Solid State

Yo, Christmas fools!

You'll be pleased to know that skank-rock messiah Joshe Henry has unleashed two holiday songs upon the world. With any luck, these tunes will become part of Yultide tradition. Consider this the official world premiere.

Christmas Springsteen 

Last Christmas

They're both, ahem, covers.

Enjoy!

Each December, I'm invited to participate in Pazz & Jop, the Village Voice's annual "best of" poll.

P & J is restricted to less than 1500 so-called professionals, which means armchair critics are shit out of luck.

I'm a rarity in my guild; I hate compiling lists. I submit to the Voice, however, because they appeal to my inner elitist.

Also, they pay an infinitesimal amount for comments. And I have been known to be motivated by my wallet.

Here are my picks:

#1. Antony & the Johnsons — I Am a Bird Now. Read my interview with Antony here. Reviews here and here.

#2. Sunn O))) — The Black One. Read my review here.

#3. Six Organs of Admittance — School of the Flower. Ben Chasny finds discipline, records outside of his bedroom.

#4. Dengue Fever — Escape from Dragon House. Khmer Rouge can't keep a good band down!

#5. irr. app. (ext.) — ozeaniche gefühle. Read my review here.

#6. Gang Gang Dance — God's Money. Heard it a bit late, but I'm totally convinced.

#7. Deerhoof — The Runners Four. The Bay Area's finest.

#8. Opeth — Ghost Reveries. Ain't no Blackwater Park. Still, it's a fantastic metal-prog mood piece.

#9. The Howling Hex — All Night Fox. Hagerty is God.

#10. Feist — Let it Die. The new Broken Social was a bust, but Leslie's solo release is supa sexy!

For some reason. I wasn't overly impressed with any hip-hop or electronic albums this year.  M.I.A. gave me a headache; Kanye was disappointing, and grime just a buncha hype.

You might notice that there aren't any post-punk/disco-dance/boy-bands in my top ten. That's because I'm fucking sick of them!

There's also a conspicuous absence of meta/indie-lit/AV Club releases among my faves. This is because I lack the free time to properly digest them.

All in all, a fair-to-middling year. Some of my favorite records were re-issues or stuff from the vaults: Comus, Bill Fay, Terry Reid, Lee Hazelwood, The Grateful Dead.

Faithful readers, feel free to post your picks below the fold. I promise there shall be no shame or judging. Well, maybe just a little.

Stay tuned for New Year's Resolutions!

Remember these two fellas? That there's Ahmet and Dweezil Zappa, spawn of late, great Frank. Back in the early '90s, they had a short-lived lived band called Z. The duo released two albums before it all fell apart. Subsequently, Dweez got hitched to librarian-chic hottie Lisa Loeb.  And as for Ahmet? Well, he currently hosts a lame TV show.

Anyway, here's a hillarious MP3 from the broheim, in which they riff through the history of rock, pop and disco.

I found it in a dumpster.

Brooke flies back from L.A. today after 10 long nights on the Left Coast!

My Seven Days double production work is completed!

The Contrarian has some new songs that will be posted here this week!

I'm nearly done one of the records I'm mixing!

I have a cold!

My cats are cute!

Gonna see Kong tomorrow!

Okay. I'm ready to start my Blue Oyster Cult tribute band. Who's with me?

Shall we call it  Flaming Telepaths, Dominance & Submission, Carreer of Evil, ME-262 or Veterans of the Psychic Wars?

Shane MacGowan and Kate Moss sing together!

Spent the weekend writing, playing Star Wars Battlefront II and doing a super-quick, ninja mix of three Swale tunes for a not-so-top-secret publicity gig. The mixes turned out quite well, I might add.

But back to the title of this post: This funny article might help women land that dreamy guy with the pocket protector. The first paragraph is priceless.

Now, back to work.

This is the greatest thing I've seen all damn day. Yes, it's a mash-up. Yes, you can download it.

Here at Seven Days, it's not uncommon for me to receive letters and e-mails from the general public. While I always encourage folks with to write to THE EDITOR to sing praise or vent frustrations, some of them prefer not to. 

I still consider their communiques to be public domain, however, so I've decided to start posting some of them on this blog. That way all of you voyeurs can catch a glimpse of what it's like to be me.

Here's an example from Ruff Dave, who titles his missive "Real,Good,Music."

You wouldn't know good intelligent music if it came up and bit you in the
ass. (Aren't you the one who said Caralina was an up and coming band to be
on the lookout for? Cara-who?) And give me a hypocritical break. Seven
Days, environmentally aware, yada, yada. Yeah, sure.

A quick visit to his website reveals that Mr. Ruff's recordings feature none other than Bill Mullins, one of my favorite area guitarists .

You can listen to a bunch of his songs. He invites you to drop him a line to let him know what you think.

Keep 'em coming, you wacky Vermonters!