Three Books

No one has ever asked me "Which three books have been most influential on your intellectual development?" but if they did, here is my answer:

1. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life- Erving Goffman

2. The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Twelve Lectures- by Jurgen Habermas

3. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge- by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann

The Social Construction of Reality I just read, but I've known about it since I read the other two books that come first on that list, and now that I've read it- wow. These three books, taken together, considered together give you pretty much all the information you need to succeed in life. And none of them involve bullshit self-help or mysticism. I recommend all three to readers of this blog.

San Diego Weakened Events

Yes, the misspelling of "weekend" is purposeful. I'm moving in an abstract direction.

San Diego is like a primordial swamp out of which the first life evolved. Lots of crazy shit going on, generally a pretty miserable environment but due to the warmth and presence of nutrients life flourishes anyway.

When I'm trying to figure out my weekend I go straight to Sd Dialed In's "Things to Do in San Diego" which is the gold standard of music event listings. She also prioritizes which is awesome.

So I guess Will I Am is playing kind of semi-secret show at the Hard Rock Hotel in advance of the Blackeyed Peas/Lady Gaga radio fest on saturday. Would someone please go to this and write about it? I'm going to set a google blogsearch rss alert for "Will I Am/San Diego/Hard Rock" so I can know what's up.

Vision of a Dying World is headlining a bill at the Radio Room. The other acts are Leisuresuit, The Feelings Mutual @ Radio Room. Leisuresuit has the piano-rock thing going on. To me it sounds like early Ben Folds Five. You're welcome, leisuresuit.

The saturday highlight is the Karl Stauss Beach to Brewery event. They've got a line-up that looks like it was booked in 2008: Tapes n' Tapes is headlining, Delta Spirit, Stranger and Get Back Loretta. Tapes n Tapes man- there is a band that I haven't read about in a minute.

Also, Red Bull Air Race is saturday. Is that as douchetastic as I imagine or pretty cool? Don't know. Red Bull Air Race after-party is at Hard Rock that night. Wooooo....

Finally, sunday sees GG Allin's old band Murder Junkies coming to the Radio Room on Sunday night. Better buy yourself a hat and hold the fuck onto it for that one.

One problem with San Diego is that there is too much to do. Sheesh.

Bathroom @ The Smell Los Angeles, CA.

Bathroom @ The Smell Los Angeles, CA., originally uploaded by catdirtrecords.

Memories... mists, water colored memories... of the way we were...

Who Will Tell the White People in the East Village to Shut Up?

Hey white people in the East Village- you know who you are. Guess what- the druggies and the crazies and the homeless lived there before you did- so shut up. Please. Connie Ellis- I'm talking to you, hon. Giving an interview to the San Diego Union Tribune. Shame on you. That guy probably hit you in the fact because you were talking on your cell phone or something.

“I was walking down Market Street when this guy, who was walking toward me and talking to himself, hit me in the face and kept on walking,” said Ellis, a real estate broker and East Village renter. “I was shaking for the rest of the day. If he would have had a knife, he could have stabbed me.”

She called police, who arrived after the assailant had left the area.

Ellis, 32, finds a bitter irony in the incident because she had just left a planning meeting for a forum on community safety in the East Village.

(San Diego Union Tribune)

I don't think that is "ironic" in the sense of the "The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning." No- actually that would be the opposite of irony, wouldn't it?

Nina Garin On Two "Man" Bands

I'm just going to let the article do the talking here. Lots of quotes from the Crocs. Wavves? Not so much. There is even a list of shows at the bottom of the article.

Alela Diane Plays the Loft @ UCSD Tonight

Alela Diane Plays Paris...


If the choice is "traditional rock band" or "hippie folk act" I'll take hippie folk act 9/10. Is TONIGHT the night I go to the Loft for the first time? I'm def. flirting with the idea. If you are into California hippie-folk music, this is some grade a stuff, know what I mean? It's an authentic sensibility, is what it is. The Habitat used to do shows for this kind of music alas no more?

Alela Diane (myspace). Mariee Sioux opens. Both are from Nevada City, CA aka "hippie town" aka "Joanna Newsom's hometown." Get it. Here's the loft's own event page for tonight- makes it sound incredibly lame actually. Ha-ha- Great Job!

