December 20th, 2007 r8e8rcom
Some Weezer tid-bits for you to impress your ALT friends on trivia night.
-Weezer played their first show at Raji’s Bar and Ribshack on Hollywood Boulevard, opening for Dogstar (Keanu Reeves).
-Cuomo’s original concept for Weezer’s sophomore effort was to be a space-themed rock opera, Songs from the Black Hole.
-Pinkerton was labeled “one of the worst albums of 1996″ by a Rolling Stone reader poll, but in 2004, the magazine changed their rating to a 5-star rating and inducted it into The Rolling Stone Hall Of Fame.
-In 1997 Rivers moved to Boston and formed the Rivers Cuomo Band, to try out unreleased material, including possible new songs for the next Weezer album. The band played their first show at T.T. the Bear’s on October 8, 1997.
-August 16th, 2001, bassist Mikey Welsh was checked into a psychiatric hospital. His whereabouts were previously unknown, as he mysteriously went missing before their second filming of the “Island in the Sun” music video.
The following tracks were lifted from a compilation of demo recordings by Rivers from 1984-2007, released on Geffen on 12/18/07. There is really no cohesive album glue on this one, with the recording quality varying as much as the arrangements and writing styles. There are some nice finds on here though, including some tracks from destined to be shelved, Songs from the Black Hole, recordings (Blast Off!, Dude, We’re Finally Landing). As pitchfork put it, “A lost Weezer album it isn’t”, but worth a listen, I think so.
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-mark
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December 14th, 2007 r8e8rcom
So I met the BBTV kids randomly on the street the other day. They were standing outside of the Joyce theatre on 8th Ave in Chelsea hassling people as they walked by. I thought it was strange to see a group of young, ’seemingly’ straight kids hangin’ around the Joyce so I approached them, assuming they were up to no good. Turns out they were scalping tickets for ‘Tango Fire’ and handing out free copies of their latest EP, Send/Receive. Apparently, the BBTV kids are a big hit with the ballet and modern/interpretive dance crowd, who knew. Anyway, after unsuccessfully trying to convince me that the ‘Tango Fire’ tickets were a great deal and the only reason they were selling them was because they had seen it 5 times already, I convinced them to make an effort to expand their audience and post some songs on r8e8r. At first they refused, claiming that the whole blog thing was “gay” and that most bloggers, like most producers, were just failed, disgruntled musicians. Touche my friends, but “gay” really isnt PC now is it?
send receive
hollywood
gladys
The staff here at R8e8R.com would like you to know that the above was completely fabricated for dramatic effect. See, the staff here at R8e8R.com have all been looking forward to this post and we would all really like to hear your honest feedback on these tracks. So lets hear it, what do you think of ‘em?
-the staff
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December 13th, 2007 r8e8rcom
I was incredibly uncomfortable the other night for some reason. I couldn’t quite pinpoint what exactly I was feeling though, much less why. The feeling was akin to being stuck on a train and realizing I left the oven on. Like there was something I was suppose to do, or something I wanted to do, but had forgotten. I’ve been known to forgot to do simple things, like eating, while consumed with other activities (or not) so I tried going to the kitchen to peruse my cupboards for a snack, but nothing seemed to spark the desire to eat. I thought, maybe I just need to relax, maybe I should take off my shoes. When that didn’t help I thought maybe I should change my clothes. I contemplated shaving my hair, I mean, if it worked for Pedro in Napoleon Dynamite it might be worth considering. After about an hour sitting on my couch staring at my laptop screen, struggling to grasp whatever was embedded in my psyche causing my anxiety, I decided that the effort was futile. The only way to get through this was to drown it in alcohol, so I walked to the liquor store and bought myself a bottle of wine. After about 2 glasses, which did nothing but intensify the feeling 10 fold, it finally hit me, I just wanted a cigarette.
Love Is All is a Swedish indie pop/rock outfit featuring former members of sunshine twee pop Girlfrendo. After the break up Josephine (vocals, keyboards), Nicholaus (guitar, vocals) and Markus (drums), Johan (bass) and Fredrik (saxophone) formed Love Is All, and debuted in 2006 with Nine Times That Same Song. They are currently signed to the New York-based indie label, What’s Your Rupture?, and are scheduled to release their sophomore LP spring 2008. These tracks are from an upcoming remix album, ‘Love Is All..Mixed Up’, which features a selection of remixes infused with styles from Krautrock to Rave from many artist including The Bees, Hot Chip, Maps, Chicken Lips, Optimo, and many others. Love Is All..Mixed Up is scheduled to be released here on 1/28/08.
-mark
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December 11th, 2007 r8e8rcom
Didn’t send any music last week because Casey was sick with a pretty bad fever the entire week and I worked from home to take care of her. I don’t know about you guys but after working from home for five days I start to wonder why I even go to the office. Why the fuck do I waste two hours everyday standing on a crowded train waiting to be delivered onto a dark crowded street only spend my day in a depressing room with bad lighting.
I’ve talked a fair amount of trash on MGMT (formerly ‘the management’), mostly just in reaction to the ‘Snakes Say Hisss’ comparisons (ok they both play ipods on stage, I get it). And I know a few of you guys have said that their live show leaves much to be desired, but I have to say after hearing the new album I may have to suck it up and just be down with MGMT. MGMT is essentially Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, two music majors from Wesleyan University in Middleton, Connecticut. Andrew VanWyngarden is currently collaborating with Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes in a side project called Blik Fang and has appeared on stage with Of Montreal several times. These tracks are from their upcoming release, Oracular Spectacular, which is due out 1/8/08 on Columbia.
If, like me, MGMT has inadvertently done something to piss you off, maybe something they didn’t even know they did, or something they were suppose to do that they didn’t do, either way, I’m pretty sure they didn’t do it to intentionally pain you. Infact, I’m pretty sure they want little more than to make you happy. So how about, if only for the sake of humanity you give them a second chance, huh? Don’t we all deserve a second chance?
Electric Feel
Kids
Time to Pretend
-mark
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