Paper Writing Break

I'm currently in the midst of writing THE LONGEST PAPER OF MY CAREER. Oh wait. EXCEPT ONE!! Anyway, I'm taking a break from writing this paper, to post a couple cool links, sadly no music (though maybe I'll come back and fix that)

Tiny little houses, tiny little carbon feetprints

Like an Infinity Pool, but for fish

The Fenway Park Webcam - They are currently building the rink for the Winter Classic, where the Boston Bruins will play the Philadelphia Flyers outdoors at Fenway Park. The webcam allows you to watch the progress sort of live.

Random Stuff From the Web II

Forgetters - A while back I was very excited about a new project from Jawbreaker's Blake Schwarzenbach. That band broke up without releasing an album. But now he's in another band with the original drummer from Against Me! and we are excited about this. They have a blog which I follow and if you like this you could as well. Also apparently Blake's not too solid on how this song begins.



Sea Shepherd gets the most badass boat in the history of ever - the blog Green Is The New Red had this article about a boat that the Sea Shepherd just got. It's essentially an aquatic batmobil. That's all I can say without quoting the article which is worth reading in its not-too-long entirety.

Jawbreaker - Shield Your Eyes ( the Bivouac version)

The Sidekicks - Go! Go! Go! Green! Green! Green! (Turns out finding songs to do with that second story was a lot harder than I predicted)

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Jawbreaker
The Sidekicks

Random Stuff From the Web (with only mildly related mp3's)

The Electronic Book Burning - an essay on how the increased digitalization of books, whether it be via google books or the electronic reading device which I shall not name here, is having a negative effect on bookstores and the culture of books.

Perils of Positive Thinking - taken from here, it is an interview with author Barbara Ehrenreich where she talks about her book "Bright-Sided"


Stand By Me - many people may remember the video that made the rounds a couple months ago of numerous people across the globe playing together in a cover of this song. This isn't it. This is Lemmy Kilmister, lead singer and bassist of MOTORHEAD along with the drummer from Slayer. If someone feels like making an mp3 out of this let me know because I'd love it, but I'm to lazy to do the necessary work.

NOTE: If you enjoy seeing blog entries that are links to cool things someone has found on the internet, Sean Bonner does it pretty frequently and better than I (though with less mp3 goodness).

Turn the TV Off And Read A Book Please - Deny Everything (Electronic Book Burning)
American Errorist (I hate hate haters) - NOFX (Perils of Positive Thinking)
Train in Vain (Stand By Me) - The Clash (This one's pretty obvious isn't it?)

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Deny Everything
NOFX
The Clash

Race Day!!!!! Recap a.k.a. Keegan's Gloatfest

Just to follow up on the last posting, this Breeder's Cup may have been my most successful day of watching horse racing ever. Of the 14 races this weekend, I picked 4 winners. They were: Man of Iron, in the Marathon; Midday, in the Filly and Mare Turf; Life is Sweet, in the Ladies Classic; and finally Conduit, in the Turf. Those of you with sharp memories will wonder what happened to my original pick for the Ladies Classic, Rainbow Veiw. And to those of you I will say that I decided not to back a horse on the outside with the first turn where it was in the course, but I did manage to change my pick on the NTRA website in time so they credited me with the win. For those of you with a mind toward numbers and economics, I did the math. If I had placed a 2 dollar bet on each of my choices, I would have finished the weekend with a profit of $66.80. Should I have gone hog wild and bet 5 dollars per race, this prize would have sky rocketed to $167. So we can add 'Professional Gambler" to teh list of possibilities on the old five year plan.

Race Day!!!!!

Today is the first day of the Breeder's Cup Championship of Horse Racing. As I was explaining to someone last night this is one of my big holidays of the year. Here are my picks:

Marathon: Man of Iron
Juvenile Fillies Turf: Lillie Langtry
Juvenile Fillies: Devil May Care
Filly and Mare Turf: Midday
Filly and Mare Sprint: Sara Louise
Ladies' Classic: Rainbow Veiw
Juvenile Turf: Codoy
Turf Sprint: El Gato Malo
Sprint: Gayego
Juvenile: Alfred Nobel
Mile: Goldikova
Dirt Mile: Mastercraftsman
Turf: Conduit
Classic: Rip Van Winkle

I haven't been following racing very closely, so especially in the early races, I mostly went by odds and jockeys. And in the latter half of the races I appeared to let nation of origin rule my choices since my last five picks are all Irish. This is of course in part based on my sole theory of betting which is 'never bet American in the turf classic.' Enjoy race day (weekend).

A Tribute To Our Nation's Aquatic Armed Forces

Courtesy of Craig Ferguson the greatest of all late night talk show hosts. Also, maybe get on this one early kids because I can't imagine CBS just leaving this up for very long.

Montreal Expos Rule!

Before there was an awful baseball team called the Washington Nationals, there was a slightly less awful team called the Montreal Expos. They were pretty near and dear to my heart because they're minor league team played in Burlington, Vt. This is however not a really a post about sports. It's really just an introduction to this video by the Montreal metalcore band Desposed Icon. And the only reason I'm posting the video is because both lead singers are wearing flat-brimmed Montreal Expos hats. And that's awesome. Also, since when do guys in metalcore bands dress like they're in a rap video?