It says the show is at 8 PM. Something tells me that stuff might start on time there. I wonder who is booking the shows there. And why they insist making everything into a series about something or other. Live in the moment, the Loft.

Ye Olde Festival of Beers is on May 17th; Has Decent Music

From the Photo Set: grand ole party, kill me tomorrow, the prayers, sirhan sirhan @ the casbah 9/29/06


You might want to get those tickets for San Diego City Beat's Festival of Beers on May 17th...

The "Bar Pink Music Stage" features a very listenable line-up of Kill Me Tomorrow, The Creepy Creeps, Underground Railroad to Candyland(?), and the Belly-Up Tavern's favorite local artist the Drowning Men. Holy cow you could do a whole, whole, whole lot worse in this town at one of these festival-things (Matisyahu anyone? AH AH AH I'M in HOSTEL 9!!!!)

The Rise of No Age and the Growth of Abstraction in Popular Indie Music

I call my new project "Grass Thumb"


As should be perfectly clear to a perceptive observer of contemporary popular music, No Age started something. But what did they start? Take a look at the photograph above- What's going on there?

1. Some idiot was getting ready to take a photo of someone and snapped a picture of the ground where he was standing.
2. Some idiot was trying to take an "artsy" photograph of grass and covered the lens with his thumb.
3. Some genius was trying to take an "artsy" photograph involving the play of morning light on the grass, and stuck his thumb in front of the lens.
4. Someone was trying to purposefully take a photograph of a field of grass with a thumb in the photograph, to make some kind of artistic point about the nature of photography in contemporary life.

These four takes on the photograph are somewhat analogous to the reactions elicited by No Age, Abe Vigoda, Crocodiles, Wavves, etc. The albums released by these artists are like the photograph that leads this post. In the sense that, I'm writing about that specific photograph that is up there- not some abstract idea of a photograph that I'm describing to you. Listeners look at the photo/hear the record and generate an opinion based on the text in front of them.

Heres the point: The judgment on the photograph above in large part depends on the context. I.E. if that photo is hanging in a museum of Modern Art with 150 similar photographs taken by the same artist as part of a giant project on grass/thumbs/shadows, that's one thing. If your idiot buddy shows you this photo as you are standing around in the backyard with your pals waiting for him to put his damn camera phone away, it's different.

And all I'm saying about bloggers and their reaction to this abstracted pop music/noise/low fi indie rock, is this "They have no idea what the context of this music is." They don't know the artists, they haven't any idea whether this music is created by an actual individual or some kind of giant plot by the manager of L'il Wayne and Columbia Records. And the context makes a difference.

Let me say one last thing: All the artists discussed in this article share the same context. It isn't some random coincidence, it's the culmination of lots of bands, lots of shows, lots of thought. I can personally attest that while the music industry has taken big notice, their input in the creation of this music of is present mostly by it's total absence: Labels, Managers, A&R, etc. I'm not talking about the reception/dissemination of the music, rather the production of the music.

In that way it's similar to other great american musical genres. Why do you think Fat Possum released both Wavves and Crocodiles? Think about it.

Tonight: William Basinski @ The Loft/UCSD

Crazy Cat

Further north- avant-experimentalist William Basinski is headlining at UCSD's increasingly-interesting-to-me newish venue "the Loft." I'm a huge Steve Reich fan from way, way back, and what with this whole "lo-fi" self recording revolution we've got going here, Basinski's brand of experimental/electronic/classical music is very, very relevant.

William Basinski (myspace)
William Basinski (wikipedia)

If anyone actually wants to check out Basinski hit me up.

The Gladstone Bags play Beauty Bar San Diego (new band alert)

The Gladstone Bags (myspace)
File under: freak folk
On Myspace since: 11/1/2008
Upcoming shows: Just the Beauty Bar tonight w/ Kera and The Lesbians, Red Rabbits, Art by Kenny King & DJ G Rex.

Who's up for some Devendra inspired freaky folk? Well, I don't know how freaky these guys get live, but it sounds like a def. possibility. They look like a two piece- thumbs up, guys! That's what I like to see- no drummer. Opening is San Marcos (!) based Kera and the Lesbians. She has an interesting voice and sounds folky, too. Terrible band name though- nothing against lesbians. Ask the Muslims/Soft Pack about dealing with that issue. Opening, opening act Red Rabbits might be a band from Portland? Or maybe a local band I can't locate.

