April 26th 2010: CftPA live at Johnny Brenda’s
Hey everyone,
I have to say that last night’s Casiotone for the Painfully Alone concert was mind blowing. I started to write out the set list but as my phone was low on battery and I felt rude using my phone as I was one of the dozen or so people in the venue. I did use my phone to record the concert poorly. I started the recording right at the end of the first song, Nashville Parthenon.
Here’s the setlist:
Nashville Parthenon
I Love Creedence
New Year’s Kiss
Tom Justice, The Choir Boy Robber, Apprehended at Ace Hardware in Libertyville, IL
Optimist Vs the Silent Alarm (When the Saints go Marching in)
Natural Light
Traveling Salesman’s Young Wife Home Alone on Christmas in Montpelier, VT
Man O’ War
Killers
Harsh the Herald Angels Sing
You Were Alone
Cold White Christmas
Bobby Malone Moves Home
Don’t They Have Payphones Wherever You Were Last Night
The Subway Home
White Jetta
I don’t know if you’ve noticed a patern in the setlist but they played Vs Childeren straight through, in order. EXCEPT for the one song on the album I really wanted to hear. Lucky for me you can’t hear my groan on tape when after playing Man O’ War, Owen says the next song they’re going to play is Killers. D’oh! I was really looking forward to hearing it as when I emailed Owen in March he said they were practicing it. There’s always tonight’s concert right? Other than that though, the full band was great to see live and the trombone and trumpets added a really nice touch to the songs. I’m really looking forward to tonights concert.
I swear this “Northfield, MN” song is turning into my new “Twin Human Highway Flares”. I'm going to record tonights concert on my phone again, the audio quality is really horrible but it's good for me to construct a setlist afterwards (it's hard to remember all the songs played and their order!)
New Rob Zombie single
I have been a fan of Rob Zombie since before he started making movies, and I’ve been a fan of Rob Zombie after he started making movies. I feel like I should get that out of the way right now, so you know where I’m coming from with this.
I just downloaded the new Rob Zombie single “Sick Bubblegum” from the upcoming album Hellbilly Deluxe 2. That’s right, Rob’s all about the remakes and sequels these days. That’s okay for me though, as I enjoyed The Devil’s Rejects much more than House of 1000 Corpses.
Film and music are two different things though, this single feels just like he’s trying too hard to capture the spark that his early music had, and he’s trying to cover it up with fancy studio editing. From someone that takes samples from old horror films, he seems to miss the point when he polishes up the songs.
I was originally excited for this release, because the first single "What?" was upbeat and fun, along with all the necessary monster movie references. This song has mostly undone all of the excitement I had for Hellbilly Deluxe 2. I’m still going to grab it based on the tracklist and the hopes that the rest of the album has more songs like “What?” than “Sick Bubblegum”.
Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls and the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool
01 Jesus Frankenstein
02 Sick Bubblegum
03 What?
04 Mars Needs Women
05 Werewolf, Baby
06 Virgin Witch
07 Dream Factory
08 Burn
09 Cease to Exist
10 Werewolf Women of the SS
11 The Man Who Laughs
Ready for the Future
Now that I’ve given you a rundown of my favorite albums of last year, here’s a short list with some of the albums I’m looking forward to hearing in 2010.
Spoon – Transference
I love Spoon and can't wait for their new album. From what I've heard already it seems like it's going to be a good one!
Cold War Kids – Behave Yourself EP
Hoping they get back to the sound of the first album, I have hope for this new EP!
Editors – In this Light and On This Evening
Editors are a solid rock band for me. Nothing very amazing but always something I can be happy with when I play. I'm hoping that the new album bumps them up from solid to amazing.
Everybody Was in the French Resistance... Now! – Fixin’ the Charts, Volume One
Eddie from Art Brut has a side project. With a band name like that, I'm looking forward to some more witty lyrics and fun music.
Shearwater – The Golden Archipelago
Shearwater are great, but for me still less than Okkervil River. Maybe this is the album to put them over the top?
Liars – Sisterworld
I like listening to Liars loudly.
MGMT – Congratulations
Fun memories listening to MGMT driving to Phillies games all summer, well when we weren't blasting the Misfits. It's been too long of a wait for new music from them. Lets also hope some of the Flaming Lips rubbed off on them after they helped contribute to "Worm Mountain" on Embryonic.
Peter Peter Hughes – Fangio!
I was one of the few lucky people to be at Zoop II where Peter (aka the bassist from the Mountain Goats) debuted his new project and it's awesome. What if you had a concept album about a 1950s race car driver going up and down the Andes assassinating people with the dance beats of New Order behind him? You'd have Fangio.
