Welcome to basementcast number 17. It seems like these things are becoming seasonal, not that this one has any kind of theme, just that the last one was at the commencement of summer and this one just happens to land as autumn is beginning. What does the Red Balloon have to do with it, you may ask. Nothing really, except for the giant red tomatoes finally ripening in my backyard. They're kind of pesky like that troublesome red balloon. You plant them with the highest expectations of big red round juicy fruits ripening on the vine and sometimes you reap [...]
There's few people in the blogosphere I truly trust, so I'm always happy when Toby over at Finest Kiss gets a chance to sort through his emails and get me hip to things I might have glanced over. He's run a bunch of singles today, and my favorite of the batch has to be this new track from Grass Widow . The San Fran trio has self-released a new 73 with this track Milo Minute . There's definitely a post-punk pogo to the track, [...]
Long did I champion the work of the Dutchess and the Duke , but as they've gone away, at least for the time being, I've been anxiously awaiting the release of Case Studies , the project of former D&D frontman, Jesse, which I caught wind of via our friend Toby over at Finest Kiss . Case Studies will be releasing The World is Just a Shape to Fill the Night via Sacred Bones on August 16th. Listening to this, [...]
Photo from Bob Carlos Clarke/Rex USA/Everett Collection It's been a while since the last one of these hit the internet. The Q1U has been burried under a stack of a records for the last few months. I was cleaning the basement the other day and uncovered it. Inspiration hit and a list of songs was assembled with an initial unintended musical slant . A little rejiggering, and it became an ode to the female of the species and my favorite basementcast yet. See what you think. download : basementcast #16 [...]
Occasionally you let things slip, forgetting to check in on your favorite labels or sites, but when go back, you always find a gem waiting for you. Such is the case with this latest single from Slumberland Records by Terry Malts , who love to be hidden behind a dense fog of mystery. But, luckily, my imaginary best friend over at Finest Kiss hints that the band is a side-project of Magic Bullets, making the "I'm Neurotic" single even closer to [...]
First, I'd like to take a minute to thank my fictitious friend Toby over at Finest Kiss for alerting me to this band. Gold Bears are a group from Atlanta, and they seem perfect to fit right into the stable of Slumberland Records , who will be releasing a full-length from the group later on this year. But, what you need to know is that this track is on a recent 73 (on Cloudberry ) and it sounds just like Cloud [...]
Basementcast number fifteen was designed specifically to stamp out pests. Be it the criter kind or the pesky rock n' roll kind. Oh, you know the type. That song you accidentally hear down the hall, in the Gap or in your mom's car that you can't get out of your head. You keep singing the chorus and then form a quizical look on your face that says why in the hell did I just sing that? This baemenctcast was specifically desingned to erradicate those nuisance songs from your brain and fill it with 'worthy' songs to belt out at the [...]
Once again, the sounds from New Zealand are just too catchy to escape. While running through Finest Kiss , I hit upon Surf Friends , a great new discovery. They've just released their debut album, Confusion , which is chock full of angular guitar riffs and sugary melodies. As I listened to "You're On My Mind," I can't help but feel a little bounce in my step as the pace picks up, the harmonies kick in, and the song takes off. Yea, the rest of the [...]
Once again, the sounds from New Zealand are just too catchy to escape. While running through Finest Kiss , I hit upon Surf Friends , a great new discovery. They've just released their debut album, Confusion , which is chock full of angular guitar riffs and sugary melodies. As I listened to "You're On My Mind," I can't help but feel a little bounce in my step as the pace picks up, the harmonies kick in, and the song takes off. Yea, the rest of the [...]
photo from Vintage Seattle The coaster enthusiast in you will delight in the latest edition of the basementcast. It is built of wood, rickety, jarring and a guaranteed thrill ride that feels like it's just about ready to fall apart. No need to go to your nearest amusement park, pay $50 for admission, $10 for a hot dog and wait in line for every ride. Just hit play and experience the heartburn of the hot dog and the stomach churning of the roller coaster. It won't cost you a thing, only [...]
photo from Vintage Seattle I tell ya. Let the sun come out in Seattle this time of year and people go nuts. The clouds cracked open this afternoon and people came out of the woodwork, stripping off clothes and soaking up the sunshine like they might never see it again. And they might not, at least not until July. While the rest of the northern hemisphere is springing into summer we in the PNW are left waiting. Something just as unpredictable as the exact start date of summer around here, is when the [...]
