Mordecai - Waste/Drag Down 7"

college rock

Mordecai are the best band in the state of Montana. Brothers Holt and Elijah Bodish have each been "cutest boy in Missoula, MT" at various times in the past. Current cutest boy in Missoula is still in the air but Bernie holds a strong lead). This post isn't about cutest boys or best band, though. This is about my photos being used as front and back cover for the new Mordecai 7".

that's right i took these pics

with a camera

I won't try to write a Real, Intelligent, Grammatically Correct review because I don't want to and furthermore, Elijah writes like this:

his first language is maths

They sound like youth suffering. Like young people struggling. It's a sound that represents the state of Montana. Mordecai are from Butte. I stopped in Butte once. Every other building there is abandoned, boarded up, windows shattered and rock-marked. Lots of spooky ghost town vibes and weird, winding, vertical streets that dead end, dead end, dead end.

You can buy a copy of the new record tonight at Mordecai's record release show at the VFW in downtown Missoula. I'll be there telling everyone that I took those pictures.

See also: this week's Independent

ETA: Also see this video of Mordecai playing live last night at the VFW. That's me and Hana MT out back on the sidewalk.

A Show is a Baseball Game

Music is an art. It's invisible. Can’t be touched. It can be felt, though. If you stand too close to the speakers at a show, the vibration will zap your brain. If you stand anywhere at that Black Dice show that happened at the Palace a few years ago, the vibration will zap your brain (“melt your face off"). Of course, music is also felt in that intangible way. Listen to "Medicine Bottle" by Red House Painters for an example.

Bands with three words for a name are the only bands I listened to last week. Red House Painters. Magic City Boys. Sun Kil Moon. Those three-word bands provided an intermittent score to what was a miserable, reclusive 7 consecutive days. How many great shows vagazzled Missoula’s event schedule last week? A bunch, and I missed them all because I chose to nurse my stress-induced anxiety and depression with loneliness and dairy products. From July 6^th to July 11^th I was underwater, in a haze, irritable. I googled things like “why can’t I stop sneezing.” I google satellite map-explored neighborhoods in NYC. I took walks through Alphabet City as well as the Meatpacking District. 

5 Ninth Avenue, where Nelson Sullivan lived

This story has no ending, but it wanders away from the beginning right now. Around 7pm last evening I resolved to attend the show at The Lab rather than continue to lounge on a mint-colored, vintage couch, bathed in the gold light of a low summer sun, refreshing my twitter account every 10 minutes (that’s right, I have a Twitter account - I opened it yesterday). Instead, I changed my clothes 4 or 5 times, settled on a pair of shorts and a Fag Cop t-shirt, super glued my sunglasses back together, and pedaled over to The Lab.

The Lab is dirty. Everything is dirty there. The furniture, the people, the dogs. Even the dirt on the ground is dirtier than average dirt. I arrived early, sat on the porch, and complained to anyone within earshot about my terrible week, feeling sick, etcetera.

Death Moth played first. This is where the show made it to first base in a baseball metaphor. Death Moth is June West, an amicable person who possesses a natural external beauty that is a reflection of her inner beauty. She also has a beautiful voice and an ability to write beautiful, mesmerizing songs. June played a beautiful electric guitar.  I don’t know if she has recorded under Death Moth yet, but her previous work in Julie and the Wolves and Magic City Boys is breathtaking.

Julie and the Wolves c. 2010

The athleticism of Better Tennis nailed second base: one handsome young man with an electric guitar and a voice that is at once firm, confident, hesitant, and uncertain. Riley is his "name" name. He is behind Germ Hunk-fever, too. Riley is a fascinating musician. He writes music that he hasn't even written yet. Hana MT sat next to me, sipped her Cook's champagne, and together we watched in hands-on-cheeks-horror as a hobo spider crawled inches from Riley's metronomic foot. The courteous spider waited until the end of the song to climb under (possibly into) Riley's messenger bag. 

After Better Tennis I noticed that my contacts were in my eyes. All the squinting, winking, and rubbing became tiresome. It would be best to drive home and put some glasses on. Dane said, “you’re gonna miss The Mallard, bro,” but I was all, “I’m old now, nearly 30, and life-moments have become replaceable and interchangeable. Driving home to peel the contacts off of my eyeballs seems equally fulfilling as watching some band that I have never heard before.” When I returned to the Lab, the basement door was a carafe's mouth pouring glistening cups of hot happiness all over the yard. Yes, The Mallard killed it and I missed out. Alas, I have seen billions of bands at little shows in Missoula and I am now incapable of feeling any regret about missing out. I am desensitized, or a husk, or something empty like that. 

