urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm let them hate, provided that they fear The Rhythm Thief 2009-10-05T20:14:18Z urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1288161 2009-10-05T20:14:12Z 2009-10-05T20:14:18Z The Connie Dungs - Lost in the Microcosm So I won a contest on the Org Summit, and as a result, one of the members sent me a prize. I had no idea what the prize was. It came today! <a name="cutid1"></a><br /><br />I opened the box to find this:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcflynnthm/3984263759/" title="Thanks, wonton? by mcflynn, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3462/3984263759_588c9e1844.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Thanks, wonton?" /></a><br /><br />I was dismayed! But the note on the box indicated that not all was lost. And I noticed this on the top CD<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcflynnthm/3985026782/" title="Hard-to-read message by mcflynn, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2451/3985026782_6e5645a742.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Hard-to-read message" /></a><br />It reads:<br /><blockquote>HA-HA!<br />Just kidding!<br />There's a test pressing at the bottom</blockquote><br /><br />Joy! But what test pressing?<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcflynnthm/3984266357/" title="Anchor Arms/The Anchor test pressing by mcflynn, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2602/3984266357_346cc845b2.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Anchor Arms/The Anchor test pressing" /></a><br />Oh hell yeah! The Anchor Arms/The Anchor split 7"! Killer!<br /><br />So, in the end Wonton/Justin redeemed himself, and single-handedly took care of my Christmas shopping for you all. STOKED? urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1287006 2009-09-21T20:45:31Z 2009-09-21T20:45:49Z The Lawrence Arms - The Ramblin' Boys of Pleasure <p align="center"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IMiV4vfcjfM/R9vwxax1YAI/AAAAAAAAADs/DGNlgOJMff0/s320/The+Lawrence+Arms+-+the+greatest+story+ever+told+2003.jpg"></p><p align="center">One of the best albums ever recorded? Quite possibly!</p> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1286738 2009-09-11T13:18:09Z 2009-09-11T13:19:10Z Hot Water Music - Paper Thin <a name="cutid1"></a>From <a href="http://www.noidearecords.com">No Idea Records</a>:<br />DO WANT:<br />North Lincoln - Midwestern Blood<br />The Tim Version - Decline of the Southern Gentleman<br />Hot Water Music - No Division<br />Defiance, Ohio - The Fear, The Fear, The Fear<br />The Gateway District - Some Days You Get the Thunder<br />This Bike is a Pipe Bomb - Dance Party With... 10"<br />Latterman - We Are Still Alive<br />Fifth Hour Hero - Not Revenge... Just a Vicious Crush<br />Fifth Hour Hero/This is My Fist split 7"<br />Small Brown Bike - Our Own Wars<br /><br />Maybe:<br />Shang-a-Lang - Sad Magic<br />Pink Razors - Leave Alive<br />No Friends - No Friends<br />The Bomb - Speed is Everything<br /><br />From <a href="http://www.asianmanrecords.com">Asian Man Records</a>:<br />Kepi Ghoulie - Life Sentence<br />Kevin Seconds - Rise Up, Insomniacs!<br />Kevin Seconds/Matt Skiba - split LP<br />Andrew Jackson Jihad - Can't Maintain<br />Andrew Jackson Jihad - People Who Can Eat People are the Luckiest People in the World<br />Bomb the Music Industry! - Scrambles<br />The Lawrence Arms - Cocktails and Dreams<br />The Broadways - Broken Star<br />The Queers - Munki Brain<br />Tuesday - Freewheelin'<br />O Pioneers!!!/The Measure [SA] split 7"<br /><br />The worst part about spending your day reading about and listening to new music is that I'm encouraged to spend a lot more money on a lot more bands. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1276010 2009-07-23T15:28:54Z 2009-07-23T15:29:03Z Off With Their Heads - That Must Be Nigel With the Brie Hot damn!<br /><br />That SSCP class we all took, that I was 100% sure I failed? Just got the results. I passed!<br /><br />Thank god! urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1275639 2009-07-22T12:00:09Z 2009-07-22T12:18:03Z Hot Water Music - 220 Years I forgot to mention this yesterday, but Frank Turner's latest album, <i>Love, Ire, and Song</i>, was released in the US yesterday via Epitaph Records. An odd fit for them, but a totally awesome album from a really fantastic singer/songwriter. His new album, <i>Poetry of the Deed</i>, is dropping Sept. 7th, 2009. It's gonna be great!<br />Here's a video for his song <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQMVHhxTtLc">"Photosynthesis."