Photo from Preshaa Spring, the time for allergies and procreating. The clocks have been changed and the days are getting longer, at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere, and everything is in bloom. For those of us with inferior genes, that means sneezing, itchy eyes and runny nose. The only thing to do is hermetically seal yourself somewhere and wait for it to pass. While you're in your bubble, have a listen to the new basement cast why don't you? download : basementcast #10 [...]
photo from Fractal Artist Although he's from Georgia, Abner Jay's I'm So Depressed rings true in the PNW in the middle of winter. Rain is the rule, dark is the law and everyone is just trying to get along, trying to make it to the spring, or some sunny local somewhere south. The holiday gift giving, blog list-making, eggnog induced halcyon haze of December has long since passed and were just tying to get our vitamin D deprived bodies to some more daylight and ultraviolet bliss. Well, face [...]
photo from Providence Journal photo / Sandor Bodo People are nuts. Why would you ever want to grow a 1,725 pound pumpkin? I suppose so that you could say that you did. Apparently pumpkin growing is like horse breeding, you gotta get the right seed from a sire that has the right genes. The seed for this big beauty came from a former world record holder. The funny thing about this picture, besides the obvious, is that it came from northeast Ohio , about 30 miles from where I grew up. In case you ever [...]
Buck up everyone summer is over and it's time to get back to work. We here at the Finest Kiss loath work, but we do what we've gotta do to get by. If you need a little something to get by this may be just the thing. To quote Mick Jones, It's multipurpose in a jar, If you ain`t ill it`ll fix your car. So carry it around with you, put it in your car, stuff it away into cupboards because you never know when you might need it. download : basementcast #7 (~140Mb) [...]
In the summertime, everything seems to slow down. No one returns your calls or emails at work because they're all on vacation. In the music world, releases slow down from their rapid spring rate. Although this year it seems like there hasn't been much of slow down in stuff coming out this summer, so there is no dearth of new stuff in this edition. Without further ado, and since this isn't France (I don't have enough vacation time to take the whole summer off), here is the summer edition of the basementcast. The track list and [...]
Yes, summer has finally arrived and my vacation was filled with swimming, baseball games, and fishing. We split our time between sl-Ohio and Washington, DC. It was a bunch of fun, especially our trip to Linesville, Pennsylvania to feed the carp. Throwing bread to a bunch of overgrown fish is probably not a lot of people's idea of fun, but I don't hang out with those kind of people. I'm hesitant to call this the summer edition of the basementcast, that'll be next month. This is more like the summer vacation edition. [...]
When we first moved into our house, one of our neighbors offered us some chickens. She assured us that they were little trouble and that once you have a farm fresh egg you'll never go back to the store bought ones. I balked at having chickens in the backyard, and still buy eggs from the grocery store or the farmer's market. There are times that I wish we would have taken the offer, usually it's at breakfast time. What does this have to do with the fourth installment of the basementcast you may wonder? Absolutely nothing, [...]
This is basementcast number three, but I'm still working out the kinks. For some reason everything seems a bit overmodulated, especially me. But, I guess I always was a loud talker. A big thanks to my kid sister and her husband who got me the new microphone for my birthday. They must have been listening and took pity. I'm still figuring it out, but it makes it a whole lot more fun talking into a real mic. As for the music, there's tons of good stuff coming out every week, especially 7 inch single these days. I try to cover [...]
Here ya go, something for the weekend. It's the March installment of the the Finest Kiss Basementcast. If this is going to become a regular thing, I guess I should get a theme song and some back ground music for the talking parts. A real microphone might be nice too, one of those big foamy ones would be perfect. Maybe I should get some advertisers too. Naah, I kind of like the furnace as my background noise, at least until I sell out. basementcast : download [...]
the finest kiss
Austin Town Hall
Diplo - "Climax" (MP3 Stream)
Out This Week 2/14
[listen] Diplo ft. Usher - Climax
Skrillex Uses Satanic and Homosexual Influence to Win Grammys
Jack White – Love Interruption [Music Video]
