speed of dark

Most people who have ever been interested in punk music hit that stage at about age 15. I was about 40. I was angry, I was on a severe diet and exercise campaign, and I just wanted to kick somebody's butt all the time. Punk music is great when you're angry and full of energy. What I learned as I got into it, however, is that punk music is FUNNY.

Indie-mom was too young to go to concerts at that time, so I went by myself. I drove a long way to get to venues in the L.A. area and often drove back the same night. I got used to being the oldest person in the place, the oldest person not accompanying their kid. I liked to be in the front, right against the stage, where I could feel the drums in my chest and see fingers on the strings. I remember the Queers' guitarist winking and flirting with me from the stage. I remember another lead singer eying me with obvious curiosity. He had to have thought, "Who IS this old lady, and HOW does she know all the words to our songs???"

One night I went to see Lit at the Hollywood Palace. Another band was supposed to open for them, but instead these four guys piled onto the stage and proceeded to bring the house down. They launched straight into a furious-paced punked-up version of "Barbie Girl," (orignially by the Europop group Aqua) John E. Trash and Adam Lohrbach trading hilarious bass and falsetto vocals.

My mouth fell open. "OMG!" I screamed at the young man next to me. "Who IS this? I LOVE them!"

"HomeGrown!" He yelled back above the noise. I was an instant fan. I eventually owned five of their CDs.

This was also the first time I heard "Surfer Girl," a true little gem. Adam acted out the lyrics, and the audience sang along.

The next time I saw HomeGrown in Pasadena, both Hoobastank and Limbeck opened for them. HomeGrown were the stars. Now those others are famous bands, and where is HomeGrown? The last posts on their web site and their MySpace page are from 2005, but there are some songs posted there. Adam has left the group. The other members have new bands.

HomeGrown is over. Enjoy these songs. Check the boogie-woogie bass at the 3:43 point in "Surfer Girl." I LOVE when Adam says, "Oh, that BITCH!" Those were the good old days.

HomeGrown - Barbie Girl from EP Phone Home (1999)

HomeGrown - Surfer Girl from That's Business (1995)

Seriously, WTF?

death cab for cutie: president of what? from something about airplanes

Lucky you, Indie-Mom! You came home from that party and just slapped that little post together not knowing that I had spent the previous 20 hours unsuccessfully trying to get into EZArchive and upload my DeVotchKa songs!

Anyway, here are some more goodbye songs in honor of Indie-Mom's boss, who I have met and who is the best kind of boss you'd ever want to work for. All you ever wanted from your boss is that they know their stuff, be honest with you, and let you do your work. That's the kind of boss she was, and she will be missed, I'm sure. All artists except J. Tillman are available on iTunes and Amazon.

"Take Care" is not exactly a goodbye song, but it's so beautiful, I had to include it. I'd love to see this guy in concert, but he is currently touring Europe. This song is from his unreleased tour EP. Check J. Tillman's MySpace to listen to a couple more songs, including a demo, and his website for complete discography.

J. Tillman - Take Care

We'll tell you sometime about our fetish for Scots rock. The original version of "Walk Away" appeared on 2005's You Could Have It So Much Better. I like this pared-down version because the lyrics and the song structure are more apparent, and they're both clever and worth noting. The album version is on their MySpace page.

Franz Ferdinand - Walk Away (acoustic)

"Leaving So Soon" is from Keane's excellent 2006 CD, Under The Iron Sea. Listen to more on their MySpace page.

Keane - Leaving So Soon

And last, the ultimate goodbye song from Concrete Blonde's 1993 album, Mexican Moon. Concrete Blonde retired many years ago themselvs, but their influence lives on.

Concrete Blonde - End of the Line

Farewell and happy retirement!

Tonight I hosted a retirement party for a wonderful lady, my boss, my friend. She is going to be sorely missed by most people at my work, but I don't think anyone will forget her retirement party any time soon. She was roasted by her boss, former employees, fellow retirees, and our office cut-up, and at times, the hits fell below the belt. All in all, it was a great evening, tiring for me, I'm so glad it's over but I'm sorry to see her go. She has been my mentor and I've learned a great deal from her, and it's going to be tough for someone else to fill her shoes (and I'm glad it's not me).

That said, I was listening to the iPod on the drive home, and I thought about goodbye songs. And then I realized that I didn't have any. Enjoy the following songs which really have nothing to do about saying goodbye about my boss:

placebo: song to say goodbye from meds

kings of leon: slow night, so long from aha shake heartbreak

hot hot heat: goodnight goodnight from goodnight goodnight

the shins: gone for good from chutes too narrow

I don't know why, but I have this soft spot for bands that sound like East European gypsies. Apparently, that sound intrigues other people too. DeVotchKa was not the first in this little niche to catch my attention, but they may now have the most recognition and popularity. This is largely due to the release of the movie and soundtrack for Little Miss Sunshine, which features mostly DeVotchKa songs. I'm glad to observe that they have not watered down either their sound or their enthusiasm.

