Taverna

Some friends took me out to dinner last night for my birthday. We went to one of my favorite restaurants, Lebanese Taverna, and it was excellent—great food, great company, the works.

If you're local to DC, I wholeheartedly recommend this place if you're in search of awesome middle eastern food beyond the usual kabobs and stuff. The mezze (appetizer-sized dishes analogous to Spanish tapas) are great. I usually get three of these for dinner, mix-n-match style. It's a fun way to try different things, especially if you're up for sharing with your friends.

I took a few photos, but they turned out pretty crappy. I put a couple up at flickr, if you want to see 'em.

Highlights of the evening (aside from the awesome food):

+ Meeting Canan. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Sarah's friend from Turkey who was pretty damn amazing. She's currently living in Germany working toward her Ph.D. in archeology. She also speaks three languages fluently, has travelled the world, and is very nice and cute. Despite the fact that we'll probably never meet again, a burgeoning crush has already developed.

+ Birthday kiss. OMG. There I was, stuffing my face with falafel, when I was suddenly blindsided with a surprise smacker. It was Catherine making good on an inside joke. Yow! Needless to say, I'll never wash this cheek again.

+ Friends...How many of us have them? Me! I do! Thanks again to everyone who came out—you guys are awesome. And thanks especially to Tim, for organizing the whole thing.

White Rain

It's beautiful outside, what with the branches covered with snow and all. It's almost worth the disappointment I felt when I found myself going to work this morning. At one point last night they were calling for as much as ten inches and saying it was nearly a sure thing. Needless to say, it didn't happen and I woke up to nothing. I stayed in bed until the last possible minute before getting up and trudging off to the Metro.

I can hear it melting now. And still the sky is spitting snow.

Listen to Clearlake: “Wonder If the Snow Will Settle”

Twenty-Eight

TODAY'S BIRTHDAY (February 27). You believe in yourself this year, and others believe in you, too. In fact, you are being groomed for advancement over the next 10 weeks. Relocation is an option, but take it slowly, and investigate carefully before making a move. In May, your confidence attracts passion. Big money follows an educated risk in July. Love signs are Taurus and Cancer. Your lucky numbers are: 30, 51, 24, 27 and 45.

It's true: I'm no longer being thought of as a fictitious character. [And it feels great!] Also, these next 10 weeks of grooming should be interesting. I love a good delousing. Confidence? Passion? Big money? Sounds great, liar.

Really, it couldn't be less of an event. The even years (with the exception of 18 and the years that mark each decade) always seem less significant. The odd years just feel older. Plus, I think I'm finally ok with the fact that one year older no longer means much more than just that. All these years I seem to have been hoping for a Pink Panther cake with licorice whiskers and a trip to Chuck E. Cheese. Of course, this hasn't happened since I was seven. I think I've finally accepted that it was a one-time deal.


Here's to another year of possibilities. I'm confident I'll attract passion, earn big money and advance to a carefully investigated relocation of ideals. Believe it.

Girl Groups

England's Electrelane released their Albini-recorded second album, The Power Out, last year on Too Pure. How fitting that the label which brought us some of Stereolab's earliest releases now offers this all-girl four piece.

Something about Electrelane reminds me of some of those early Stereolab singles collected on the first Switched On. ["Doubt," I'm looking at you.] Maybe it's in singer Verity Susman's lower register, multilingual vocals. She sings alternately in English, French, Spanish, and German. Or maybe it's the fairly dry, driving motorik-type drums, the presence of organs and synths. I'm not sure, but it's there. On the other hand, the similarities are far from overwhelming—Electrelane are more guitar-heavy, among other things—and are certainly not a Stereolab clone.

The Power Out took quite a while to sink in. I knew I liked it after a few listens, but it's taken time to really grow on me. With the exception of “The Valleys,” which, with its choir and organ-centered sounds, interrupts the pace of the energetic first two tracks, I'd say it's a pretty damn good album all around. And if the progression made from their instrumental debut, Rock It To the Moon, to the stronger follow-up is anything to go by, I'm really looking forward to their next album, Axes, which is due out on Too Pure in May.

Listen to “Oh Sombra!”


Magneta Lane, whose six song debut EP The Constant Lover was released in 2004 on Paper Bag Records (and whose name I keep reading as Magenta), are a female trio from Canada who sound like they're ready to fight. Heavy, distorted guitars, biting bass sounds, sultry/sassy vocals and aggressive drumming are make these cranked-up pop songs. Let's just hope they get a little more adventurous on their full-length, eh?

By the way, Paper Bag seems to be building a pretty decent catalog. They first brought us Broken Social Scene's awesome You Forgot It In People, then came one of my favs from last year, Uncut's Those Who Were Hung Hang Here.

Listen to "The Constant Lover"

Back from the Mountain

I haven't had time for a real post lately. The weekend trip with the fam was fun stuff. Great food, snow tubing, frozen lake, etc. And I took lots of pictures. If you're so inclined, you can view some of them here.

A more substantial post is coming soon. It will either be about podcasting (the part 2 I mentioned previously), or about my record-buying habits. I'm hoping for a snow day tomorrow. We'll see...

