By the end of the song, they’re throwing the kitchen sink at you with all the different horns, including one that sounds like a horse. Try and catch that sound – it’ll make you laugh.

We could need someone like you in our band,
Andy.
No audition and you don’t have to pretend,
Andy.

I wonder who this Andy character is. He must be pretty special for I’m From Barcelona to write a song about asking him to join the band. Looking at the list of their members on wikipedia, I don’t see anybody named Andy, so I guess that means Andy is a fictionalized character.

Did I mention that I’m From Barcelona has 30 members with a lead singer who looks like a guy I went to high school with? No? You sure about that? I’m pretty sure that I did. Oh well. That’s your background on I’m From Barcelona.

Wanna know where they’re from? Sweden. Jönköping to be exact. There, now you can not only learn about I’m From Barcelona today, you can also learn about a medium-sized city in Sweden.

I’ve known about I’m From Barcelona for a while, but never went out of my way to check them out. I recently picked up their new album, Who Killed Harry Houdini? and it rates about a 19.5 on my number of members in I’m From Barcelona scale. For those of you not paying attention, that’s 19.5 out of 30.

Most people would compare I’m From Barcelona to The Polyphonic Spree due to their large numbers, but I hear a lot more Cloud Cult in their music. You can hear it especially in today’s song, Paper Planes.

P.S. You guys are lucky to actually be getting this song today. I uploaded it this morning and a minute later the power went out. I’m not even sure if it’s back on yet.

Q: What is the flavor of Dr Pepper supposed to be?A: Dr Pepper is a unique blend of 23 flavors. The formula for Dr Pepper is proprietary information.

Interesting turn of events. Chinese Democracy is set to hit US shelves on November 23rd. Check out that link for an awesome picture of a rock star. Ok, I take that back.

Kevin informed me last night that we can all thank Dr. Pepper for helping make this happen. Why? Well, they apparently issued a challenge that if Guns N’ Roses can release Chinese Democracy by the end of the year, they would give a free can of Dr. Pepper to everyone in America.

I’m pretty sure that there’s a coupon involved, so I’ll try and keep my eyes peeled for that, but until then, sit back and enjoy yourselves, knowing that some day you’ll have that sweet taste of victory called a free can of Dr. Pepper.

Today’s song comes from The Broken West. They’re one of the bands that went to die in my “Save For Later” eMusic list – the list where bands go to die. And no, I’m not being repetitive, I’m just being repetitive. Check out Auctioneer.

Well, on with the show,
Going on with the show,
Come on baby,
No, no, no.
- Motley Crue

The Crue! They’re Motley!

Thought I’d give a quick rundown of Monday’s concert for my loyal readers. Hopefully this description will be so riveting that you’ll almost feel like you were there.

Nate and I decided that it would be fun to see this show from floor level. While not the best place for Nate to be (he’s height-challenged) we went for a spot right in front of the sound board. This worked out well for the opening band, The Dirtbombs.

They came out firing with multiple drummers and a straight forward post-punk/garage rock. They also only stopped to breathe twice in the 40 minutes that they were on the stage. There were no song breaks, only times where one member would make sure everyone else had the correct rhythm for the next song.

These guys (and girl) were l-o-u-d. Halfway into the second song, I told Nate that I wish I owned some earplugs. They closed their set by having each member clean their stuff off the stage and then proceed to help everyone else take the rest of the stuff off of the stage until all that was left was one drummer banging on his snare drum.

I should probably take a step back here. There were moments on Monday night where I felt like somebody didn’t want me to have a good time at the TV on the Radio show. The first inkling that I got was when The Dirtbombs took an hour and forty minutes after the door opened to hit the stage. After they cleared off the stage at the end of their set, I told Nate, “That was fun, but it also is going to make me that much more impatient for TV on the Radio.