The One Where I Force You to Watch the Wavves Pitchfork Video

I wanted to embed the Pitchfork WAVVES daytripping/video feature because- my favorite part about the pop with Wavves is all the bitter hating. I'm pretty convinced that the haters consist entirely of bros wasting their lifes in shitty indie bands. That's why everyone is like "Oh- this guy does this in his bed room and blah blah blah." Um, hey- ya didn't do that now did you? No- you spent $2500 in a shitty studio to record a shitty record that no one wants to hear. Boo hoo. I think the haters are assuming that the music from these artists is always going to be "lo fi." No, this is just an example of what Wavves can do in his bedroom by himself with garage band. The next record will sound different. I know that's hard for indie rockers to grasp: the idea of change in sound over time, but I can assure you all it's the case.

So heres the deal: Hater- leave the bitter comments on Stereogum. Wavves- tours Europe and cracks the Top 10 on Amazon's indie chart. Winner: Wavves.

Ben Allen, The Producer of the New Grand Ole Party Album, is King of a Pimp

Ben Allen: P-Diddy, Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective, Grand Ole Party

I don't think people even really know about this yet because the new GOP record is coming out till... fall? But their producer on the upcoming record: Ben Allen? He's kind of a pimp. Check out the Baltimore City Paper interview with him post-Animal Collective. It's an interesting little interview. Merriweather Post Pavillion is at number 5 on the Amazon "Indie Music" chart and 2 on "experimental music."

I haven't heard the record, but I would predict... how would i put this? A certain expansiveness vis a vis the last Grand Ole Party record? Not sure I can wait till the fall- hope it doesn't get pushed back any further.

Show Preview: Anti Monday League Presents Spectrum, Crocodiles

Next Monday, May 11th, Anti-Monday League presents Spectrum, Crocodiles & Tape Deck Mountain @ The Casbah tickets $8/$10. Don't miss this exciting show combining the young with the experienced. It will certainly be an outer space experience for your ears.

Don't Smuggle Drugs in Laos

I promise Cat Dirt coverage of the "golden triangle" in the next 24 months.


The good news: British woman spared death sentence for drug trafficking in Laos because she's pregnant and even Laos won't execute a pregnant lady!
The bad news: Still in Laotian prison facing death sentence! Pregnancy resulted from in prison rape.
Lesson: Do not smuggle drugs out of Laos.
(CNN)

Jay Z Concert in Tucson Loses A Million Dollars for Public University

Jay Z: Not a star.

How much do people not care about Jay Z anymore? Alot:

The first concert in Arizona Stadium since 1977 lost nearly $1 million.
The Last Smash Platinum Bash, which featured Jay-Z and Kelly Clarkson, ended up $917,000 in the red. The concert cost $1.42 million, and ticket and merchandise sales brought in only $503,502, according to student organizers.

(ARIZONA STAR)

The failure wasn't a shocker- the paper even ran a "tickets still available" story right before the show itself:

The concert billed as the biggest show to hit Tucson in decades will be lucky if it breaks even.

Tickets for tonight's concert at Arizona Stadium will be available right up until Jay-Z takes the stage. The superstar rapper is the final act in a lineup that includes Kelly Clarkson, the first "American Idol."

"The possibility of selling it out is probably not likely," said Tommy Bruce, president of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona.

(ARIZONA STAR)

Jay Z took home 750,000. Not worth it!

Crocodiles One Year Promotional Cycle is Off With A Bang!

brandon of the prayers @ beauty bar san diego 2006

The Crocodiles are about a week into their year long promotional cycle for Summer of Hate and Wow! It looks like it's going to be a great promotional cycle for them. They have dates line up all over the U.S. through June, and many of those places are places they've already toured once, before anyone cared. Extra hipster bonus point! Music professionals describe the post-release period as the promotional cycle, the standard period is one year, so this is almost as good it can get- with actual conflict being generated in terms of a critical response. That's even better then uniformly good reviews.

