its nice to get to the station early. you dont have to run around the stacks like its “supermarket sweep”, grabbing enough records to hopefully make it to the end. last week’s show was a little better for me, moodwise. this week studio A was buzzing with activity — the instant replay machine needing backing up, constant stream of people coming in and out. i tend to do my best work in solitude [because then you can crank the music and dance around like a goof!], as a result i felt yesterday’s show was OK but not great.

The Spinto Band - Oh Mandy - Nice And Nicely Done
pearls before swine - i saw the world - Complete ESP Recordings
Golden Ball - leap of faith - The Luxury Of Pause
miss tk & the revenge - banana - xoxo
aspera - fluorescent gaze - oh fantastica
solomon burke - if you need me - if you need me
ruby and the party gang - hey ruby shut your mouth - the sound of philadelphia
brother jt - mole in the ground - spirituals
baird sisters - snow - demo
Photon Band - beachwood park - wake up the windows lets do the zombies - 7″
eltro - say it - velodrome
nobody (feat. kurt heasley) - fancy - 7″

d.b.lity - out on the road / jailbait / get down or get out - dress british look irish think yiddish
excelsior - can we get some satisfaction up in this piece - can we get some satisfaction up in this piece
impossible years - flower girl - id rather be in philadelphia
lenola - inside the golden days of missing you - the electric tickle ep - R
br. danielson - daughters will tune you - brother: son
like moving insects - who’ll stop the rain - stormy weather ep - watery music
walker lundee - vodka soda - extra extra
clem snide - no one’s more happy than you - the ghost of fashion

winterbrief - the past sure is tense - mama kangaroos
voices of africa - abba zaba - mama kangaroos
kiss kiss kill - lick my decals off baby - mama kangaroos
notekillers - the zipper - self titled
bardo pond - every man - on the eliipse
Ted Leo/Pharmacists - where have all the rude boys gone? - Hearts of Oak - R
overlord - track 1 - the world takers - R
hail social - start / stop - 7″
the a sides - park avenue - Hello hello
american watercolor movement - pour les auditeurs - and the maps come down
kate sakura - 10 hours - mp3

lilys - paz el en hogar - better cant make your life better
red buckets - something else again - id rather be in philadelphia - R
relay - ode to guesswork - pre
the lapse - buffet - heaven aint happening
dragon city - tim burtons moustache - get outta philly
nathan michel - planet - the beast
lickgoldensky - track 1 - s/t
an albatross - i am the lazer viking - we are the lazer viking
ink & dagger - she came crashing - s/t

R - request

the coolest thing about the show was that i recorded and managed to clean up the file without destroying it! the link to the file is below. i am new to the whole “podcasting” phenomenon and perhaps i may add an RSS feed for the shows in the future. i dont even think this is a podcast per se, its just an archive of my program.

00:07:36 — there’s an emergency alert system warning about a thunderstorm. i toyed with removing the warning but i think it adds to the uniqueness of the program.

anyway, listen away!

this is a quick message about posting comments. when i was using moveable type, herjazz.org received 50+ spam comments a day. as a result, i switched to wordpress. [well, there are many reasons, but ill spare you]

in order to post a comment, you’ll need to register as a user. your information will be kept confidential.

after logging in, click on “view site”. it brings you back to the blog and now you can comment away.

ah lazy journalism. love it, hate it, partake in it or not — its here to stay. but you know, certain steps can be taken to avoid gaffes [note to self: take notes]. for example, the eternal question: whats going on with superchunk / portastatic? merge records jumps in and clears some things up:

Portastatic has been Mac’s “main band” for a while now.

Superchunk has not released a new studio album or toured extensively for over 4 years. In that time, Portastatic has released/recorded 2 albums and an EP, and probably toured more than they ever have. Based on these facts alone, I think it would be silly to consider Portastatic anything other than his main focus at the moment.

Superchunk is on indefinite hiatus, Portastatic is very very active.

I’ve always thought it was a bit insulting to Mac when folks constantly refer to Portastatic as a “Superchunk side-project”. Of course, you will never hear Mac complain. But it causes me to cringe when Portastatic shows up on tour, Mac with full band in tow, and magazines and newspapers still refer to them as “the solo acoustic side project of Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan”. That’s just pure laziness, rehashing copy from 1996 or something.