Thirty minutes later, it’s 10:50 and TV on the Radio is finally taking the stage. Somebody behind us throws a glass that hits the guy in front of us in the back. I get hit by a little bit of liquid on my arm, but Nate takes it in the face. Not the glass, just the liquid. Two songs into TVotR’s set and the typical “girl dragging a boy to the front of the crowd” happened to stop right in front of us, leaving us to question whether these people understood concert etiquette.

That’s right, I’m old. But when you have to crane your neck to see over the frizzy afro of the girl in front of you and your feet are being stepped on because she thinks she has enough space to dance, you’d be complaining, too. I really tried to not let it affect my mood, but you know – being passive aggressive doesn’t work in crowd format.

Overall, it was an entertaining concert. TVotR opened with some stuff off of Desparate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, and really rocked the crowd with Wolf Like Me. I was surprised to find that Dancing Choose fell really flat.

They had two guests on stage with them – singer Katrina Ford (I think) and multi-instrumentalist Stuart Bogie. I liked Stuart. He had such a huge smile on his face all night. He was really enjoying himself – even when he had to play the flute.

I had to get out of there before the encore, since it was approaching midnight and well, I had to go to work on Tuesday. I ran over an already dead skunk about half a mile from home and stunk up the garage with skunk smell.

Today’s song comes from last week’s opening band, Land of Talk. Check out Some Are Lakes.

Destiny has cheated me,
By forcing me to decide upon,
The woman that I idolize,
Or the hands of an automaton.
Without these hands,
I can’t complete the opera that was captivating her,
But if I keep them, and she marries him,
Then he probably won’t want me dating her.
- Fry from Futurama

Comedy Central showed the new Futurama movie, The Beast With A Million Backs, last night. I was entertained, but then again, I’m usually entertained by Futurama.

Tonight I make yet another trek to Minneapolis to see a concert. This time, I’m seeing TV on the Radio. This may be my last concert for a while. Things are looking to get busy for me and the work/life/blog balance may be shifting towards the work end of the spectrum, at least for the near future.

As much as I enjoy TV on the Radio, and the fact that their shows are incredible, I’m kind of hoping that they don’t play until 1:00 like Broken Social Scene. I don’t want to have leave this show early, but because of the whole hour and a half drive home thing, I might have to.

I have a decent backlog of songs that I’m ready to play, but I thought that since I’m going to be seeing them tonight, I’d play a song by TV on the Radio. Check out DLZ.

I’m a big fan of the web comic, Questionable Content. It’s kind of soap opera-ey, but some of the music jokes hit a little close to home, if you know what I mean. In the notes for today’s comic, he mentioned going out to see a band called Tragedy, which he described as “…quite literally the greatest heavy metal Bee Gees cover band in the Northeastern United States.”

I went to check out their website, and I have to agree. This stuff is awesome! They have songs streaming. I totally recommend it.

When the only blame you cast is your own,
And your only guarantee is your fear of the unknown.
If you don’t cut your losses before you get lost,
They’re never going to leave you alone.
- What Made Milwaukee Famous

I vote for beer. Gotta say that beer is what made Milwaukee famous. The funny thing is that What Made Milwaukee Famous is actually from Austin, TX, so there goes the theory that they have home-town pride.

A while ago (at least six months ago) I wrote a post about an article describing the volume levels of albums coming out lately and how they’re all pegged incredibly high. I’ve noticed that this is causing me to really miss out on certain aspects of an album when playing at a lower volume level.

I was listening to the new album by What Made Milwaukee Famous yesterday at work. On previous listens, it just wasn’t hitting me right. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t good. This time, however, I’ve found myself really enjoying it, and I think that the only difference is that I’ve turned the volume up.

Even with the volume turned up, there’s not much depth to the songs. They’ve brought everything to be at the relatively same level, so the only way that I can focus and hear more than just the main part of the song is to turn up the volume.

Let this be a listen to you, kids. If you don’t like that music, listen to it a bit louder and see what happens. While it may be true that only you can prevent forest fires, it’s nice to know that you’re not the only one starting them. This has been Smokey the Bear reporting.