DESPISED ICON - Day Of Mourning (OFFICIAL VIDEO)


Despised Icon - Furtive Monologue (I know it's not the song from the video but it's the only song by them i even come close to liking. Because it has whistling)

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Despised Icon

Boston Sports Changeover

With the Red Sox limping into the post-season with a playing style that is anything but promising, I'm very excited about the first game of the Boston Bruins season being tonight. While the guys didn't really play to their potential in the post-season last year (they really seemed to have what it took to go all the way before getting handled by the hurricanes), this year looks like it should be exciting in that we might have a chance to see some young stars in Boston start coming into their own just as Milan Lucic did last year. First of all, we have lost a player I held in fairly high regard; Phil Kessel. I considered Kessel's speed to be an excellent weapon in the Bruin's offensive arsenal. My uncle, who knows more about Hockey than I do, says that the NHL is moving away from speed and more towards size and aggression (think Lucic or Alex Ovechkin). We can all remember two years ago when Kessel was benched for a few games in the post-season series with the Montreal Canadiens for lack of aggressive play, so perhaps this is not as big a loss as I think. It should also be noted that Boston received two first round and a second round draft picks from Toronto in exchange for Kessel, so hopefully this move will enable us to strengthen our system for years to come.

And speaking of the future, here are the four young Bruins players that I think have the potential to establish themselves as rising stars this season, from oldest to youngest:
Byron Bitz - The 25-year old Right-Winger from Saskatoon was the Bruins 4th round draft pick in 2003. He's got the size to not get pushed around on the ice and he aquitted himself fairly well in the postseason last year, picking up a goal and an assist in the only game he played. Paired with the right Center he could do some impressive things this year, either finishing drives at the net or feeding a shooter.
Matt Hunwick - The 24-year old Michigan Defenseman was drafted in the 7th round by the Bruins in 2004 and has played in parts of the last two seasons. He saw increased action last year with injuries to several Boston defenders. With Aaron Ward's departure to the Carolina Hurricanes (another player I will sorely miss) Hunwick will probably see a great deal more ice time and will have a chance to show that previous successes were not a fluke and can be reproduced.
Blake Wheeler - At 6'5", 205 lbs this Minnesota-born right winger is a big guy and I believe has the biggest chance to make it big this year. He was first-round draft pick for the Coyotes in 2004 and he played like it last year, putting together a decent run at rookie of the year. He is a competent skater and is too big to be run off a puck he goes where he wants to and he can make others go where he wants them to. He essentially started for the Bruins last year and given his performance, I can't see anything changing this year.
Tuukka Rask - 22-year old Fin, Tuukka Rask is my youngest pick, the only non-North American and the only goalie. He was Toronto's first-round draft pick in '05 and he's been doing quite well in Providence. Now that the Bruins have cut-away the anchor that was Manny Fernandes and his salary, Rask looks to have a garuanteed spot backing the pride of UVM, Tim Thomas. With Thomas slated to play for the US Olympic Team, Rask should get plenty of starts for the Bruins. A final note on Rask, headcase-wise he should make an excellent back up to the occasionally pugilistic Thomas, if his performance last march is anything to go by.

So there you go and here's hoping the B's have another great season.

Born To Play - Dustin Pedroia

At some point this summer I read Dustin Pedroia's book Born To Play, My Life In The Game and I thought "I should review this for the old blog. Now I'm not going to write too much because to be honest it wasn't that great a book. It was exactly what you would expect it to be: ghost-written, mostly stuff you already knew if you have an above average interest in the Boston Red Sox, with the occasional interesting tidbit thrown in here and there. The stuff about him growing up, mostly his time in high school and college was pretty good, and occasionally he had some insight to offer on some of the other beloved Sox players (the scene where Jon Lester finds out that he has cancer is especially poignant). If you really like the Red Sox, then you'll probably enjoy reading this book. If you don't like the Red Sox, then I can almost guarantee that you won't at all.

Now Greg over at Confounded Fret Buzz already posted the now infamous MLB The Show commercial, so I thought I'd post another of my favorite Pedroia commercials:


The Dropkick Murphys - Tessie

LaGrecia - You Like Baseball I Like Ghosts

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The Dropkick Murphys
LaGrecia

Much thanks to College Humor

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

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Daft Punk

File Under: Stuff I Happen Upon While Surfing the Net

Whenever 'artists' like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, or bands like Dream Theater come up in conversation (and you be surprised how often that is) I always say that my problem with such "virtuosos" is that as impressive as it is that they can play however many notes a second and in 65/19 time its boring. Its not music, its just a dexterity exhibition. Now fast-forward to today when I'm reading an article about the beginnings of Mtv. As everyone knows the first video played on Mtv was the Buggles 'Video Killed the Radio Star' but did you know that the first video played on Mtv in Europe was Dire Straits' 'Money For Nothing.' First I went and watched that video, but then I began watching more and that led me to this little gem. I believe that this is simply Mark Knopfler with backing band and not actually Dire Straits. Note how, while Knopfler plays incredibly intricate guitar parts, they are all as tasteful as you could possibly want. No lead riff distracts from the rest of the song, no solo goes on a second too long, and even the classical instrumental section at the end of the video fits perfectly and doesn't overstay its welcome. It's an incredibly dynamic little jam section.



Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing

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Dire Straits

Jenny Lewis vs. Everybody - Round II

A while ago I made a post in which I mentioned Neko Case (here). This led to a discussion in the comments, fueled by my fellow blogger Greg, about Neko Case's beauty and in particular how it compared to Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley. It was eventually decided that Jenny Lewis won. Now there is a new challenger to the throne; Alison Mosshart of the bands Discount, The Kills, and most recently, the Dead Weather. The format of will be as follows: live photos, staged photos, video, and finally music from each. As reigning indie-queen, Jenny Lewis will lead off in each category.