I first heard DeVotchKa last year on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. I had just gotten in my car and turned on the radio, and there they were, playing their cover of the Velvet Underground's "Venus In Furs." It sounded so wild and exotic--and kinky! One of those instant I-gotta-have-that moments. No wonder I have three versions of it.

The versions of "Venus In Furs" and "Curse Your Little Heart" that I have posted here are from that broadcast. They are not the versions you can buy on iTunes, although those are good too. Both are from DeVotchKa's 2000 CD Supermelodrama. I love it when they sing in Spanish.

"Such a Lovely Thing", from 2004's How It Ends, is like some kind of outrageous Romanian circus theme--a real romp.

Venus In Furs

Curse Your Little Heart

Such a Lovely Thing

See DeVotchka's page at MySpace for more music, photos, and winter tour dates.

I am beginning to see why web-geeks are characterized as being slovenly, sleep-deprived, delivery-pizza eaters. Their webly occupations don't leave time for bathing, sleeping, or eating.

I am new to web-authoring and so am facing a steep learning curve. What I want to do far out-paces my skill level. For example, I set myself a simple task of pasting a cartoon into this post. Next time I look at the clock, two hours have gone by.

Actually, THIS was less frustrating than other things I've tried to do. Don't even talk to me about my efforts to dress up my MySpace profile. What ticks me off is that it's getting in the way of new music discoveries! This is BAD!

I loved Thom Yorke's solo CD, The Eraser, released in July, and I love to find different versions of the songs. My favorite song from this album is "The Clock," Thom's fervent plea for environmental conservation. The album version contains a thousand little "tk", "pk", and "ch" sounds that create most of the percussion. In the live acoustic version, the rhythm guitar picks up the job, and the vocals become more prominent.

The Clock

The Clock (acoustic)

This weekend I've been pretty into posting on the blog, which I guess is obvious, since this is my fourth post in two days. I've been looking around at other music blogs, picking up music and ideas and enjoying what other people are listening to and talking about out there. One of the things I've added is a little button so people can listen to a song posted here without downloading it first. Alt-gramma asked for this a while back and I was finally able to deliver. Thanks del.icio.us!

I came across great body of water music blog as I was clicking around, and the last post features a poster for the Uprising Festival, which happened last weekend, unfortunately. While there are a lot of bands listed on the flyer who I've never heard of, and while many are Christian-themed rock bands, several have made it into the mainstream (or at least I've heard of them). Two, namely Starflyer 59 and Mae, I like and and have some of their tunes.

Starflyer 59 are a band from Riverside, California, who list Depeche Mode, the Smiths, and New Order, among others, as their influences. I first caught wind of them some time ago and I tried to interest alt-gramma in them, with little success. I had heard that they had broken up and didn't hear anything more about them until I noticed this flyer, and according to their website, they have a brand-spanking new disc out called My Island, and there are a few tracks from that disc available on their myspace page, which I linked above. Enjoy a bit of their older material here, then go buy more at itunes. The song compeating (not available here, but on itunes) is highly recommended, in addition to the songs below.

starflyer 59: good sons from talking voice vs. singing voice
starflyer 59: wake up early from i am the portuguese blues

Mae, which is short for "Multisensory Aesthetic Experience" according to their website, share the same record label as Starflyer 59, Tooth and Nail Records. I first heard portions of their albums Destination: Beautiful and Destination: B-Sides, which is exactly what it sounds like. I bought their latest disc, The Everglow and was a little underwhelmed (but the packaging and the interactive website associated with it were cool). So underwhelmed that I haven't even bothered to put any of the tracks from the disc on my iPod. But perhaps I haven't given it the requisite number of repeated listens. Maybe I'll pull it out and try again, and post some good tracks. Enjoy...all tracks available on itunes.

mae: tisbury lane from destination: b-sides
mae: embers and envelopes from destination: beautiful

As I have mentioned before, I listen to music all the time, as often as possible. Today I set the iPod on random, plugged in my headphones and worked steadily (well, until he might be giant had another random question, today mostly about "professional" wrestling).