They'll be playing the Beauty Bar on May 7th in Las Vegas and have what can only be described as a triumphant home-coming show on May 11th at the Casbah. I wonder if anyone is going to come to the San Diego show? It would be funny/sad if it wasn't that crowded, but the Crocodiles have achieved everything outside of San Diego.

I think you would have to say that they are guaranteed a second record with Fat Possum, so they should probably be working on that right now so they don't lag between cycles of promotion...

"New" Band Alert: Ale Mania

Ale Mania is a Puzzle

Ale Mania (ex-Sess) just posted some neu cuts: Rampage, DC Rails, Vomit Pig and they are kind of picking up/expanding from where the Sess left out. Here is what I'm going to say about Ale Mania: Andrew has the producing chops to make a respectable indie label sit up and take notice and I hope they have their s**t together enough to make it that far. What I like about these guys mainly is that they have a good time.

This is one of those bands that should not even worry about San Diego and look for a label that will put out the record- a label not from San Diego, but someplace like LA or NYC.

They have a show at the Whistle Stop on May 25th- Monday night yay! And I for one, have their back. Go Ale Mania

New York Times Loves Crocodiles

Who needs Pitchfork when you've got the New York Times backing you? Seriously- I'm asking...

CROCODILES
“Summer of Hate”
(Fat Possum)

Crocodiles, a San Diego duo, caused a stir in the indie blogosphere late last year, even before releasing an album or signing to a label. What started it all was a peer review: No Age, a big fish in the Los Angeles art-punk pond, listed the Crocodiles tune “Neon Jesus” as one of the year’s best songs. Soon the band — Brandon Welchez on vocals, Charles Rowell on guitar — had plans to release its debut, “Summer of Hate,” on Fat Possum.

Now that album is here, and among its small surprises is the omission of “Neon Jesus,” a compact blast of post-post-punk in which Mr. Welchez sings this promising couplet: “I’m a stranger in the Holy Land/But I keep my strangeness close at hand.” There’s nothing quite so memorable on the nine tracks of “Summer of Hate,” unless you count the title refrain of “I Wanna Kill,” which drips with too much smugness to feel like a threat.

To their credit, Mr. Rowell and Mr. Welchez aren’t cagey about what matters to them, including the Jesus and Mary Chain, whose sound they flagrantly evoke, and Echo and the Bunnymen, whose album “Crocodiles” clearly means something to them. The crude drum programming and pealing guitar distortion on this album are badges of taste, as is the strobelike synthesizer drone on a hazy reverie like “Sleeping With the Lord.”

But if Crocodiles revel in a strain of insolence too familiar to feel transgressive, the band also manages some catchy choruses and efficient low-fi landscapes. The album’s retro-trashy title track leads compellingly into “Young Drugs,” a synth-pop valediction; “Soft Skull (in My Room),” with its tangled layers and dirty echoes, needs no improvement.

And “Flash of Light,” a dark prowl, ends with Mr. Welchez repeatedly singing “one flash of light,” before the song dissolves in a feedback loop. Whether that’s a metaphor for the trajectory of Crocodiles hasn’t yet been decided; the band is on a tour that brings it to the Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on May 22 and the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan on May 23. NATE CHINEN

Some Observations About Adult Contemporary Music

The Fray: Denver's Augustana and Adult Contemporary Stars

Some people ask "What is the artistic intent?" behind a music act. I think a better question is "What is the commercial intent?" This is yet another spin-off of the entire "Why does Pitchfork likes Wavves and not Crocodiles question?" although it isn't related to either of those bands.

I would postulate that Billboard's "Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks" is the lode-stone, not just of american radio programming, but also of the entire American music industry. To a lesser extent "Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks" shares that status, but Hot AC is the tops.

Now, let me ask you a question, "What music do young white people with terrible taste in music and culture listen to?" Answer: The music on the Hot AC chart. Why? Because it's on ALL THE TIME EVERYWHERE THEY GO.

Here is an additional observation that ties to the fact that people with no taste in music buy/listen to Adult Contemporary acts: You only need one album, because adult contemporary fans only want to hear "the hits" and don't care how crappy the rest of your music is.




