Hey everybody,

Welcome to the BLURB THUNDERDOME!!! Several CDs enter, a couple others
leave, and the rest also leave…BUT IN BODYBAGS!!! OH CRAP!!! Was that
super intense? Good. Your faces are sufficiently rocked.

Slim pickings this week on the music front. All the promo kids were busy
getting drunk on PBR at SXSW, so they didn’t exactly bring their A-Game.
Maybe it only seems sparse after the monster,
sure-to-be-on-top-of-the-year releases over the last couple weeks. But,
there are good CDs to be had. Enjoy, tigers.

1. Los Straitjackets – Rock En Español Vol. 1 (Yep Roc)
This is easily one of your top 5, luchadore mask-clad band of surf rock
latinos. This time, tus amigos bring you a collection of oldies hits,
recorded EN ESPAÑOL!!! You get such hits as Wild Thing, Hang on Sloopy,
Whittier Blvd., etc. Bridge that gap with our neighbors to the south. Show
them you care. ¿Como se dice, “TOTALLY BITCHIN’, DUDERS!!”?

2. The Book of Knots – Traineater (Arclight)
This band has a bit of a freak-rock pedigree. Features members of
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Pere Ubu, Tin Hat Trio, Skeleton Key, Tom
Waits, etc. Basically, it’s dark-ish junkyard rock with unique trashy
grooves, with occasional darkly beautiful violin and ambient spoken word
stuff (and features Mr. Waits on one track). It’s a enigmatic hodgepodge,
for certain. Not as scary as Sleeptime Gorilla Museum, but, then again,
few live experiences are that I know of. I think the only band I’d be more
intimidated to see would be Oxbow. But that’s because I don’t want to get
the piss kicked out of me by a huge, muscular black dude in his tighty
whities. Wow. How often am I going to get to say that? (Until my birthday,
anyway.)

3. The Fall – Reformation Post T.L.C. (Narnack)
This band has been around for 30 years now, and Mark E. Smith continues
his weird enunciation parade, and looks more like your history professor
every day. I’m sort of at a loss to explain this band. People always said
Pavement ripped them off, but I never really heard that. Both bands have
sort of nonsense lyrics, but that’s about it. This is edgier,
post-punk-ish songs with an old British dude pronouncing words oddly over
them. I dunno, man. They’re sort of one of a kind. I’m kind of at a loss
here.

4. Unknown Instructors – The Master’s Voice (Smog Veil)
This is Mike Watt’s 172,325th band. That dude goes door to door asking, “Yo
dudes. I’m Mike Watt. Do you guys need a bass player? Or just want to hang
out with a dude with a trucker ‘stache?” Also, this band has Raymond
Pettibon on one track. If you don’t know who that is, what kind of fucking
punk are you, poseur? Anyway: the music. Like a toned-down Minutemen, I
guess. Chill indie-jazz-rock jams, sort of. I dunno. This thing is all
over the damned place. One track is really reverb-laden stoner-rock. One’s
all jazzy. One’s all noisey-styles. I’d accuse them of dicking around, but
Mike Watt could probably get some San Pedro longshoremen to show up at my house and throw me a blanket party.

5. The Twlight Sad – Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters (Fat Cat)
When I saw this band and title, I thought, “Ewwww. Overt references to
depression and the darker seasons. This is gonna be some
eeeeeeeeemooooooooo craaaaaaaaaaaaaaap. But I flipped it over and did not
see Jade Tree Records stamped on the back, but Fat Cat, the bringers of
Sigur Ros, Animal Collective, Mum, etc. Rather, it’s a Scottish band who
mix My Blood Valentine, The Smiths (a little emo, I guess), and Interpol
into a sort of shoegaze-stew. What a trick. Aside: why do dogs put their
heads out car windows? Do you think it makes them think they’re running
like, superfast? Do you think your terrier secretly desires to reach
triple digit land-speed numbers? Hahaha. Could you imagine pugs zipping
around at 75 miles an hour? Holy shit. I’d tie a cape to one and watch the
damned show.

6. Cibo Matto – Pom Pom (Warner Brothers)
This one is subtitled “The Essential Cibo Matto”. So, hopefully, you’ve
deduced that it is a best-of of sorts. Seventeen old favs and two
unreleased cuts make up this album of chill, asian-influenced dub-rock
featuring John Lennon’s son. PLUS, they were on that episode of Buffy the
Vampire Slayer where Buffy comes back and..nevermind. Haha.
NEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDD. I just talked my way right out of several makeouts that were en route to me due to the complete awesomeness of the rest of this post.

7. Limbeck – Limbeck (Doghouse)
Last I saw this band, it was at Chain Reaction. I was there to see the
Kids of Widney High. Somewhere, I have a ticketstub that says Limbeck, and
it’s signed by Cain (of KOWH). I think I left halfway through Limbeck.
Because if it’s not “The Kids”, who gives a shit? But I remember it being
a sort of pop-punk kind of indie thing, and the audience seemed made up
entirely of members of their high school or something. But, now,
apparently they’ve gotten a little cred, a decent label, an indie-twang
sensibility, and some songwriting talent. Now it seems like a sort of
dios/Oh No! Oh My! sort of chill-pop-twang thing. Plus, they’re from
Orange County. Hell. Some of you probably went to school with these dudes.
I didn’t. I went to school with the dudes from Bat Von Puddle. That shit
ripped.

8. Dat’r – Turn Up the Ghosts (Hush)
Not sure how you pronounce this name. I’m guessing “D.A.T.-urr”. What do I
know? At any rate, this isn’t the normal Hush Records whispery sleeptyime
pop. This is a sort of semi-electo jiggle party. Sort of fun-energy,
percussion heavy electro-pop-rave. I guess these dudes have some old
joysticks, rigged up by dudes from MIT, to control the music with (which I
understand doesn’t make the CD any more fun to listen to, but damned if I
don’t like a gimmick). I know at 25, that puts me in the upper half of the
age bracket at KUCI, but how many folks had an old Atari? With those
rubbery joysticks that you just sort of wanted to...chew on? I played
hours of Missile Command. I commanded missiles like it was my goddamned
6-year-old JOB. Ain’t no aliens gonna bomb my base. Bitches. This is some
pretty solid music. I should probably put this higher up to make sure
folks read about it, but I gave up editing things I write for Lent.




Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to fight some dinosaurs with my bare
hands. If you are inclined, you may swoon at my manliness.


Why is Lil Jon on my AIM?
-Kyle