Every Saturday, I post a 15-20 minute podcast featuring some tracks I’ve been jamming the previous week, as well as some commentary and random musings from yours truly. Enjoy!
Tracklist:
Cloud Nothings – Stay Useless
The-Dream – Rockin’ That S***
Cloud Nothings – Fall In
The-Dream – I Love Your Girl
Daniel Johnston – True Love Will Find You In the End
Baltimore Ravens vs. New England Patriots
I’m an even 4-4 for my playoff picks, but that hardly matters now that my precious Packers are out. Having said that, I think I’ve got the right picks this time around for sure. This one’s in Mass, and Tom Brady has been playing better than he has in his entire career. So that’s pretty damn good to say the least. The Ravens have a pretty explosive defense, however, and the Patriots…well….don’t. Still, Flacco is a hot-cold QB, and New England will ultimately win this one.
New York Giants vs. San Francisco 49ers
This one should be fun to watch, and currently it’s impossible to predict. Eli Manning has been going strong, and the Giants defense is on a roll after stomping my Packers at home. The 49ers are formidable on both sides of the ball, especially their D, and they have home-field advantage, which is a big deal to me….but I’m gonna go with the Giants this time, strictly because they handily beat a better team last week, whereas San Francisco barely pulled it off against the excellent Saints.
Yesterday, Culture Greyhound joined millions of websites, including Wikipedia and Google, in protest of two bills making their way through Congress that could forever jeopardize a free and fair Internet. The House’s SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and the Senate’s PIPA (Protect IP Act) are poorly worded pieces of legislation with the intentions of stopping digital piracy of intellectual property. If passed, what the bills could actually do could permanently change the Internet. The bills would censor the web and impose crippling restrictions on American businesses, seemingly with little to no judicial review.
Since the protest, many House members and Senators have dropped their support of the bills, and things are looking up. The Obama administration has expressed publicly their wariness with the bills, and a few controversial provisions in the bills have been dismissed altogether. But they are far from dead: next week the Senate will vote on PIPA, while House members will debate SOPA in February.
Wikipedia probably said it best yesterday: “SOPA and PIPA are just indicators of a much broader problem. In many jurisdictions around the world, we’re seeing the development of legislation that prioritizes overly-broad copyright enforcement laws, laws promoted by power players, over the preservation of individual civil liberties.”
To learn more about SOPA and PIPA, visit this site. To fight back, use Wikipedia to contact your local representatives and sign the petition on Google.
Cloud Nothings’ sophomore album Attack On Memory is exactly that, according to leader Dylan Baldi: it’s an attack on the former memory of the band. It’s more raw, angry, and even more unpolished than the self-titled debut. Perhaps that’s the influence of producer Steve Albini, but Baldi’s songwriting is darker, more grand in scope, and more ambitious in delivery. They’ve replaced ooh-wah choruses for increasingly strained vocal work and more minor key arrangements, but try as they might, there’s still plenty of pop material here. This time around, however, the finished product might have more in common with Male Bonding than Wavves. Like Pinkerton did after the more accessible Blue Album, Attack On Memory is slightly flawed, but wholly bold, introspective, and mature. It’s a strong step toward a gradual shift for the long term, warts and all.
Stream the whole thing below. It drops on January 24.
Reign of Terror, the sophomore album from Sleigh Bells, drops on February 21st, and the first single “Comeback Kid” follows in the same vein as the blisteringly loud Treats. It’s available for download on iTunes as of today. I can honestly say, after hearing this and the equally impressive “Born to Lose,” I am more stoked for this release than any other currently.
Every Saturday, I post a 15-20 minute podcast featuring some tracks I’ve been jamming the previous week, as well as some commentary and random musings from yours truly. Enjoy!
