As promised, the second Bonds show. There's a bit of hiss over this one, and some shmuck keeps screaming out request. "White Riot!," he yells, right before a version of Armagideon Time with a slightly off-beat. Not my favorite Bonds show, by a long shot. One for completists only, I'd say. [...]
On the same stage as Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, the Treacherous Three, Joe Ely, The Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains, The Fall, The Sugar Hill Gang, The Slits, and even ESG, our heroes ground through a 17-show run that actually got the place closed by the fire marshall. It's not a wonder that [...]

photo: Catherine Wygal IODA Promonet is sponsoring a great kick-off to SXSW 2008 with an open-to-the-public (no wristbands, badges, or RSVP required!) party at Emo's Annex (at 6th and Red River for those of you in town and heading to the festivities) from noon to 6 pm today. Headlining will be a QBiM perennial favourite, The Wedding Present , in their first US live performance since 2006. Also on the bill, another QBiM favourite, Jason Collett , who I'm sure will celebrate being at [...]
South by Southwest kicks off today, and I'm still in Portland. Tragic! To console myself, I'm posting four mp3s at once from bands at this year's festival. Jason Collett "Out of Time" (mp3) Sean Hayes "Flowering Spade" (mp3) The Wedding...
JC who writes the Vinyl Villain is not so much a blog-pal - someone who writes a blog that covers similar territory to mine - as an actual pal. A truer gent and a more generous soul you will never meet, which makes his latest plan no less than completely characteristic. There's been a fair bit [...]

As we've already mentioned , EAR FARM will be hitting the road tomorrow to head down to Austin, TX for South by Southwest . Our trip will include multiple stops along the way to survey local color, see live music, and enjoy the best barbecue our country has to offer. Speaking of which, we'd like to take a moment to announce something very special we'll be doing on our way down to/back from SXSW. EAR FARM is going to be working with CHOW to bring you a very special feature in the coming [...]
With a name like Pete and the Pirates, you would think that they'd be from some sea faring town on the coast, but no they're from Reading? Sounding a little like Adam and the Ants with the bouncing bass lines and Tommy Sanders' kind of whooping vocals. To be fair, I've also seen them compared [...]
Here's a song, originally by the dance troupe who last night were given the accolade of 'Best British Live Act' at the Brit Awards 2008. as performed by the band who should have won it but who will never appear on the radar of any of the judges:-mp3 : The Wedding Present - Back For GoodI really don't know whay I'm even giving the oxygen of publicity to The Brits. Whoever first reckoned they

I think I've only had three Valentine's Day dates in my life. One went down as the absolute worst date I've ever had in my life. One was more memorable for what didn't happen than what did. And the final one (which was actually the first, this list runs in reverse chronological order), I remember absolutely nothing about. I'm sure it was very nice, it just wasn't at all memorable. So I don't have a lot of warm, fuzzy memories of the holiday to give me fond feelings for it. But I'm certainly not bitter about it, like a LOT [...]
I'm not very good at telling jokes. Really. My humour tends to be more situational, observational, absurd. But at least I'm not as offensive (I think) as Yuri, the deranged owner of Klub Ra-Ra-Rasputin who introduces my submission to this week's Contrast Podcast episode of joke intros. Download the hilarity here , but beware: some of the intros are very blue indeed. Playlist: (00:43) George W. & Tom Compagnoni - Imagine Rick and Kristi from Are you embarassed easily? [...]

image courtesy of Baby Got Books I meant to mention this as soon as I got home on Wednesday night, but for some odd reason I passed out as soon as I stepped into my apartment. The reading with Rob Sheffield was fantastic, and was my very first time visiting Wordsmiths Books in Decatur, GA. Special thanks to Rich at Cable & Tweed for answering my frantic phone call for directions, as I couldn't seem to find the bookstore no matter how many times I drove up and down [...]

Listen: "The Queen Of Outer Space" by The Wedding Present from Hit Parade 2 View: Image search results for The Queen Of Outer Space - above image is from the first page of results (and was originally from HERE ). -- In the recent past these songs were featured in Hit-or-miss posts: "Powder Blue" by Ween "Good Morning, Captain" by Slint "Septopus Theme" by Brendon Small [...]
Dec 22, 2007, 8:51am
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Die Amerikaner sind irgendwie völlig durchgeknallt, wenn es um Feiertage und Musik geht. Egal ob Thanks Giving oder Weihnachten, für die Feiertage scheint jeder noch schnell einen Song schreiben zu wollen. Augenscheinlich bewiesen wurde dies durch den Sufjan Stevens Weihnachtsong-Wettbewerb . Der Singer/Songwriter hat den schönsten Weihnachtsong gesucht und gefunden . Über 600 Songs wurden eingereicht. Den besten und circa 40 andere gibt's hier . Sufjan Stevens ist aber nicht der einzige Musiker, der eine (oder meherere) musikalische Ode(n) an Weihnachten geschrieben hat. Weihnachtssongs von namhaften Musiker gibt's wie Tannennadeln in einem Tannenwald oder so ähnlich. Jetzt [...]

photo: ktpupp Things have really started to wind down at QBiM Central, so i think it's time to take a much needed breather, and spend some time with family and friends. I'll be back next week, so until then, all the bet to you and yours this holiday season. The Wedding Present "Step Into Christmas"

First off, please join me on Tuesday, December 18th at Huckleberry Bar: ::charm school:: @ Huckleberry Bar 588 Grand at Lorimer St Williamsburg, Brooklyn - indie - pop - bossa nova - frenchie/ye-ye - brit invasion - new wave - electro - & more! Not a kiddie bar -- the crowd is cool & laid back. More info HERE --> ** FREE CAZADORES TEQUILA DRINKS FROM 8 - 10 PM!! ** < -- [...]

If you haven't figured it out already every MP3 on 24 Hour Party Pooper , save the ones in this post and the Bear Hunter ones posted just below, are dead . Hopefully, not permanently. I'll have to either migrate them or get my current file server to be more cooperative but you should be able to get your Gang of Four and Talking Heads rarities again soon enough. ------------------------------ ------------------- This always happens. I do a huge post about a single album and then I'm creatively spent for a [...]

Busy times... I'm almost done with everything now, but I still have this feeling inside that "omg, there's so little time left, and so much to do...". I think I have a couple of presents to buy + a christmas tree, and that's it. Not much at all, so the feeling is totally irrational, but it's definitely there. How about you? Finished or not? Stressed or relaxed? I mentioned some bands giving away their stuff for free for the christmas season. Here's another one. The Silent Years has decided to be nice kids this year, and gives away [...]
Rhino's cool "alternative" box set of 2007 is The Brit Box which I wrote about back in August. It's in stores this week. As I said then, it does a pretty admirable job of documenting the cool music coming out...