I still felt horrible. Maybe I had an ulcer, or diabetes, or anemia, or a thyroid problem. Whatever was wrong, the symptoms were as follows: dizziness, fatigue, and a stomach ache. At that point in the night, my blood felt as carbonated as Hana's bottle of Cooks. Carbonated blood and then  WAP!  Bad Naked staggered outside, whipped his failure ball with his belt and PUSH OUT THE BABIES PUT ‘EM IN THE FACTORIES drove me away indoors. Foul ball.

The Lab’s book-ridden living room was my retreat until I heard the familiar noodlings of Needlecraft noodling up from the basement. I
                                                      s
                                                        l
                                                         i
                                                           d downstairs and found a sturdy place to sit in order to sit-dance. I am unhealthy and sometimes unhealthy people are lazy and can’t bother to stand up. I sat-danced until the cosmic, banging beat squiggled into my brain. Needlecraft gave me Toxoplasmosis. The jams wormed into my control center. I danced, standing on my own wobbly feet. By the time they finished their set I was cured! Music heals. I would use some kind of third base related joke but I can't think of one.

This whole baseball metaphor doesn’t make any sense anyway.

SELMA OXOR

I don't know if you have ever seen a flash drive. Those little tiny things. Like a tiny tube of an android's lipstick. Inserting a flash drive into anything is the same as buying it a ticket on Oceanic flight 815. Therefore, you will never encounter another recorded mixcloud stream of Marcus Mueller's Day Off. It's too hard. Impossible. Like, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps impossible.

So, there is a band called SELMA OXOR. They are from Monterrey, Mexico. Okay, they might not be a band anymore. Who knows? Certainly not the internet. Studies have suggested that they released a self-titled LP back in 2009. Then there is this killer track and video (discovered via NEGATIVE YOUTH) that claims a release date of 2012:

Regardless of Selma Oxor's origins or whatever, this track rules. Listen to it a hundred times while the sweat collects on that part of your face below your nose and above your mouth. Where moustaches grow.

 Lots of shows in Missoula last weekend. I would recap for you but I spent Friday through Monday morning sucking on popsicles and listening to Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon, and Magic City Boys.

In other music-related, bloggable news, last night I dreamed that my teeth started to fall out. Then my entire right jaw bone fell out. As if there are two separate pieces to the human jaw bone. My right one fell out last night.

C U N HELL

Keep Your Ears Ringing

"The Bison Range sounds like the perfect place for you. I get what you mean about music entering the atmosphere in a brash way. There is so much noise here all the time, it would be nice to just turn off most of it. On this block, at the Marador, it's constantly loud. People, cars, construction, trains stamping out whatever subtle sounds have been here longer, like birds or leaves moving against leaves. Janet Jackson said once, on some VH1 interview I saw when I was eight years old, that she doesn't like to listen to music very often. I get it. Last night, around 9pm, Dane and I walked around Pattee Canyon without aim or attention to time. You know those tall pines? The wind blew high, not low to the ground where we were, but high up at the tip-tops of the pines, creating a constant yet wavering drone. Just that wind and Dane's voice punctuated by scattered bird calls. In the last week I have heard so many sounds that I haven't wanted to hear: a couple fucking upstairs, an enormous bongo drum-karaoke all night loser party. The whooshing sound the wind makes when it flies through the tops of the pines is what I want to hear. Sometimes putting on a record or the radio is painful in that it's just another layer of noise that I am sick of listening to."


-Excerpt from a letter to R. M. Flynn, June 2012

Marcus Mueller's Day Off 5/19/2012

Riley took a break from bench pressing a whale (a specific whale, whose death inspired Clyde to swim out past the waves to his very own death, as it was meant to be, not by the roadside, but in the sea) to co-DJ a special Saturday edition of Marcus Mueller's Day Off (which regularly airs every Friday from 4-6pm MST on KBGA 89.9FM). A live stream is available via www.kbga.org if you wanna tune in to KBGA anytime (Friday 8-10pm is spectacular), anywhere. Recorded stream from May 19th is right here and features the soft, gay jamz selected by Riley Wave, interspersed with the same sad, goth jamz Emily Newton-John always plays, although this time I relied on records and compact discs instead of the usual satanic ritual method. The result is altogether not goth.

