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I received the new albums by both of Scott McCaughey's bands early (this was one case where pre-order actually worked out, unlike with John Linnell's State Songs, which arrived the Saturday AFTER the release date), and I think they're both really cool. But really, did you expect otherwise? You can find a slightly more detailed review at my own journal.
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Weird
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Jul. 3rd, 2006 @ 02:40 pm
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I bought This One's For The Ladies on Ebay ... didn't have it yet.
Just got it. The cover says TOFTL, the CD says it's TOFTL
When I put it on, it's Totally Lost. Which is cool since I don't have that one either (well, I do now) but ... weird ... |
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This article was in my local paper, the Daily Local News. I thought you might be interested in reading it. Apparently there's "talk of making a new Fellows CD," if the article is to be believed.
( Read more... )Current Music: Hypnotic Clambake: Trouble |
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Last night, I finally saw the Minus 5 live. It was a great show. If you're interested in reading my review, you can see it here.Current Music: Rasputina: Stumpside |
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You can read my review of the new Minus 5 album (as well as the new Belle and Sebastian album) here. I like it quite a bit, although I have to say that a lot of the subject matter is pretty depressing.Current Music: Belle and Sebastian: To Be Myself Completely |
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And it is AWESOME.Current Music: The Minus 5 - (The Gun Album) |
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(Originally posted at the Universal Trendsetter forums.)
So, last night -- there aren't too many nights where you can say you've seen the Worst Funk Band In The World play for 2 hours straight. But those nights? Those are the best nights.
The first act was LLama, Rusty Willoughby's new band -- I actually dug them quite a bit, despite not really being into Flop. They got a new record out on Book -- I'm thinking I should have picked it up the previous night at the Dial-A-Fight, but whatchagonnado. After that were Girl Trouble, and I have to say I wasn't a fan. But the kids seemed to like them.
But THEN. The FELLOWS. Tad didn't have his wok, but he did have a pipe! And the Caramel obsession from the last night had carried over to hilarious results (Scott falling over and rolling on the floor laughing at Tad; later, Scott asking "Does this even HAVE a punchline?" "NOOOOOO PUNCHLINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" "Really, 'cause I need some sort of payoff for this." "Nopeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee").
They opened with a bit of a jam session that went into the most perfect Rock song in the world -- "Rock 'n' Roll Pest Control". And it just got better from there. It's the next night, so I don't remember the complete setlist, but it was great. Some highlights:
1) Most importantly: TWO NEW FELLOWS SONGS. Perhaps that means (coupled with the recent news about the song on the children's comp. thing) that a new Fellows Album is in the works? That would make me the happiest boy in the whole USA. Anyway, the new songs: "Cemetary & Restaurant", which according to Scott was about a guy he knew who claimed to have a cemetery, bar and Mexican Restaurant. (I'm not sure if that's, like, a combined one, where you can go to mourn the loss of your loved one, then go get blasted and eat chimichangas. You wouldn't think that'd be very sanitary, but hey.) The other one was "The Least-Talented Man In Showbiz", which according to Scott was about him, the lead singer, principle arteest and guiding light of the Young Fresh Fellows. The vocal mix wasn't very good (ALL the bands had this problem -- the only time you could really hear the vocals was when the dude in Girl Trouble grabbed his mic and the guitarist's mic and shouted into both of them), which is fine for the songs I knew (since I basically know them by heart and was shouting along), but for the new songs, not so much, so I don't remember much besides the titles of the songs, lyrically. But rest assured, they're both really, really good (though "Least-Talented" could have been a bit more of a Minus 5 song at least in the one time I'd heard it -- not like there's much difference, though)
2. The various covers they did: "Tobacco Road" (joke -- they did the same bit they did at the Tribute show last year), "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonite" (which completely floors me every time they do it -- I know it's on a record, but still, it's one of my all-time favorite pop-songs ever, and it seems that not a lot of people actually KNOW that one anymore), "Radio Radio" (AWESOME), a couple of Sonics songs -- "Head On Backwards" and "Have Love, Will Travel" (Yeah, I know that's technically a song the Sonics covered, but, you know, it's still a Sonics song), a little bit of "Smoke On The Water" (about the first verse's worth, where Scott was playing a little bit with the lyrics, getting kinda choked up about the flaregun at the Mothers' show), and the hilarious thing at the end of the show where on the final solo, Kurt starts playing one note over and over, confers with Tad a little bit, and Kurt and Tad start playing "Born to be Wild" by Steppenwolf, which cracks Jim completely up, and Scott starts laughing too, and they do the entire song (as it is a pretty cool song). It was awesome.
