Thought Sausage

Or something like that...(random Drive-By Truckers wisdom)

I've come to one conclusion in my forray back into music. And that's that my current software arsenal is shit. Gear Box (the Line 6 stuff) is actually quite good, but my drum samples are shit, my sample sets are shit and I need a DAW that isn't a heaping piece of latent garbage.

Problem is my previous computer rig is loaded with software that's 7 years old that doesn't acknowledge the existance of things that came along in the past 7 years (go figure). Said computer rig is sitting in the closet doing a whole lot of taking up space. So that's no good. I'm not going to stray too far from home, which means I'll load up a new version of Reason and Cubase and call it square. So long as they'll let me run an ASIO soundcard, fuck it...

So basically I'm in a holding pattern until I get software that doesn't make me wanna throw my computer off the balcony. I've got some things accumlating, but I can't like be all that constructive until the environs are suited for it.

In other news, if you haven't bought Patterson Hood's Killers and Stars and Jason Isbell's Sirens of the Ditch whack those Amazon links or go to itunes and remedy that shit. Had both on rotation all day @ work (at least the parts of the day that didn't have me bogged down in meetings...jesus christ meetings are the cancer of productivity). Fucking awesome. Southern acoustic/blues rock for what ales ye.

Quote of the day (from Roly, who those of you who don't know him, is from Belfast):

fatsholo@aol.com [3:55 PM]:

this is from the local paper

fatsholo@aol.com [3:56 PM]:

_http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/music-gigs/news/article2974101.ece

fatsholo@aol.com [3:56 PM]:

thanks to the response from the Belfast crowd it persuaded Zep to record Satirway

fatsholo@aol.com [3:56 PM]:

no thanks necessary

In other news..the Fed Ex truck didn't deposit a server at my house today. So alas no system ramp up tonight. Which sucks double because I have a work thingy tomorrow night and I'm off to Madison Friday to cycle on Saturday morning (the outskirts of Madison feature some of the finest road-biking in the midwest bar none). So this could possibly mean the music rig won't be put into action until Sunday. Yeah I'm a little miffed about that. Especially since I bought all the necessary peripherals (rack, keyboard/mouse, scented candles). Plus I'll probably have my hands full next week ramping up for the big ride in Cali next Sat/Sun. I ordered the crate to ship my bike out there and we'll see how/if this actually goes off.

And while we're at it, can I just go ahead and say Home Depot's definition of "Easy to Assemble metal shelving" and mine are most definitely two different animals. My definition revolves around being, easy and stuff. Easy as in doesn't take long and the pieces fit together easily. Home Depot's is more on the order of takes all goddamn night and the pieces don't fit together for shit. Not that I'm a badass craftsman, but I am from Iowa and I am more than capable of assembling shit. In case you're looking for some metal shelving not to buy, might i reccomend the "no-screws necessary easy-to-assemble" unit from Home Depot.

I did get it all together though, and its starting to look like the borg took over the room. And its pissing me off that the space where the server should be isn't here.

UPDATE: Okay, just checked the tracking data @ Fed Ex. It says it's been in transit since the 17th from Waterloo Iowa. WTF??? Are they delivering it via horse 'n buggy?

Bought tickets today for Jay and I to see what is being called the farewell Ministry Tour (really?). It'll be cool to see Grandpa Al's big sendoff (in Chicago no less-that in of itself oughta make this a star studded affair) at the House of Blues, which is one of the better venues to see a show this size in our town. Meshugah and some opener I know nothing about are opening. Meh. Of course this whole affair takes place in May (seriously?) and the first show already sold out (!) so they announced the May 8th gig. Man I remember back when I could go see Ministry when they'd sell out the Aragon Ballroom and even scalpers weren't selling tickets for 52 bucks. Now I remember why I don't go to shows as much as I used to. Funny how ticketmaster charges 9 bucks for the "convenience charge" for a show like this and only like 3 bucks for the opera. Like all that industrial is way too much for Ticketmaster to put one guy on it so they had to staff it with three. Or they just subscribe to NIN's Australian label's theory that since Ministry has more of a devout following than the Phantom of the Opera did, they can charge more. Asstards...

Nevertheless, I'm quite stoked. Last time I saw Ministry was the Animositisomina tour and since then, they've put out 2 pretty good albums and 1 spectacular album (Houses of the Mole'). Tommy Victor is playing guitar (yawn) and obviously Paul Raven isn't going to be on bass so who knows will play bass. I'm pretty sure his first name isn't Paul and his last name isnt' Barker so its kind of a moot point.

I'm finding myself in the midst of trying to figure out what the fuck to do for New Years. On one hand...I'm not the sort of person who puts a lot of thought into New Years aside from going with the flow. Only the flow isn't going in one consistent direction. You see on the other hand...I have friends (and a brother) going to Vegas, and a flock of Chicagoans that want to "do something" but nobody has quite turned that into a plan. Rumor has it there's some deal at Witts that people are leaning towards, which is not unlike spending New Years in a liquor store, but whateva. I'm to the point in my life where I've played shows on new years, not played shows, gone to high rent exclusive parties downtown, and parties where people like Tara Reid are too drunk to actually make it to midnight, then of course, my Iowa days that are probably the most, I dunno? Comfortable? ...at this point in my life I really don't give a fuck as long as I'm around people. The rub of course is now the Vegas faction is telling me I gotta make a decision and yet I'm not exactly sure what the fuck is going on here in town. If this sounds like trivial bullshit to you, you and myself are in agreement. Why the fuck is this something that is even occupying my brain?

