July 8th, 2007
Ian Cohen usually writes for Stylus. Occasionally, he drops some knowledge on us here at The Passion. Cohen’s Corner is something akin to what you’d expect Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey to have been like, if Handey was smarter, jewier and really really into Wu-Tang. Enjoy.
- There are a couple of calls I always look forward to. One is when my fiancée unwittingly goes to Atlanta in the summer and realizes that it’s Gay Pride Day and that there better be a liquor store she can walk to, because she sure as shit won’t be able to get anywhere any time soon. The other is when my mans an’ ‘em Wops calls from New York because he foolishly attempted to take a cab during Puerto Rican Day parade and now it’s in the process of nearly being turned over. Puerto Ricans and gays: two groups who use their day of pride to wave a bunch of flags and fuck up traffic. You’d think they’d get along better, really.
- “Turn On The Bright Lights” is one of the best records of the decade and possibly the only album that sounds as good on an NYC subway as “Muddy Waters.” I also fucked with “Antics” because I missed the memo to do otherwise. With that in mind, here’s my review of the new Interpol record: halfway through my first listen, I decided I’d rather hear “The M.G.M.” instead. Make of that what you will.
- I’d feel more comfortable with the Sixers drafting someone named Thaddeus if the NBA was a yachting league.
- When you’re drinking a Tab, anyone who notices that fact immediately becomes the funniest person in the known universe. This is a fact.
- I’m OK with Pitchfork consistently overrating southern rappers because it leads to hilariously apologetic reviews when they refuse to admit an album sucks in spite of all evidence to the contrary. If they could apply their unconditional love of trap rap to child bearing, they’d all be parents of the year. Someone (you can probably figure out who) actually said this about the new T.I. record: “Even if the concept falls flat, though, T.I. vs. T.I.P. still warrants a listen, if only because T.I. seems constitutionally incapable of releasing an album full of uncompelling music.” When it’s all said and done, I will probably have listened to “Rockstar Mentality” at least a dozen more times than T.I. vs T.I.P. and that’s a record I actually had to review. T-t-t-totally dude.
Suffice to Say if You are a Rapper With the Word “Boy,” or “Boyz” in Your Name, You Probably Suck. Fat Boys Excluded
- Not that any trip I take to Ikea ends up something less than profound, but after today’s experience in Costa Mesa, I’ve come to realize that the Old Testament is built upon some pretty egregious lies. Chief amongst them are that Jews really aren’t good at building shit; a fucking futon busted my ass, and you’re telling me that some Hebrew built a motherfucking ark? Or the Egyptian pyramids? I mean, is it a coincidence that Jesus had to move on to a new line of work?
- But now I’m a futon owner, which makes me really excited because now dead prez and I have something in common. And yes, that’s pretty much how horrible I am at interior decorator I am; I was willing to drive an hour each way to Orange County because after being in Philadelphia (where there’s, like, THREE within driving distance…that’s insane) and Athens, I simply have no idea what else to do. Before that, my apartment’s décor could best be described as “functional drug abuser,” where your furniture consists of a guitar, bed and TV. I know it would set me back about six years or so, but I was ready to go out and buy Radiohead and Van Gogh posters again just to have some shit put up on the walls. Or calling home and saying, “yeah- all those CD’s in the garage…ship that shit out. Your son might have to turn his apartment into a soup kitchen because he can’t think of shit else to take up space.”
- I always find the “at least it doesn’t suck” line of thinking to be a bit reductive in music criticism. Remember when the Cure came out with that record in 2004? Anyone? Yeah, they have almost none of the original members, the main dude picked a producer that was totally wrong for them and I’ll probably never play it two months after its release, but AT LEAST IT DOESN’T SUCK- four stars! In unrelated news, “Zeitgeist.”
But Have Billy Corgan and Moby Ever Been Seen Together in the Same Room at the Same Time?
Look, sometimes I think about penning an OST for Stylus for all of Corgan’s post-”Adore” works, but then I think better of it because listening to “TheFutureEmbrace” isn’t something you’re liable to catch me doing when I could be…I dunno…re-reading today’s post on Fire Joe Morgan or whatevs. I mean, I’ll rep parts of “MACHINA” even though that shit’s so overprocessed, M83 could cover it without having to buy one piece of new gear. And was Zwan really that bad? Just looking at some of “Zeitgeist”’s review, you’d think that was Billy doing Wolf Eyes material or a song-for-song interpretation of “Self Portrait.”