Dad Music

So I'm going on this trip to the mountains with my family this weekend. I'm driving up there with my dad and his dog, and then the rest are coming up Saturday morning. Well, the idea of a 4+ hour car trip with this guy had me wondering about the music situation. See, he's not at all a big music fan. He's strictly mainstream oldies, “jazz” (which for my dad pretty much means white big band stuff) and classical. Zzzzzz... Sorry.

Luckily, I found out he has one of those tape deck/CD player combos. Thank jeezus, I can use my iPod. No ridiculous radio tags, no obnoxious commericals, and absolutely NO Big Bopper. But what do I play that won't cause too much of a ruckus or make Dad want to check my bag for drugs? What do I have that is dad-safe? There's not much, but I looked through my stuff and compiled a few basic playlists of father friendly music. Here's what I have so far:

Jool Cazz (straight-forward jazz):

John Coltrane: Giant Steps and Blue Train
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue and Birth of the Cool
Billie Holliday: Billie's Blues

Bigger Than Jesus (rock/pop/etc):

Love: s/t and Forever Changes
The Seeds: s/t
The Zombies: Odessey and Oracle
various: Growin' Up Too Fast, The Girl Group Anthology Vol. 1
Neko Case: The Tigers Have Spoken
The Clientele: Suburban Light and A Fading Summer
David Kilgour: Frozen Orange
Hope Sandoval/Warm Inventions: Bavarian Fruit Bread
American Analog Set: Promise of Love
Pernice Brothers: Yours, Mine & Ours
Olivia Tremor Control: Dusk at Cubist Castle
The Rosebuds: Make Out
Led Zeppelin: IV

Wooden Guitar (folk-ish)

Simon & Garfunkel: Sounds of Silence
Nick Drake: Pink Moon
Iron & Wine: The Creek Drank the Cradle and Our Endless Numbered Days
Keren Ann: Not Going Anywhere
Cat Power: The Covers Record

Upcoming DC Shows

It's about time DC got some good shows. A few are actually on the weekend, too. Here are some that I'm interested in:

9:30 Club:

Mon Feb 21 - The Futureheads w/Shout Out Louds, The High Speed Scene - $12
Tue Mar 22 - Slint - $25
Tue Apr 12 - Aesop Rock w/DJ Big Wiz, SA Smash - $15
Sun Apr 17 - Handsome Boy Modeling School w/K-OS, Rondo Brothers - $18

Blackcat:

Sat Feb 26 - Ratatat w/The Double, Soft Complex - $10
Thur Mar 17 - The Carribean w/Portions Toll - $5
Mon Mar 28 - The Album Leaf w/Blood Thirsty Lovers, Mar - $10
Fri Apr 1- Metropolitan (cd release) w/ Aqueduct, Federal City Five - $8
Sat Apr 9 - Bloc Party w/The Ponys - $12
Fri Apr 15 - M83 w/Ulrich Schauss - $12
Fri May 6 - Autechre w/ Snd, DJ Rob Hall - $15
Mon May 23 - Monade (Stereolab) w/The Zincs - $12

Galaxy Hut:

Sun Mar 27 - The Plums w/Motori - FREE

Ottobar (Baltimore):

Mon Apr 11 - Aesop Rock w/Mr Lif - $15/17
Sun Apr 24 - Animal Collective w/Ariel Pink - $10
Tues Apr 26 - Dead Meadow w/Jennifer Gentle, Parchman Farm - $10
Sun May 1 - Prefuse 73 w/Battles, Beans - $10/12

Warehouse Next Door:

Sat Mar 12 - Panthers w/Turing Machine, Parts and Labor - ?
Wed Mar 16 - Radian w/Machine Drum, Band of the Name, H8 - $8
Tue Apr 12 - Mono w/Eluvium - $8

WarTuning

I assume you've heard of Warchalking and Wardriving. Well, check it out:

WarTuning [via LifeHacker]

Friggin' brilliant. Drive (or walk) around with your wireless-enabled laptop and download music from iTunes libraries everywhere. All it takes is some specialized software (plus the aforementioned laptop, open Wi-Fi, a shared iTunes library, and lots of HD space). OurTunes is a java-based app for Mac and Windows. Looks a little clunky to install for PC people, so I'd go with myTunes if you're on Windows.

No laptop here, sadly, so someone try it out and let me know.

Books, For Listening

I recently got my grubby digital hands (aka my external HD) on a copy of the upcoming Books album, Lost and Safe, which is due out in April on Tomlab.

First impressions: This one, their 3rd album, is a bit less frantic than previous records. Though there are still plenty of plucked-and-cut strings (nicely contrasted with more legato sounds) and rearranged vocal samples, they seemed to have mellowed somewhat on the frenetic style of Thought For Food and The Lemon of Pink. Lost and Safe also features a stronger vocal presence by the younger half of the duo, Nick Zammuto. This is most often a good thing.