Rilo Kiley - A Better Son/Daughter

Rilo Kiley - Does He Love You?

Discount - On The Counter

The Kills - Cheap and Cheerful

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Rilo Kiley
Discount
The Kills

Songs to Blow Your Mind Pt. 7

I'm really on a tear with these songs with female vocals. This song gets stuck in my head every time I listen to it.



Tegan and Sara- The Con

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Tegan and Sara

This movie is going to be awesome.

Between being about roller derby's and starring Ellen Page (From X-men not Juno) and it appears Alia Shawkat (from the best television show ever made) this movie looks awesome. Course I've been wrong before. It just doesn't happen much. Like, ever.



Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl

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Bikini Kill

When it's time to party....

Its been quite a little while since we took a look at Keegan's blog reader, and today seems as good a day as any to remedy that. Today's blog is one I discovered while attempting to find out more about this video:

mostly because it looked like the coolest place ever. Further looking took me to the blog of the girl who had posted the video. About once a week, she posts a link to something I find fairly amusing such as the Sexy People Blog. And recently she posted this:




Andrew W.K. - She is Beautiful

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Andrew W.K.

A Dark Day

Hey Keegan, why do you get really grumpy when bands you like move to Major labels? Oh I don't know, everyone ever, maybe because major labels do stuff like this:

Punknews has informed me that EMI Group has begun informing small independent record stores that they will no longer be sending them new product. Because clearly the way to save the music industry is to only sell your cds in places frequented by music fans, like, you know, Walmart. I'm not going to say too much more about this lest I slip and spew bile and hatred across my keyboard but in closing, here is the list of bands you should no longer feel any compunction about downloading illegally (chalk that up to things I can say because no one really reads this).

Broken Social Scene - Major Label Debut

The Yarbles - Labels

Rise Against - Sometimes Selling Out is Giving Up (bit of irony there)

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Broken Social Scene
The Yarbles Old band from my youth in Vermont, this was the best I could do
Rise Against

Review: Lemuria - Get Better

A while ago I got my hands on the most recent album by the Buffalo, NY indie/punk (Wikipedia's words not mine) outfit Lemuria. If you'll recall, it was at around this time that I began seriously rethinking my ban on female fronted bands and this album had a huge amount to do with it. This was one of those albums where at first I really just liked the opening track, the soaring love song, Pants. But as I gave the rest of the album more of my attention I realized that I liked almost every song on the album.

It's tempting to call it straight ahead boy-girl vocals pop punk (the good kind), but with a little something extra whether that's the male harmony vocal on Buzz, the gender-bending lyricism on Lipstick or the poignant narrative of Wardrobe (can you tell I really like this album?). I would recommend this album for fans of The Smoking Popes, The Unlovables, and maybe the Mr. T Experience (but without quite so much whimsy). And yeah I threw The Unlovables in there partly because they have a female lead singer, but at least I didn't do one of those FFO lists like "Rilo Kiley, Rainer Maria, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Metric." Because I hate those.



Lemuria - Pants
Lemuria - Lipstick
Lemuria - Buzz

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Lemuria

Songs to Blow Your Mind Pt. 5

Let me start by saying that I am not a huge fan of Bob Marley and the Wailers (for one thing this is a Peter Tosh number). Nor am I that huge a fan of reggae in general. But good is good and I have had this song stuck in my head for days now. To me, this song has a lot of 60's Soul sound to it rather than straight ahead irie dub vibes.



Bob Marley and the Wailers - Stop That Train

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Bob Marley and the Wailers

Clash Tuesday

Look at this and then listen to these:

The Clash - London Calling

The Clash - Train in Vain (Stand By Me)

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The Clash

THE MAN WALL

This is horrifically unnecessary.

Bo Diddley - I'm A Man

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Bo Diddley

SSP (Short Second Post)

Two post day today. Paste Magazine has apparently created a children's alphabet book with indie rock bands and while a few of the band choices I don't really agree with (cough cough Pearl Jams sucks and was never good cough) I felt like it would be fun to link to and then provide a few mp3s for. Lotta music today. Also, not the pretty good shots they take at Weezer and Vampire.



Belle and Sebastian - Me and the Major

The Hold Steady - Ask Her For Adderall

Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

Tom Waits - Tom Traubert's Blues

Weezer - The Good Life

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Belle and Sebastian
The Hold Steady
Joy Division
Tom Waits
Weezer

My Apartment Burned Down (a mix)

So the apartment that I was going to move into with Sean, Greg and Adam got set on fire and burned. It now appears that we have another apartment to move into and everything is going to be alright, so I thought now would be a good time to post a few fire related songs. Also, Adam has written a concept album about the fire that I haven't been able to listen to yet, but I'm told it is quite good.

Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire (kind had to didn't I?)

Braid - Fire Makes the House Grow

Jawbreaker - Fireman

Smoke or Fire - California's Burning

The Weakerthans - This is a Fire Door Never Leave Open

Talking Heads - Burning Down the House

The Blood Brothers - Burn, Piano Island, Burn

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Billy Joel
Braid
Jawbreaker
Smoke or Fire
The Weakerthans
Talking Heads
The Blood Brothers

Show Reveiw: Britney's Spear at Radio Bean

Last night, I headed to Burlington to see a band from Clark oddly enough. I've been meaning to write about Britney's Spear and their EP for some time now and now I can write about their show. The show started with one of the band's guitarists, Tom Hamill playing his brand of atmospheric, layered solo guitar work. I've seen Tom play a couple of times before, and it seemed to me that he's stepped up his solo performances. He rocked out a lot more and seemed to enjoy what he was playing. If you were to ask me out of hand whether or not I liked that genre of music I would probably say no, but I really enjoy what Tom does. It is alternately soothing and agressive. Sometimes it seems to swirl around you as he builds layer upon layer of effect-laden melodies and other times he loops an aggressive riff and adds intricate lead work over the top of it. He played five or six songs and at the conclusion, those in attendance clapped appreciatively for the calm before the storm as Alan Grunberg and Zach Schnitzer joined him on stage to complete the line-up.

