Oderint Dum Metuant

A story of tragedy, and glory! (a visual journey)

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:14:12 GMT

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!

I opened the box to find this:

I was dismayed! But the note on the box indicated that not all was lost. And I noticed this on the top CD

It reads:

HA-HA!
Just kidding!
There's a test pressing at the bottom

Joy! But what test pressing?

Oh hell yeah! The Anchor Arms/The Anchor split 7"! Killer!

So, in the end Wonton/Justin redeemed himself, and single-handedly took care of my Christmas shopping for you all. STOKED?

Just popping by to say

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:45:31 GMT

One of the best albums ever recorded? Quite possibly!

This is for my own purposes

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:18:09 GMT

From No Idea Records:
DO WANT:
North Lincoln - Midwestern Blood
The Tim Version - Decline of the Southern Gentleman
Hot Water Music - No Division
Defiance, Ohio - The Fear, The Fear, The Fear
The Gateway District - Some Days You Get the Thunder
This Bike is a Pipe Bomb - Dance Party With... 10"
Latterman - We Are Still Alive
Fifth Hour Hero - Not Revenge... Just a Vicious Crush
Fifth Hour Hero/This is My Fist split 7"
Small Brown Bike - Our Own Wars

Maybe:
Shang-a-Lang - Sad Magic
Pink Razors - Leave Alive
No Friends - No Friends
The Bomb - Speed is Everything

From Asian Man Records:
Kepi Ghoulie - Life Sentence
Kevin Seconds - Rise Up, Insomniacs!
Kevin Seconds/Matt Skiba - split LP
Andrew Jackson Jihad - Can't Maintain
Andrew Jackson Jihad - People Who Can Eat People are the Luckiest People in the World
Bomb the Music Industry! - Scrambles
The Lawrence Arms - Cocktails and Dreams
The Broadways - Broken Star
The Queers - Munki Brain
Tuesday - Freewheelin'
O Pioneers!!!/The Measure [SA] split 7"

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.

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:28:54 GMT

Hot damn!

That SSCP class we all took, that I was 100% sure I failed? Just got the results. I passed!

Thank god!

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:00:09 GMT

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but Frank Turner's latest album, Love, Ire, and Song, 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, Poetry of the Deed, is dropping Sept. 7th, 2009. It's gonna be great!
Here's a video for his song "Photosynthesis."

Got a whole bunch of records I had somewhat forgot that I'd ordered yesterday:
- Bad Religion - No Control LP
- Thee Makeout Party - Play Pretend LP
- Shark Pants - Porno Snakehead LP
- Screeching Weasel - Wiggle LP
- A second copy of the Carry the Torch Kid Dynamite tribute 2xLP, because I'm a moron and pre-ordered it twice from two different sources, months apart
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).

So, sometimes I don't mind Larry. Other times, like today, when he argued that the Cambridge cops were right to arrest Harvard professor Henry Gates, 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.

Looks like the restart of the ~~Doomsday Machine~~Large Hadron Collider has been pushed back yet again, to mid-November. So you've got a few months more to get everything you've wanted in life done. Hop to it.

Windows 7, Microsoft's follow-up to the much-maligned Vista, is rolling out to maufacturing August 6th, 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.
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.

Happy Fourth of July!

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:56:13 GMT

Also, here's Brian Fallon of the Gaslight Anthem covering Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." It starts a bit shaky, but he gets there.

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:02:57 GMT

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 The '59 Sound. 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.

You can download a video of it here. There's also a crappy video on YouTube.

In which John is pretty screwed

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:51:03 GMT

In about half an hour, my coworkers and I are marching to the Rec Center to take the SSCP exam. We are most likely all going to fail this shit. Even Bob isn't confident. Ugh.

At least Vistronix will pay for us to retake it?

On the plus side, Punknews is streaming the new Dear Landlord album, 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.

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:11:49 GMT

The Bosstones are playing in Providence, RI on August 14th. Anyone want to go?

Pour out a 40 for a great band that ended way too soon

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:57:14 GMT

Man, this fucks! I just checked MySpace, and found this message in my inbox from the other day:

Jfly -

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.

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.

Cheers and thanks! Monet and the rest of The Shortcuts

That totally blows. I really dug their self-titled CD, 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!

If you never checked them out, do it, why don't ya? They played some exceedingly fun pop-punk.

Maybe I should take a trip out to Minneapolis... :P

Punk goes acoustic, without a shitty Fearless Records comp

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:49:11 GMT

Two things:

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, Love Ire & Song is goddamned awesome. Please don't be like me and continue to miss out on this wonderful album. Go. Listen now.

Second, the Suburban Home Records Tour is kicking off at the end of July. Dates are here. 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 Somebody Loves You LP is one of my favorite albums of the year.