Tracklist:
Star Slinger – Chain Dumbin’ (feat. Juicy J, Project Pat, and Reggie B)
Ceremony – Hysteria
Candy Claws – Do You Ever Feel That Way (Starflyer 59 cover)
Kool A.D. – Girls and Women
Arrange – Streams/At Night
Denver Broncos vs. New England Patriots
So I’m 2-2 so far in the postseason picks, but I have a feeling after this weekend I’ll be in the win column, especially if Tebow plays like Tebow and not like the superhuman, make-me-look-like-an-idiot passing machine that he was last week against the Steelers. There’s no way a guy who has completed for less than half during the regular season has any chance of keeping up with Tom Brady and the best offense in the AFC. No matter what the TeBros tell you this week, New England will win this one handily.
New Orleans Saints vs. San Francisco 49ers
This one’s another slam-dunk offensive show; Drew Brees is unstoppable right now, even though the 49ers defense is well rested. Brees threw for 466 yards last week against the Lions, and San Fran has done pretty average against the passing game. Stopping Frank Gore and the rushing offense will be a challenge, but nothing the Saints aren’t capable of handling. This one goes to New Orleans in a game that should be pretty much done by the time the fourth quarter comes around.
Houston Texans vs. Baltimore Ravens
Yates and Flacco aren’t the story here. This one’s all about running backs; whichever defense stops the leading rusher is the winner. So whether the Texans can kill Ray Rice, or the Ravens can crush Arian Foster, that’s what the scoreboard will show. So it should be a pretty close game, but I think Baltimore has the edge on this one – home-field advantage, more experience in the quarterback position, and a well-rested D-line.
New York Giants vs. Green Bay Packers
This one’s the nail biter, and speaking as a Packers fan, I’m pretty damn scared of Eli Manning and the Giants defense. Green Bay’s well rested and playing in cold-as-hell Wisconsin, but New York is pretty hot right now. This one will be a blow-for-blow offensive shootout, and it will be incredibly fun to watch. In the end, my money’s on Green Bay, but expect a last minute finish similar to when these two teams met in Week 13.
As a longtime fan of the Lubbock music scene, I was devastated to hear the news today of the sudden loss of one of the movement’s most important individuals in recent memory. Marcus Chapa was a pioneer, and now he’s a legend. He was an all-in-one, DIY, completely-outside-the-box kind of guy. Promoter, marketer, designer, musician, entrepreneur, Marcus did it all, and he did it for the love of those around him and the art they made. Though I’ve never personally attended any shows at his venue Grandma’s House, I’ve heard of the intimate setting Chapa provided for locals and touring up-and-comers making their way through the 806. I’ve sat and marveled at the ambition of an always-unpredictable Kitten Glitter show. I’ve witnessed the painstaking effort and time-consuming work Marcus brought to his homegrown label Middle Child Recordings. Marcus was quiet, reserved, but always planning for the next big thing – his Facebook page promoted a new fashion project for 2012 called Natural Reflex.
More than a visionary, Marcus was passionate. He loved music, especially the creations of his friends. He was caring, friendly, an undeniable joy to be around. His insight was unique and always fascinating. I encourage you to check out the Middle Child website; his latest Christmas compilation features music from Lubbock musicians past and present. Though the music is mostly from others, the project, the medium, has Marcus Chapa written all over it. It is a testament to his hard work and undying love for the Lubbock underground.
I can’t honestly say I knew Marcus as well as others, and, unfortunately, that is a mistake of mine I’ll never get the chance to correct. I wish I would’ve spent more time with the guy while he was with us. What I do know is, with what little time we spent together, especially those weekends crashing on my floor here in Austin for SXSW and Fun Fun Fun, he was fun, laid-back, and a genuinely happy dude, and it was always a pleasure to have him around. What I also know is, at a time when they shut down KTXT and it felt like the whole Lubbock scene was imploding, Marcus was one of the leaders striving to keep it alive. From what I can tell, he made some serious headway doing so.
My thoughts are with the Chapa family, Rachel Stone, and the friends of Marcus and the Lubbock music community, local and abroad. Death always gives us a glimpse of how many people one person can affect and influence, and you can bet, for Marcus Chapa, that’s a pretty big number.
Watch the trailer below for Shut Up and Play the Hits, a documentary chronicling LCD Soundsystem’s final days. The film follows James Murphy and crew around before their last show at Madison Square Garden. The film will premiere at Sundance later this month.