- But here’s the strange thing about The Smashing Pumpkins- how do you become that much worse after losing the only two people in the band that didn’t do anything? Has that ever happened before? Usually, the control freak ditches the dead weight and carries on just fine…I mean, look at Wham!.
Download:
MP3: Smashing Pumpkins-”Tarantula” (left-click)
MP3: My Morning Jacket-”Careless Whisper” (Wham! Cover) (left-click)
Posted in Miscellany | 2 Comments »
June 26th, 2007
Having grown up in LA, I didn’t need a big article in Billboard to remind me that practically every single record record store in town, save for Amoeba has gone out of business over the past five years. One by one, the music stores of my adolescence have shut their doors. From the old Rhino Records in Westwood triggering memories of an overcast winter Saturday, 14 years old and mystified by the cover of Liquid Swords; to the Tower Records on Sunset, June 2, 1997, waiting in line to buy Wu-Tang Forever, at Midnight (with a free Wu jersey handed out as a bonus for our dedication;) to the countless Wherehouses, Sam Goodies, and Penny Lane’s that used to lurk around every sun-splashed corner.
That was a decade ago, antediluvian in instant Internet time, before the music biz slid off a cliff of illegal downloading, Best Buy bulk buying domination (how else do you think they sold Fishscale for $6) and the black hole known as Amoeba Records. A great record store for sure, but one who by sheer awesomeness of size, taste and buying power further accelerated the decline of the little guys. Little guys like Echo Park’s Sea Level Records, one of LA’s last standing independent record shops, who closed up shop last night.
Sea Level owner, Todd Clifford made the decision to send Sea Level to that great record pasture in the sky about a month ago, but I waited to write about it, accepting the bad news the way I always do: refusing to believe it until the tangible concrete evidence looked me dead-on in the eyes. Which happened to me at about 11:15 p.m. last Friday night, when the boys from Division Day, aided by some special guest helpers, did a cover of the Boyz II Men school commencement staple, “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye” (which my 8th grade graduation. class was actually forced to sing). Nice work guys, you did a whole lot better than we did.
Sea Level Owner, Todd Clifford, Showing the Rugged Work Ethic And Abstemious Values Required to Survive a Day As a Music Store Clerk
Sea Level started in 2001, so it certainly wasn’t the first place I ever bought a record at, but it was the sort of place I wished I’d bought my first album at. A cluttered and cramped High Fidelity-esque playground, papered in old concert handbills, 90s Matador Pavement and GBV promos and tons of dusty old vinyl. The ideal spot for Junior High kids to rush in with weekly allowances tucked into their palms, filled with the nervous anticipation of buying a record, rushing home to put it into your stereo, hoping it as good as they’d heard it was.
About three or four months ago, Todd went off on tour to sell merch for the Silversun Pickups and thanks to Sea Level’s other employee, Sylvia, I got to fulfill every music geek’s lifelong dream: being the jerky guy behind the counter making snide remarks about used Kenny Loggins records. All things considered, it was pretty awesome getting the opportunity to see the way in which Sea Level fostered a true sense of community for the Eastside music scene. It was a rare anachronism in Los Angeles: an oasis for music junkies ranging from music writers like Duke, Jax and Kevin Bronson, to nearly every indie band east of La Brea, to the packs of Mexican and Phillipino teenagers that came in off their skateboards to read magazines and kill time talking about music for hours, to the weird ripped old dude that used to come in every week, hoping that his Ibiza Volume 6 album had finally come in.
One of Sea Level’s 685, 321 In-Stores
If video killed the radio star, the Internet slaughtered the record store. And in record time (no Buggles.) I suppose it’s the impersonal nature of the digital age, with its inexorable inertia to reduce all bits of information into 0’s and 1’s, forever stripping away the personalized touch of buying physical copies of records. Maybe it’s more efficient, but I think I can speak for all us music junkies when I say that I’ll always miss the instant connection you used to feel when you’d buy an album, studying the liner notes, reading the album lyrics and trying to figure out the over-arching meaning of it all, if there was any. Most of all, I’ll miss going to Sea Level and all the places like it, those last bastions of an actual community that feel like relics of a by-gone era. Maybe I’m just growing old and crotchety before my time, or maybe I’m just a little biased, but it feels as though the city is losing something that won’t be easily replaced. RIP Sea Level. You will be missed.
Download:
MP3: Boyz II Men-”It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye”
MP3: The Beatles-”Hello, Goodbye”
Posted in Miscellany | 8 Comments »
June 11th, 2007
And just like that, I’m off to Tennessee to enjoy the four days of hippie Xanadu known as Bonnaroo. In my absence, I have a crack squad of guest bloggers to entertain you all. In the meantime, expect the occasional update from Tennessee to see whether or not the String Cheese Incident will actually provide string cheese (prognosis: doubtful.)