</a><br /><br />Got a whole bunch of records I had somewhat forgot that I'd ordered yesterday:<br />- Bad Religion - <i>No Control</i> LP<br />- Thee Makeout Party - <i>Play Pretend</i> LP<br />- Shark Pants - <i>Porno Snakehead</i> LP<br />- Screeching Weasel - <i>Wiggle</i> LP<br />- A second copy of the <i>Carry the Torch</i> Kid Dynamite tribute 2xLP, because I'm a moron and pre-ordered it twice from two different sources, months apart<br />So, if anyone knows/is a Kid Dynamite fan who would love a collection of KD covers on vinyl, send 'em my way. I somehow doubt there's a huge market for this sucker (as eBay has not a single listing).<br /><br />So, sometimes I don't mind Larry. Other times, like today, when he argued that the Cambridge cops were <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE56L1L520090722">right to arrest Harvard professor Henry Gates</a>, and probably should have done more- I believe he said he should have been shot, thought I think/hope he was being hyperbolic- I really don't know what else to do other than shake my head in disbelief. Oy.<br /><br />Looks like the restart of the <strike>Doomsday Machine</strike>Large Hadron Collider has been <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/22/large-hadron-collider-restart-end-of-the-world-pushed-back-to-m/">pushed back yet again</a>, to mid-November. So you've got a few months more to get everything you've wanted in life done. Hop to it.<br /><br />Windows 7, Microsoft's follow-up to the much-maligned Vista, is rolling out to maufacturing <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/21/windows-7-rtm-begins-rollout-august-6th-oems-and-some-beta-test/">August 6th</a>, with some beta testers and OEMs getting it now. What do you think about the forthcoming version of the world's most, uh, prevalent operating system? Any of you play around with Win7 yet? I toyed with a couple of betas and found it to be a great improvement to Vista, but then, I appreciate some of the steps forward that Vista made.<br />I still would love to see MS put some of its massive brainpower toward an all-new Windows kernel/architecture, but that's a dream I doubt I'll see for another 10 years. Though, it does seem like the corporate culture over in Redmond is undergoing something of a shift. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1271521 2009-07-04T11:56:13Z 2009-07-04T12:45:16Z <img src="http://overcompensating.com/comics/20090703.png"><br /><br />Also, <a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/video/article300101.ece?vxSiteId=6247211d-66e0-4454-b73a-3f1610efa39a&amp;vxChannel=SunTwitter&amp;vxClipId=1347_SUN25131&amp;vxBitrate=300">here's Brian Fallon of the Gaslight Anthem covering Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."</a> It starts a bit shaky, but he gets there. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1270207 2009-06-30T02:02:57Z 2009-06-30T02:03:03Z Bruce Springsteen - Bobby Jean New Jersey's punk darlings, The Gaslight Anthem, played Glastonbury this past weekend. They opened their set with the title track from last year's <i>The '59 Sound</i>. And who joined them but the Boss, Bruce Springsteen? Anyone who's listened to the band knows that they have a huge hard-on for Springsteen.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?zm252mzt5k2">You can download a video of it here</a>. There's also a crappy video on YouTube. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1268358 2009-06-25T11:51:03Z 2009-06-25T11:51:12Z Dear Landlord - Hell In about half an hour, my coworkers and I are marching to the Rec Center to take the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_Security_Certified_Practitioner">SSCP</a> exam. We are most likely all going to fail this shit. Even Bob isn't confident. Ugh.<br /><br />At least Vistronix will pay for us to retake it?<br /><br />On the plus side, <a href="http://www.punknews.org/bands/dearlandlord">Punknews is streaming the new Dear Landlord album</a>, and it rules. I mean, with members of the Copyrights and Rivethead, one would expect so, but it still should be said. So there's that. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1268155 2009-06-24T22:11:49Z 2009-06-24T22:12:15Z The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Next to Nothing <p align="center"><lj-embed id="92" /></p><br /><br />The Bosstones are <a href="http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=91273313935">playing in Providence, RI on August 14th</a>. Anyone want to go? urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1265734 2009-06-16T11:57:14Z 2009-06-16T12:00:46Z Frank Turner - Substitute Man, this fucks! I just checked MySpace, and found this message in my inbox from the other day:<br /><br /><blockquote>Jfly -<br /><br />Sadly after such a short run - Mariah is moving to England to get married by the end of the summer, so thus endeth The Shortcuts as we know it.