I have nothing intelligent to add here, other than SES is in town right now, but PubCon is going on in Vegas (jesus for a city I detest it's making its way into my site pretty frequently today). Of course, all the cool people I normally use SES as an excuse to meet up with are going to PubCon which basically means SES is nothing but a bunch of n00bs and hanger ons that didnt' get to go to PubCon. All the talking heads went to PubCon. I've had too many meetings and stuff during the day to pay much mind to SES, especially since there's like no fucking parties whatsoever this week. The party scene for this convention has steadily gone downhill since 2004. Perhaps its just Chicago because out in San Jose (San Fran basically) this thing is the shiznit (same with Ad Tech)

The girl from Monday departs for Hawaii in the morning for the marathon (aka Japan's now-annual re-invasion of Honolulu...it's what ya get for letting JAL sponsor the fucking thing I guess). Won't see her until the end of the month (as reported yesterday)

I got some function for Illinois Tech Association tomorrow night so I'm bailing on swimming. Then hopefully I'll make it to the CIMA holiday party. I'm told it'll be "off the hook" (thanks Brad). Off the hook is no longer something I do particularly well mid-week. Damn old age...

UPDATE: Oh shit CIMA party is so off the hook it sold out. Not that I'm particularly thwarted by that notion (seeing as how my boss is the president of that organization)...but I guess if I needed an excuse to not plunk down 100 bucks to hob nob with a bunch of people that I inadvertently make 'feel stupid' (their words not mine), that right there falls conveniently in line.

The setlist:

01. Good Times, Bad Times
02. Ramble On
03. Black Dog
04. In My Time Of Dying
05. For Your Life
06. Trampled Under Foot
07. Nobody's Fault But Mine
08. No Quarter
09. Since I've Been Loving You
10. Dazed and Confused
11. Stairway To Heaven
12. The Song Remains the Same
13. Misty Mountain Hop
14. Kashmir

Encore:

15. Whole Lotta Love
16. Rock and Roll

By all accounts, Jimmy, John, Robert and Jason owned the fuck out of these songs. The reviews are basically glowing all around. So guess I was good to be optimistic. This is good. Zeppelin deserved a post-band gig that wasn't subpar (Live Aid and that stupid Aerosmith infested Awards show in 95). All the more reason to believe they may drop some science on all these young whipper-snapper bands and show 'em how a real rock band does business.

Of course I didn't actually -go- to the show, however I'm given to understand Lance did (last minute hookup). Lucky bastard is right.

So, allz I have to go on is the BBC clip that is everywhere and that setlist. General impressions:

-Only one song off of Led Zeppelin III? Really? No acoustic numbers? Howz come?

-For Your Life for the first time? Nice....

-Nothing off of In Through The Outdoor? Well yeah I can understand that I guess...

-Nobody's Fault But Mine = t3h Awesome

-In My Time of Dying? Wow...after reading Hammer of the Gods I was given to understand Robert Plant had a beef with performing this after his kid died. Very very cool though. VERY cool. I would have been impressed with 10 Years Gone or The Rover (while we're on the subject of songs on Physical Graffiti that RAWWWWK) as well, but this is cooler.

-Only Song Remains the Same off Houses? If I were writing that list, I woulda swapped out Misty Mountain Hop for The Ocean

-I gotta hear Black Dog and Rock and Roll before I'm gonna take NME's word that Robert Plant's vocals are just as they were in the 70's. Somehow I don't see that...

So there will be a DVD of this I'm sure...and I'm sure I'll be 1st in line for it. Until then, it's cool that this went over so well. They look ancient as fuck up there, but if Zeppelin can still put the rock on, maybe Metallica will actually deliver an album worth a shit next year too.

By Oingo Boingo has literally been lodged in my head for 20 years and I couldn't figure out who the fuck it was. It's featured on the opening credits of That Was Then This is Now. That movie isn't exactly ubiquitous, despite being awesome even if it is a really shitty unfaithful interpretation of the quite amazing book.

Good god, today is a day of reckoning. Rest assured said song is procured and on my ipod as of right now. I may need to write me a cover of this tune.

Am givin this my first listen though (although proper listen will be tomorrow @ work throughout the day to see how well it sits in my daily rhythm). So far so good I suppose. Lots of weird ambient noises and strange intros compared to other albums. Not sure what to make of that just yet. Definitely noticed the absence of Jason Isbell, but what ya gonna do? At least we got Sirens of the Ditch outta that departure. Lots more female vocals too. Not a bad thing, insofar. This one sounds, I dunno, more reflective? slower? somethin like that.

Anyway, it's worth more money than you're gonna pay for it, so go forth (also available on itunes and Amazon).

So that happened...prolly the only good news to come out of today. Heath Ledger went off to that brokeback mountain in the sky today. For shame, I was starting to like him, especially given that his role as The Joker looks like nothing short of a masterpiece. It certainly projects a different light on what's already the most anticipated (by me) movie of the summer.

Fred Thompson also dropped out of the race for the republican nomination today. Did he even campaign? Like did he do anything other than go on Leno and post a few Youtube vids? Pretty lame way to blow through 20 million dollars. I see the power play that went down here though. He most likely took votes of uber-conservatives and evangelicals that would have gone to Huckabee in South Carolina, so rather than risk splitting the Super Tuesday votes, he dropped out now to centralize those votes on Huckabee (who's clearly a front winner). This is the POLAR OPPOSITE of what I was hoping he'd do. Ideally, he would have stuck around through super Tuesday and kept that vote de-centralized. So that makes things all the much tougher for McCain in the next couple months (whom IM oh so HO, is the voice of reason amidst all this political gibberish---Guiliani's scandalous ass included). Meanwhile on the democrat side, their front-runners and only hope of actually taking control of the executive branch are too busy taking pot shots at each other to notice if they are alienating the independants or not. Jesus Christ how on earth do they get away with calling themselves the liberal/intellectuals? There are high school student council campaigns run with more tact and strategy than these idiots'. Democrats are making that same fucking mistake they've made the past 2 elections...they seem to think the race is between two democrats and ignoring the republicans completely.

