Back to Business

Still trying to get my page looking presentable (I haven't done any hardcore HTML coding in quite some time, but it's coming back slowly), so ignore the simplistic surroundings as they will soon give way to something a bit more grandiose.

My listening habits as of late have been all over the map as anyone who frequents my Last.fm page can clearly see. The newest music I've bought is Thom Yorke's The Eraser. Unfortunately, it's not the kind of album you can just put on repeat all night. Given, there are some great songs such as "The Eraser", "Black Swan", and "Harrowdown Hill", but these gems are surrouded by such sound-alike schlock that they loose some of their charm merely by association. I bought the album on the sole basis of hearing "Black Swan" in the brilliant Richard Linklater film A Scanner Darkly, so impulse once again triumphed over an informed decision. Just let my mistake save you 10 bucks. Find the three tracks I mentioned above and download them, just leave the rest of The Eraser alone.

I'm planning on getting Golden Smog's Another Fine Day sometime this coming week, so when I do I'll make sure it gets a proper review. I've been unimpressed with the two Jeff Tweedy-fronted songs I've heard so far, but reviews of the album have been stating that his work is clearly the weakest on this record. This really comes as no surprise, seeing as Tweedy has clearly got his hands full with Wilco and was probably not as deeply involved with the sessions because of this. Kind of a sad situation though, seeing as Tweedy's contirbutions to past Golden Smog records have, at least for me, been the highlights of the albums.

Only 11 more days left until the Kuyahoga Festival at Blossom Music Center here in Ohio. The lineup is rather extensive, but I'm mainly going to see headliners Sonic Youth and The Flaming Lips. Some other notable bands they're being joined by include Death Cab For Cutie, The Hold Steady, Secret Machines, The Go! Team, and Wolfmother. A very 'indie-centric' list, and I'm sure the hipsters will be out in force, but there's not much I won't suffer through for a chance to see the Lips and Sonic Youth. Better yet, I'll be seeing them again when they come to Columbus on August 28, joined this time by The Magic Numbers. Expect full write-ups of both shows, accompanied by as many pictures as I can take before the camera's battery decides to give out.

Just as a quick plug for any of my local readers I must mention that my band, Blue Condition, is playing every Thursday night for the remainder of the summer at The Finish Line in Delaware. We usually do a half-hour set of blues and random covers (some highlights from this past week included Wilco's "Handshake Drugs" and a reworked funk cover of Gorillaz "19-2000") somewhere between 9-10, so please come out if have nothing better to do. Speaking of nothing better to do, Clerks II is a great time-waster if you're into the whole Kevin-Smith-Viewaskewniverse-scene. Not as good as the original (more on par with the hit-and-miss animated series), but damn funny anyways.