AND TO TIE IT ALL TOGETHER: I also got in the mail today Suburban Home's 8th Under the Influence 7", featuring Frank Turner covering Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road," and Austin Lucas tackling Dolly Parton's "To Daddy." It rules.

You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore!

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:17:17 GMT

I will start off this Monday morning with a kitten. ZOMG.

After seeing an ad for it in the latest Razorcake, I picked up Side B: The Music Lover's Comic Anthology at Newbury Comics. It's pretty great! It features a several page comic by Mitch Clem (rainofbastards) depicting his interpretation of the Mr. T Experience's song "Checkers Speech," along with comics by Jim Mahfood (GRRL Scouts, "Stupid Comics," the Clerks comic books, etc.), Megan Rose Gedris (Yu+Me, Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space), and many others. I recommend checking it out.

Tony, from the Boston Jolly Pirates, hooked us up with a leak of the new Big D and the Kids Table album, Fluent in Stroll, recently. It's... different. A lot different. They had said at some point that the new album would be similar to their Shot by Lammi 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-Strictly Rude) albums. Which is a bummer, since they don't do the Westbound Train thing all that well.

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:08:26 GMT

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. Crappy pictures are here!

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.

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:34:31 GMT

Most effective promo ever:

GUYS GUYS

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:54:36 GMT

Some shows you should know about:

8/14
The Phenomenauts, The Re-Volts
Middle East (upstairs)
18+ $9adv/$10door

AND!

9/5
The Pet Shop Boys
House of Blues
$39.50

Shows that you don't care about (but should):

6/21
Girl in a Coma
Harper's Ferry

6/30
The Cretins, Teen Idols
Middle East (upstairs)
$9

7/2
Fake Problems, Kiss Kiss, Movers & Shakers
Middle East (upstairs)
$9

7/3
Jay Reatard
Harper's Ferry

8/2
Bomb the Music Industry!, Andrew Jackson Jihad
Middle East (upstairs)
$10 (All Ages)
--OR--
Something Fierce
TBA

Go see some live music.

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:43:57 GMT

Apple keynote gets going in about 15 minutes, folks.

Engadget will be liveblogging, as usual. Check it here.

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:27:56 GMT

Hi kids!

Last night I saw Lemuria at Great Scott. Jeff was supposed to come, but got so involved in his personal statement, he failed. Alas!
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' A Lesson in the Abuse of Information Technology is awesome. Check it out)
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-Get Better) 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 crush on Sheena Ozzella.

While looking up that link, I saw the banner for this site on Mitch's site: Punkmatch.com, a dating site for punks.

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:27:57 GMT

I trust you have all seen this, the opening cinematic to The Beatles: Rock Band?

If not, GET TO IT.

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:38:39 GMT

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:

Pretty sweet, amirite?

Strung Out kind of rule. I'm sad I'm not seeing them tonight.

There's something ugly inside of you, inside of you!

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:18:43 GMT

Holy shit. RiotFest announced some of the bands playing this year's fest:

SCREECHING WEASEL

NOFX

THE DEAD MILKMEN

ALKALINE TRIO

COCK SPARRER

MURDER CITY DEVILS

and MORE.

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!

http://www.riotfest.org

I wasn't born rich, I'm good looking instead!

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:28:00 GMT

They're remaking The Secret of Monkey Island, 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 here. I think this looks fantastic.

Speaking of remakes, on July 22nd, Ubisoft is dropping Turtles in Time Re-shelled on the Xbox Live Arcade. The game is (obviously) a remake of the classic SNES game, TMNT: Turtles in Time. Some screenshots are available over at Epic Battle Axe. The 3D is cool, though I would have preferred just a 2D HD update, a la Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix that Capcom put out on the XBLA last year.

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 the Xbox 360 keyboard attachment, that would seem cool. As I'm not, it doesn't.

Universal is making a film based on Where's Waldo?. Hrm.

Fri, 29 May 2009 23:09:10 GMT

Will any of you see Drag Me to Hell with me?

Fri, 29 May 2009 12:44:31 GMT

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.

So Somerville is changing their parking, making all streets resident only, and pushing the meters to 10pm.

So the Nightmare On Elm Street remake is casting for a "tasteful" topless pool party scene. Ladies, line forms to the left!

The Houston Press 16 albums based on literature. I did not expect to see Bad Religion on there! I think it's kind of a stretch to call The Empire Strikes First 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.

HE'S THE COMPUTER MAN

Fri, 29 May 2009 00:29:41 GMT

This might be the best advertisement ever.

The burgers are goddamned awesome, for the record

Tue, 26 May 2009 17:18:57 GMT

So I really wanna go to Mohegan Sun this year.

Because there's a Margaritaville restaurant there.

I know I'm probably alone on this one, and I'm ok with that.