Make no mistake, if its Huckabee, or if its McCain, the democratic nominee WILL be up against a very formidable opponent. FACT: Republicans vote..Democrats by and large do not. This in of itself will prove to be very crucial given the state of economic affairs. Furthermore, as dumb as Bush is labeled (and appears to look), he's gone round for round with Kerry and Gore in the debates. Both democratic candidates were supposedly primo debaters and ended up walking away the (arguably) loser in those things (I remember all my super left-wing friends getting all pissed cos those candidates didn't "go in for the kill"). John McCain and Mike Huckabee are way ahead of GWB in terms of debate skills. Based on what we've seen so far, either of 'em could more than handle their own against Hillary or Obama because they've both consistently taken the high road on personal attacks. Not only that, but as kooky and creepy as Mike Huckabee is with his southern baptist views...you can't deny the man has a social presence that is currently unmatched by Hillary or Barak. He's personable. Old folks will like that. And old folks vote. Hillary looks like she's all but cringing to be around people...Barak is good, but he doesn't have that good 'ol boy charm Huckabee does. And McCain, as I said is the one guy who pretty much is reasonable and not too far right or left, so I would wager he's got the best shot at securing the independants (at this juncture).

Point is..regardless of who beats who in teh democratic party...either candidate will have quite a challenge. They need to take a few notes from the way the republican campaign is being conducted and get back to the issues. Look kids, in these times of woe and want, straight talk works. Stupid pot shots like all the dumbass pundits take (on either side) are retarded and mind-numbing. Those pundits are figures engineered by the people running their programs for idiots who simply don't understand the issues and need personalities to inspire them to be excited or pissed (but at the end of the day, all they really need is for you to tune in and watch). Don't get me wrong, I have that demented part of my brain that gets pleasure out of getting pissed off at Ann Coulter just like everyone else. But Ann Coulter doesn't answer to teh same responsibilities or people a president does. We don't need a president who sinks to that level. Never did never will.

Had a time trial in swimming today. 30 minute continuous swim. I put away 2125 meters in that time. Slower than I was around mid September, but I totally wasn't prepared to be fair :-)

Oh, and I need to get on a bike trainer or somethin. It's been windy as shit on the rides home (yes, I commute daily by bike rain/snow/sleet/shine) lately and I am feelin it even in flat-ass Chicago! I'm guessing not-so-flat Alaska and southern Michigan won't be so forgiving.

Also began getting things in order with the financeers for this mortgage business. "CREDIT IS KING THESE DAYS" = exact quote from 5 different people. Not that I have bad credit, but jesus, ya really gotta throw that at me every time?

UPDATE: Better Than Creation's Dark is in fact, t3h Awesome. After a few solid listens I can't put the damn thing down. It's a total character driven album in the most awesome way. Some fuckin rockers, some mellow shit and total character all the way through. Makes me wanna buy it on vinyl (which i can supposedly do next month)

Saw Rambo tonight (cos I'm like, a masculine motherfucker). Fuckin' hell Grandpa Rambo just owns the fuck out of burma in this one. It's comical how excessively violent it is. Rambo Stallown's the fuck out of Jason Bourne, Neo and their ilk. Of course, the premise was entirely unbelievable and I don't think Sly's in any danger of winning Best Picture or Movie of the Year. Fun movie no less. Definitely not for the squeemish, as this basically makes Robocop I look like The Little Mermaid. Old people don't take shit...that much is obvious.

This weekend was typical irish mis-behavin. Nothing major. I did get everything sorted with the music rig. I finally got to where I got everything set up in a way that makes sense for my workflow. Small, centralized, and all based around guitar (you'll notice no synths around here...I program what I can't physically play, and my keyboardin'/piano skills are rudimentary at best).

Here's what the setup looks like now . Obviously I'm in no danger of impressing the folks on Analog Industries or anything, but fuck 'em...I never claimed to be rocking anything more than a project studio at best (and 'studio' is a big of a misnomer for what is essentially a rack with a bunch of shit on it). That 2u server in the middle is the roxbox I keep talking about. It's a champ (albeit a loud champ). I got barstools from in the kitchen which work, but sooner or later I gotta get down to the business of getting a really cool one for this rig. Maybe a custom Spokeeasy perch is in order ...SWEET

This would have posed a much larger problem when I was living in Iowa, but since I live smack dab in the middle of down fucking town Chicago, its more of a nagging nuisance...but I went out to drive to swim practice after work, only to fine my battery was not capable of turning over. I hadn't driven it since Thursday and it seemed the cold weather zapped it. Ugh...so that nixed practice for tonight. Instead I did some lifting and then Horowitz came over with his big 'ol blue Impala and its big 'ol battery and once again we couldn't get the fucker jumped (this same thing happened a couple years ago). So now I'm stuck in the position of not having a car to get to practice. This shouldn't be that big of a deal since I ride there in the summer (and somewhat last winter) anyway. But I really got in the habit of taking the car, and even though its only a mile, it's kind of nice getting out and driving.

So...yeah...shit on that. This basically means I have to coordinate/engineer a truck over to the garage to do whatever the fuck it is they do. Ironically, my cell phone of all things comes with some sort of coverage for this sort of thing so I just call 'em up and they send somebody over. I'm RLY hoping this shapes up so they can look at it before 7-ish so I can still make practice. I certainly didn't take in calories today with the idea I wouldn't be swimming.