So anyway, I am setting the iPod on random and I am going to share the first five songs it shuffles out to me, no matter how lame they might be or how sick of them I am. I figure there's got to be at least five decent songs out of the 2500 or so I've currently got loaded on the little white box.

now it's overhead: wonderful scar from now it's overhead
death cab for cutie: tiny vessels from transatlanticism
guns n roses: sweet child o' mine from appetite for destruction
creedence clearwater revival: green river from chronicle volume one
talking heads: and she was from little creatures

Augie March are a band from Australia who have so many words crammed into their songs, it's sometimes hard to just step back and listen to the music. The smooth guitar and lead singer Glenn Richard's voice blend well, to be sure, but sometimes I just like to hear some melody. But I don't really have much to complain about (although I just complained for two sentences) because the tunes are solid and very enjoyable. The songs below I picked up from somewhere, probably some other music blog and I feel bad because I don't know where and I'm too lazy to look. Both songs from 2006's Moo, You Bloody Choir. All songs on the album are available for your listening pleasure on their website and the disc is for sale here.

augie march: one crowded hour
augie march: just passing through

I've heard a couple of songs by Gran Bel Fisher. He sounds like someone that alt-gramma would like. Crash and Burn is a good song, and if you want it, I'll post it for you. GBF has a free mp3 on his website and he's got a link to his myspace page which has another song for listening only.

gran bel fisher: edible

Another song I have no idea where it came from is by Summer at Shatter Creek and one of the most interesting things about them is that they live in Twin Peaks in the San Bernardino Mtns, and they also apparently toured with Say Hi To Your Mom, who we like a lot and saw live last year. The song below is quiet, acoustic guitar and melodic voices. It's pleasant, and then the lead singer will hit an off note at the end of a verse, and it's an unexpectedly pleasant change. Very nice "guitar solo" in the middle. Plus, the name of the song is amusing to me, which is probably why I downloaded it (again, I don't know where from...it's "off of the pile"). There are a few songs for your listening pleasure on their myspace page, which can be accessed via the link above. All songs are available through itunes.

summer at shatter creek: your ever changing moods

Yet another Montreal-based band has stolen my heart. I love Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade, and I used to love the Unicorns, but they broke up. The Stills are from Montreal, too, and they've got some good songs. Even Men Without Hats (they can dance if they want to) are from Montreal! But the new Dears album is definitely going to be on my Best of 2006 list.

I first came across The Dears on download.com quite a while back where the band had posted Lost in the Plot as a free download. Upon hearing the song, I thought that Morrissey had formed another band and I didn't know about it. I was also shocked to discover that they weren't Brits, as I originally suspected. I started listening to some of their other tracks and at first, I was disappointed that these songs didn't have the same sound as Lost in the Plot. But upon the necessary repeated listenings I began to love them as much, if not more than, LitP.

Then, somewhere out there in the land of music blogs, I came across one of the tracks off of their upcoming album, Gang of Losers and swooned. I heard a few more here and there and it was apparent to me that I would be making one of my few actual disc purchases of this disc. (Sidenote: I usually buy songs piecemeal from iTunes, rather than buy the whole disc) Every track I've heard so far (more than listed below) is great...other standouts are There Goes My Outfit and Whites Only Party. So download and enjoy the tracks I have below of their back and future catalogue and buy Gang of Losers when it comes out October 3.

Hey, alt-gramma...they're playing at the Troub on October 4...wanna go? I'm serious. I don't care that it's a Wednesday. And you don't have to go to work. I'll take Thursday off.

From End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story (2000):

the dears: heartless romantic

From No Cities Left (2004):

the dears: lost in the plot

From the upcoming Gang of Losers (2006):

the dears: hate then love
the dears: fear made the world go round

Bonus track! From KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic:

the dears: postcard from purgatory

Visit the Dears' website here.

I picked up "Kissing Families" from Silversun Pickups' 2005 EP Pikul several months ago. I liked it, but it didn't particularly stand out from other music I was listening to at the time.

However, last Friday, NPR highlighted "Lazy Eye" from the Pickups' new album Carnavas as their Song of the Day. Dang, I thought, now that is interesting! The NPR article compares Silversun Pickups to early Smashing Pumpkins. Well now, I wouldn't have thought of that, but I can hear it. The plunking guitar in "Lazy Eye" is reminiscent of the Pumpkins' "1979," and the Pickups can go from quiet to full-throttle thrash on "Well Thought Out Twinkles" like the Pumpkins do in "Today" from Siamese Dream and "Siva" on their earlier Gish.

I don't know if Silversun Pickups will have the staying power that the Pumpkins had, but what they deliver on Carnavas is very, very satisfying. This is just doggone excellent rock music. The Pickups are definitely going on my list of Favorites of 2006. I just have to decide which song to choose, and it's going to be a tough decision. I have posted what I think are the best two candidates here.

