Love Monkey Blows

This is a great editorial about some of the many things that's wrong with the new CBS mid-season replacement show Love Monkey. Many of my complaints are encapsulated in this article, but I'll add a few more:
1) There's no way that a married man would complain about having an attractive nanny. If anything, it's his wife who would have a problem with it.
2) The fact that "unhip" Sony/BMG artists like Billy Joel, Air Supply and Starship get dissed. I'm just amazed that Sony/BMG lets CBS get away with this shit.
3) Then again, I could devise a drinking game for every time there's a desperate namedrop or for that matter, for every time Teddy Geiger comes on the screen.

For another anti-Love Monkey rant, click here.

And finally, for even more fun, click here.

The Haze

This is an awesome interview with Tom Hazelmeyer, the proprietor of Amphetamine Reptile (Am Rep for short) records, who released Helmet's 1st album and singles as well as underground favorites Halo of Flies, The Cows, Lubricated Goat, The Melvins and many others. More recently, they've reissued the Australian (not the also great and much more well-known LA band) X's Aspirations, which I recommend heartily. Thanks for the link, mykel.

I Will Follow You Into the Dark

I went to see Ben Gibbard play a solo show at Bowery Ballroom last Tuesday. He had two other frontmen open for him. The first was Andrew Kenny of the recently departed American Analog Set, who I missed, and the second was Matthew Caws of Nada Surf, who was excellent. I'd never heard any of Nada Surf's tunes besides "Popular" (their 1996 MTV and alternative radio hit) but now I think I'll have to check them out. Anyway, Gibbard came on and played a mix of new and old Death Cab for Cutie songs as well as some cool covers. My full review is here.

Before the show, me and my friend Sara went to Pho Grand, a phenomenal Vietnamese restaurant. I had the spring rolls and a phenomenal cubed beef dish with vegetable fried rice. I can't wait to go back!

Oh and I took the above picture from Stereogum. His review of the show is here.

PREVIOUSLY: My review of Death Cab for Cutie with The Decemberists and Stars at Central Park Summerstage in August.

Oh You're So Silent Jens

I've been listening to Jens Lekman a lot lately. I put his singles collection Oh You're So Silent Jens on my Top 10 list for 2005 despite the fact that it consists of previously released material (I'd never heard any of it before, so there). I was worried that as of a month ago, it seemed like he was thinking about retiring from music or at least taking a long sabbatical. This article added to my worries. However, my fears have been quelched at least somewhat by his recent diary entries and hopefully when he's ready he'll come back here since I missed his previous New York shows. Apparently, although he's a superstar in his native Sweden, he still can't get arrested here. What a travesty. Hopefully that'll change soon (or at least enough for him to come back here at some point).

Here's an interview that he did with NPR recently.

Shift-Work

I meant to post this earlier, but here's a terrific article from The Guardian about one man's quest to find everyone who's ever played in The Fall. Despite Mark E. Smith's lack of concern for his fellow bandmates (it appears that leaving them stranded at airports and bus stops is his modus operandi for giving them their pink slips), they're still one of my favorite bands of all time, and as Bill pointed out, the band that possesses perhaps the deepest and most exhaustive catalog of anyone in the last 30 years. It's definitely a case of "trust the art, not the artist", but to be honest his restless nature is part of The Fall's appeal and one of the reasons that their music has always seemed so fresh and never boring year after year.

I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One

Me and Anne went to go see 2 nights of Yo La Tengo's 8 nights of Hanukkah at Maxwells recently. My review of the 1st show can be found here and the review of the New Years Eve show will be up shortly. Both shows were excellent, but between the two of them I preferred the first one since Eugene Mirman was the featured comedian and because the sound was excellent, unlike the New Years Eve show.

ADDENDUM: As promised earlier, my review of the New Years Eve show is up here.