In other news, I'm digging the new Atomica Project single that just dropped this week....

I'm only one listen into it so far, but it's sexy-female-vocals-done-right make no mistake. None of that Evanescane wannabe bullshit so many bands cop. It's easily up there with Collide. Wade's a cool ambient/noisy-yet-melodic dude (save for Scanalyzer which is just plain fucking noisy). The remixes on here are pretty tasty as well...from my initial impression. Sort of sound like they were done in Fruityloops though...not that that's a bad thing persay...cos I do a lot of shit in Fruityloops (GASP). I like Bounte more and more though...kid has skillz and not in a Paul Oakenshit flavor either.

....heh, I only realized now that Fruityloops is apparently now called "FL Studio"...guess I'm not hip to the kids nowadays

Anyway...you can go grab this single for a measly 2 bucks so you're really only demonstrating your lack of perception for good music if you don't go grab these songs.

(patiently awaiting the full album release)

Actually listening to this makes me wanna program and go electronic more. It seems I've stumbled into a Hansel Und Gretyl kind of heavy (sans vocals, cos I don't have any yet). Kinda cool cos I always wanted to get 'that sound' but haven't quite gotten it yet. But despite not using a single amp, and playing fucking Parker Niteflys of all guitars, I got a pretty mean slammin tone. And I finally stopped being afraid of putting a 909 foot behind my "real people's kick drum" samples and the net result is....i dunno "modern"? Perhaps I've discovered what everyone else already knew, which is most heavy bands nowadays don't actually have a drummer "play" the parts in the studio, but rather sample the kit and arrange accordingly in pro tools. Oh wait...I knew everyone else was doing that...I was just too lazy to program percussion that heavily cos I always had a real live drummer with real live drums till now...

Since I essentially work for a giant agency conglomerate, we get Presidents Day off (how 'bout that). So it feels like I havent' been to the office in like, forever. Shit I haven't even logged into my work email since like Saturday. Craziness.

The net result of all this time off is that I basically spent the weekend getting stupid drunk with various people along with me. Somehow I pulled all this off without losing a phone. A few close calls though.

Oh and I spent a metric fuckton of money too. One of those "dave drinks away a grand in 3 days" binges. Incredible. Of course statistics do no justice to what actually occured.

Took in the auto show too this weekend. These events (aside from being the single biggest clusterfuck this side of the Taste in the way of idiots and their offspring coming to our city and taking up space) always get me thinking about buying a car even though I don't actually need a new one. The Mustang is more than capable of schlepping my ass out to Palos and to the grocery store. However, this year I was quite taken by the Hummer H3t. They aren't out until fall, but depending on whether or not things like a condo come together between now and then, I may be procuring one of these. I'm basically a truck sorta guy anyway...and i needs the space for my various cycling endeavors.

There's a package you can get for it that turns the bed into a tent, and there's AC power back there. Plus they have a bike rack that goes on the roof so bikes can stay up there. Nice...

So there's that. Plus since its a Hummer, I can still keep the "he must be compensating for something" aura that seems to go with all my vehicles anymore. Gotta have that don't ya know.

Today, despite being hungover from trying out some new watering holes in Greektown with Horowitz Sunday, I went down to Palos and got a mountain bike in (yes it was 8 degrees, yes there was snow on the ground and yes the weather gods are sorely mistaken if they thought that would keep me away). Fuckin Palos closes all the roads going to where the mountain bike trails are. So you're essentially in for about a 2-mile ride on really shitty icy roads on your bike. Boy howdy that'll kill any semblance of "fun". All in all I did a few runs but I had to bail before any real riding could be done. In fact, this could very well put the kabosh on my riding until this winter shit goes away. I've been told by persons who do such things that cross country skiing is equally enjoyable. Somehow I doubt it but perhaps that'll be how I get my fix. I came home and did a 5k run...again...outside. It got noticeably colder (and I suppose the lack of windchill out in the forest makes up for something). I haven't really shaved since last week and I got that whole icicles on m face thing. The good news was this run was one of my faster splits. So I guess I do well in the cold.

Tech Cocktail is on Thursday. Apparently a lot of people from work are going to that. For those that don't know, this is essentially happy hour that all the techy companies in Chicago all meet up at. It happens once a month (I think?) and while I'm aware of 'em, I never go. Mostly cos I didn't realize search marketers knew about it (I of course do because everybody I know is in the hosting industry).

Aight...I'm tired and in dire need of about 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep...

Somehow I totally missed that this was coming out (or perhaps Trent just dropped it outta nowhere). But last night, Ghosts (the mp3's at least) were released. I've been letting it cycle through all night. Basically what you get is 36 tracks that essentially is wannabe Berlin-Era-Bowie tunes. Sometimes that much is painfully (or embarassingly?) obvious. It's all instrumental. When I first heard of the sheer volume of tunes (36?!) and 'instrumental' my first hunch was that this was going to be nothing more than outtakes and unusable sequences that didn't fit on any of his recent outtings. After a couple times through each track...I don't think that's what we get. In fact, I'll go as far as to say its actually not half bad. I've caught a few instances where he's either quoting or straight up rehashing old Fragile tunes, but you'll have that I guess. It certainly doesn't measure up to Callisto whatsoever, but I don't know that was Trent's intention.