Watching Britney's Spear live, is like watching punk get born again. Sonically it is absolute chaos. I've been describing it to people as Black Flag covering the Stooges, but it's so much more than that. For every minute that is 8-cylinder, loud fast rules hardcore, there's two minutes that nod more towards Hamill's more complex solo work. These guys are deeper than your daddy's punk band and they just keep getting better live. They were a little louder than the crowd at Radio Bean was prepared for and the bartender was handing out ear plugs. By the end of the set, my friend Matt and I were the only ones still in the building but a crowd had gathered on the sidewalk outside watching through the windows. Even with the crowd thin, Britney's Spear would not be denied. They crushed their way through a set which included the songs from their self-titled EP as well as a few new songs. The new songs show more potential than a AAA hitter with 50 home runs, especially their recently written set closer "Face Fuck the Police" which ended with Alan screaming sex talk into a mic, before sticking it into his mouth and writhing around while his guitar screamed feedback.

Its scary to think that Britney's Spear is less than a year old and has already reached this level. The songs are face-melting, the swagger is for real, and self-conscious posturing is non-existent. Never has punk-as-fuck seemed so effortless.

Tom Hamill - If You Were Real

Britney's Spear - Into The Neighborhood

Britney's Spear - Old Wolves Tale

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I honestly don't know how you can buy the albums other than contacting them through their myspaces here and here.

Blake Schwarzenbach-y Goodness - scratch that - AWESOMENESS GET EXCITED PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!

Sean Bonner has some pretty awesome rumors about Thorns of Life's upcoming album over at his (pretty cool) blog. He also shot that video apparently.

Jawbreaker - Chesterfield King

Jets to Brazil - Mid-day Anonymous

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Jawbreaker
Jets to Brazil

Sheep. That is all.

The Tiger Lillies - Sheep

Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy

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The Tiger Lillies
Okkervil River

Books into movies news

The San Fransisco Chronicle today has an article discussing the 2011 release of the movie based on the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis. It will be directed by Steven Soderbergh and will star Brad Pitt as Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Bean. It was a great book, but I'm not a hundred percent sure I see how it will translate well into a movie. On a final awesome note, apparently former Boston Red Sox backstop Scott Hatteberg has been brought in to portrtay himself which for my money is all the movie needed to make it worth seeing.

In a second, suprisingly related news item, punknews.org has informed me that deals are being struck to make a movie out of Frank Portman's book King Dork. Now King Dork was actually a pretty good book on its own, but what makes this even more exciting (and what got it on punknews) is that Frank Portman is Dr. Frank from San Fransisco punk band The Mr. T Experience. This also means that both these stories were in some way San Fransisco connected which gives me more ideas for songs to post with them.

The Mr. T Experience - King Dork (To be honest not one of my favorite songs by them but I felt like I had to)

The Magnetic Fields - Come Back From San Fransisco

Jawbreaker - Condition Oakland (So effing excited to get to post JAWBREAKER aka GREATEST BAND EVER)

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The Mr. T Experience
The Magnetic Fields
Jawbreaker

I Fear For My Bruins

With a little more than 10 minutes left in the game its beginning to look as though the Boston Bruins will fall to 1-3 in the series with the Carolina Hurricanes. I realize I should be keeping up the faith, but when I can't watch them on TV I only assume the worst. I was a bit perturbed to see that Steve Montador had taken a penalty just when we needed to swing the momentum our way. Well done Steve, you clown doctor. In other news, at last check the Celtics were getting stomped, but at least the Red Sox are currently winning. Jason Bay is a clutch, three run homer hitting machine, I don't care what Around The Majors says (below average fielder my ass).

Dropkick Murphys - Time To Go

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Dropkick Murphys

Songs to Blow Your Mind Pt. 4

Today's 'Song to Blow Your Mind' is more of an 'Artist to Blow Your Mind' but this is no time to split hairs. Today's artist Austin Lucas rose to my attention mostly through his being on the Revival Tour with such punk rockers turned troubadours as Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Ben Nichols (Lucero) and Tim Barry (Avail). This kid can do it all. He's got a great voice, he's a solid guitar player and he writes fantastic lyrics. The first song of his that really caught my attention was "There's Always Someone Tougher and Meaner" off of his album Putting The Hammer Down, but then I saw the video for "Go West" and I'd have to say it has won out to be the official Song to Blow Your Mind.



Austin Lucas - There's Always Someone Tougher and Meaner
Austin Lucas - Go West

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Austin Lucas

Attention Pizza Sellers of Worcester!!!!

Use of this product definitely sway me towards using a pizza place. Just sayin'.

File Under 'Rumors We Hope to God Come to Fruition'

PunkNews.org reports that Seattle music blog Ear Candy reports that there are rumblings about an original lineup reunion of Sunny Day Real Estate. The rumor is that they are rehearsing and planning on touring. This is of course simply a rumor but it's totally enough to warrant some Sunny Day songs.