I’d intended to post a road trip mix before I took off, but there just isn’t time, so you’ll just have to settle for two tracks that will get some burn in the 29 hours of driving from LA to Tennessee. See you next Wednesday.
Download:
MP3: Prefuse 73 ft. Aesop Rock-”Sabbatical With Options”
MP3: Grateful Dead-”Truckin”
Posted in Miscellany | 1 Comment »
April 13th, 2007
Today is my last day at Sea Level. Sylvia and Todd finally fired me for a series of illicit acts including thievery, illegal sale of narcotics and pummeling of yuppies. They used the word “pumelling” not me. I thought of it as more of a minor fracas, or perhaps a small brouhaha.Anyhow, I’m lying of course. Todd returns on Wednesday from his tour with the Silversun Pickups. In the meantime, to carry on my unprecendented streak of self-indulgency, I plan on live-blogging one last time. In the meantime, if you aren’t busy tonight, I highly recommend attending Jax’ show tonight at Pehrspace in Glendale. Peter and the Wolf are headlining, along with several other bands. More details here. I attended Jax’ January Peter and the Wolf show and had a good time. He’s a talented musician and a fine guitar player. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go peddle copies of Ibiza Chillout mixes. The old man came in and he’s feeling saucy. Could be a big sale. (ed. note: old man may or not be saucy).
Download:
MP3: Peter and The Wolf - The Ivy
MP3: Peter and The Wolf - Safe Travels
I’m currently listening to the new Pony’s record, which is pretty awesome in an underwhelming sort of way. It creeps on you all stealth like, just like a ninja. A Beverly Hills Ninja if you will. Anyhow, I’m seeing the Pony’s tomorrow night so expect a post on them some time in the next week. In the meantime, since its shaping up to be that sort of day, I would be remiss not to mention that my two favorite local bands are playing tomorrow night at Spaceland, in The Deadly Syndrome and The Parson Redheads. So if you get shut out of the Pony’s/Deerhunter show at the Echo, head just west to see what might be the best local show until, well, just two weeks when Earlimart, Sea Wolf, The Watson Twins and The Parson Redheads play the Explex.
Download:
MP3: The Deadly Syndrome-”I Hope I Become a Ghost”
MP3: The Parson Redheads-”Full Moon”
While it seems on the surface that I loathe hipsters, such simple conclusions are misleading (besides than the fact that I might be a hipstacrite). Indeed, I love hipsters. Not for their love of the Fiery Furnaces and Animal Collective, but for their sheer consistency.
How else can you explain the fact that at 3:45 p.m. on a beautiful 80 degree Los Angeles Friday, a very nice-seeming hipster can stroll into Sea Level and nonchalantly achieve the holy trinity of hipsterdom: beards, blazers and glasses. You’d think it’d be a little hot to be rocking the blazer, but oh no my friends, a little sweat is nothing in the name of fashion.
Not like I’m incapable of being a walking talking stereotype. On Monday night, I saw The Black Pine at the Echo and managed to get into three conversations with random friends I bumped into. Two of whom were in bands, one of whom was a fellow blogger. Not to mention the fact that I’m currently blogging from a record store. Sometimes, you kinda’ just want to kick your own ass.
Posted in Miscellany | 4 Comments »
March 30th, 2007
No, the above photo is not an actual photo of me at work at Sea Level. Sadly, I don’t have fins, nor a garrulous lobster pal named Sebastian, nor a coral bra. Well, maybe I’m lying a little. I can’t deny my penchant for a good coral bra. Please keep this a secret between you me and the FBI. Would it make you feel it any better if I called it a manziere? A bro? Nah, too ethnic.
Anyhow, its week 5 at Sea Level and I’m a little perturbed, (in a complete shocker.) At the exact moment when I was about to put in that old Afu-Ra album, Body of the Life Force, a couple of old graying yuppies walked in, hand and hand. Which is fine and all, but honestly, why even bother asking me where the country music section is? I don’t know fucking shit about George Strait. Between that and the hipsters with kids (a more frightening proposition unto itself) that have currently invaded the store, I’m stuck bumping the infinitely more placid Besnard Lakes Cd while swilling a diet coke. Of course, the Besnard Lakes remain awesome, but I’m fiending for some “Whirlwind Thru Cities.” Ah well. At least, the hipster parents bought a record. Even it was Amy Winehouse, who I continue to boycott. Not like it matters.