MAD PEACE HUGE WORLD REAL LIFE NASAL DRIP 

(Americana) with Emily Newton-John 05/19/2012 04:00PM to 06:00PM

St. Thomas Missionary Baptist Church “Power In The Blood” from Power In the Blood

Lou Reed “Intro/Sweet Jane” from Rock n' Roll Animal on RCA

Paula Abdul “Cold Hearted” from Cold Heart single

Shirley Ellis “BRING IT ON HOME TO ME” from The Very Best Of on Master Classics Records

K.S. Chithra “Chitthirai Maastthu (Featuring Malaysia Vasudevan)” from K.S. Chithra on Finders Keepers Records

Maurice White “Stand By Me (Extended Dance Version)” from STAND BY ME - Single

Walter & Wataja “NIGHTLIFE” from Nightlife - Single

El Pedro “Real Love” from Real Love

Nancy & Lee “Some Velvet Morning” from Nancy & Lee on Reprise Records

Glenn Kotche “Clapping Music Variations” from Mobile on Nonesuch

Inoyama Land “Glass Chaim” from Danzindan Pojidon

Interior “Technobose” from INTERIOR

Chromatics “LADY” from Kill For Love on Italians Do it Better

Glass Candy “Feeling Without Touching” from Feeling Without Touching - EP on Italians Do it Better

Yellow Magic Orchestra “Ishin Denshin (You've Got to Help Yourself)” from Service

Yukihiro Takahashi “Something in the Air” from Neuromantic

Glenn Branca “Structure” from The Ascension on 99

Roberta Flack “TO LOVE SOMEBODY” from Quiet Fire on Atlantic

Chris Rainbow “Tarzana Reseda” from Home of the Brave

Michael Angelo “The World To Be” from Michael Angelo

King Tuff “Evergreen” from King Tuff on Sub Pop

Cass Elliot “(If You're Gonna) Break Another Heart” from The Road Is No Place for a Lady on Legacy Recordings (http://www.legacyrecordings.com)

Germ Hunk “Uncle Hair” from I am Hunk For Hands and Dog on self released

Denis Yekani & The Movement “Try Your Luck” from Try Your Luck

Randy Newman “I Love L.A.” from Trouble in Paradise

Dionne Warwick “(There's Always) Something There To Remind Me” from The Best of Dionne Warwick on IndieBlu Music

Germ Hunk “Planet of the Lungs” from I am Hunk For Hands and Dog on self released

Microdisney “Horse Overboard” from And The Clock Comes Down The Stairs on Big Time

Death Moth Family Band “Rambler” from Dry River Session

New Beginnings “Sweet Sweet Spirit” from Youthreach Is A Song

Ssion “Feels Good (4-EVR)” from Bent on self-released

Marcus Mueller 5/19/2012 by Emilynewtonjohn on Mixcloud

Listen Baby

"Don't try your best. Just do it right."

Your wish is my command. Unless you wish for HATE GIRLS to post more posts more often. They can't. They choose not to post often because they forget to. They could, maybe, but they can't, in reality. They. The importance of HATE GIRLS is not important compared to LIFE. Glorious, meaningless life.

Another obstruction is erratic internet usage when executing life inside the internet. For example, researching Leonardo DiCaprio's sex life, then watching trailers for bizarre Crispin Glover movies, such as Beowulf, and The Donner Party, reading the plot summaries for those unwatchable movies, and then researching Vincent Gallo's sex life.

Expect scant, but most of all, digressive posts chronicling some sort of music-type stuff, or archiving radio show streamings.

According to the spellchecking device on this computer, streamings isn't a word yet. It's nouning a verb.

Furthermore, it seems to be just a bunch of Russian robots who visit this website on which an individual or group of users produces and ongoing narrative.

The point is, forget everything written up to this point because I made it all up in a sleep-deprived state: check out this new Light Asylum video for the track "Heart of Dust" from their self-titled, debut LP:

Marcus Mueller 5/11/2012

School's out! Summer's here! Party time!



Here is the recording of last week's doleful episode of Marcus Mueller's Day Off with me, Emily Newton-John. Listen and weep. You can hear my show on KBGA 89.9FM on Missoula airwaves, or go to www.kbga.org for streaming. Requests line is 406-243-6226.

The Ketamines played here Sunday night. They are from Canada. We gave them a warm American welcome and made them the traditional American dish called pizza. You can listen to and purchase their new LP, Spaced Out, right here.