Plus yet to be titled albums from Battles, Interpol and LCD Soundsystem. Lets also hope that Radiohead, Of Montreal and Man Man finish up in the studio and release their new albums this year!
I guess it’s time… 2009 favorite albums.
Was 2009 better than 2008 for me? Looking back at my top 8 of 2008, there are a lot of albums on there that I like better than what was released in 2009. Maybe it’s because they’ve had an extra year of plays, but looking back on 2009 I can’t help but feel like this year was a let down. This year I’m giving you my top 9 albums because towards the end there it got a little dicey, and now I’m really worried that I won’t have 10 good albums to pick out for next year!
Honorable Mentions:
I’m making it a point to add all compilations and EPs to the Honorable Mention list. Yes, some of these are really great but I feel like it’d be a cop out to throw an EP into my favorite albums.
The Compilations
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Dark Was The Night – Various Artists |
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War Child Heroes vol. 1 – Various Artists |
The EPs
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No One’s First and You’re Next – Modest Mouse |
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Moon Colony Bloodbath – the Mountain Goats & John Vanderslice |
The Albums that didn’t quite make it
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Liebe Ist Fur Alla Da – Rammstein |
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Art Brut vs. Satan – Art Brut |
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Travels With Myself and Another – Future of the Left |
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The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion – Dredg |
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Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do – Major Lazer |
The top 9 of 2009
| 09 | |
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The Life of the World to Come – the Mountain GoatsMy least favorite of all the Mountain Goats albums to be released, The Life of the World to Come feels just off to me. Maybe it’s the overproduction on some tracks or maybe its that there are a few tracks that feel like John tried too hard. I’m still trying and waiting for that moment when it all clicks, which is why I haven’t bumped it down to the Honorable Mentions list. |
| 08 | |
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Years of Refusal – MorrisseyMorrissey proves that he’s still got it after all of these years. Not only that, but as his songwriting has improved, so has his backing band. This band sounds less like a wannabe Smiths cover band to a full fledged rock band. |
| 07 | |
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Hazards of Love – DecemberistsThe most ambitious release from the Decemberists to date. It took seeing them live in Radio City Music Hall when they played the album in it’s entirety for me to finally get it. |
| 06 | |
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The Darkside of the Moon – The Flaming Lips w/ Stardeath & White DwarfsDarkside of the Moon is one of the best albums ever released, so how could the Flaming Lips and Stardeath & White Dwarfs even come close? They didn’t do a straight cover. Think of Darkside but more psychedelic and spaced out. Go into it with an open mind and you won’t be disappointed. |
| 05 | |
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Eats Darkness – Apostle of HustleNot as great as National Anthem of Nowhere, but with this release Apostle of Hustle proved to me that there’s something more than just the one album. The major problem I had with this was the spoken word tracks and that it felt short. |
| 04 | |
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Vs. Children – Casiotone for the Painfully Alone“Casiodude” as the guy from R5 Productions in Philly called him, cranks out another awesome album filled with interesting characters and catchy music. Not only is this a great album but Owen puts on a hell of a good concert. |
| 03 | |
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The Birth – Stardeath & White DwarfsIt came from having too much money in his pocket and a devil in his ear. I convinced Thom to pick up this album based on the fact that the lead singer is Wayne Coyne’s nephew (and not like Snoop Dogg’s nephews, the real kind) while shopping for vinyl. Similar to Flaming Lips? Not really, but you’re almost guaranteed to like them if your a fan of the FLips. |
| 02 | |
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Album – GirlsAnother album that hit me out of left field. Jess told me how she liked this album right when it first came out and I heard the first track on the only Volume Knob podcast of 2009. (Here’s hoping there’ll be more in 2010) The songs slowly got under my skin – in a good way – and I’d have an overwhelming urge to rock out to this album every other day or so. |
| 01 | |
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Embryonic – The Flaming LipsWhat are you surprised? Is this your first time reading my blog? Much more punk, more psychedelic and even a touch of bollywood make up the new album. |
What I’ve been up to
After getting back from Boston (review of megabus will be posted tomorrow) I had a short week here in NJ where I arranged and recorded the music for the newest Talking Blanket single. Friday night I drove up to New York to meet up with the SUPERPOPE and we recorded the vocals on Saturday.
We recorded a cover of the Mountain Goats song "Seed Song" for a project that is currently going on at the tMG forums. You can get to the website for the project here.
You can listen to the fruits of our labor at BANDCAMP where we've uploaded the track. It's free to stream and to download only requires your email address.
We both hope you enjoy the music and feel free to leave a comment about it here!