<br /><br />As one of the few awesome folks who appreciated us -- and better yet suppported us out loud! -- outside of the Twin Cities, send me your snail mail address and we'll send y'all a CD of our second (and last?) effort! Thank you for you taking notice of the Mpls scene.<br /><br />Cheers and thanks! Monet and the rest of The Shortcuts </blockquote><br /><br />That totally blows. I really dug their <a href="http://johnrflynn.com/blog/2008/10/30/the-shortcuts-self-titled-2008/">self-titled CD</a>, and was hoping they'd make a more national tour- or at least a northeast tour- happen, but alas! Totally cool that they're sending me some music, though!<br /><br />If you never checked them out, <a href="http://www.myspace.com/theshortcutsband">do it, why don't ya?</a> They played some exceedingly fun pop-punk.<br /><br />Maybe I should take a trip out to Minneapolis... :P urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1265611 2009-06-15T22:49:11Z 2009-06-15T22:49:17Z Frank Turner - Thunder Road Two things:<br /><br />First, I finally sat down and actually listened to Frank Turner, former singer for British hardcore band Million Dead turned singer-songwriter. His latest album, <i>Love Ire & Song</i> is goddamned awesome. Please don't be like me and continue to miss out on this wonderful album. Go. Listen now.<br /><br />Second, the Suburban Home Records Tour is kicking off at the end of July. <a href="http://www.vinylcollective.com/2009/06/15/suburban-home-records-tour-w-austin-lucas-jon-snodgrass-two-cow-garage-mike-hale-announced/">Dates are here</a>. On 8/17, Austin Lucas will be hitting the Middle East upstairs with Jon Snodgrass (Drag the River) and Two Cow Garage. Come on down! These guys are doing some of the best underground alt-country out there. Austin's <a href="http://johnrflynn.com/blog/2009/05/03/austin-lucas-somebody-loves-you-2009/"><i>Somebody Loves You</i> LP</a> is one of my favorite albums of the year.<br /><br />AND TO TIE IT ALL TOGETHER: I also got in the mail today Suburban Home's 8th <i>Under the Influence</i> 7", featuring Frank Turner covering Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road," and Austin Lucas tackling Dolly Parton's "To Daddy." It rules. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1265348 2009-06-15T12:17:17Z 2009-06-15T12:17:26Z MTX - Book of Revelation I will start off this Monday morning with <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/kittypix/12089771.html">a kitten</a>. ZOMG.<br /><br />After seeing an ad for it in the latest <i>Razorcake</i>, I picked up <a href="http://www.poseurink.com/sideb/"><i>Side B: The Music Lover's Comic Anthology</i></a> at Newbury Comics. It's pretty great! It features a several page comic by <a href="http://www.mitchclem.com/">Mitch Clem</a> (<span class='ljuser ljuser-name_rainofbastards' lj:user='rainofbastards' style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='http://rainofbastards.livejournal.com/profile'><img src='http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif' alt='[info]' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='http://rainofbastards.livejournal.com/'><b>rainofbastards</b></a></span>) depicting his interpretation of the Mr. T Experience's song "Checkers Speech," along with comics by Jim Mahfood (<i>GRRL Scouts</i>, "Stupid Comics," the <i>Clerks</i> comic books, etc.), Megan Rose Gedris (<i>Yu+Me</i>, <i>Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space</i>), and many others. I recommend checking it out.<br /><br />Tony, from the Boston Jolly Pirates, hooked us up with a leak of the new Big D and the Kids Table album, <i>Fluent in Stroll</i>, recently. It's... different. A lot different. They had said at some point that the new album would be similar to their <i>Shot by Lammi</i> split full-length, but I don't know what they're talking about. Maybe it was opposite day at the time. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. Their live show is going to be interesting. They really seem to be moving away from the ska-punk sound that dominated their early (read: pre-<i>Strictly Rude</i>) albums. Which is a bummer, since they don't do the Westbound Train thing all that well. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1264984 2009-06-15T03:08:26Z 2009-06-15T03:11:23Z The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - What's At Stake (live, feat. Choke) First, the Amanda Palmer show was so freaking good. Great, intimate setting; a fairly new recording studio on Mass Ave toward the Alewife Brook Parkway. She had the Army of Broken Toys opening, and they were cool. She took requests, played some new songs, and answered questions from the crowd. All in all, really great show. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcflynnthm/sets/72157619755239726/">Crappy pictures are here!</a><br /><br />Second, someone from the Bosstones forum just posted this video: The Bosstones performing their cover of Slapshot's "What's At Stake" from last year's Hometown Throwdown 11, with Choke (Slapshot's vocalist). Observe Choke bleeding from the head, due to an accident involving a mic stand during his own band's opening set.<br /><lj-embed id="88" /> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1264170 2009-06-11T22:34:31Z 2009-06-11T22:35:05Z Most effective promo ever:<br /><br /><lj-embed id="87" /> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1263780 2009-06-11T01:54:36Z 2009-06-11T01:58:59Z Dead to Me - Special Professional Some shows you should know about:<br /><br />8/14<br /><b>The Phenomenauts</b>, The Re-Volts<br />Middle East (upstairs)<br />18+ $9adv/$10door<br /><br />AND!<br /><br />9/5<br /><b>The Pet Shop Boys</b><br />House of Blues<br />$39.50<br /><br />Shows that you don't care about (but should): <a name="cutid1"></a><br /><br />6/21<br />Girl in a Coma<br />Harper's Ferry<br /><br />6/30<br />The Cretins, Teen Idols<br />Middle East (upstairs)<br />$9<br /><br />7/2<br />Fake Problems, Kiss Kiss, Movers & Shakers<br />Middle East (upstairs)<br />$9<br /><br />7/3<br />Jay Reatard<br />Harper's Ferry<br /><br />8/2<br />Bomb the Music Industry!, Andrew Jackson Jihad<br />Middle East (upstairs)<br />$10 (All Ages)<br />--OR--<br />Something Fierce<br />TBA<br /><br />Go see some live music. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1263037 2009-06-08T16:43:57Z 2009-06-08T16:44:04Z Bruce Springsteen - Backstreets Apple keynote gets going in about 15 minutes, folks.<br /><br />Engadget will be liveblogging, as usual. Check it <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/08/phil-schiller-keynote-live-from-wwdc-2009/#continued">here</a>. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1262424 2009-06-05T12:27:56Z 2009-06-05T12:28:05Z The Ergs! - See Him Again Hi kids!<br /><br />Last night I saw Lemuria at Great Scott. Jeff was supposed to come, but got so involved in his personal statement, he failed. Alas!<br />At any rate, the show was good. I didn't watch the first band, Bread & Roses. The second band, Movers & Shakers, were fun. I kinda wish I had bought their album. Alas! The Serious Geniuses continue to be better live than recorded, but are still pretty meh. They always remind me of a cut-rate version of a band I like better; last night, I felt comparisons to the Menzingers, for some reason. (btw, the Menzingers' <i>A Lesson in the Abuse of Information Technology</i> is awesome. Check it out)<br />Finally, Lemuria took the stage. There was a part of the crowd who really didn't appreciate the more rambunctious members of the audience bumping into their with their excited dancing. To those lame-os, I say suck it! The band put on a great, energetic show that seemed to favor their older (non-<i>Get Better</i>) material. Though I was sad to not hear "Origamists, Too." They rocked our faces clean off with "In a World of Ghosts..." and "Beespit." Like just about everyone else there, I have a <a href="http://mitchclem.com/nothingnice/366/">crush on Sheena Ozzella</a>.<br /><br />While looking up that link, I saw the banner for this site on Mitch's site: <a href="http://www.punkmatch.com/?s=free_db_search&amp;aff_id=google&amp;aff_pg=2&amp;aff_cp=IMG">Punkmatch.com</a>, a dating site for punks. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1262303 2009-06-05T05:27:57Z 2009-06-05T05:28:04Z I trust you have all seen <a href="http://www.thebeatlesrockband.com/cinematic.php">this, the opening cinematic to The Beatles: Rock Band</a>?<br /><br />If not, GET TO IT. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1261955 2009-06-04T20:38:39Z 2009-06-04T20:38:52Z Strung Out - Alone Today in the mail, I got a split 7" from Brickfight and Shang-A-Lang, on Facepalm Records. This was in the box with it:<br /><br /><p align="center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcflynnthm/3595528461/" title="Backstage Pass by mcflynn, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3360/3595528461_d9d952ae1d.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Backstage Pass" /></a></p><br /><br />Pretty sweet, amirite?