By the way, my first rule for favorites of the year is that the songs must have been released during the current year. Lucky for me, "Well Thought Out Twinkles," although first released on the Pickups' 2003 Sunset Junction CD, was rereleased on Carnavas. That means it qualifies, and it just might be the one.

Well Thought Out Twinkles

Dream at Tempo 119

Other songs to check out by Silversun Pickups: Three Seed, Melatonin, Little Lover's So Polite, Kissing Families.

You can hear Lazy Eye at NPR Song of the Day and at Silversun Pickups at MySpace

Indie-Mom says she hasn't heard Tribute by Tenacious D nor has she seen the video, so I will do a post with a link to the video. Tenacious D is a spoof rock band/side project of actor Jack Black (King Kong), along with his "brother" Kyle.

Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters guest-stars as the demon who threatens to eat their souls if they don't play the best song in the world.

"We played the first thing that came to our heads,
and it just so happened to be
the best song in the world!"

Now, is that lucky, or what?



My favorite part is when the demon says, "Be you angels?"
And they answer, "NAY! We are but MEN! Rock ON!"
and Jack Black rips his shirt open, and white light blasts the demon away.
Woo hoo!

You know the song Tribute by Tenacious D, where a demon stops the duo on a dusty road and demands that they play the best song in the world? And they do it! They play the best song in the world and beat the furry pants off the demon. The video is hilarious. But the song where they relate this story is NOT the best song in the world. Its just a TRIBUTE to that song. This post is not about that song.

On September 1, I was shopping in Cost Plus World Market when I was stopped dead in my tracks by some gorgeous acoustic guitar chords coming over the store speakers. Then to my amazement, an Oriental woman’s voice began to wail spookily over this completely non-Oriental guitar. Although the vocals were clearly Asian, the words were neither Chinese nor Japanese. The contrast between the music and the singing was totally arresting. I love contrasts. I asked two store people what it was, but all they could tell me is that it is something on their new fall mix. They don’t get any info, apparently.

So I went home and got on iTunes to begin the hopeless search for a song that I had heard only once and did not know either the name or the artist or even the language it is sung in. I spent five hours of clicking through their entire genre of World music. Welcome to the wacky world of Alt-Gramma.

The song I have posted here, Kemayoran, is NOT that song. It is only a TRIBUTE to that song. Now you get it, huh? But I do like it very much. It has some very similar elements to the mystery song from Cost Plus. The guitar is not like typical Asian string instruments you have heard before. The picking style is almost folky Appalachian. The male and female vocals are most definitely Asian—it’s Indonesian.

I may never find the mystery song. I have e-mailed the California main office of Cost Plus, only to receive a reply that I would have to write a letter (actual PAPER--how antiquated!) to the national corporate office.

I don’t expect many people to like this song as much as I do, but please try it. It’s good to try new things, like vegetables. There is only one other song by this group that is available, and you can find it on iTunes. The name is Los Quin Tallu-tallu. You can almost hear bluegrass in it. Are Grup Bamba Puang the Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty of Indonesia? Who knows. Excuse me, I have to go hang out in Cost Plus now in case that song comes up on the rotation.

Grup Bamba Puang - Kemayoran

alt-gramma likes to call my son "he might be giant". He's ten years old, big and tall, and we've been careful to try to mold him in our music-fanatic image.

A few years ago, he was listening to Radio Disney, which, if you've never had the "pleasure" of hearing, is sugary teeny pop and watered-down versions of popular songs. One horrible version of Mambo No. 5 has Lou Bega singing about Mickey and Minnie and other Dizzney characters...it's just unspeakably awful. But in the last year or so, he's started to listen to other music, more of what I listen to. I think part of it is that some bands, like Green Day, have developed more of a marketing strategy around their music. Don't get me wrong, Green Day has put out some good stuff in the last few albums. But it's very commercialized and packaged just for pre-teen and teenaged angst. I saw teeny-sized Green Day t-shirts, the one with the flying grenade, in the kids' section at Target ferchissakes! But the other part is that I listen to music constantly, in the car, at home, when I'm on the computer, whenever.

We do disagree on music, though, quite often. He likes Panic at the Disco! (or however they punctuate that band name) and frankly, I think they're terrible. They have a song out now, and I don't even know the name of it, but whenever they play it on the "alternative rock" radio station*, I change the station and he gets mad. I just can't stand it, can't bear to listen to it at all. It talks about closing a goddamn door or something, and I don't think it's a good song or age appropriate. I do have to edit what he listens to, sometimes.