Sunny Day Real Estate - Seven
Sunny Day Real Estate - In Circles

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Sunny Day Real Estate

Non-Hetero-Centric Post

A long time ago, I bought two records by the band Latterman. One of my favorite parts about the accompanying lyrical materials was a short note by the band apologizing for the fact that one of the songs was less than relevant for non-heterosexual listeners. That's my weak ass intro for today's post which will feature items of a homosexual theme. First off I'm a little late in declaring this, but I'm proud of my state being the first to legalize gay marriage via legislation, especially since we got to tell our governor Jim Douglas where he could stick his veto.

But for the most part I wrote this post because Newsweek did an article about Pansy Division who is apparently putting out a new album. Newsweek apparently saw a perfect opportunity to do a little gay rights, Prop 8 tie-in with this story while I see it mostly as an excuse to post an Pansy Division song.

Final note: I think it's hilarious when mainstream media talks about punk bands because they lose all authority. Punk is a scary foreign concept that they've certainly heard of, but they were pretty sure it died in the late 70's before being resurrected by such punk stalwarts as Green Day and Good Charlotte with the distaff being brought by Avril Lavigne and Gwen Stefani.

Pansy Division - Cowboys are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other

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Pansy Division

HEAVY WEIGHTS

Suicidal Tendencies may be pound for pound the largest band ever, narrowly beating out Bowling for Soup.



I would encourage everybody to head over to youtube and watch the video for 1985 by Bowling for Soup if you didn't understand why I think they got second.

AK Press Blog is making me a better human being / Songs to Blow Your Mind 3

I don't remember how it happened but a while ago I happened upon the website for AK Press, a publisher and distributor specializing in radical and anarchist materials. While browsing their website I discovered that they have a blog called Revolution By The Book. For the most part I really like this blog because I gives me ideas for books I might like to read and every once in a while it has a pretty good interview worth reading. However, what inspired me to feature in a blog post was the recent article posted on the blog called Dancing with The Devil about the concept of an anarchist business and the problems that come with the contradiction of an anarchist business. Though a tad long, the article is well thought out and extremely articulate and I think the points made in it can be enlarged to deal with the problems of trying to compromise anarchist ideals with everyday living.

Now I want you to know that I thought about just posting a couple of Anarchy themed songs and calling it a day on that. I even had a few cued up and ready to go but instead I thought this would be a good chance to post a song I've been pretty taken with for a while and make this another installment of Songs to Blow Your Mind. So without further fanfare, Avail's Black and Red.

Avail - Black and Red

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Avail

A Classic

Today, I'm not going to say anything clever (which some might say doesn't change anything) we're all just going to sit back and enjoy a great live performance.



Otis Redding - I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)

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Otis Redding

I HATE APRIL FOOLS DAY!!!!!!

I hate April fools day. For one thing, I don't really know how to punctuate it. Does 'fools' have an apostrophe? Does the day belong to the fool who is the official fool of the month of April, the fool laureate if you will? Or do I leave out the apostrophe making this the day named for the many fools of April, the fools being many but not necessarily in possession of the day itself.

Besides grammar/punctuation worries, I dislike the day because you can't trust anything that seems too good to be true. So many news sources you'd like to be able to trust 365 goddamn days out of the year think it's a laugh riot to print the first pack of lies that comes into their heads (Boston Dirt Dogs I'm looking at you, I was so happy for Bill Lee there for a second).

All this means that I have no way of knowing whether or not to believe reports that as the result of a lost bet, Rise Against will be releasing an original 7" with their old label Fat Wreck Chords. Honestly I'm mostly excited about this because it's nice to see the Tim and co. breaking away from the increasingly rigid role of major label roster membership. I'm not going to bore you with my thoughts on "selling out" (the fact that I put it in quotes should be enough to show you I'm at least conflicted) but suffice it to say this news made me happy. If only I could be sure it was true.

Man-Sports Talk

Tim Thomas is to goal tending and ass kicking what William Shakespeare was to writing plays and making new words: Kinda Good.

In other news, if you are a hockey fan in Philly I have terrible news for you: just because you'd like something to be called a penalty, doesn't mean that it actually was a penalty. The more you scream the less you matter. Seriously, that's basic calculus. Or whatever.

Songs to Blow Your Mind Pt. 2

For the second installment of STBYM I'm going to backtrack a bit and feature a song I was quite taken with about a month ago. I don't listen to it as much now but I play it by myself a great deal because it's pretty simple to play. The song is 'Our Life Is Not A Movie or Maybe' by the band Okkervil River. Lead singer and lyricist Will Sheff is a phenomenal storyteller and this song is an excellent example of his skills on display.



Okkervil River - Our Life Is Not A Movie or Maybe

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Okkervil River

A Bit of Video

I am frequently provided with material for this blog by Punknews.org. I have a feed of all their updates in my blog reader and mostly I look for interesting videos and covers and the occasional news that a band I like has broken up. Sometimes I get Thorns of Life news (one of the few current bands who's happenings I care to actually follow). Because it's just a news site, I don't have that much else to say about it, so I figured that instead I would post a few videos I recently found while traversing the site.

The first video is for a song called We Are Wild Stallions by the band The Riot Before. I was kinda suprised to find that I actually had a couple of songs by this band (including this one). I think I got them off a comp for The Fest. I hadn't given them a lot of thought until I watched this video, but wow. This is a good video for a really solid song. No frills, straight-ahead, Richmond VA, punk rock.