<br /><br />Strung Out kind of rule. I'm sad I'm not seeing them tonight. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1261173 2009-06-03T15:18:43Z 2009-06-03T15:21:33Z Screeching Weasel - Peter Brady Holy shit. <a href="http://www.riotfest.org/static/images/RiotFestPosterSm.jpg">RiotFest announced some of the bands playing this year's fest:</a><br /><br />SCREECHING WEASEL<br /><br />NOFX<br /><br />THE DEAD MILKMEN<br /><br />ALKALINE TRIO<br /><br />COCK SPARRER<br /><br />MURDER CITY DEVILS<br /><br />and MORE.<br /><br />I'd pretty much assumed that I would never in my life get a shot at seeing Screeching Weasel live. I will not miss this. I am going back to Chicago. Goddamn yes!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.riotfest.org">http://www.riotfest.org</a> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1260865 2009-06-03T11:28:00Z 2009-06-03T11:43:21Z The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Cowboy Coffee They're remaking <i>The Secret of Monkey Island</i>, one of the best PC games ever. They're not changing the plot or anything, just the UI and graphics, it seems. Check the trailer <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrNLKNvY2wM">here</a>. I think this looks fantastic.<br /><br />Speaking of remakes, on July 22nd, Ubisoft is dropping <a href="http://www.gametrailers.com/news/tmnt-turtles-in-time-remake/954?e3i=1"><i>Turtles in Time Re-shelled</a> on the Xbox Live Arcade. The game is (obviously) a remake of the classic SNES game, <i>TMNT: Turtles in Time</i>. Some screenshots are available <a href="http://epicbattleaxe.com/image-galleries/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-turtles-in-time-re-shelled/">over at Epic Battle Axe</a>. The 3D is cool, though I would have preferred just a 2D HD update, a la <i>Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix</i> that Capcom put out on the XBLA last year.<br /><br />Speaking of the Xbox, one of the things Microsoft announced at E3 was Twitter and Facebook integration on their popular gaming console. Maybe if I were cool enough to own <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Text-Messaging-Kit/dp/B000UN3UDQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=videogames&amp;qid=1244026404&amp;sr=8-1">the Xbox 360 keyboard attachment</a>, that would seem cool. As I'm not, it doesn't.<br /><br />Universal is <a href="http://movies.ign.com/articles/989/989320p1.html">making a film based on <i>Where's Waldo?</i></a>. Hrm.</i> urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1260408 2009-05-29T23:09:10Z 2009-05-29T23:09:16Z Bad Religion - Hear It Will any of you see <i><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104547650&amp;sc=fb&amp;cc=fp">Drag Me to Hell</a></i> with me? urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1260072 2009-05-29T12:44:31Z 2009-05-29T12:44:43Z Bad Religion - The Empire Strikes First Man, I'm not a fan of this weather. I had been thinking of having people over for drinks on the porch, but it's too cold and rainy for those sorts of shenanigans.<br /><br />So Somerville is <a href="http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/town_info/government/x726818056/Start-saving-Parking-meter-rates-and-hours-to-increase-permit-parking-to-expand-citywide">changing their parking</a>, making all streets resident only, and pushing the meters to 10pm.<br /><br />So the <i>Nightmare On Elm Street</i> remake is casting for a <a href="http://www.movieline.com/2009/05/nightmare-on-elm-st-promises-tasteful-pool-party-toplessness.php">"tasteful" topless pool party scene</a>. Ladies, line forms to the left!<br /><br />The Houston Press <a href="http://www.houstonpress.com/slideshow/view/13358348/14">16 albums based on literature</a>. I did not expect to see Bad Religion on there! I think it's kind of a stretch to call <i>The Empire Strikes First</i> that based on any piece of literature. There are a couple of Orwell quotes in the liner notes, but that's more because they work with the overall theme of the album. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1259867 2009-05-29T00:29:41Z 2009-05-29T00:29:53Z <lj-embed id="85" /><br /><br />This might be the best advertisement ever. urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:mcflynnthm:1258871 2009-05-26T17:18:57Z 2009-05-26T17:19:04Z Jimmy Buffett - Public Relations So I really wanna go to Mohegan Sun this year.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.margaritavillemohegansun.com/">Because there's a Margaritaville restaurant there</a>.<br /><br />I know I'm probably alone on this one, and I'm ok with that.