3. A little bit of a Reprise of Jimmy Silva Night, with "Hang Out Right", the song from last night I forgot that starts with the line about Christ in a Dress, and "When The Girls Get Here".
4. The sheer amount of FUN they were having -- that's what makes the Fellows pretty much the best Live band I've seen; it's clear the four of them are, like, best friends, and they're just up there to screw around and have fun. And that really shows. It also helps that they're all completely AWESOME musicians.
5. Everyone shouting along on "Your Truth, Our Lies", which I've always really dug. I've always thought it cool that it's one of the few political Fellows songs, and while it's actually really pretty much spot-on and upfront, they present it as a parody of a punk band, so it works on both levels, as a straight punk-protest song about the political situation here in the US AND as a put-on. It's basically "ha ha, only serious", and I just LOVE that stuff.
6. Rusty Willoughby pouring a beer through Tad's pipe. It was all like Popeye.
7. Just the sheer number of great songs they played. Granted, their entire catalog is basically full of great songs, and even in two hours they can't play ALL their best, but, MAN that was so good. "Beer Money" (which is kind of funny that that was their second song -- a guy at work and I were talking about the Fellows before I left, as I mentioned I was seeing them that night, and we just started talking and he mentioned that he loved that song, so... yeah), "I Got My Mojo Workin' And I Thought You'd Like To Know", "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah", "Sittin' on a Pitchfork", pretty much allaem.
8. Scott actually brought Merch this time: a bunch of copies of Upson Downs/Beans & Tolerance/Wonderfully Simple...Simply Wonderful (I'd scan my copy, but there's nothing TO scan -- it's a white paperboard sleeve, like those for promo dance singles, a plain white inner-sleeve, and then the "label" is etched in -- the main face of it says "3 Young French Fellows 3" with "Wonderfully Simple...." on it, and the reverse has a drawing of the little triangle guy that Tad draws a lot in the band section and "...Simply Wonderful" beneath it. The other titles all come from etchings in the run-out grooves if you were wondering. "Upson"/"Downs", "Beans and"/"Tolerance".), a bunch of copies of the LP version of "My Chartruese Opinion" for $1 each, and GASP: one (1) copy of the Hits From The Breakup Album Box Set for _TEN DOLLARS_. Unfortunately, one of the guys in the backstage area ran up, grabbed it, and ran back to give 10 bucks to Scott as soon as the show was over. I wish I'd thought of that. But I DID get the Bootleg Album, so that's awesome. (I would have got Scott's solo LP, but I've got it on both LP AND CD, so.... If you don't have it, though, I recommend it so very highly. It's a bit more on the Fellows side than the Minus 5 side, though.)
Anyway, though, I know this is sorta scattershot, and I'm sure other folks will have better reviews, and I might even myself later, but that's what I gotsta say about The Young Fresh Fellows' Rockstravaganza. |
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Here are some pictures from last night's (err, actually ended less than two hours ago though) Young Fresh Fellows show. Keep in mind that these are fairly low resolution (taken from my cell phone) and I basically took them by holding my phone above my head (and the crowd). The show was really awesome though! I hope there's more to come from the Fellows soon...
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Fellows show.
Two hours.
Two new songs.
Too awesome.
More later.
(New songs: "Cemetery and Restaurant" and "The Least-Talented Man In Showbiz") |
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(Crossposted at the Universal Trendsetter forums)
I went to the Book Records Dial-A-Fight last night and it was pretty awesome. I ended up having to leave early (I go to work early in the morning, so...), but I DID get to see the Fellows. It was a real short set, about 15 minutes (after all, there were like 80 zillion bands), and right after the Chris & Tad show (which I came a little late to -- didn't realize they were STARTING at 9pm, though it was doors at 9...), which was pretty loose, fun, and awesome.
John Ramberg was playing with the Fellows that night -- which makes me wonder if he'll be there tonight, too?
THe songs, from memory:
Fair Exchange
Kate Of The Human Race
(I think I'm forgetting one here)
Telephone Tree
Partytown USA
I'm pretty sure all the songs were Jimmy Silva songs, as Scott kept saying "Jimmy Silva" (that was the bulk of the banter, really), and the two released songs were written by (in the case of Telephone Tree) and/or co-written (Partytown USA) by Silva and Scott.