That said...now that Trent is 'out of his contract' I suppose this is what we're in for. Massive doses of output that he can put out whenever it suits his fancy (of course, all the people downloading these proceeded to crash his site..good job kids). I know what you're thinking: "dave, how on earth would the single most pretentious artist this side of Prince sleep knowing his output was merely in the form of mp3's?". Well true to form, you can buy this collection of instrumentals in various hardcopy versions...one of which is a $300 (really?!) "collectors edition" that includes vinyls (seriously?!) of all these tracks. I find that funny because I don't know of a single vinyl enthusiast (save for maybe a couple DJ's) that would give two shits and a rolling donut about a new NIN album on vinyl (much less anything post Fragile). There's a lot of analog synthy sounds that prolly do sound pretty fat on vinyl, but certainly not $300 fat.

that said, the $5 you spend to get all these is most certainly worth it. It's good background music...not to engaging, and nothing here that is going to win over any uninitiated (as I imagine anybody who is a fan of the Bowie/Eno stuff probably is well aware of what Trent's been doing the past 18 odd years).

This whole 'direct release' thing like what NIN, Radiohead and others are doing is proving to be an interesting situation. On one hand, this definitely makes it easier for Trent to get work out. On the other, not having a label in there acting as a filter between the end listener and the artist could be a bad thing. I don't care who the artist is, everybody has good work and shitty work. Labels have served to some extent as a quality control because they are only interested in music they can sell (for better or for worse I guess...but I've heard plenty of stories from artists who can't put an album out because the label 'doesn't hear a single'). Maybe that is kind of a good thing? Cos while I can't say for sure, I'm pretty sure Trent couldn't release an album with 36 instrumental tracks on Interscope. Not in the form he's doing it now. And of these 36, I'd say 15 of 'em sound like self-indulgent experiments. Basically they don't serve to benefit the overall output. I know with my own work, the first IK album could ahve been 4-5 songs thinner and thus, a way more effective album. But self releasing it as we did...we just put out everything we had committed to tape.

So...eh..if ya wanna hear Trent make a bunch of noises with some standouts here and there...this is definitely worth your 5 bucks (better pay up too cos now Trent's got a big old bandwidth bill haha)

Okay so Ryan wanted my opinion of this album..so I obtained it, and gave it a few listens.

Lemme preface this by sayin sometimes Moby ends up being a guilty pleasure of mine. Sure he's a tone deaf little weiner and a bit of a pompous ass, but the dude did manage to make some interesting tunes and his live show is pretty damn cool. I'm not a huge dance album fan in the first place (in the 909-loop-in-4/4-and-play-at-bass-makes-eyeballs-bleed-levels sense) and I think trance is the single most retarded form of music (since when is 'oh you gotta be on drugs to 'get it'' an excuse for anything?). I know enough about how this music is constructed to know what is the product of a couple cheesy 303/505/808 loops sequenced and what is actual talent (see any Micronaut album).

So this brings us to Moby's album Last Night. It falls into the latter category of phoned in some places and in other places he's doing good shit. Unfortunately, I'd have to say a lot of it really has that "made on a laptop" vibe that Year Zero had in parts (Schmudde's biggest Moby complaint).

Apparently, the stated goal is to 'recreate a night out on the town in Moby's neighborhood' or some shit. From the sound of it, Moby frequents a lot of gay clubs and yuppie new-age restaurants. No guitar work at all (which, I'm actually into with Moby).

Some of the non-dancy interludes are interesting...nothing that's gonna win over the glow stick crowd, but it makes for nice background music at work.

Some shit sounds like it's straight off a Jennifer Lopez album or some pop bullshit (I'm given to understand Moby did work on the Britney Spears album, so there ya go). The lead track 'Ooh Yeah' and that dumbass pitch corrector effect makes me want to jam a pencil in my ear. But in all honesty, that's the only song that yeilds a 'pencil-in-ear' reaction. Some of the female vox are quite good...in fact possibly some of the best he's ever had on an album. They sound like original samples and none of that "Go" shit.

Worth the price of admission? I'd say so. But I certainly have tracks I'll listen to, and ones I simply won't. Maybe it's me getting older, maybe its the fact I already live in the West Loop of Chicago, but listening to this makes me feel like the biggest metro-sexual in the office, and that don't jive ya know what I mean?

If your electronic/dance/ambient budget is stretched and you have to decide between Last Night or Callisto...jesus fucking christ get Callisto. Much more bang for the buck.

I guess I can't complain. I do think this album may signify me officially getting the Moby thing out of my system though. I did go ahead and snag that Joy Division cover he did of New Dawn Fades and boy howdy is that ever fuckin' cool. How the hell did I miss that?

Pehdtskjmba!!!

Aight...I've had some time to give this album a few spins. It's actually kind of hard to judge an album like this because of how it was released. Like I said yesterday I was somewhat suspicious that all this free-of-labels thing would turn artists like Trent into music producing machines wherein things that probably wouldn't have been released will now be released. A lot. At some point or another, a label does serve the purpose of releasing things they think will sell. This can be at odds with an artists creative vision (witness the problematic release of Bowie's Low) but ultimately, to quote somebody I don't recall "I can't define art, but I know it when I see it".

Thus brings us to The Slip. Trent's 'gift' to fans for supporting him through the years. There's no doubt this is a very interesting idea. Sort of like the time Prince more or less gave away his album in the London times (of course, said paper paid him quite a bit of money for the privilege to do so). The simple fact of the matter is that this is by no means a mainstream pop album. No hit singles here. It sounds almost impossible to convincingly reproduce live, and some of the riffs sound like rehashing from the previous two non-Ghost albums (1,000,000 and Only from With Teeth?). That said, there are some really good things here. Lights in the Sky is a very gothier than thou vibe that is straight outta something from Trent's 90's stuff. The guitar/bass riff in Four of Us are Dying is classic Trent.