Marcus Mueller's Day Off (Loud) with Emily Newton-John 05/11/2012 04:00PM to 06:00PM

Light Asylum “IPC” from Light Asylum on Mexican Summer

The Ketamines “Kill Me Now” from Spaced Out on Southpaw

Vincent Gallo “Yes I'm Lonely” from When on Warp

High Places “Ahead Stop” from Original Colors on Thrill Jockey

Ssion “Ah-Ma” from Fools Gold on Sleazetone Records

Tonstartsbandt “Walken With Jesus” from An When

Grimes “Vanessa” from Darkbloom on Hippos In Tanks/Arbutus Records

Rasputina “Rose K.” from How We Quit the Forest on Sony

Lavender Diamond “The Garden Rose” from Imagine Our Love on Matador Records

Julee Cruise “INTO THE NIGHT” from floating into the night on WB

Lana Del Rey “Born To Die (LIVE ACOUSTIC)” from Born To Die (LIVE ACOUSTIC)

Fag Rag “Hot Apple Pie” from Centerfold on self released

Les Rainses Prochaines “Opfer Dieses Liedes” from Opfer Dieses Liedes

Marion Williams “Mean Old WOrld” from Born to Sing the Gospel on Shanachie Entertainment

Willis Earl Beal “Cosmic Queries” from Acousmatic Sorcery on XL

The Whines “It's Raining” from Hell To Play on MEDS

Pajo “Where Eagles Dare” from Scream With Me on Blazebirth Records

Flying Canyon “At Night When the World Goes Quiet” from flying canyon on Soft Abuse

Meth Teeth “Don't Come Home” from Christmas Island / Meth Teeth - EP on Sacred Bones Records

Woven Bones “Let It Breathe” from Janie 7"

Blank Dogs “Planets” from Diana (The Herald) - EP on Sacred Bones

The Cure “COLD” from Pornography on elektra

Red House Painters “SHOCK ME” from Shock Me - EP on 4ad

Jacob Milstein “Golden Splendor” from Baby Just Sitting there on self released

Mark Kozelek “Up to My Neck In You” from what's next to the moon on badman

The Intelligence “I Hear Depression” from Fake Surfers on in the red

Lana Del Rey “WITHOUT YOU” from Born To Die on interscope

TV Ghost “Wired Trap” from Mass Dream on in the red records

Marcusmueller5/11/2012 by Emilynewtonjohn on Mixcloud

Marcus Mueller's Day Off (5-4-2012)

listless |ˈlis(t)lis|

adjective

(of a person or their manner) lacking energy or enthusiasm : bouts of listless depression.

You know that squirming in your guts during the last week or two of your junior year of college when you can feel little pieces of life fleeting away from you as you sit at your filthy kitchen table at 4am, hypnotized by the sound of a mechanical pencil grinding on the last pieces of notebook paper you own. The Cyrillic letters sidestep their correct forms, and the blood in your right hand turns into concrete. You think about your sexy professor, who conducts satanic ritual abuse on you and your classmates by assigning more work than she can even grade. I am listless, too. All I want to do it listen to sad jamz. Sighing is good exercise.

I successfully recorded my radio show yesterday, and here it is. The first track and ½ were cut, as well as the final track. I’ll try to do a better job next time. Remember, you can listen to KBGA from anywhere in the world. Streaming online at www.kbga.org.


Marcus Mueller's Day Off (Loud) with Emily Newton-John 05/04/2012 04:00PM to 06:00PM

Bad Naked and Emily Newton-John are up to good

Light Asylum “Heart of Dust” from Light Asylum     

Black Dice “Carnitas” from Mr. Impossible on Ribbon Music

Batrider “Jan Power” from Piles of Lies on Two Bright Lakes

Jessica Jalbert “Whatever Whoever” from Brother Loyola on Old Ugly

Ssion “Feels Good (4-EVR)” from Bent on self-released

Glass Candy “Candy Castle” from B/E/A/T/B/O/X on Italians Do it Better

The Flirts “Calling All Boys” from Temptation on Baierle Records

Ssion “A Wolves Eye” from Fool's Gold

Tonstartssbandht “Black Country” from An When on Does Are

Tonstartssbandht “Andy Summers” from An When on Does Are

Geneva Jacuzzi “Do I Sad?” from lamaze on Vinyl International

LA Vampires featuring Matrix Metals “So Unreal” from LA Vampires Featuring Matrix Metals

Beastie Boys “ALIVE” from Beastie Boys Anthology - The Sounds of Science on Capitol Records (new release)

Lana Del Rey “BLUE JEANS” from Born To Die on interscope

Grimes “Be a Body” from Visions on 4ad

Still Corners “Don't Fall In Love” from Endless Summer 7"