The Riot Before - "We Are Wild Stallions!" from Dave O'Dell on Vimeo.

The second video is for the British hardcore band Gallows. I've always kinda liked these guys from the screaming in a British accent to the diminutive, heavily tattooed lead singer. I guess this song is off their new album, it's called The Vulture (Part II) and I should warn you, the video is a tad graphic in terms of violence and gore. But if you can stand it, I think it's a great song. Compared to their first album, it strikes me as a little bit heavier or at least it hints at more of a Converge-esque edge (especially the intro part) and the breakdown kicks somethin' fierce. (NOTE even more than the gore I apologize for the stupid ad I'm sure Mtv will put at the beginning of this video. I looked everywhere for another version but to no Avail. (Get it? Avail? The Riot Before's from VA? ah nevermind)).

Gallows - Vulture (Dirty Version)

The Riot Before - We Are Wild Stallions

Gallows - In the Belly of a Shark (I don't have a copy of the new album and this is one of the songs off the first album I liked)

Financial Support Goes Here

The Riot Before
Gallows

A Little (Recent) History

This week marks the 4 year anniversary of The Decemberists' decision to bypass the Mtv/Vh1 apparatus and release the video for their single '16 Military Wives' via BitTorrent. The video is downloaded almost 2,000 times in the first week. I should note that it was Musician's Friend's newsletter that brought this factoid to my attention.



The Decemberists - 16 Military Wives

Financial Support Goes Here

KillRockStars

A Taste of My Blog Reader

I've already told you about one of the podcasts I listen to so in the interest of equal time, it is now time for me to promote/recommend/discuss one of the sites I subscribe to via my blog reader. I must confess however, I'm going to cheat a little on this one because I'm not really going to be talking about a blog. Instead I figured the first link I should take from my blog reader should be for Questionable Content. This 'indie web comic' by Jeph Jacques (who I swear to god I saw at a Weakerthans show once) is the only web comic that has held my interest enough for me to keep up with it fairly religiously. NN2S doesn't count because Mitch never updates it (Mitch if you're reading this that was in no way a shot at you, you just keep being awesome at your own pace dude, I understand). But yeah, QC is one of those comics about 20-somethings that makes me think maybe having my life suck as a 20-something won't suck that much, dead end jobs and weekend bands here I come!!!

Anyhoo, try as I might I could find nothing in my music library that could be linked to QC in anyway (searches for "web" and "comic/cartoon" got me weirdness and nothing respectively). Instead I am going to function under the assumption that I did in fact see our illustrious cartoonist at a Weakerthans show and post a Weakerthans song that I've been listening to a lot lately. You should know, dear reader, that I gave a lot of thought to posting 'Anchorless' but to be honest I like the Propagandhi version better (-gasp- I know!!!!).

The Weakerthans - One Great City!

Financial Support Goes Here

The Weakerthans

Some movies and the end of an era

Greg over at Confounded Fret Buzz has a penchant for writing the occasional Boston Red Sox post, so I thought I'd sneak one in before him about this. Curt Schilling, blogger, conservative wind-bag and post-season pitcher extraordinaire has decided to hang up the old cleats once and for all. Though, given his admiration for Roger Clemens, it could be argued that we have another 3 or 4 partial seasons of Schil to look forward to. I don't actually think that will happen because Curt a. loves his own reputation too much to tarnish it, and b. won't do the steroids and human growth hormone required to make such a comeback. We Boston fans will always have the bloody sock to remember him by and Phillies and D-Backs fans will always have memories of him when he was young and good. Orioles fans will always be able to say "We had Curt Schilling? When was this?" Well actually if the Orioles had fans, then that's what they would say. But they don't so they stay quiet (Yeah I said it, come get some).

Anyhoo... I had a marathon weekend of watching movies. I watched Run, Fat Boy, Run with Simon Pegg; Room Service with The Marx Brothers and all but the last 12 minutes of The Great Escape starring none other but Steve McQueen. Let me tell you, The Great Escape is one long-ass movie, weighing in at a whopping 172 minutes (that's 8 minutes short of 3 hours for those of you dodgy on the whole math thing). Then, with less than 15 minutes to go in the movie, everything over but the crying, the dvd freezes and refuses to play any more. I try everything I can but to no avail. So now I have to wait like 3 days to see the last 12 minutes of this stupid movie. Other than that it was really good movie. Steve is kind of the typical American surrounded by Brits. He's a baseball loving cowboy type who doesn't want to plan ahead, he's just working on a wing an a prayer. Charles Bronson plays an RAF officer who's thick Polish accent was never fully explained to me (a quick wikipedia scan tells me he defected).

The other two movies were pretty much exactly what I would have expected, great comedic actors being brought down a little bit by their circumstances. In Run,Fat Boy, Run Simon Pegg and Dylan Moran are held back a bit by the more bankable romantic comedy genre and, I like to think, by having that ass-clown David Schwimmer directing. Room Service is kinda on the low end in terms of Marx Brother's movies, probably because it wasn't written for them. Also I thought that they didn't really get a whole lot of use out of Lucille Ball. Her character could have easily been played by anyone else and I also missed Margaret Dumont the usual female lead in Marx Brothers films.