The songs were all really good (Especially partial to Kate Of The Human Race, which I hadn't heard before), and you should have seen the way the crowd EXPLODED when they went into "Telephone Tree".
Someone else who was there might be able to better remember the set-list, but yeah -- it was an aweome, but short, set -- a great appetizer for tonight's main event.Current Music: James Kochalka Superstar - AmericanElf.com - 31 Pushups |
| » Shows Reminder! |
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Just wanted to remind everyone in Seattle that there's a Fellows Show tonight! (The Book Records Dial-A-Fight). Plus, there's a Fellows show TOMORROW night as well! (Tickets are available on Ticketweb or at the door. Although, I just ordered three tickets through ticketweb, and it ended up being 75 cents cheaper than had we just got them at the door -- so keep that in mind!)
Also, according to Universal Trendsetter, the YFF are contributing a track to a kids-rock comp! Along with Sgt. Major! Neato-torpedo!
So, yeah -- hopefully I'll see you there tonight and tomorrow night!
Dec. 29th, 2005 @ 07:12 pm
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| » A Promise Or A Threat Fulfilled |
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As I mentioned a little while ago, I was planning on putting together a Minus 5 newbie guide like I did for the Fellows, so here it is!. This one needs a little bit more help, though -- I don't have Old Liquidator, the Hello EP or the "A Thousand Years Away" single, so those ones are basically placeholder pages. (I'm also not too into The Lonesome Death Of Buck McCoy, so feel free to argue with me on that record... or any of them!) Anyway, though, yeah -- just wanted to mention that! Check it out and make it better! Hooray!
Dec. 25th, 2005 @ 01:15 pm
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| » Couple Of Updates! |
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First -- I've fixed the link pane at the side -- I fixed the Frontier Records Catalogue link, and (for the time being) removed the PopLlama Catalogue link, as it's currently dead (and, um, looks like it has been for a while -- sorry!).
One other thing that I added: This weekend I worked on writing up an album-by-album guide to the Young Fresh Fellows albums. It's sort of directed more at a neo-phyte who's wondering where to start out on the long, awesome road to Fellows-Fandom. The cool thing with this, though is that anyone can edit it and add a review. I've just started by putting in reviews from me (which is why some of the split singles are all "Uh, I don't have this..." -- it's basically just a placeholder for someone who DOES have it to talk about how it is either awesome or not awesome.
Anyway -- to add a review to one of these pages:
First, get yourself a login, here. Then, go to whichever album page you want to edit, click "Edit" at the top, and then below the last review, type "-------" (which will start a horizontal rule), type in your review (feel SO FREE to completely argue with any of the other reviews; my stuff is NOT gold or the Way It Is or whatever, so, like, if you think It's Low Beat Time is the best record in the history of ever, SAY SO!), and then, when you're done, type "- ~~~", which will sign the review automagically, so you don't need to worry about getting the link right or even bothering to type out your name.
So, yeah -- check that out!
I've also done a review for the Sgt. Major record. I'm probably going to set-up a Minus 5 record guide as well (though I might need help with that one -- I still don't have Old Liquidator), and a Fastbacks one as well.
(Speaking of which, since there's a lot of other artists on here, let me know if you'd like to see other Guide-To-Artists Up Here, too. Right now the only other extant one is for The Residents. So, yeah -- feel free to suggest guides, or if you'd like to start a guide, let me know, and I can help out with the setting up of that. Or whatever! Just feel free to explore the whole Your Subculture Soundtrack wiki, why don't you?)
And, as a reminder -- remember! End of the month? TWO! Count them TWO! Young Fresh Fellows Shows in TWO DAYS. How about that, huh?
Dec. 18th, 2005 @ 08:01 am
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| » AWESOME! |
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The Ultra-Awesome Universal Trendsetter site has added the fourth and hopefully-not-final-but-for-now-it-is Young Fresh Fellows video, Skizz P. Cyzyk's "Barky's Spiritual Store"! So, go, check it out! It's pretty rad.
Dec. 15th, 2005 @ 08:45 pm
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| » FELLOWS SHOWS! FELLOWS SHOWS! AWWOOOGAA |
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Just checked the Sgt. Major site! And this is a direct copy-paste:
UPCOMING SHOWS:
Saturday, December 10th: Sunset (Seattle) Peter Ramberg's Birthday Bash... perhaps a reprisal of some of the WHO night, as well...