In other news, the weirdly yoked old man that comes in every single Friday rain or shine, has yet to receive his Ibiza Vol. 6 CD. He is very upset. Last week, we even specially ordered him Ibiza Vol. 5. This is after reading him Amazon.com customer reviews of every item in the Ibiza series. Apparently, “Real Ibiza’s creators Chris Cocco & Bruno Leprete have given us this CD out of love, rather than the commercial motives that seem to drive the more recent Ibiza CD’s….and it shows.” Who knew? All I know is that once again this Saturday night, another senior citizen dance party will be lacking in fine rave music from Ibiza. Is there no decency in this world?
Posted in Miscellany, Are You From the Lester Bangs School of Thought? | 3 Comments »
March 16th, 2007
Two days ago this was the scene at Sea Level. Shattered glass sprayed across the store, as a drunken driver plowed through the front door in his battered red pick-up. And it’s very strange to type these words as I look at the plywood boads nailed into the wall directly to the right of me. Of course, its not my own mortality that I’m pondering. It’s more the quesion of how drunk do you have to be to take out, a parking meter, a tree, a pediestrian AND still manage to drive through two store fronts. I assume he must have been drinking MD 20/20. Drink a couple bottles of that stuff and all bets are off. I follow few rules in life. But one of them is don’t drink any liquor named after a character from Back to the Future III (this also includes whiskey that smokes). I also refuse to drink green liquor unless it is St. Patrick’s Day. In the meantime, the store is open and I am working. Proving that like Keith Richards, Sea Level Records cannot be killed by conventional weapons.
Somone Get This Man A Bottle of Courvorsier
It’s rather miraculous that El-P rocked such a horrifically good pornstache while recording, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead. How could he focus on making music with a dead muskrat on his upper-lip? These are the questions that I ask, listening to El-P’s I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead at simply inappropriate volume levels (Sea Level has the booming system.) I am positive I have frightened several passerbys on the street. Between that and the boarded-up windows, people must think the apocalypse is literally occuring. I’m okay with that.
People seemed to like The Pharcyde’s Labcabincalifornia, which I’d previously been playing, a bit more than the El-P. But I’m pretty sure they’re both awesome in different ways. I also just met Doctashock of the new blog, Alternatakids. His blog currently has back-to-back posts on The Stooges and El-P. Needless to say, it is recommended.
Modest Mouse: The Late Hours
Listening to the Modest Mouse album. Good not great. Though that’s sort of how I feel about every Modest Mouse album. They’re all pretty good, but I never want to listen to them. Every one of the albums could be trimmed about 20 minutes and no one would notice. As someone so aptly pointed out at Stylus, this album doesn’t have any “Float On’s” but it has a lot of “Ocean Breaths Salty.” Though “Dashboard is pretty close to capable of making Seth Cohen flip his wig. Or can I not say that anymore now that the show is canceled. Now where will I do find to find out good music? Fuck. I guess there’s always Zach Braff. I hear that Coldplay band is pretty bitchin.’
Sales today have been surprisingly solid. Perhaps the neighborhood is taking pity on us for our lovely plywood storefront. I’ve already told management that we should just put up a poster of the Arcade Fire out front with the sign: “No Cars Go.” After all, they are the greatest band in all history of mankind and earth.
Posted in Miscellany | 7 Comments »
March 12th, 2007
Okay. The title of this post might be an overstatement. But seriously, “What a Job” (featuring Snoop and Andre 3000), from Devin the Dude’s Waiting to Inhale is the best rap song I’ve heard in a very very long while. Andre 3000, needs to rap more. A lot more. Listen and thank me (and Rizoh at The Rap Up for providing the track in the first place). And thank be sure to thank Andre 3000 while you’re at it. Otherwise, he will get very upset that you downloaded it illegally. Or so the song has me believing.
MP3:
Download: Devin the Dude (ft. Andre 3000 and Snoop Dogg)-”What a Job”
Posted in Miscellany | 5 Comments »
March 2nd, 2007
The problems of live-blogging have been solved. Who knew that running Internet Explorer on a Mac wasn’t a good idea (other than roughly 99 percent of the globe). Oh, Safari, you’re my only friend.
So I’m back and with two hours to kill until I check out. A man wearing a paper Burger King crown on his head just came in and starting singing some sort of weird song about hair. I believe he may have told me that my hair was perfect. Clearly, he hadn’t read yesterday’s blog. As much as I’d like to be perfectly coiffed, the idea is damn near unthinkable in a world in which Oscar Charles Gamble lives and breathes.
