sorry for the silence but if it’s not work thats driving me crazy, its that i need a vacation from it. i am thankful for working at a university because i get extended breaks.

anyway, i filled in on WPRB this past saturday. not my best show but it will do:

http://wprb.com/printplaylist.php?show_id=2503

in other news, ill be putting up some track on the mp3 blog later tonight. i wanted to do it last night but i got home too late from my parents house and then i had some tea with valerian root in it and the next thing i know, im all zzz’ed out. this is good though, dear readers, because if you didnt know ive been having trouble getting to bed a decent hour for the last couple of months.

due to circumstances beyond my control [ie workload, plain parade two year anniversary], no mp3’s this week. dont worry, ill double up on some for you next week. i promise. f’reals.

in the last year and a half, oh maybe two, ive listened to a couple really excellent comps from north carolina (compulation, i cant get that evil wiener…) and now there’s a third, bandwidth. this comes courtesy of WXYC in chapel hill — one of the two incredibly awesome radio stations in the triangle area — to commemorate their ten years of web broadcasting [they did it first!]. not only is it available to purchase [which i think you should], the records available as a free download from the station itself. check it out. you should. im tellin’ you to.

and what of philly? we’ve got um, um, hoags. before that, i cant remember what the last philly comp was — sounds from psychedelphia? god, we’re lame. i guess we were all too busy dancing at dj nights to care. thankfully at the plain parade two year anniversary, you’ll be able to pick up an awesome comp. and as always, stay tuned to this here blog.

this radiant boy got an excellent write up in stylus. check it out.

found this while digging around in some hard drive backups last night. many may remember that i did the illustrations for jenny toomey’s tempting [as well as her first solo release, antidote]. i also went to tucson and photographed her and franklin when they were down there mixing the record. none of these made the cut as press photos, so enjoy.

Taggart (with Guests), “Exit Flagger” (9/10/04 at Club 218)

The best in-jokes are the ones you get. Even better, is telling people what they’re about but for some reason, they’re not just as funny. This is. The night Guided By Voices played their final show, there was a GBV karaoke happening down the block as the unofficial afterparty. The organizers thought it would be really fun to do this because chances are, the real GBV werent going to actually play some of these songs. Taggart jumped in and learned 30 songs in the span of a week. I’d call that quite a feat but the real feat was the band having to recall these songs while drunk and having to obey the whims of drunken obsessive music fans. This track was the last song of the night and i picked it because its the closest representation of us at the end of a rowdy night: desperate for one more song, one more drink, one more chance to connect and many moments to regret the next day.

Motorist, “Nervous Knees”

If the previous song is what your weekend sounds like, then this track by Motorist is the sound of you waking up the next day. Its the perfect song for nursing that nasty hangover and trying to piece together events of the night before. Its the perfect song to throw around terms like “filmic”and “autumnal” in a review, because it really is.

(ps: if you like the motorist track, check out sea snakes, a band from toronto!)

(photo by david swanson / philadelphia inquirer)

democracy does not exist if those who are able to participate ignore their civic duties, or are barred from practicing them. im not even talking about the debacle of florida in 2000, this is a historical problem - please remember that people of color and women were given the right to vote not that long ago.

the right of voting means more to me than anything else — especially today, when i took my father to the polls as a registered voter for the first time in his entire 30+ years as an american citizen — more than whether you’re democrat, republican or klingon, whether i personally agree with your opinion or not.

with that said, dont let anyone stop you from voting. take a moment to visit the ACLU’s website and learn your rights.

while i may have been fortunate to vote problem-free, you may run into problems.

im maria tessa sciarrino and i approve this message.

Alkali Flats “The Visitor”

Their new album, Outen The Light, arrives in my hands just in time for their record release show, which happens to be this Thursday [11/4] at the Khyber. “The Visitor” is an edgy track, fusing the smart-pop sensibilities of XTC with the tense three chord romps that bands such as Superchunk built their reputation on. Its a sick sort of enjoyment to hear a Philadelphia band sing about being ignored � what else to expect from a city that gets overlooked for our neighbors to the North and South? This cities complexes [losing sports teams, the real world, apathetic music scene, a mayor who is more concerned with techy gadgets rather than addressing the real problems in this city, etc] grows larger and louder with each lap of this infinite loop; Alkali Flats make a compelling case for articulating the frustrations that arise as a result.

i know, ive jumped on the bandwagon. i told myself though, in order to make this unique and an enjoyable experience for me, i had to give it a twist. this MP3 blog chooses to focus on music made in philadelphia [i suppose the surrounding environs count as well] and will be updated with new music each week.

here’s the deal. im seeking out stuff thats interesting, things old and new. i will be scouring the internet on my own. if your band is interested in participating, you’ll need to drop me a line. i dont want selected MP3’s, id prefer to hear a whole record and pick what i think is best, but if thats what you got, cool.