Apache Jackson “HX YR MTHR” from Soul Damage EP

Cold Cave “The Trees Grew Emotions and Died” from Love Comes Close on Matador

Deux “Sex and Trouble” from Decadence on Minimal Wave

Breakbot “Baby I'M Yours” from Baby I'm Yours (Remix) [feat. Irfane] - EP on Ed Banger Records / Because Music

Harlem “Gay Human Bones” from Hippies on Matador

Germ Hunk “Planet of the Lungs” from I am Hunk For Hands and Dog

The Velcro Kicks “Plan R, Wing Attack” from Sub-Humaniod Toxioid on self released

Mordecai “Boulder” from Ejaculating Squat Marmut on Killertree

Germ Hunk “Uncle Hair” from I am Hunk For Hands and Dog

Magic City Boys “PLEASE DON'T GO” from Welcome Week on self released

Jacob Milstein “Hustler in Sell” from Baby Just Sitting there on self released

5-4-2012 by Emilynewtonjohn on Mixcloud

“April is the cruelest month...” –T. S. Eliot

He’s right. April blows. Bambi’s mom died in April. It’s over now. May kind of sucks, too, though.

C U N HELL

Welcome to a superfluous post in a dispensable music blog. This isn't news: Ssion rules.





I've got Ssion fever.





According to my research, he has been doing cool things in Kansas City, Missouri, since around 1996. He directed a bunch of music videos for bands like Liars and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Ssion's music videos are the best. Watch them all. The video for Clown looks like it cost a million dollars to produce. I don't know all of the details of his discography, but Fool's Gold came out a few years ago and fucking rules. Then Bent was released sometime last year and fucking rules.

Let the fun begin it's time to let down your hair

Utopia is inherently impossible because, as Woland said:

 "in order to govern, one needs, after all, to have a precise plan for a certain, at least somewhat decent, length of time. Allow me to ask you, then, how can man govern, if he is not only deprived of the opportunity of making a plan for at least some ridiculously short period, well, say, a thousand years , but cannot even vouch for his own tomorrow?" 

QT

Utopia can only exist within a person's head, and even then, only in brief spurts. In conclusion, Ssion creates brief queer utopias. 

Mirror Kisses - Soaking Wet

For information that is germane to this band, check out their website (www.mirrorkisses.com). I want to abort any pretense that I wrote anything other than an incompetent post here today. The following brief paragraphs will degenerate lickety-split into a lot of subjective crap culled from latent, feminine, witch-desire.

True fact: a couple of babes from Harrisonburg, Virginia, released an album that can lather a soul up with non-water-based lubricant, and then penetrate that soul with rad, nostalgic synth-pop. These boys don't dip in unprotected, though. They wrap it up in sincerity. It is as clear as a crystal that this album was conceived and produced to make people make-out. It's a divine contribution to the virtuous genre of sex music.

A couple of babes

This album is girl.

That doesn't make sense, but it's true. It's called, Soaking Wet, which is what happens to girls while they listen to it. The word girl is used at least 40 times throughout the record. They are based in Virginia, which sounds a lot like VAGINA.

My intuition tells me that Mirror Kisses are witches, and Soaking Wet is a love spell. Beware: this album is easy to get strung out on. Soaking Wet is available for free download via their bandcamp, via their website.

Germ Hunk - I AM HUNK FOR HANDS AND DOG

Twinsies

I am a fan of hunks. All hunks are good, even germ. Germ Hunk is most likely a total babe(s). I could write about how I know Germ Hunk and often hang out in his garage reading Teen Vogue while he does chest presses in his underwear (boxer-briefs). All the hunk-sweat in the world would not be able to wash away the shame from telling such lies. Germ Hunk is a hot mystery.

Oh, and congratulations, Missoula: Germ Hunk is a local.

Apache Jackson - Soul Damage EP

Sometimes I put this EP on before I get in the shower so that when I emerge, cleaner, it's in the air. Who is Apache Jackson? I don't know. Maybe he is just a dude from Idaho who smokes weed all day. Maybe he is a business professional who never smokes weed. In my dreams, he doesn't smoke weed. In my dreams, he looks like a hetero version of Freddie Mercury. In the fog machine in the fog in my skull this is so.

Apache Jackson

For sure, people show interest when I play these songs. Someone always asks about it. I DJed at a bar once and while the hit "Hotline Getaway" melted the shirts off all the hunks, some guy came up to the booth and told me that it was his California friend's song or something something blah blah. Whatever he said I don't remember because I ignored him. I had a great time that night and when I have fun my heart is made of frozen darkness. If I could go back in time I would not be a disinterested jerk but rather a sweetie pie. He would then tell me all about his California pal who makes music that makes girls and boys want to rub oil on each other.