Posted on May 6th, 2008 by Josh Hathaway
All right, we rebound from our brief nostalgia trip and get back to what I’d intended to talk about earlier this morning.
I started today talking about Nine Inch Nails’ instrumental release Ghosts I-IV. Ghosts is the first NIN I ever bought and I bought it because A) it was instrumental and B) I loved the distribution method Trent employed in getting it out there to fans.
If you thought Ghosts was a cool idea for distribution, wait until you see what Trent is doing with his new album The Slip. Two words, boys and girls: fo’ free. That’s right, Trent is giving away his new record. You can download it. Now. Free. Legal. Free. Okay, so I think we all agree it’s pretty fucking cool of him to do this. Better yet is his reason for doing it. “”Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years,” Reznor said in a statement to fans. “This one’s on me.” I love that. “This one’s on me.” That’s impossibly cool. If Trent isn’t careful, he’s going to make me a full-fledged fan. I guess Adam Duritz isn’t the only one who understands how great the internet is for music. Don’t bet against Counting Crows doing something like this should they ever find themselves fully free of their record contract.
Two good friends of the site — Tom Johnson and Dawn Olsen — have written about this. I have to give a big tip o’ the cap to Tom because I read it on his site first and proceeded to out and download the record directly thereafter. Dawn gets mad props, too, because she rules and I’m somewhat afraid of her.
Seriously, though, take Trent up on his offer and download the new record. I’m listening to it now for the first time, and I think I really like it.
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Posted on May 6th, 2008 by Josh Hathaway
Among the odd jobs I held in college was working for an answering service, 3rd shift, weekends. I used to wake tow truck drivers up in the dead of night to get them to go rescue stranded motorists or — and this actually happened more often — impound vehicles of suspected drunk drivers. There were some doctors who were clients, including brain surgeons. Something about an irresponsible college student making dick being responsible for getting message to brain surgeons bothered me.
Anyway, I had this job back around ‘99-00, which means in the pre-iPod days. I didn’t have a laptop and they didn’t have free wi-fi. I had to just… sit there… and wait in case the phone rang. Sometimes my girlfriend — now TheWifeToWhomI’mMarried — would call and keep me company for stretches of the night. Sometimes I’d bring school work, but reading only made me more tired than I already was at 3 or 4 in the morning. Mostly what I did was listen to an alternative rock radio station out of Birmingham and pace the room, trying to stay awake. Read more »
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Posted on May 6th, 2008 by Josh Hathaway
Magic Junk mad scientist Mark Sahm might be on to something here! A few weeks ago, Mark re-considered and re-compiled Nine Inch Nails’ instrumental record Ghosts I-IV into two separate soundtracks to an imaginary movie (best you let him explain it to you). What he did — and it’s brilliant — is spend enough time with it to re-imagine the music as something else. The album, as delivered, is a four-volume set of nine instrumental tracks each. Mark has taken those 36 tracks and created a 17-song playlist and a 19-song playlist and made them cohesive in a different way. This is all the cool in the world.
If you bought the record, you should give Sahm’s soundtracks a spin. If you didn’t, you can download it legally for $5. That’s 36 songs for $5. It’s really a bargain at twice the price. Check it out and listen to Trent’s sequence and then give Sahm’s sequences a whirl. I’m enjoying this album in a whole new way today.
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Posted on May 5th, 2008 by Josh Hathaway
It’s now finally close enough that I can begin the countdown to my interview with Glen Phillips on the B-Sides Concept Album this Thursday. So… if it’s a countdown, why am I starting with Day 1 and working my way up? Great question. The whole concept of whether to count today and the day of has always escaped my grasp a little bit. It’s Monday night. Is Thursday night four days away or is it three? I know it’s counterintuitive to start a countdown by having the days go up instead of down, but I’m counterintuitive so it all makes sense. The important thing: I’m talking to Glen on Thursday and you’re all invited to listen in.
Tonight’s work has centered around two songs: “Duck and Cover” from Glen’s solo record Winter Pays for Summer and “Silo Lullaby,” which is a Toad the Wet Sprocket rarity of sorts. Both are great, great songs and have me buzzing for Sunday.
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Posted on May 4th, 2008 by Josh Hathaway
I guess I never got the memo. It must be Depressing Boston Music Day today because the only songs that seem to make sense to me at the moment are The Lemonheads and Pernice Brothers. I wonder why that is.
Maybe it’s because I’m at work on a sunny Sunday morning. Maybe it’s because I’m at work, secure in the knowledge that I’d be bored out of my ass if I’d just stayed home instead. Read more »
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Posted on May 3rd, 2008 by Josh Hathaway
With the rescheduled show in Ft. Lauderdale, the band has now made good on all dates scheduled for the spring US leg of their Magic Tour. It’s been one hell of a run as new songs were debuted along the way and new songs were played in the opening spot. It also turned out to be an historic run for the band. They played the last show they’ll ever play with founding member Dan Federici when he showed up for a few numbers in Indianapolis. Before the leg was over, they’d say goodbye to their dear friend after he lost his battle with cancer.
The band will begin a stretch of European dates on May 22 in Dublin. Here’s the full Ft. Lauderdale setlist: Read more »
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Posted on May 3rd, 2008 by Josh Hathaway
This is a really good Saturday night record. Of course, by Saturday night record I don’t mean Saturday nights like the one I’m having. I’m sitting in my living room, alone, behind my MacBook Pro working on a music review and sipping Coca-Colas as my three cats crawl all over the small stack of CDs and notes I have spread across the ottoman next to me. This is a great record for that, but it wasn’t what I meant when I said this is a good Saturday night record.
What makes this good for a Saturday night is it’s great blend of rockers, jams, and mellow moments. It’s not a street racing record but it’s a good soundtrack for cruising. The slow numbers are good for sipping a drink by yourself while the rockers would go down nicely with a beer or among friends. It’s a Tom Petty record which means it may not ever be “in,” but it’s never completely “out.” Cats like it, too.
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Posted on May 3rd, 2008 by Josh Hathaway
There’s some music that makes you feel dumber after you’ve listened to it. I’m not sure if that’s better than music that doesn’t make you feel anything, but neither kind is a good thing. There’s also music that makes you feel smarter for listening to it. Peter Karp’s Shadows & Cracks is one of those records for me and that’s one reason it topped my Best of 2007 list. Now I’ve gotten word that Peter is playing in Birmingham on Monday night. I’m so there.
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Posted on May 2nd, 2008 by Josh Hathaway
I’m told it’s everything a man could want and I shouldn’t complain
The caffeine has failed me. I’m in a stupor. I’m in a daze. Fuuuuuuuck.
I’ve been productive at work but we’re fast approaching that threshold of diminishing returns. I’m now doing everything twice because the first attempt is undermined by my barely alert, robotic state of mind. As soon as I finish a task I realize I don’t really remember having started it so I go back and do it again, this time with my eyes fuckin’ open. They’d be better off paying me to go home right now, but that’s not going to happen so I’m stuck to fight through it. I’ve got the heart of a fuckin’ champion, people. Never doubt my ass. Read more »
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Posted on May 2nd, 2008 by Josh Hathaway
I never had any doubt but I have become that guy. Yet another set list that wasn’t as cool as what we got in Atlanta. “For You” was a nice inclusion here tonight as was “Adam Raised a Cain,” but there’s nothing here that makes me prefer this show to my own. I love both songs — particularly “Adam” — but Atlanta is looking very, very good to me. Read more »
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