[[[[VVRRSSNN]]] - "Comeouttoshowdem" MP3] The drive up US-101—the Pacific Coast Highway—was the most surreal drive yet. It took a while for the visuals to kick-in, but once they did, I was convinced I wouldn't be able to render what I was witnessing in words. The welcome sign outside of Buellton, California proudly declares that Buellton [...]
Bradley & Geofrey: MR STEVEN'S PRIVATE SERVICE (featuring bradford cox) by producedbyadam This is a weird musical collaboration between Adam Forkner (Yume Bitsu, White Rainbow), of psych-ambient-noise renown, and Bradford Cox (Deerhunter, Atlas Sound), who should require no introduction. Seems like they're possibly 'on substance(s)' and just goofing around - possibly this isn't even intended for public consumption - it's not clear to me, I just stumbled upon this by accident while browsing through Adam's semi-secret Soundcloud account. Only 50 listens so far = still a secret, surprisingly, considering the Deerhunter obsessives [...]
In celebration of the upcoming 200th Sunday Mix Tape, I've decided to spend a few days this week taking a leisurely stroll down memory lane. My memory's lane. I've compiled 199 official Sunday Mix Tapes as well as a few compilations that arrived on a Monday or other random day. It's time to take a look back and examine why this feature has become such a huge success. Since I can't post 200 MP3s this week, I'm going to list what is - in my opinion - the standout track from each installment of the series. About half [...]

White Rainbow is cool and all, but I really, really miss Yume Bitsu. Like, I miss Yume Bitsu more than I miss some of my dead pets. The psychedelic rock band from Portland (whose name translates to "dream beats") hasn't released any new material since 2003, so we're approaching ten years without any space-y goodness from the minds of Adam Forkner, Franz Prichard, Alex Bundy and Jason Anderson. Forkner currently focuses on the aforementioned White Rainbow (and has also contributed to Surface Of Eceon, who have been featured on this website before). Prichard if I remember [...]

Image courtesy of Strange Attractors This space-y rock group features Adam Forkner of Yume Bitsu and Dick Baldwin, Daron Gardner and Aaron Snow of Landing. They are propelled by the Neu-ish drumming of Phil Jenkins. I was introduced to them - as I was with Yume Bitsu - by Ian. Their sound can be boiled down to wah wah and loud amps, but that would be an insult to all the other amazing aspects of their songs. The interplay between different tones (the various levels of distortion, fuzz and crystalline clean guitar parts) [...]
This week marked a week of "ends" in my life. I'm officially cutting off buying records for the next month (dropped $300 on one record is...like...I don't even want to talk about how dumb I feel right now). I'm done free-spending in general (I just bought an expensive camera, too). LOST is over for the next eight or nine months. I ended my boycott of the beach, put on a bathing suit and spent a day at the shore. I don't know, some other shit ended too. That's why today's mix tape is called "The End." [...]
RULES for uninitiated noobs : With roughly 100MB of webspace, I give birth to a weekly Mix Tape to be deposited on your iPods or Zunes or Kingklangs or whatever the industry is currently pushing on you. Sometimes there will be themes that link all the songs together, other times I'll just throw songs at a wall (not literally) and see what sticks. This week I am using songs from Ilya's CD collection. He's sick right now, so I'm sitting only kind-of next to him, and drinking a stiff Emergen-C cocktail. It tastes like ass but hopefully I won't get [...]

Yeah, that's me, wearing an original "Thriller" jacket worn and autographed by Michael Jackson during his world tour. No, that's not how I spent your donations, I swear. I just needed a picture of myself wearing it. You know, because you never know when you're going to need a picture of yourself looking like a flaming homosexual... 75orLess blog! Kevin from Ohio! The two of you combined put the Swan Fungus blog's first (and only) fundraiser over the lofty goal of $350 in two weeks! Thank you everybody who donated, I think I've mentioned you all by name [...]

In case you've forgotten, Futurama returned today. Bender's Big Score is now available on DVD at your local big box store, I imagine. Here's a cool interview I found with David X. Cohen, which sheds a lot of light on the process of making the feature-length epic, as well as details about how Comedy Central is going to air "new" episodes starting in 2008. I still haven't found out how to get in touch with the people who make that show, I think I could write the greatest Futurama episode of all time. Other [...]

Hello beautiful friends. I trust gravity is not keeping you down on this beautiful Sunday, is it? Unless of course, you're living in Vermont (as pictured above, six years ago), where temperatures are starting to drop already. After a miserable, rainy Friday night, the rest of the weekend has been beautiful. And how did I spend my time, you ask? Why, getting drunk on Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale and Port Brewing Wipe Out IPA of course! Today I joined a local bird-watching group for a picnic and some vino in the park. Then shared tasty [...]