Saturday, December 17th: Sunset (Seattle) Led Zeppelin "Physical Graffitti" tribute night
Thursday, December 29th: Sunset (Seattle) Book Records Dial-A-Fight! click here
9pm (yes, 9pm!)
Once For Kicks
Sgt. Major
Huge Spacebird
The Doll Test
Llama (Rusty Willoughby's new band - new CD out on this day!)
TV's Chris And Tad
Paul Lynde Fan Club
7 Screaming Dizbusters
Young Fresh Fellows
The Four Knifes
Friday, December 30th: Tractor (Seattle) YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS etc. (not Sgt. Major but just a reminder!)
So, you know, guess where I'll be those nights.
Dec. 9th, 2005 @ 07:08 am
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| » New Minus 5 Tracklisting! |
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The Universal Trendsetter.org site (which you should be checking everyday anyway) just posted the new track listing for the upcoming self-titled Minus 5 record (a/k/a "The Gun Album") So check it out! It's gonna be pretty awesome.
(Also, check out the Fellows entry at Your Subculture Soundtrack.... it's still really anemic, but anyone can edit it and add to it, and I also put in all the records/singles and EPs, so feel free to do reviews of those, too! And check out the related bands' entries while you're at it, too!
Nov. 30th, 2005 @ 01:18 pm
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| » baby fan |
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I'm going to bet I am an uncharacteristically young YFF fan, especially for someone who doesn't live in or around Seattle. (My permanent residence is Fresno, CA now, by the way) The fact is, I was born in Seattle and have been listening to YFF since the womb, certainly. My childhood is filled with memories of long car rides with Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest (which will always be my favorite) in the tapedeck and cleaning the house on Sundays while "Beer Money" poured out of the speakers.
Apparently on one of their tours, they were supposed to play in Fresno and the were going to crash at our house. Unfortunately, it fell through and that never happened, too bad, would have been a better story that way!!
Anywho, there's not really a point to this, except to say that I <3 the YFF.
Nov. 13th, 2005 @ 05:04 pm
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| » Sgt. Major and a Project! |
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Just a couple of things:
- The Sgt. Major Who Night was awesome! Played a lot of really great songs and cool people; Scott from the Doll Test, Roy Loney from the Flaming Groovies, Johnny Sangster, John Ramberg and a few others! Lots of my favorite songs, too, like "Tattoo", "Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand" and "Boris the Spider" (sung by Jim!) They've got another show coming up next friday that's a normal show, so I'll be there to check that out too! It's at the Sunset again, too, so be there or don't be there!
- I've been working on stuff over at Your Subculture Soundtrack, a music-based Wiki (sorta like WikiPedia if you're not familiar with Wikis). My main idea for it is to host a Mixtape Wiki, where there're all sorts of Mixtapes from people all cross-indexed by song-notes and everything, so you can basically see notes on various songs from all different people, so you get different facts and different opinions on songs. Which is cool, and there's a bunch of Fellows songs in there because, well, I make a lot of mix CDs and I tend to include a lot of Fellows/Fastbacks/Sgt. Major/etc. tracks on said mix CDs. And, also, each one is separated by song title and artist -- and, as such each artist gets a page. Which is where y'all might come in. I've been working on a lot of artist pages, and it really pains me to say it, but the Young Fresh Fellows entry? It's pretty pathetic. (Granted, it's better than Wikipedia's entry which is, oh yeah, non-existent.) So, basically, if anyone wants to:
a) Enter mix CDs! It's fun and easy and this thing'll only be really, truly cool if there's a lot of people doing it!
and
b) Feel free to add and edit artists biographies and make them less pathetic! Or album reviews! Or whatever!
So, yeah. I just thought I'd share this since I've been working on expanding this site for a while (I'm not the founder, but I do have admin rights there, which is neato-torpedo!), and it's getting much, much closer to being ready for prime time! And, hey, accounts are free, and it's really easy to set up an account (which'll also work across any wikicities wiki, so, hey!) Anyway, wikis are fun, and I just wanted to let y'all know about this. Spread it around -- this stuff is only cool if we get lots of contributors and whatnot!
Oct. 30th, 2005 @ 08:54 pm
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| » Quick Concert Review |
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Tonight was the Minus 5 show. Well, the quick concert review is that it was just incredibly awesome. So very, very rockin'. Also, I nabbed a copy of the setlist, and got it signed by John Ramberg, Peter Buck and Scott! This was really awesome! (I tried to get Bill to sign, too, but I think he left a little earlier.)
