Back from ATP!

Here is a field recording I did of Mercury Rev's set: http://rapidshare.com/files/147532676/Mercury_Rev_live_at_ATP.mp3.html

I have TONS of stories, Mark took $50 from Steve Albini at the card table! I will get pics from the Bone and update them here along with anecdotes. But for now, enjoy the above (Rev was fucking GOOD! Get Highline tickets!) and wait for more tales to emerge.

The Rev set was mostly All of Dream and Deserter's Songs (Funny Bird, bitch!) with a few tracks from Snowflake Midnight sprinkled in. Grasshopper sounded sick, the rhythm section was great, and Donahue was much more flamboyant than I remember him. Perhaps it had something to do with the bottle of wine he was swigging from the whole time.

The new hotness......

Tangible progress

Had my physical the other day. How has the health kick been going?

I am 17 pounds lighter and my cholesterol has gone down almost 30 points since last year's checkup.

My blood pressure and standing pulse are down too.

It looks like the super trendy "make better eating choices and exercise regularly" diet has some merit!

OK, off to gorge myself on some trans-fats.

The Seth Diamond

Dear reader. In the event of my untimely or premature demise please have my favorite sandwich named after me, the Seth Diamond. Eat it at my funeral in my memory and bask in its subtle layers of smoky goodness.

The three key ingredients are simple:
1 Sesame bagel, untoasted
Tofu Lox Spread (real lox is in tofu cream cheese, it is not a fake tofu lox)
Sable

A completely over-exposed picture that I was too hungry to re-take is attached for your reference.

Steve Jobs pissed me off, so I paid him

Like many people I was eagerly awaiting the Steve Jobs' keynote at the WWDC conference yesterday. However I couldn't give a rat's ass about the iPhone. The deal breaker for me is QWERTY. I need it. However I love the idea and would like the Touch. However 32gb for $500 is also a deal breaker for me. I was hoping that the new iPhone would bring with it a second discussion. That of new iPods or a reduction in price on the touch.

The problem is though, I outgrew my 80 gig 5.5G iPod. Say what you will but with 80 gigs I was constantly cleaning it off and making compromises on what albums stay on by certain bands. That is unacceptable. I also want to rip more and more into lossless formats since my headphones are so 1337. So, I have eyed the 160 gig iPod classic but heard many bad things about it. I was also secretly hoping he would refresh the line and perhaps introduce an iPod with even MORE than 160 gig storage so I can rip everything into Lossless and live in a new golden age. This was not to be as no iPods were mentioned at all yesterday. The Steve didn't even lower the price of the Touch along with the iPhone. So I went out and bought a 160 gig classic.

One thing this means: I have a perfectly working black 80 gig 5.5G iPod if you know anyone who wants to buy it.

So that photo above is the new 160 gig sitting in my iPod dock on my desk at work. Having owned this for 24 hours with the latest firmware that addresses many bugs I have some comments on this thing....

Stuff I like:
-The new interface ROCKS. I love how everything is more graphical and on menu screens it makes little slide shows from your album covers. There are many cool little touches that make you feel like you are using a cool modern 2.0 device.
-FINALLY there is information displayed on your iPod. It still won't tell you what individual songs are ripped at like my old creative did, but it will tell you how full it is, how many songs or videos are on it, the firmware version, etc. This is very welcome. I like knowing this stuff when it is not plugged into the PC.
-You can browse album information in cover flow view without changing what you are listening to. It is a subtle touch but it gives you the sensation of browsing your album collection. It feels more natural than just sorting through text based lists. It is a lot of fun to poke through your shit while you are on the train.
-Tons of space finally! Full formatted out I get about 140-144 gigs of real usable storage space. That kicks the ass of the 74 usable gigs I got out of the 80 gig model. Now I am getting closer to a real celestial jukebox in my pocket. The fact that I spent 4 hours loading in music last night and I am not even half filled up makes me giddy.

Stuff I do not like:
-The fucker is SLOW. Believe the hype. I heard it used to be much worse before they fixed the OS with firmware updates but it is still sluggish. Once it gets going everything is good, but if you are going into menus or backing up into directories there is a noticeable lag that gets worse the more music is on the iPod.
-WTF is up with the screensaver you can't disable?? When the backlight goes instead of just being dark, the iPod defaults to a static screen which displays the time, date and battery status. You have to touch the wheel a few times to wake it back up and see what the song playing is. I googled around and discovered everyone who owns a new iPod HATES this feature and is waiting for a firmware update that allows you to disable it.
-The volume coming out of my iPod dock is much lower and seems to have an EQ curve that is skewing towards the mid-range. It sounds like I have a sweetener or some sort of EQ setting on it but I don't. Also I swear the volume is a bit lower in the headphones as well. I checked the settings and I have the volume limiter disabled.