Tell me, is your lead singer this pretty?(Augustana)A band like The Fray or Augustana, they don't come from nowhere. I notice they tend to have piano playing lead singers and traditional rock formulation behind (drummer, bassist, guitarist.) Can Piano Rock be anything other then "Adult Contemporary" music? But note who they toured with initially: Weezer and Ben Folds Five.

Another commercial trend in this area is the integration of hip-hop acts. I won't go there now but I will say to all the mellow rock acts out there in San Diego- you know who you are- "What's going on in your band that makes you think it could be listened to by the people who listen to adult contemporary music?" You're far more likely to get there then the rock chart. If you look at the "rock" acts your looking at acts that are much "harder" then your typical retro/soft San Diego rock four piece. Indie bands can learn everything from just listening to the songs that are on the hot ac chart- that is what America wants to hear. Sad but true.

Define "Adult Contemporary" Music

Subject: Things I thought about in Las Vegas.

Adult contemporary music. Here was my thought: Those songs are all hits. Know any not-famous adult contemporary songs? Probably not. Know any hits that would be called "adult contemporary"? Probably a million. And I'm not talking about "anybody" I'm talking about you- the one of seven or eight people who actually reads this blog. What does that tell you about adult contemporary music?

Here is the (weak) Wiki lede:

Adult contemporary music (frequently abbreviated AC) refers to a broad style of popular music that ranges from lush 1960s, vocal-based music to predominantly ballad-heavy music with varying degrees of rock influence". AC radio plays mainstream music excluding hip hop, hard rock, some teen pop music and rhythmic dance tracks (though during the 2000s, these have been included), which is intended for a more adult audience. AC is generally divided into 4 groups: "hot AC," "soft AC" (also known as "lite"), "urban AC," and "religious AC." Some radio stations play only hot AC; some play only soft AC; and some play both. Thus it is not usually considered a specific genre of music, since it is merely an assembly of selected tracks of musicians of many different genres.

(Wiki)

In other words, to even be "classified" as adult contemporary, the song has to be a hit already. I think wiki is wrong here- I think adult contemporary is quite so a genre. It's no broader then the group of artists considered 'hip-hop' or 'r&b.' If anyone even calls an act 'adult contemporary' it means "hey, you made it."

Observations about Ciara and the Killers

Still the Princess of Crunk and B?

I got Ciara's record in the mail- it comes out in May. Maybe on Tuesday? It got me thinking about selling records and pop music. Also, it has to with hearing a butt-load of adult contemporary hits in Las Vegas this weekend.

Ciara- succesful, sure. But how many records has she really sold?

First record: The album Goodies was released in the United States on September 28, 2004, and in the UK on January 24, 2005. It produced three top two singles on the Billboard Hot 100, selling three million in U.S and over five million worldwide. (Wiki)

Second record: Ciara's second album, Ciara: The Evolution, was released in December 2006. It has spawned the Billboard Hot 100 top ten hit "Get Up", and the R&B/Hip-Hop Charts top ten hits "Promise", "Like a Boy", and "Can't Leave 'em Alone". To date, the album, which went platinum only five weeks after its release, has sold more than one million copies in the U.S. and 2 million worldwide.

Five million, down to two million. That is still seven million world wide. Before the fight this weekend they showed that Mariah Carey was there- I've often read she has sold more then 100 million records world wide. While in Vegas, I was also thinking about the killers. How many records have they sold?

First record: The Killers released their album Hot Fuss in June 2004 in the United Kingdom on Marrakesh Records, and in the United States on Island Records. Hot Fuss has been classified 4x Platinum by the BPI(1.2 million) and 3x Platinum by RIAA.(That's three million in the U.S) (wiki)

Second record: The Killers' second album, Sam's Town, was released in October 2006 under Island Def Jam Music Group.The album sold over 700,000 copies worldwide in the first week of release, with a number two debut on the Billboard chart. The record sold over a million copies by January 2007.

So that's probably five million for Hot Fuss and then another million for Sam's Town- which everyone hated, remember? Do you know how much they pay you to headline Coachella?

I think it's funny because I spend my time thinking about why Pitchfork likes Wavves not the Crocodiles. Do you think the Killers give a fuck that pitchfork gave them two 5's? Um, no. Critical respect is for poor people.