Portastatic has not been a “side project” in years, or at least I don’t think Mac has considered it as such. Sure you could possibly make the case for that definition back in the days of “I Hope My Heart Is Not Brittle”, but that was a long time ago. It’s a second project. No more but no less important than Superchunk. It drives me nuts when people don’t recognize this fact, mainly because in failing to do so they often excuse themselves from paying close attention to Portastatic as its own entity. And in doing this I think they are missing out on some of Mac’s best work. If you missed, for example, “Summer Of The Shark” because you considered it just another Superchunk side project or collection of Superchunk cast asides, and not worth time and consideration, well you probably missed what is in my opinion one of Mac’s finest achievements as a musician.

Portastatic has no bearing on Superchunk. And Superchunk has no bearing on Portastatic. They are each their own entities. They just happen to share the talents of one Mac McCaughan.

have you linked to me? i have i linked to you? etc? etc? etc? post here and let me know!

nike uses minor threat artwork for their new ad campaign. what part of the borrowing are we bothered by, though? is it the layout, which looks strikingly similar to the album cover but cannot be copyrighted? the concept? the idea that a multimillion dollar company managed to subvert the counterculture? what?

anyway, im going to bypass making any sort of judgements right now. jon pointed out sean murphy’s legal assessment of the situation, which is sort of what my wannabe-j.d. mind was trying to grasp.

» part of yesterday was spent watching “batman returns” at king of prussia’s IMAX theater. the last time i saw an IMAX screen i was 7 years old on vacation with my parents in canada. so when i walked into the theatre, i lost my shit. it wasnt really the size of the thing rather the curvature of the room that made me feel i was walking on a really high ledge and kind of freaked me out.

and batman was good, even though it took me a moment or two to fully understand this was a re-creation. i was very confused when it wasnt the joker who killed bruce wayne’s parents. the action sequences are a lot better than the critics say. they’re dark and blurry, which is not how they’re supposed to be made and thats why i liked it.

final note: even though it was cheaper to see batman at this theater, spare yourself the money, as the film doesnt have a lot of huge sweeping panoramas that do the IMAX screen justice. also, bring earplugs, the sound effects are just way too loud.

» i could have sworn that only a couple months ago, “beatles vs. stones” was only 5$. now, i love this dance night more than any others but you know, it aint on the level of, say, making time. 7$ is a bit steep. seriously.

» more more more gotham…ist. julie christie, the rumors are true and gothamist are building a philly site:

If you look at all of the ‘ist sites, you’ll see a general idea of what the websites do — news, A&E, commentary, etc. — but we’ll also have room to make something that’s our own
and uniquely Philadelphian.

So once again, if you’re interested, I urge you to reply. I’m looking for anything and everything — daily staffers, weekly staffers, now-and-again contributors — let me know what you’d like to do and we can discuss.

email john if you’re interesting in being a contributor.

» looking backward, i attended the phillies - mets baseball game last wednesday. last time i attended a baseball game in philadelphia, it was 1997 at the vet. N’SYNC sat down in the row directly in front of us and sang “take me out to the ballgame” on the dugout during the seventh inning stretch. then they gave my friends and i tickets to attend their concert that evening at the electric factory. and while nothing so completely surreal happened to me this time around, it was still very fun. i had great seats and watched the hometown team lose when i could have been at the office.

if you need a good laugh about all this minor threat / nike stuff, enjoy this:

http://ilx.wh3rd.net/thread.php?msgid=5942033

being the daughter of restaurant owners, it should come without any surprise that i love to eat. good food, bad food, i love it all. i know for a fact, i like food much much much more than rock music. so how psyched am i about the announcement of restaurant week? last time around, i dined at matyson & le bar lyonnais at highly reasonable prices. i am totally putting in my reservations in this week. snatch my table at audrey claire, and you’re dead meat.

courtesy of the bell curve:

Stephen Starr says he will re-create Morimoto and Buddakan, with the signature Buddha statue, backstage at Live 8. “Thank you very much!” exclaim the starving children of Africa.

i dont need to say anything else.

so the word on the street is that m.i.a. split up with diplo at the transit show!