so, for the second time in a couple of months, I heard mention of The Bad Plus on WFPL, one (1) of our (3) local public radio stations. The Bad Plus is billed as “jazz with a rock soul”, and are credited with “single handedly making jazz relevant again”. I can’t really support the latter claim, being no jazz aficionado. I do know that they are drums, bass and piano.

Their most apparent claim-to-fame is their cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, but that one serves to rubberneck folks into paying attention to The Bad Plus. Having listened to the samples of These are the Vistas, I can say that that track stands by itself as an interesting deconstruction, but the samples I heard for “1972 Bronze Medalist” and “Flim” tell me that they are deeper than that. I need to get that disc. In the meantime, listen to NPR‘s All Songs Considered In-Studio with The Bad Plus.

In a feat of blog style incest, whereas Jackson stole one of my posts, I shall in turn steal from him.

start gank
Turns out Dear Raed is back, via a friend.
end gank.

While snooping through SNITCH, I found that they have a Rick Collett archive! Rick is a ex-motorcyle-gang member who spent 9 years in jail, and writes a weekly column for SNITCH detailing his experiences “inside”. Rick’s writing style is clean and crisp, always entertaining, and he makes some wonderfully interesting parallels between the “outside” and “inside” worlds. For whatever reason, I have strange affinity for information about the whole social structure of prison, and reading Rick’s column is like watching some Discovery channel special (not to demean his column, mind you). Ah well, you should either pick up a copy of SNITCH at a local retailer (look for the huge stacks of un-read LEO Magazine nearby), or go and read some of Rick’s stuff. Stick around for other great writers and their articles, too.

Kelly and I went up to the BBC last night to catch a Bluegrass Anonymous jam. Met Jackson, M@, and Sara up there (Ronen was strangely absent).

I took a pan of the Bier Garden, and it can be found in its full glory here.

Whilst browsing Caleb O. Brown’s blog, I responded to his plea for comments on SNITCH‘s website. I suggested an RSS feed of the always popular ZIP Code Crime Watch. He replied nicely saying that “they’d do that in the future”, and that I should link to Snitch, as he was their webmaster and links keep webmasters in business. Who am I to argue? Heh. Well, he *is* an alumnus of UofL (yeah, I remember your ‘laissez faire’ hat, and yer comic with Sam), so I’ve obliged. Note link on left. Now, go read the ZIP Code Crime Watch.

Two things:

I like Public Radio, but I wish I could hear more of the programming that is out there. Well, thanks to PublicRadioFan.com, I can pick and choose from the dozens of public radio stations streaming live on the web.

As far as Public Urination goes, I’m not as big a fan, but thanks to the MIT Media Lab, that could change. You see, they’ve made peeing much more fun (video).

links shamelessly ripped from memepool

what do you get when you mix the dynamism of the Pixies, the contempt and satire of this whole “rock and roll thing” from Tenacious D with a good smattering of the playful rock of Blur?

I think that you might just get Mclusky. I’ll admit to having heard their single “Allan is a Cowboy Killer” on WOXY, and having liked that a great deal, I checked out the website and stumbled upon the rock that is Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues. I finally remembered to pick up their LP “Mclusky Do Dallas” released way back in Apr 2001. With song titles like “The World Loves Us and Is Our Bitch”, how can you go wrong?

That linked article compares them to The Strokes and The Hives, but I don’t think that’s really all that fair. The Strokes and The Hives are far too clean and tight to be put into the same group. One comparison I *do* think is fair is Flipper, the Pixies, and maybe some more balls-out Blur stuff. Mclusky is hard-working, guts and glory rock. Anyway, I’m no good for a review at this point, so just go and download some MP3s and give it a twirl.

You may want to read the Pitchfork review of Do Dallas.

Also check 75orLess.com‘s review here. (She mentions Damion Albarn from Blur, and even the Pixies, so I feel justified in my earlier comparisons).