But on the subject of censoring what he listens to...alt-gramma refused to let me buy or to buy me Guns 'n' Roses' Use Your Illusion I and II (in cassette form!) when I was under eighteen. She also refused to let me go see them in concert when Appetite for Destruction came out and every time they went on tour thereafter. I did end up buying them both (somehow) and I remember listening to the tapes so often they wore out. She also "accidentally" vacuumed my cassette of Eazy-E's Eazy Does It and destroyed it. On accident. Not that I'm bitter after all these years or anything.

Here's a short collection of he might be giant's favorite songs (which are all available at itunes):

they might be giants: no!
green day: holiday
the white stripes: seven nation army

(all links, right click and save)

*Don't even get me started about the quality of the local "alternative rock" station.

From Alt-Gramma:

So, who are we? We are not men; we are Devo. Oh, wait...we are not Devo. We are not musicians or DJs either. We can't get anybody a recording contract. We are not all-knowing music historians. We are just two women who are connected both by blood and by our taste in music. We like indie and alternative rock music, although not always exactly the same stuff. Nowadays I am the country mouse, and Indie-Mom is the city mouse. We get together to share a concert once in a while.

Since I've been going off in some unusual directions lately, I wanted to start with a kind of base-line of what's typical for me. I'm a guitar-addict, so songs with a lot of guitar fill my collection. Three guitars and a drummer is a pretty perfect setup for me. These three songs are representative of many songs that I like.

My first example is "Say Hello" by Stars of Track and Field, which has layers of sparkling guitars and harmonies. It's a good example of a thick, lush sound that I like to drown in.

Stars of Track and Field - Say Hello
Check their MySpace page for more selections.

Next, "To My Beloved Martha" by Tobin Sprout exemplifies the rich, what I call "golden," chords that I am a sucker for. Tobin Sprout is so typical of this sound that I had a hard time choosing which song to post here. He's like potato chips for me; when I start, I can't stop. I will definitely devote at least one other whole post to him.

Tobin Sprout - To My Beloved Martha
itunes has a huge selection of Tobin Sprout songs. That's where I got mine.

But then I also like a very simple sound with just guitar and voice. Some of Mark Kozelek's solo work is a great example of that. This is "Bubble," recorded live from a BBC session.

Mark Kozelek - Bubble
iTunes has many of his songs but not this one.

I have loads of songs I've burned off of compilation discs, or from CDs in which I thought there was only one good song but I never took the time to actually listen to sufficiently, and of course, that I've downloaded here n there. The next three songs were gleaned from one of the above sources.

The beginning of this song starts off nice and soft, all guitar, sounding like it feels to drive through Texas (as we did last year), passing miles upon miles of fenced in nothingness, lovely fields without end. And then this voice comes in and kind of shocks you, hard, rough and not quite singing. Then it settles in and I like it quite a bit. Great name for the band, too.

birdmonster: janine

And they've got their own blog, on Blogger. How cool is that? If you're a teenager with a myspace account, you can be their friend, and listen to some streaming stuff on their myspace page. But I didn't bother to link to that one. You can find the link on their blog.

Next, weird intro noises (another favorite of mine) and strangely enough for me, a female vocalist. Or is it a female? Hard to tell. Yep, with the "sha la la" you can hear it's a girl. But nice driving guitar...I can overlook the mistake of having a female vocalist. Just kidding. Great lines: "here comes everybody from the outside/they all want the same things that you hate/turn your face back on and crack a smile/here comes everybody you never cared for"

autolux: here comes everybody

Built to Spill is certainly not a no-name band, but I never really got into them. I've heard a couple of good songs by them, but never knew the names and couldn't track them down. I think I pulled this off of a compilation CD somewhere. Maybe not their best, but a good one nonetheless. I like the swirly echo sounds. Best line? "You wait for something that'll make the waiting worth the wait"

built to spill: the wait

(all links right click, save)

I found some live Sunset Rubdown, which is another of Spencer Krug's (of Wolf Parade, Swan Lake, Frog Eyes) side projects. It's good stuff, I have more but I'm too lazy to upload it.

sunset rubdown: stadiums and shrines I
sunset rubdown: winged wicked things

I also downloaded several songs by a Boston-based band named Francine. I haven't listened to them all yet, but this is the best so far:

francine: zeroes and ones

(all links right-click and save)

So, this is the start of our blog. I really don't like the "play in blog" boxes, just for aesthetic reasons. I like the fact that you can click play and hear it immediately...but it looks ugly. Sorry.

New live Wolf Parade...do you think they played it at the show we saw?

wolf parade: things i don't know
(follow the link to download)