It's Gonna Be Pissing On Us All Night

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain!

Last week I took a trip down to hectic San Antonio to visit T. I left at 2pm, and thanks to the ridiculous downpour and about a billion other turds who apparently had the same fucking idea as me, it took 3 1/2 hours to get there.

On the way, stuck in thick stop-and-go traffic, I took in plenty of bizarre sights from the road: a submerged SUV, a couple fighting outside their car in the rain, and of course, Juanes and his deadly sinful eyebrows:

On Saturday we went to lunch at Chris Madrid's. Good little burger place. They got their own thing going there, piling melted cheddar cheese on anything and everything, and it was just the stuff my hungover queasy stomach needed for the drive back home (which, thankfully, only took the usual 1 hour). Fuck you, I-35!

Here's a shot of the little Walnut Creek trib behind work that I go check out from time to time. It was flooding quite a bit the other day and had risen around four feet:

Yessss

Grand jury indicts Vick
Falcons QB faces charges related to dogfighting

Good. Good!

Go Botz

Holy shit! Jake la Botz. I really dig this guy's fucking music. Apparently, so does Buscemi. I mentioned him as a standout on the Little Radio 2007 SXSW compilation (son of a bitch! that would have been a nice show) with his tune "For the Brothers." I checked out his myspace, which has some great videos on it. Come to find out, this was the guy that played the slide-guitar rapist slash lead singer of my favorite fake band from a film, Blueshammer from Ghost World. Fortunately his stuff sounds nothing like that mess - "I been ploooooooowing, picking cotton all day long." Heheh. I hope to pick up his latest record, Graveyard Jones, very soon. He's coming to inkfest on September 21 (what a month for music). I fuckin love it, you can pay him $400 to come play your tattoo parlor. It's gotta sound great with the buzz of the needles in the background.

Browsing the Hoard, Contd

Shapes and Sizes - Shapes and Sizes - Eh, not so much. Sort of a weak Of Montreal.

The Clientele - Strange Geometry - Now this I got into. Kinda like a really well updated Byrds. Good British pop. "Since K Got Over Me" and "Impossible" are probably my favo(u)rites.

Blonde Redhead - 23 - Yeah, they're good, I guess that's old news. I liked this one also.

Still on a strict Bitburger diet as beer goes.

Hey shit, how about that Wimbledon final? Almost too entertaining. Querido Roger, I'll be back next year wey, love, Nadal.

J'accuse

Browsing The Hoard

A friend shared various tunes with me this last week, here's my impressions of the hoard.

Medeski, Scofield, Martin, and Wood – Out Louder – Typical jammy background music from these guys. I have and like three other MMW records, particularly Combustication; Scofield apparently added his guitar to this one. Not bad but not immediately spectacular.

Black Before Red – Belgrave to King’s Circle – Austin band. OK indie rock, but I was pretty bored listening to it. Like a boring version of Shins or Band of Horses. Again, nothing put me off but nothing really caught on, either. Yawn.

Grupo Fantasma – Comes Alive – Hey, guess what, latin music. Whoopty. There’s probably a time and place where this might entertain me, but this morning at work just wasn’t it. It reminded me of all the superfluous Vallejo/Scabs/Grooveline Horns combinations I used to choke down back in the day. Yawn.

Now It’s Overhead – Dark Light Daybreak – Didn't really get into this one, either. Like a boring Oasis - Calexico - Gomez mix. Yawn.

Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures – Interesting indie rock. Sounds like a mix of My Morning Jacket, Pinback and Sun Kil Moon. I liked the “California” song, very gentle like the final tracks on early Pearl Jam albums, but sung by Paul Simon. “You” is decent as well.

Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood – Smooth smoky surf country. The music (echo, heavy on the wammy-bar, brushed snare percussion) sounds like Chris Isaak, but Neko’s vocals are less sad than groovy. I had heard “Hold on, Hold on” once before on internet radio and I loved hearing it within the context of the rest of the record. “Dirty Knife” is also great. The lyrics are all fairly interesting.