At another juncture, two kids from the neighborhood came in and asked me where the hip-hop albums were. They didn’t buy any, instead they asked me if CMJ Magazine was free. It had the Clipse on the cover. They seemed pretty stoked. I told them to apply for a job as an “Internet music critic.” They then asked me “what the fuck’s the internet.” Okay, I’m kidding about that last part, but seriously, I think Jay and Silent Bob Stike Back might be Ben Affleck’s last good moment, ever.0
Being a hipster record store clerk might be the best job I’ve ever had. It certainly beats when I was a bus boy at an Italian restaurant where the owner refused to pay me for training. Or the time when I was a camp counselor and got fired for getting into an altercation with the life guard. I won’t get into the messy details, but they threatened to call security on me. Luckily, it was a park and they didn’t actually have security.
Buy music people. I’m this close to busting out a book and god knows, I don’t want to read Othello. Mainly, because every time I think about the board game, Othello. Which would’ve no doubt made Shakespeare proud to know that 400 years later, one of his finest tragedies got turned into a board game. Either way, I much prefer the comedies. Namely, Hungry Hungy Hippos.
Posted in Miscellany | 4 Comments »
March 2nd, 2007
Does anyone buy music anymore? Does everyone download it? These questions have been going through my head all day long as I try to fight the urge to take a nap. However, a more important question is currently plaguing me right now. As in why doesn’t Sea Level’s Ms. Pacman machine work? I’m a video game repairman away from being able to decimate Pinky, Blinky, Inky and the rest of those weird Pacmonsters.
After reading the LA Weekly, I am also baffled by an advertisement for an upcoming show by a singer/songwriter named James Morrison. You’d think that someone would’ve pulled him aside at some point and been like…uh James, there was this band in the 60s…called the Doors and….
I’m also deliberating what to choose for my free album that I get as a bonus for working here. Do I go for The Hold Steady “Boys and Girls in America” on vinyl or do I go for Ween’s “Pure Guava” on CD? Decisions, decisions.
And…I need coffee. Desperately.
Posted in Miscellany | 4 Comments »
March 2nd, 2007
In four years of college, my three closest friends and I must’ve watched Half Baked roughly 50 times. And one thing that invariably occurred during these sessions was a brief debate over which character in the film we most resembled. One friend became a schoolteacher. He obviously was Kenny. Another applied for a job as a director of the custodial arts (a janitor if you wanna’ be a dick about it). Clearly, he was Thurgood. Today, I fulfill my destiny as Brian, Jim Breuer’s record store character, who really hates Kenny Loggins but loves the Dead and being half-baked. As for the month of March, I am filling in every Friday at the awesome Echo Park record shop, Sea Level Records, while Todd, the store’s owner goes on-tour with the Silversun Pickups (before making snide remarks, read Duke’s dead-on rant).
Feeling a good bout of self-indulgence coming on and being highly likely to be bored, I will live blog the proceedings. So tune back from the hours of Noon till 9:00 (pst) as I get to make snide remarks to hipsters about how much Wolf Eyes sucks. If anyone wants to come visit me to buy music and/or pelt me with tomatoes, it’s at 1716 W. Sunset, down the street from the Echo in Echo Park. I will be serving punch and pie. In the meantime, amuse yourself with these fine links.
Ian Cohen writes the best review of an album that I’ve read all year, eloquently describing the brilliance of the Passion of the Weiss approved, New Jersey hip-hop duo, Dalek.
Apparently, its sweeps week at Stylus, because we also interviewed The Hold Steady
Ace Cowboy, from his Glide Magazine roost, drops this outstanding jam with Brazilian tropicalia great Gilberto Gil and Stevie Wonder.
Skeet on Mischa makes sense.
After watching from the video and the first single leaked from Timbaland’s new album, I have become convinced that it will have no chance of having a song close to as good as “Lobster and Scrimp.” At this point, I’d settle for “Up Jumps the Boogie.”
Tune in later to see if I end up getting fired and turning to a life of selling drugs like my Half Baked namesake. Seeing as though I will be there all alone, I see this as highly unlikely. But, stranger things have happened.
Posted in Miscellany | 2 Comments »
Ian Cohen usually writes for Stylus. Occasionally, he drops some knowledge on us here at The Passion. Cohen’s Corner is something akin to what you’d expect Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey to have been like, if Handey was smarter, jewier and really really into Wu-Tang. Enjoy.