( the setlist )
As you can probably tell from the setlist, it was a really long set -- about an hour, hour 15 minutes. And so very good. "Aw Shit Man" was such an awesome rave-up to start the show, and Ghost Tarts is such a great one to go into next. Scott mentioned they hadn't played 1000 Years in a while, but it was really cool. And, well, "Retrieval of You" (along with "Got You") is one of my two favorite Minus 5 songs, so, yeah. I think "Creep" might be the song that was the Brand New One they recorded today with the Steinway Grand Piano (though this version was on the "beautiful sound of electric guitars" -- speaking of which, Scott was playing the "A Bag Of Poop" guitar from the "Still There's Hope" video!); I really liked this one quite a bit, and it was rather pretty. I'd like to hear the Steinway version -- well, I'm sure I will since it'd probably be on the new record, but, well, you know. (Basically, the more I hear of the new stuff, the more I am anticipating the new record. I really liked the steinway piano one, and I've always loved "Cigarettes, Coffee & Booze", and "On The Maroon" is another New Favorite -- and, well, pretty much all of the new ones I've dug, but those ones especially.)
I really like the Live Minus 5 sound -- it's a really energetic, rockin' version -- even on songs that, on the albums, are a bit more slow. But yeah -- lots of stuff from Down With Wilco and In Rock. And, well, they basically tore the roof off with their version of "Strychnine". I've been really digging that song recently but that was pretty much the best version I've ever heard. WOW. Wow. Wow.
Anyway, afterward, I got to meet 3/4s of the band! John Ramberg was really nice and signed my setlist as "Keep On Chooslin!". I'm not quite sure what that means, but it's still pretty cool. Peter Buck just signed mine, and then I got to talk to Scott! It was during the Makers' set (who were really good, actually -- the first song or two, I didn't quite Get It, but then it clicked, and I was digging them), so at first we didn't get to talk too much (I told him it was a great set, he said he had loads of fun; he said he really dug the Makers and I concurred, and then he complimented me on my Shonen Knife shirt), but then he went out a bit more, and I followed and John sorta pointed him in my direction and I asked him to sign it; and we talked a bit. I told him about this community, and he said he'd check it out! I only made a little bit of a fool of myself this time:
Me: Oh, I do the Electric Bird Digest site!
Scott: Electric Bird Digest?
Me: You know, like the Fellows record!
Scott: Heh, well, I know the Fellows record, I just meant I hadn't heard of the site!
Which was kind of funny..8) Anyway, though, we talked a bit about Universal Trendsetter and ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) stoffel79, since we both knew him (though Scott knows him in person and I just know through LJ and email), and I mentioned that I was the one who encoded the YFF videos that he just put up. Anyway, though, then we went back to the Makers' show, and that was that! Anyway, though, wow, that was really great, and I'm about to crash so anyway, I just wanted to get that down before I went to sleep. Which will be in 10...9...8...
Aug. 21st, 2005 @ 02:10 am
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| » YFF Music Videos Now Online! |
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Just wanted to give folks a heads-up! I encoded the Young Fresh Fellows videos from the copy of Frontier Records Picture Book that aila76 bought, and stoffel79 put them up on The Universal Trendsetter! So, yes! Check them totally out! The three songs are "YFF Update Theme" (from Refreshments), "Picture Book" and "Still There's Hope" (both from This One's For The Ladies). I think my favorite is "Picture Book", but "Still There's Hope" does unlock the mystery of A Bag Of Poop. (And the Update Theme does have the Fellows watching TV outside, which is awesome.)
(And in case you were wondering? The rest of the tape -- it's... not so great; I liked the song "Jetfighter" by The Three O'Clock, and the video was sort of amusingly bad; I actually kind of liked "I Had A Dream" by the Long Ryders, but no one else did, and the video was all Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, the "Dear Friend" by Flying Color video was directed by Jay from Too Much Joy and you can really tell, and the rest of the videos and songs weren't really very good. But the Fellows videos are all easily the best ones on the tape -- even just as videos, overlooking the fact that the songs are excellent. And, if you're interested, the Update Theme was directed by Tim Sexton, and the other two were by Doug Pray, who did Hype!)
Aug. 20th, 2005 @ 01:43 am
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yff