Darin Murphy – Haunted Gardenias – A boring Rufus Wainwright. Generic and forgettable. Yawn.

Emily Haines – Knives Don’t Have Your Back – I’m back and forth about miss Emily’s solo and Metric material; her work for Broken Social Scene, however, is untouchably awesome. This album has nice piano and vocals but it was just too slow and quiet and nothing really stuck. Her lyrics have always been a dark mystery that I never really cared to try and decode. Track 6: “Bros before hoes, disagree on the sideline. Fight for a fee... the man needs a maid? The maid needs a maid.” Erm, ok. It all seems like mopey Lilith Fair opener material to me.

Little Radio Spring 2007 (SXSW) Sampler – Wasn’t familiar with the site before I heard this record. It seems pretty cool, though they really took a shit on the new Interpol and I take extreme exception with their review. They put together a pretty good little compilation, including these memorable numbers:
Welcome – “All Set” – twangy Who- and Kinks-like rock and roll
The Mooney Suzuki – “Alcohol” – a silly, clever, wordsmithy tribute to boozing
Jake la Botz – “For the Brothers” – deep dark delta guitar accompanied by a slow drawling voice, pouring out a lil’ liquor for those that have gone before.
Eleni Mandell – “Twin” – very enjoyable female vocalist and music.

I Heard Transformers Sucks Ass

Yeah. From a couple of different sources. And they didn't completely shit on it either, but the things they didn't like about made it sound like exactly the kind of movie I don't want to pay to see. So, I hereby pre-meh Transformers.

We watched Nightwatch over the last couple of evenings, and it was a real mess. Like a confused Russian Underworld. Nonetheless I will still try to rent the sequel, which the director says will be significantly different in speed and style. There were maybe a few interesting elements lost in the mix but overall the first of this apparent trilogy was disappointing.

I've tried a couple new restaurants in the past 2 weeks or so. Me and c2 went to North By Northwest (or NXNW to you, broham) in the middle of the week. It wasn't anything special. Tries really hard to be fancy. The crowd was lame, too: split down the middle between skinny, faceless Austin chickadees and the rotating cast of all the old Bill Brasky skits on SNL. If you like to eat at places that specialize in things like pan-laminated pork castles and basil-elucidated fish nard ambrosia, then you'd probably love this place. I had the cobb salad and it was ok, c2 tried the pasta fazool (or something, I don't remember the name), and it had an overly sweet tomato-onion cream sauce that got real old real fast. I had their "Northern Light" (beer!) and it was a light beer, nothing more, nothing less. I expect I'd try the rest of their line if someone else was paying, but I don't really feel like going back so it probably won't ever happen.

I also ate at Moe's Southwest Grill. Had a chicken club quesadilla and it was mighty fine. Queso was thick and tasty. All in all very satisfactory for a decent price; I'll go back.

Fourteen Oh! Eight and Others

After hearing a few good reviews we went to see 1408 this weekend. It was pretty decent, with tons of really creepy shit, but the beginning and end were both really slow and cheesy. I can't wait to stay in a hotel again, just for the inevitable flashbacks of all the strange imagery this movie has sunk into my mind.

Finished the first season of Entourage, fuckin awesome. Great characters and plenty of hilarious cameos. Each episode is a short little treat of dirty hollywood b.s. skewered for my amusement.

Also saw Apocalypto, which was much better than I expected. It was pretty damn violent, disturbing like Braveheart on speed. I looked around online to get a feel for how accurate it really was, but there seems to be points of view from both sides (on the internet... imagine that!). Some elements from the film were no doubt creatively intuited (to have actually happened in Mayan culture), and the historical timeline was something of a mishmash, but it really doesn't change my opinion of the movie. I thought the costumes, scenery, and acting were spectacular, but a couple of the plot elements were a tad trite.