I leave you now with a song for each news item:

Curt - Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline
Great Escape - Underoath - Some Will Seek Forgiveness, Others Escape
Run, Fat Boy, Run - The Falcon - When I Give the Signal, Run!
Room Service - Death Cab For Cutie - Brothers on a Hotel Bed

Financial Support Goes Here
Neil Diamond
Underoath
The Falcon
Death Cab For Cutie

A little tidbit

Musician's Friend's 'Week in Review' article reports that this week in 2007
"Elsrock, an outdoor heavy-metal rock festival, is given conditional approval to put on its show outside the town of Rijssen, located in the Netherlands’ Bible Belt … the proviso is that there can be no cursing or blasphemy … the 2006 version of the festival had outraged residents … in explaining why the permit was granted, Mayor Bort Koelewijn cites 'the stated readiness of the organizers to make sure that no blasphemous words are used, and that the honor of God's name is not besmirched.'"
First of all, the Netherlands has a 'Bible Belt?' When did this happen and how do they have room? Second, I'm very impressed that the organizers of this event were able to agree to this with a straight face. "Yeah sure, no one playing our Metal Festival will use foul language and blaspheme" that's going to happen. And yes, this post was just an excuse to post some metal.

Slayer - South of Heaven

Pantera - Fucking Hostile

Gwar - Sexicutioner

Blades Jackalfiend - Jerk Friends

Amon Amarth - Vahalla Awaits Me

Financial Support Goes Here
Slayer
Pantera
Gwar
Blades Jackalfiend
Amon Amarth

Songs to Blow Your Mind Pt. 1

Now that I'm posting mp3s here at The Chesterfield King, I think I'm going to start a little feature which I will call "Songs to Blow Your Mind" (You'd figured that out already hadn't you?). Every so often I will get really into a song for a while and I listen to it a bunch, look up the lyrics, try to play it, whole deal. Now, in addition to all that nonsense, I will post the song of my fancy here, often along with a video. I'm not going to justify it though. So suck it.

The inaugural song to blow your mind is I'll Make You Mine by Rainer Maria (possibly the coolest band to be named after a German poet-philosopher narrowly edging out The Schlegels).

Rainer Maria - I'll Make You Mine

Financial support goes here.

Hair = Short

If this were a decent mp3 blog, I would post that Pavement song about cutting my hair. But it's not, so I won't. As you've probably guessed by now, I cut all my hair off as part of a crazy weekend of traveling about the Commonwealth. I also grew a pretty bitchin' mustache in case I decide to begin a career in Highway Patrolling (Cue Bruce Springsteen mp3 link). I should probably clarify that I didn't grow the mustache this weekend, I just shaved off the rest of my facial hair leaving said mustache. I should also note that this mustaching was originally the idea of my guitar playing counterpart Greg (blog link go here). I mention him because I feel bad for busting his balls about it earlier and I wish to make recompense for this.

You may be thinking one of two things at this point. Either you are thinking "Recompense, huh? That's an impressively large word. This Keegan must be a man of masterful vocabulary" or you are thinking "Recompense, huh? I don't think he used that word correctly. This Keegan must be a pompous ass and a foul-mouthed one at that." Well, you could be right on both counts (he said, being both coy and self deprecating) but it leads me perfectly to the other two things I have to blog about (Told you I was going to work on my transitions).

First of these two, a little less than a month ago I said in a post that I was going to start talking about the podcasts I listen to and the blogs I read. Today feels like as good a time as any to start. The first podcast I'm going to discuss is a fairly simple one. It's the Miriam-Webster's Word of the Day podcast (now you see why 'recompense' was a lead in). You can find it here. It's pretty self explanatory. Every day, even weekends, they send me a word along with its pronunciation and definition as well as its etymology and an example of how to use it in a sentence. As an added bonus, the guy who does the podcast has a truly calming voice. If for some reason you have been horribly traumatized and need to be calmed, this is the podcast for you.

The final thing I wanted to talk about in conjunction to this podcast, is that I want to start posting new words I've learned on this blog. This may be opening myself up to some indie-snob-styled ridicule (You don't know that word? How do you not know that word?) but I feel like it could also be delightfully informative for all of us. That's all for now, but be on the look out for more blog/podcast recommendations as well some serious vocabulary boosting in the days and weeks to come!!

*Edit* I have, with a great deal of help and coaching from Greg, taken the big step toward being an actual mp3 blog. Which means that I will now be posting the two songs I said I would post earlier. Happy Happy.

Pavement - Cut Your Hair

Bruce Springsteen - Highway Patrolman

These songs can be bought and the artists who recorded them properly compensated financially here and here respectively

The Andes Mountains run from the Bolivian border to Tierra del Fuego

spread the word

Slow News Day

The World Baseball Classic can really eat up your day. In other news, I finally have a car here in Worcester, so I can start looking for a job like it's, well, my job. I feel like "In other news" is my most used phrase on this blog (note to self: work on transitions). Also, my miniature golf game is currently the best it has ever been. I say this with no official criteria for deciding that it's true. You'll just have to take my word for it. Both of you.

My girlfriend just told me "I love you" in Klingon

First off, in reference to the Neko Case debate from yesterday, I have just been informed by my remarkably hip and indie-informed parents that she is moving to Vermont, so I will be awarding her extra points for accessibility. Jenny Lewis however remains in the lead owing primarily to Michelle Nolan's dropping off my radar in a big way.

In other news, IGN (dunno what that stands for) have released a list of "10 Must Hear Hardcore Bands." I quite liked their list of top 10 punk drummers but I was less impressed by this one. I would have appreciated a little more warning that it was in fact a list of up-and-coming hardcore bands, because when I think 'must hear' I think, well, 'must hear' not 'could someday be 'must hear.'' But other than that I enjoyed it (enough even to repost it here!!!). Good to see some smaller hardcore bands getting solid exposure.