But what's up with all the glitchy lap-topish sounding percussion? Where did all that noisy metal on metal from The Downward Spiral and The Fragile go? Did somebody trick Trent into thinking those were bad things? I've been bitching about this since Year Zero. All the percussion (save for that big noisy snare he uses here) sounds really dry and it sucks the depth out of it. You can tell it's a stylistic decision but I'm not hip to it. Not yet at least.

So that said...my take (as of right now, I did an about face with Year Zero too if I recall so take it for what its worth) is that left unencumbered, Trent's noise to signal ratio gets a little dilluted. There's nothing remotely close to the weight or songwriting quality of The Day the Whole World Went Away, Wish, Hurt or Head Like A Hole here (although to be fair, I don't think that was the intention). Nope, what we have here are a bunch of fragmented tunes that, while there are interesting moments, won't be anything he'll hang his hat on. They are intricate no doubt. I can hear a lot of things going on...but with this sort of music, Trent was the forerunner in showing how less can be more. The point is, just because something is a programming extravaganza with crazy vocal edits and jagged guitar lines doesn't mean the song is good. Sometimes it works here, like on Demon Seed, but for the most part, it sounds like the self indulgent trip it most likely was/is.

I really wish Trent would swing for the fences in stripping things down and writing some really deep anthemic songs that all of us Gen X'ers remember him for doing. While I think its great he's making a strong case for succeeding business-wise on his own, a HUGE fuck-you to the industry comes when his output can speak to generations without a label propping it up.

So, I guess it's certainly worth checking out. If you're an old school industrial fan, there's plenty of glitchy noise and 'oh woe is me' lyrics here.

In other news, I procured the following items today:

and

The latter is a light that mounts inside a tent via magnets. Basically, the pannier bike is complete. A lot of this is the direct result of me getting out of that 1600 dollar chunk of fines that the Illinois Tollbooths tried to levy against me since my iPass apparently wasn't working/deducting properly (after waiting 45 minutes on hold, I found this was because they never officially changed the plates assigned to it from my temp ones when I bought the car). The net result of which is that whole clusterfuck ended up really only costing about a hundred bucks. This is a good thing because it looks like the weekend of the 22nd will be the maiden voyage in this project. I'm told I have a posse although I would not be suprised in the slightest if this ends up being me myself and I. No matter. I'll pick up all other pertinent supplies (sleeping bag, mattress, potential cooking supplies) at my parents house next weekend (I'm going to get some serious rides in next weekend fyi). In other words...everything is falling into place.

Ministry in 2 days....whoohoo!

No shit? Wow. The weather isn't exactly doing what I need it to. How the hell is it yesterday was like 30's? This doesn't bother me a bit when running, but moving along at 25mph engenders all sorts of unpleasant coldness. Ergo my cycle yesterday more or less sucked. I couldn't get the legs going. You'll have that I suppose.

Sorry it's been awhile since I've coined a blog on here. Between parties/visitors and general life, a lot has happened. First off, Ministry absolutely delivered the goods. Almost too good. At least past when the Metra heads out. So Jay had to cut out in the middle of Under My Thumb (yes the Stones cover, and yes Ministry just owns the fuck out of it). It really is too bad this is the end of the line for them. This lineup and the new batch of songs are so great live. Even Tommy Victor is good (and certain allegiances I've made require me to think of him as a giant asshole for reasons I'm not entirely aware of). Hemlock and Messugah were yawners. But Al 'n co more or less ruled the school and showed all the kids how it's done. Great time but sad to see it go.

Friday Sam was in town, and that, coupled with me still getting up around 6 on Friday left me with a completely empty tank circa 3 am or so. I'm told I "took a nap in the bushes" somewhere by Uptown lounge. This is most likely accurate cos I had mud on my pants the following day. Somehow I didn't end up in jail or mugged.

Work shit and then met up with swim peeps later on. That turned out to be fun/interesting/quizzical (is that a word? if so, does it apply here?). Suffice to say, more on that later perhaps.

Pretty boring Sunday until Roly decided some of us should take in Ironman later that night. I sorta had fair to middling expectations for this. After all, it's pretty hard to make a "seriously awesome" movie about an ultra fruity looking robot dude played by Robert Downey Jr. Turned out I was wrong. This movie actually is pretty cool (the costume even turns out to be alright, even if somewhat cheesy. Robert Downey Jr. is fucking awesome here. Ironically, the weak link in the movie seemed like Jeff Bridges. That seemed more a matter of bad casting really. He just wasn't right for the role. You can't play the Dude and then expect people to take you seriously as a bad bad guy. Not to mention it took a solid 20 minutes of him on screen until I figured out who the fuck he was. So take that for what it is worth. Was pretty decent. It's no new Indiana Jones or Dark Knight, but I pity the fool who saw that movie thinking it would be.

Meeting up with SEO peeps around the city tomorrow night in lieu of swimming. This is a meeting I was SUPPOSED to be attending once a month, but those people always saw fit to have it at 1pm on Sundays, and well, I'm beholden to nobody on that particular day at that time. So this time change is good (even if it does require me to skip practice).

Hillary took West Virginia. Not that that makes an iota of difference. Nevertheless, she's "vowed to stay in the fight". Yep..this is progress people.

Not too long ago, my main ipod corrupted itself thus forcing me to reload everything. Upon doing this I never made any playlists, so more or less when at work I either put a specific artist on or have to let the thing shuffle through shit (It also erased all the obscure album covers I painstakingly found one night-don't ask I was bored).