So I'm pretty happy but have stuff to get used to. And let me know if anyone wants to buy my 80 gig!

One Crazy Summer

5/13 Kanye West
5/19 Thee Silver Mt. Zion Orchestra
5/21 Dream Theater/Opeth
5/22 Gods of Fire at Knitting Factory
5/24 and 5/26 Firewater
6/11 Swervedriver
6/13 Teenage Jesus & the Jerks
6/15 Iron Maiden
6/17 Steely Dan
6/20 The Cure
6/21 Polvo
6/23 Liquid Tension Experiment
6/25 Dethklok
6/26 Devo/Tom Tom Club
7/10 At the Gates
7/25 Ween
7/29 Butthole Surfers
8/9 Judas Priest/Heaven and Hell/Testament/Motorhead
8/14 King Crimson
8/23 Motley Crue
8/27 Nine Inch Nails
9/19-9/21 All Tomorrow's Parties
9/23 My Bloody Valentine
10/4 Nick Cave
10/11 and 10/12 Killing Joke
10/28 Black Crowes

Snap Judgments: Quick reviews of recent albums

Opeth "Watershed" - probably one of the best moments in Metal of the last five years. The end of Burden was the first time in God knows how long where I felt the urge to do a psychedelic drug. Roadrunner: please put this out on vinyl.

Children of Bodom "Blood Drunk" - It is fine, but I never listen to it. I still go back to Hate Crew. It sounds like they are settling into a little groove with their sound and the songs rock live, but there is nothing particularly compelling on this record they haven't done already and with more memorable hooks.

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!" - note to all rockers over 40, this is the blueprint of how to age gracefully. The album kicks ass but shows maturity at the same time. Nothing avant-garde or mellow or experimental. Just a straight up rocker with amazing lyrics and well developed grooves. My favorite Bad Seeds album by far.

Mudcrutch s/t - Jeff Tweedy and Tom Petty should totally make a record together. Not that this album isn't a great rootsy rock record, but Tweedy and Petty would be freaking sweet.

Def Leppard "Songs from the Sparkle Lounge" - They sound stripped down, but not retro. Love is the best song on the record. Who knew Def Leppard would be their best when blatantly ripping off Queen?

Testament "The Formation of Damnation"- FUCK AND YES! Worth the nine year wait.

Ihsahn "angL" - I made the mistake of trying to work out to this record and it killed the whole vibe. This is some pretty damn dark and depressing shit. But it is also a beautifully constructed prog-black metal masterpiece. The song with the dude from Opeth is killer.

Ashlee Simpson "Bittersweet World" - I was nervous about this record because what I liked about her sound was the guitar based pop. But Rule Breaker has an undeniable riff and the "Blondie on the 00's" sound is still there. Good shit.

Death Angel "Killing Season" - I thought the first reunion album "The Art of Dying" was pretty damn kick ass. I can't even remember one song title from this. Ass suckingly boring. Boo.

Man Man "Rabbit Habits" - If Tom Waits was following Nick Cave's example he would have written this record. Everything from the songwriting to the production is absolutely stellar. The perfect soundtrack to a life as a snake oil salesman in the West.

Spiritualized "Songs in A & E" - Another total winner. Give the man credit for self releasing and still utilizing an orchestra and choir. Death Take Your Fiddle, about his nearly fatal drug overdose is the standout for me. Goodnight, Goodnight also follows in his tradition of amazing album closers. Think Cop Shoot Cop from "Ladies and Gentlemen..."

Torche "Meanderthal" - In the 90s this wouldn't have even been considered Metal. Shoegazer with huge hooks and a ton of riffs. This band rocks hard with sick melodies. I wish they were touring with Swervedriver this summer.

In Flames "A Sense of Purpose" - what in the hot topic happened to this band? I hope they are getting their dicks sucked a lot because they have fallen hard since the Jester Race/Clayman glory days. The lyrics are straight out of a 15 year old goth girl's LiveJournal ("I feel like shit/but at least I feel something." Really guys? Fuck you!) The riffs suck too. Fuck them at this point.

Black Crowes "Warpaint" - Made me a fan again for the first time in 15 years. Daughters of the Revolution, Evergreen, Oh Josephine, so many new classics. Great production as well. Regardless of the process it sounds like 5 dudes in a room.