Finally, in more cringe-worthy news: A cd of anime actresses singing punk classics is being released and PunkNews hooked its readers up with a link to a preveiw of it and it is just as awful as you would assume. Somehow it's like Alvin and the Chipmunks after being force fed gallon after gallon of high fructose corn syrup (WHICH IS NOT FINE IN MODERATION GOD DAMNIT I HATE THOSE ADS). So for those of you who haven't ground a millimeter or so off your teeth today here's the preveiw:


Final note: I am without a positive or negative opinion regarding the statement which constitutes the title of this post.

A Quick One (While He's Away)

I can't tell if Neko Case is pretty or not and since she has a new album coming out that everyone and their brother is plugging, this is a quandary that comes up relatively frequently for me.

Also, how is it that the Adicts are playing two shows each in Sao Paulo and Bielefeld - Germany, but only three shows total in the U.S. and all of those are in California? I am irked. Cali punks getting all the old schoolie goodness.

And finally for everyone that the recession has a little down, the boys over at Gizmo Groove have the perfect pick-me-up for you.

Oh yes, that is gold and those are diamonds. Especially the 6.6 carat sucker in the middle. I can't wait for someone to leave this in a taxi.

A More Positive Entry

I feel kinda bad that the post I left my blog with for so long was the one in which I ripped into a band for their video. Regardless of my opinion they are at least talented enough to be in the position of getting to make videos for their song and this is a position I envy. In retrospect I feel a bit like an ass for my negativity (which is not to say that I take any of it back, cause I mean, come on!).
On a more positive note, Dana and I got Chinese food last night and watched the collegehumor show's third episode last night. It was pretty close to a return to form from the first episode, which I thought was great. I liked the second episode less mostly because I kept feeling really sorry for Sarah Schneider.
I think I'm going to start doing posts on other blogs and podcasts that I like. If you know me, you know that I have a ton of podcasts and that I check my blog reader several times a day. Now you readers of my blog (both of you) can have a peek into some of the blogs and podcasts that make update to my blog reader and my non-brand-affiliated music/media player. Look for that to begin soon.

This is awful

For someone who believes in the importance of community in music as much as I do, I sure do a lot of shit-talking. That said, when Punknews.com brought the existence of this video to my attention I realized that I really wanted to do a post on it.

I don't know exactly what about this bothers me so much. I think I could start by pointing out how blatant a rip-off of New Found Glory this is. Starting with the lead singer, who's voice seems to be calculated to mesh perfectly with that of a 14 year old girl, it progresses through the bros-before-hos lyrical content reminiscent of "My Friends Over You" and layers it all over the sort of bubblegum hardcore riffs and drums that NFG and later Fallout Boy would build their careers upon. Even the promising (to me) gang vocal lead-in to the (albeit cookie-cutter) break down got ruined by the falsetto garbage that carried on straight through.

On the video side of things, the viewer is allowed to pick their poison. Will you find the 'Mean Girls'-esque background action grating to the nerves or will it be the ubiquitous food fight that concludes the video? Will you be more annoyed by the range of stereotypically scenester outfits the band is clad in or concentrating on the obnoxious posturing of the lead singer? The finger-pointing and elbow waving alone are enough to do it for me.

On the positive side, I have to admit that for the godawful bubblegum pop that this is, it is at least done well. The hooks are hooky, the chorus memorable (sort of) and the breakdown is a clearly a breakdown without you needing to worry about getting roundhouse kicked by a guy named 'Somerville Pete.' If I were a teenage girl looking to diversify an mp3 player already overfull with Rufio and Cartel I would snap this up.

Post Show Recap -or- Name-Drop-Link-Fest '09

On Friday night, Kid Omega played in the Fighting Freuds Battle of the Bands here at Clark University. It was fantastic. Playing live with this band has never felt so good. We had fun and it seemed like the crowd did too. We played a short set of Swagger, Overwrought pt. 1, Rainn Wilson, Elysion, and Song for Geoff. We have video of the last three for everyone who wasn't there. You can find the video of Rainn Wilson Stopped the Drought over at Greg's Blog. The video of Elysion is posted over at our band's blog. That was easily my favorite because at the end the crowd clapped and sang along when we asked them to. This leaves me with the video of A Song for Geoff to Sing to post on my blog so hear it is:



We had a great time playing the show and to cap it all off, the battle itself was eventually won by Sister City aka Adam. To be honest I'd never really listened to his stuff but I sat in on some of his practices with Sean, who he borrowed to do the show, and I was really impressed. He writes songs like a pro. You can hear more of his music at their myspace or you can read his blog here.

Final Note: If bouncing from blog to blog in search of videos isn't your thing you can find all three videos from the show on youtube and also on Kid Omega's myspace. Also thanks to James for being our videographer (he's the one you can hear whooping after every song), keep your eyes out for his band Tiger Trap.

A Little Rock History

I'm back from break and now that I'm spending more time in front of my computer hopefully I will be blogging more, but for now I thought I would share a fun fact about this week in the not too recent past. This comes straight from the newsletter of Musician's Friend. The week of January 8th marks the 4 year anniversary of Kid Rock being kicked off the roster of acts to play as part of George W. Bush's inauguration festivities. How awesome is that? He got iced because tons of concerned Christians wrote in an complained about how he promotes a negative lifestyle of sex, drugs and partying. It must have been a bitch to find acts trashy enough to be willing to play at Bush's victory party and yet not so trashy that they offended the delicate sensibilities of the trashy people that elected him.