Crazy what you can hear when you turn the volume up. Am I right?

Today’s song comes from What Made Milwaukee Famous. Check out Sultan.

It’s coming, it’s coming in hot.
- Broken Social Scene

If I were to describe the Broken Social Scene concert, it would be more of a slow burn than coming in hot. I’ll get to that in a second. This post is going to be more of a gossip column than a show review.

I went to the show with Nate and Kevin, two of the more prominent commenters on this blog. We set up at our usual spot on the second floor above the merch table when Kevin noticed that Land of Talk was the opener. This is where the night got a little more interesting than just seeing a concert.

You see, the drummer from Kevin’s old band (drummer = Brian Mohn, band = Dinner With Gregg) had been the drummer for Land of Talk’s European tour. As I understand it, due to the fact that the band gets the ever-popular Canadian grant for the arts, and, well, Brian’s not Canadian, he was unfortunately dropped for a less charasmatic but adequate drummer.

Moving along, Kevin decided that Brian had to be at the show and proceeded to call him. He then went and found Brian while Nate and I hung out at the railing. Downstairs with Brian was Justin Vernon, who you may know better as Bon Iver. Dinner with Gregg was a frequent opener for Justin’s previous band in Eau Claire, so they’re all buddy buddy.

When Kevin came back to tell us about it, he also mentioned that he may have punched Justin in the taint.

Breaking News!!! Kevin Randleman punched Bon Iver in the taint!!!

I wish I had a scrolling news bar function right about now.

Later, Brian came up to say hi. Did I mention that I played soccer with the guy back in the day? No? I’m a horrible story teller. In talking to him, it sounds like there’s a collaboration between him and Justin in the making called The Shouting Matches. They even have a myspace page. Maybe I can use some connections (Kevin) to get the inside track to this band. The live stuff on the site sounds really good, so I’m excited to hear what else they have.

Have I not talked about the concert yet? Ok, sorry for the quick review. I really liked Land of Talk. I picked up their new album, Some Are Lakes, yesterday and I’ll try and play something from it soon. Broken Social Scene got on stage around 10:20 or so and played until they were essentially told to stop at 1 am. Seeing as how I had to drive an hour and a half back to Rochester, I left at 11:45.

Hey, we all need to grow up some day.

Today’s song has nothing to do with anything I’ve posted. It is by The Streets, which is the hip-hop moniker used by Mike Skinner. Musically, this is one of his best albums, but lyrically it’s lacking. He’s been having problems with his lyrics lately. I may post about that some other time. Check out the title track, Everything is Borrowed.

Someday I’ll have a disappearing hairline,
Someday I’ll wear pajamas in the daytime.
- Crash Test Dummies

I caught the classic song, Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm by Crash Test Dummies on Sunday and because my Saturday night was a late one, I was able to do what I consider a pretty good impression of lead singer Brad Roberts. Erin was there. She’ll confirm the whole thing. I may have to add this song to my list of songs you might be able to convince me to sing at karaoke.

Hey, guess what I’m doing tonight. I’m going up to the cities to see me some Broken Social Scene! I always enjoy seeing a show at First Ave, I just wish that they would let me carry my beer around in the bottle as it was intended instead of having to see it being poured into a large plastic cup.

I’ve only seen BSS at Lollapalooza, so it will be interesting to see what their club show is like. I have a feeling I’ll enjoy it.

Speaking of things I might enjoy,  the Minnesota Orchestra is combining with Finnish vocal group Rajaton to play the music of Queen. Two years ago, the two groups combined to play the stylings of ABBA. Gotta say, I would enjoy either show. Too bad I’ll be out of town.

I think that I’ve finally figured out which song by Margot and the Nuclear So & So’s that I want to play. The good news is that I really like the song. The bad news is that it may contain a word that could get my website blocked for those of you viewing it from work. I’ll just have to take that risk. Check out Hello Vagina.