Anyway, now that I have a feel for the kind of music I like to listen to at work (which can best be described as non-engaging), I created the following mult-personality playlist (which will no doubt be heavily edited/modified/appended in short order):

1. Allgoodgirls - Die Warzau
2. Another Man's Vine - Tom Waits
3. Any Old Wind that Blows -Johnny Cash
4. The Assassin - Patterson Hood
5. New York City - Saint Jermaine
6. BYOB - System of a Down
7. Behind Blue Eyes - The Who
8. Belinda Carlisle Diet - Patterson Hood
9. Beside You In Time - Nine Inch Nails
10. Big Sur Moon - Buckethead
11. Bodyrock - Moby
12. Bottom of the World -Tom waits
13. Boys from the County Hell -The Pogues
14. Brand New Kind of Actress - Jason Isbell
15. Brothers in Arms -Metallica (Acoustic Show)
16. Cat Power -Patterson Hood
17. Chicago Promenade -Jason Isbell
18. Circle - Slipknot
19. Collapse the Light Into Earth - Porcupine Tree
20. Communicate -Plastico
21. Connected - Stereo MC's
22. Cowgirl -Underworld
23. Danger/Keep Away -Slipknot
24. Danko/Manuel -Drive-By Truckers
25. Danko/Manual (live) -Jason Isbell
26. Decoration Day -Drive-By Truckers
27. The Devil is My Running Mate - Jason Isbell
28. Dirty Old Town -The Pogues
29. Don't Panic -Coldplay
30. Down in a Hole -Jason Isbell
31. Down on the Street -The Stooges
32. Dress Blues -Jason Isbell
33. End -Sister Machine Gun
34. End of Days (Part 2) -Ministry
35. Everloving -Moby
36. The Fall -Ministry
37. Fire -Patterson Hood
38. Frances Farmer -Patterson Hood
39. Glare -Die Warzau
40. The Good Soldier -Nine Inch Nails
41. Got to Be -Sister Machine Gun
42. The Great Destroyer (Acoustic Remix) -Nine Inch Nails
43. Grown -Jason Isbell
44. Heartattack in a Lay By -Porcupine Tree
45. Hell No I Ain't Happy -Drive-By Truckers
46. Hobo - Patterson Hood
47. Home Field Advantage -Drive-By Truckers
48. Hurricanes and Hand Grenades -Jason Isbell
49. I, Croupier -Amish Rake Fight
50. In a Razor Town -Jason Isbell
51. In the Waiting Line -Zero 7
52. Kiss the Dirt -INXS
53. Crocketts Theme -Jan Hammer
54. Just Another Day -Oingo Boingo
55. Lebanese Blonde - Thievery Corporation
56. Life is Beautiful -Sixx A.M.
57. Love Reign O'er Me -The Who
58. The Magician -Jason Isbell
59. Miss Me Gone -Patterson Hood
60. My Sweet Annette -Drive-By Truckers
61. Neighborhood Threat -Iggy Pop
62. Old Timers Disease -Patterson Hood
63. Original Bedroom Rockers -Kruder & Dorfmeister
64. Panic In Detroit (live 1979) -David Bowie
65. Parabol -Tool
66. Pay No Attention to Alice -Patterson Hood
67. Phil's Transplant -Patterson Hood
68. Please Don't Judas Me -Metallica (live acoustic)
69. Plowed -Sponge
70. Puttin' On the Dog -Tom Waits
71. Raining Blood -Slayer
72. Rains on Me -Tom Waits
73. Right Where It Belongs -Nine Inch Nails
74. Rising Son -Patterson Hood
75. Shotgun Wedding -Jason Isbell
76. Some weird Sin -Iggy Pop
77. (sombody's Got To) Give Pretty Soon -Drive-By Truckers
78. The Sound of Muzak -Porcupine Tree
79. Sour Girl -Stone Temple Pilots
80. Starting in the Belly of a Whale -Tom Waits
81. Sunday -David Bowie
82. Sunday (Moby remix)
83. Sunday Drive -Amish Rake Fight
84. Sunday Mornin Comin Down -Johnny cash
85. T.V. Eye -The stooges
86. Lifes What You Make It -Talk Talk
87. Ten Minute God -Sister Machine Gun
88. That Man I Shot -Drive-By Truckers
89. Through Glass -Stone Sour
90. Time: The Beginning -Megadeth
91. Tomorrow -Sixx A.M.
92. Kaleidoscope -NIL8
93. Just Because -Jane's Addiction
94. Hold On -Tom Waits
95. Extreme Ways -Moby
96. Wake Up Dead Man -U2
97. Trains -Porcupine Tree
98. Try -Jason Isbell
99. Uncle Disney
100. Vermilion Pt 2 -Slipknot
101. A Warm Place -Nine Inch Nails
102. Where the Devil Don't Stay -Drive By Truckers
103. Whisper -Jason Isbell
104. Worm -Ministry
105. Zero Sum

As you may note, I am REALLY into Jason Isbell and Patterson Hood's solo albums at work as of lately.

I never wrote a song using your beat, but always intended to. Awesome contributions sir...fair thee well

Best two hours you'll hear until they post another Tom show

I just got done reading the (semi) newly released Chris Connelly tell all. It's long-ish title "Concrete: Bulletproof, Invisible + Fried: My Life as a Revolting Cock" is quite apt.

