credit: draw chavez (i wish i could make something as awesome as this)

Yes yes, welcome to another installment of All Chavez Friday. This is one is uber-special because Better Days Will Haunt You comes out on this Tuesday and boy oh boy, I can’t hardly wait to bust open my piggy bank for it.

That said, you can order Better Days… HERE.

And to keep you full of Chavez, here’s another live set I’m busting out of my archives. This one’s from 1995, back when anyone with a handheld tape recorder could become a bootlegging genius. Audio quality on this one is muffly, though I’m not sure if that’s from the recorder being hidden underneath some dude’s flannel shirt or just from years of being played over and over before a digital transfer. Regardless, this has some pretty funny stage banter about moustaches and stuff.

Chavez at the Middle East, 7/7/95 (.zip file) »

OK, not really a podcast per se, but it’s the archives of my radio show on WQHS. (My WPRB archives are currently unavailable.) I know this is going to detract from you actually tuning in, but oh well, better late than never, right?

Add this link to your feed »

apologies for the crankiness. very long work hours this week, little time to do much else. send chocolate and dvds my way, please.

I had a good time, did you? I actually played the Fall. What next, pigs flying, blue moons and people listening to my show?

What is up with that audible hum? Oh, technology.

henri faberge & the adorables - favorite kisses - henri faberge & the adorables

the black keys - your touch - magic potion - N
martha & the vandellas - i’m ready for love - 7
the salteens - motor away - 7″
destroyer - destroyer’s the temple - thief
silver jews - buckingham rabbit - 7″
white whale - the admiral - WW1 - N

jim guthrie - who needs what - a thousand songs
caterpillar - joslyn - 7″
noise addict - 16 - meet the real you
superchunk - like a fool - foolish
comets on fire - dogwood rust - avatar - N
house of freaks - meet your heroes - all my friends
go go’s - this town - beauty & the beat

los abandoned - a la mode - mixtape - N
san francisco seals - back again - split w/ the dambuilders 7″
the fall - pat-trip dispenser - b-sides
the legend - roses - 7″
8 eyed spy - swamp/run thru the jungle - s/t
lene lovich - lucky number - stateless

mission of burma - spider’s web - the obliterati - N
emily haines & the soft skeleton - our hell - knives dont have your back - N
spinanes - spitfire - manos
the photon band - broken melody - 7″
flake music - sue defender - 7″
the sames - you are a ghost - you are the sames
yardbirds - puzzles - 7″

henri faberge & the adorables - ventriloquist love - henri faberge & the adorables

Tomorrow on my show I’ll be giving away a ticket to see Built To Spill at the Trocadero on 10/7. It’s not a real giveaway — I have to shoot this show for an assignment [details TBA] and I wound up with an extra ticket. I figured someone would want it. Anytime I wind up with a +1 for a show no one ever wants to go with me, so hey, now it belongs to the world.

Tune in tomorrow 10AM - 12PM EST on WQHS and win!

Baby Eagle, “Your Wounded Jaw”

What I dream about is usually none of your damn business, but this one was too weird/funny/sad to not share with the crowd. Baby Eagle, which is the side project of the Constantines’ Steve Lambke, were getting ready to release a record. [googling ex post facto, it appears BE actually does have a record coming out.] To celebrate the release, Stephen Colbert planned to wrestle and eagle. Nas was tapped to provide commentary… naturally. Of course, when it came time for Stephen to wrestle, the eagle turned out to be a gigantic eel.

Anyway, I ain’t gonna get all Said The Gramophone on you here, so enjoy the quasi-Silver Jews romp this song provides — it’s got a real heavy “Advice to the Graduate” vibe to it, dont’cha think? And while were at it, I have to wonder, if Said The Gramophone [a solid blog, natch] gets busted for gibberish, why haven’t I become Public Enemy #1?

Help the Baby Eagle on the road to victory RIGHT HERE.

(Speaking of Eagles, Diskothi-q has written many songs about American football teams, all of which are awesome.)

» *Plain Parade’s show* with the Ex Models et al went well — you should seriously stop missing our shows. [We've only got four more left for the rest of the year.] If you haven’t seen the Ex Models in a while [mayhaps the stick from your ass needs to be removed?] you’re totally missing out. Gone is the hiccupy no-wave of years and replaced with total fucking quasi-industrial insanity. Seriously: how can such evil music come from the nicest dudes in the world?

» Jesus Christ on a crutch: 25$ to see a reunited Bongos? And not even at Maxwells!?

» I love television. Sometimes I think I like it more than music but then music will go do something awesome [ex: Sufjan Stevens at the Tower Theatre -- more on this in a bit] and steal me away. Anyway, watch Ugly Betty. I loved the Lichtenstein pop of its filming technique in contrast to the uncomfortable nature of its material. Anyone else get a _Welcome to the Dollhouse_ feeling out of this show?

» Also in the category of mind-bendingly awesome is Victor/Victoria, which I caught multiple times this weekend. I feel like I’ve seen this movie a million times since childhood and each viewing makes me love it more. [Between V/V, _Xanadu_ and _Flashdance_, this should explain a lot about me. Perhaps too much.] For those that regard V/V as a campy throwback, think again. This film was years ahead of the queer curve. Laughs are made at the expense of the ignorant, rather than the other way around — especially in a time when being gay was either the punchline to a joke or a lowdown dirty shame, this movie treats its subjects [straight, gay or in drag] with nothing but the highest kindness in respect. And it contains some of Julie Andrew’s best acting and singing. Ever. So if you hear me belting out “Le Jazz Hot”, you’ll know why.

» Last but not least: on the Typical Girls mailing list, we were asked to submit a top ten of Typical music. Here’s my contribution, plus one:

Pylon “Feast On My Heart”
Raincoats “Red Shoes”
Hi Beams “White People”
Finally Punk “Henri”
Mo-Dettes “White Mouse Disco”
Lizzy Mercier Descloux “Funky Stuff”
Crash Course In Science “Kitchen Motors”
Dolly Mixture “He’s So Frisky”
Delta 5 “Journey”
Erase Errata “Rider”
Scrawl “Green Beer”

I guess I have to start getting my list-making muscles in shape — the end of the year is just around the corner.

The A-Sides “Cinematic”
It’s easy to lump the A-Sides into the same category as Lenola: ex-hardcore dudes cum pop savants who are the toast of the town’s indie scene; yet in the grander scheme of things, virtually unknown outside city limits. But when this song whirs into full reality, its clear to see they’re on a different path. Refusing to go gentle into the night, “Cinematic” is pop at its Technicolor™ finest with burbling keyboards, cymbal crashes at every heady moment and vibrant guitar solos. As the chorus swells, those paying half-attention will only hear relationshippy overtones in the lyrics. Yet I can’t help but wonder if this is a metaphor for the band’s own state of affairs, hinted on their website’s front page. Granted they have it luckier than most local bands (opening for Cheap Trick, playing spaces like the Borgata and Trocadero) but seriously, how much longer do these guys have to wait until world domination? And what kind of asshole keeps a band this awesome waiting?

Send good thoughts to The A-Sides. But you know what’s better? Picking up a copy of Hello, Hello, one of my favorite releases of 2005.