The odd personalities of Paul De Jong and Nick Zammuto are thankfully still evident. The Books love playing with words. For example, they get a big kick out of contradictions (“keeping your eyes gently closed, close your eyes tightly”) and the twisting of words, both in the vocal samples of songs and the song titles (e.g. “A Little Longing Goes Away,” “If Not Now, Whenever”). They're clever, these two. Fortunately, their music exhibits the kind of whimsy that makes me smile rather than roll my eyes.

Listen to “Smells Like Content”

See also:
The Books official site
Tomlab's Books page
a Books interview at Tiny Mixtapes
upcoming tour dates at Pitchfork

Books, For Reading

So here are some books I've been reading lately. Between trips to Atomic Books and ordering several little-somethings-for-myself while xmas shopping last year, I amassed quite a pile of reading material. I still haven't made it through everything. I've been kind of jumping from book to book, mostly because many of them are the kind of books you can put down and come back to later. Yeah, a lot of great bathroom reading here. There's not much fiction though, is there? Well, guess what: Fiction is so 20th Century, it's not even funny. <-- Haha.

[Click the covers for related online content.]

Vice Do's & Don'ts: 10 Years of Vice Magazine's Street Fashion Critiques
by Suroosh Alvi/Gavin McInnes/Shane Smith

The hipsters at Vice compile my favorite part of their dumb magazine into a one hilarious book. What, you don't know about the Vice Do's and Don'ts?! Basically, they take these photos of people on the streets in New York (or elsewhere) and comment on what they're wearing or what style they're trying convey. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's just bizarre nonsense. This one's been a big hit around the house. Perfect for the toilet!

Found
by Davy Rothbart

This book compiles the best of Found Magazine's scraps of orphaned what-have-you from across the country: lost notes, to-do lists, scribbled drawings, and photographs. The contents are often hilarious, usually at least curious, but occasionally just mundane. Overall, a fun book which offers us a rare, voyeuristic look into the unspoken (and often candid) communications of the American everyman. Speaking of voyeurism, I've also been enjoying Issue #1 of Dirty Found, a new sister magazine which focuses on only the most sordid and unsavory of found items.

Eightball #23: The Death-Ray
by Daniel Clowes

From the creator of Ghost World comes the newest in a series of oddball genius comics. This one features yet another great anti-hero, Andy, who discovers he gains incredible strength from smoking cigarettes. Cool new large format, too.


Minipops
by Craig Robinson

A book of tiny pixel portraits of famous people, including bands (indie and not), actors, film characters, and political figures. It's fun to try to guess who each one represents, but there's an index in the back in case you're stumped. Be sure to check out his site; there's lots more neat shit there.

McSweeny's Quarterly #13
edited by Chris Ware

A special issue of McSweeny's featuring comics compiled by comics genius Chris Ware (author of Jimmy Corrigan). Cool stuff from some of the big names in underground comics (e.g. Crumb, Clowes) as well as a bunch of comics from people my inexperienced comic-reading self has never heard of.

The Future Dictionary of America
by Jonathan Safran Foer (Editor), et al

Another one from McSweeny's. This was published last year to benefit progressive causes in the 2004 election. It contains creative, politcally-conscious definitions of modern buzzwords (many of which are completely made up) by over 170 writers and artists. The book also includes a 22 track CD with tracks from David Byrne, Elliot Smith, Tom Waits, the Flaming Lips, the Long Winters, and others.

33 1/3:Meat Is Murder
by Joe Pernice
33 1/3:Unknown Pleasures
by Chris Ott

These two quick reads are a part of an entire series of books, each focusing on a single great album. Both were kindly lent to me by my housemate, Tim (see this link for a further review, among others , of each of these books). The first one I read is by Joe Pernice of the Pernice Brothers and focuses on The Smiths' 1985 album (wow...almost exactly 20 years ago, today) Meat Is Murder. Pernice takes a different approach than most in the 33 1/3 series. His is a work of fiction, albeit undoubtedly heavily autobiograhical, in which he tells a tale of teenage love and budding music geekery. The story is cute, but let's just say Pernice is a much better muscian and lyricist. Chris Ott (former writer for Pitchforkmedia.com) takes much more straight forward approach with his look at Joy Division's classic first album, Unknown Pleasures. Though I find his writing here occasionally somewhat ostentatious (it reads as almost clinical at times), it offers some insight into the history of the band and their rise to cult status in the late 70s, as well as some interesting details about producer Martin Hannett's often amusing recording techniques.

Love All the People
by Bill Hicks

A posthumous collection of letters, routines, and other writings from one of America's best comics. Hicks is one of my favorites, not only as a comedian (he's was much bigger than that), but as a modern day philospher. There's lots of great material here, though I have yet to make my way through most of it (guess I've been kind of savoring this one). The foreword by John Lahr contains the profile he wrote for the New Yorker just before Hicks' untimely death in 1994. The book also includes scores of interviews and articles, letters to people like David Letterman, and bits of his stand-up transcribed from actual performances. Though perhaps not the best introduction to this lost hero (I'd recommend seeing the recently-released DVD, Bill Hicks: Live or listening to my favorite Hicks album, Rant In E-Minor, first), this book is must-have for any fan. There's really no one like Bill Hicks around these days. It's a shame—we could use him now more than ever. See also: billhicks.com and Sacred Cow Productions