Now, I know I've got some readers here who know exactly why this book is fucking awesome and exactly why I would be interested in it (derr....Gabe, Schmudde, Chuck, Jason, Adam, Jay etc etc etc...). Let me just say this to everyone else (those of you who clearly need to be enlightened in music that doesn't suck)- with the onslaught of tell-all bios from rockstars as of late, people such as myself have been entertained reading about all the excesses of Slash, Nikki Sixx, Eric Clapton and so on. All I have to say is that those guys ain't got shit on Al Jourgensen's court. Through Chris's eyes, he makes all those guys look like fucking chumps. And he does it right in Chicago, making the story that much more personal (my buddy Steve is always telling me about how Delilah's used to be The Crash Palace, where Al 'n co would hang out...now I have the specifics of what went on).

That said, I always knew Chris was a witty fellow (what with the gobs of stream of conscious lyrics). This book however, is so witty and so cleverly written the only thing I can think to compare it to is the Mixerman's Diary. His Scottish sense of humor is dripping off the pages which makes the stories all that much more vivid.

Basically, the book picks up with Chris plugging away in Fini Tribe circa 1985 or so and takes off with a chance meeting with Al in London which results in Chris going to Chicago and becoming a member of Rev Co for the next 7-8 years or so. We also hear about how Pigface got started, the ins and outs of touring on Mind is a Terrible Thing To Taste and the grandeur of Ministry's Psalm 69 tour. Chris paints Al like the raving yet-hard-working lunatic he probably actually was. The story drops off after 94 (Linger Fickin Good and the failed tour) or 95 and has some follow ups as to some of the early millennium Pigface reunions, Damage Manuel and Chris's opinions of what has become of Rev Co now.

I'll say this much, for the insane excesses and not-for-the-faint-of-heart activities that went on, Chris doesn't come off as preachy whatsoever. There's no "look how terrible we were" type things (Chris is a reformed family man nowadays). You feel like he looks back on the era as being a really good time, but that it's in the past.

Going into this, I THOUGHT I would be primarily interested in the Mind tour through Psalm 69 (or however those symbols are pronounced) because he DOES go into some details about how various songs came about, and how So What, Thieves and Jesus Built My Hotrod came along (apparently, Chris slaved away at actual lyrics and melodies for weeks and then Gibby Haynes came in all fucked up and babbled over it on a coke binge at like 6am and there ya go). There were plenty of other great antecdotes about the cast of characters (Al, Paul, Martin, Phildo, Bill, Tucker - the latter of which committed suicide in 1999 and that clearly was a big blow to everyone involved). However, I think my favorite part of the book was the early stuff. Reading about what it was like before Wax Trax had any money, and how everyone was broke and trying to make it. Chris spends a lot of time on this.

Run don't walk yer ass over to Amazon and buy this. Even if you don't know the music or the characters, the vivid images of touring in a semi-successful band in the mid 80's and a huge band in the 90's is utterly hilarious. I especially appreciate the logistics that go into carting the Cocks around the US (need for drugs, strippers and hair gel is punctuated all over the place).

So after waiting around for 3 years threatening all of us with 'Supergangbang' (which I suppose has become the Chinese Democracy of Chicago Industrial Rock), Die Warzau has dropped Vinyl 88. It's more or less a greatest hits album with a twist: everything is remixed and there are six new tracks (2 of which everyone who would give a shit has heard at this point).

I've given the album a few runs through, and like all DW albums (except for MAYBE Convenience), I'll probably have a much better respect for this album after hearing it a ton of times on different stereos and different settings. So that said, take these as my initial thoughts. Your results may vary.

Some of the older songs that had that signature Jim Marcus 'noise over the sake of taste'thing he ruined Sister Machine Gun's Torture Technique with have been fixed (for the most part). Particularly, the cuts from Engine sound really good here. All Good Girls has a much more palpable mix, with the vocals really far in the front and rely much more on the merits of Marcus's more-than-able vocal chords than a bunch of fake sounding verbs 'n choruses. That happens in a lot of places on the older cuts (the Land of the Free mix is awesome for example). Coming Down and Funkapolis sound much more, I dunno, modern? It's a good thing for sure.

All of the songs have these musical interludes between them so if you listen straight through, the album sounds like one cohesive work. In some parts that is really cool, like the transition from Born Again to All Good Girls with its Bowie-Berlin-Trilogy-Esque synths. Other times it's pure shit like the Coming Down to Kleen one (which btw, on itunes, these songs are swapped...typical Die Warzau scatter-brainness).

All in all, despite the eclectic reputation Die Warzau has, this is about as straight ahead of a dance record as anything I've heard from them. A lot of the weird new directions explored on Engine and Convenience are in tact, but with a much more dancy filter.

As for the new cuts (not including Insect or Born Again, both of those are killer). They sound like filler except for Hitler's Brain. It has George Clinton (yes that George Clinton) doing this spoken word shit with a huge chorus from Jim Marcus. All in all that's a track that will be a staple at Neo I'm quite certain.

I wanted to write this review talking about how this is a great launching point for people who aren't really into Die Warzau yet. Unfortunately, that's not really what you get here. It's basically six new tracks with old ones thrown in and remixed to sound like new tracks. It'd be like if Trent Reznor took songs from Pretty Hate Machine and remixed them with the tools he had to make Year Zero with. In 2007.

My gut feeling here is that Die Warzau bit off more than they could chew with the Supergangbang project. Like maybe they weren't REALLY all that into making new music. Or maybe their day jobs got in the way (Jim is a typographer by day now and I think Van is an engineer at CRC or something). So rather than just quit altogether, they rushed this out the door in order to get the songs they wrote committed to record. It's not a bad record persay, but a 'greatest hits' package from a band that seems to hate everything that is capitalism screams "we're out of money and ideas".

Honestly, this one doesn't have me flipping out as much as I hoped it would. Maybe a few more spins will change my opinion. It's here and on itunes if you're so inclined.