Music Write-Ups
How do you know Chris Earley? Bath House
How many MP3s do you have on your hard drive? >50
The next to last song in this yearlong mixtape is dedicated to Major “Dr. Gonzo” Shlepcar.
When we worked together at a .com in 2000, we worked with a group of all men ages 25-45. All of us had nicknames. We had a Bishop, a Colonel, a G.Webb.
G.Webb was so fucking cool not only did he get a very alcoholic drink named after him, we started to use G.Webb as a term for “the best of” something. Like when Radiohead was releasing Kid A, we contemplated if it was going to be the G.Webb of Radiohead albums.
Sadly, it wasn’t.
Shlepcar still thinks it’s The Bends and I still say OK Computer.
I was given the nickname Slim and Shlepcar was given Sarge. A few years ago I promoted Sarge to Major- I felt like he really deserved the promotion.
This was during the heyday of Napster and everyone took advantage of the free bandwidith. We even had a network share for trading music (and porn).
I had never really gotten into Primal Scream before Shlepcar loaned me his copy of their recently release XTRMNTR. I hated it so intensely on the first listen, I had to give it another go. It grew on me and I ended up going through their entire back catalog.
It seems like a pretty upbeat and optimistic song is appropriate going into 2008.
Shlepcar may need another promotion after spending this year working on this site. Thanks to everyone involved with this site. Especially Shlepcar for all of his great stories and hard work.
My top five favorite Shlepcar moments of 2007:
5- When he slept through us drunkenly spray-painting his collapsed tent at Burning Man with him in it. Homeboy has true grit.
4- Shlepcar “liberating” one of the remaining 30 packs of Tecate left over from Burning Man from my basement.
On Thanksgiving.
3- When he was fish-sitting at my loft in June, I answered the phone in Philly: “I figured the only reason you were going to call was if you killed my fish or needed help operating the universal remote control.”
He responded “Ummm…..Both.”
2- Him using the fish sitting time to rip the rest of my 700+ CD collection.
Too bad he ripped them all at an unlistenable 56k bitrate.
1- Reading this site. Great work, Major.
I just wish it wasn’t ending.
-Slim
Excerpt from an article on Time magazine’s website:
While many industry observers speculated that Radiohead might go off-label for its seventh album, it was presumed the band would at least rely on Apple’s iTunes or United Kingdom-based online music store 7digital for distribution. Few suspected the band members had the ambition (or the server capacity) to put an album out on their own. The final decision was apparently made just a few weeks ago, and, when informed of the news on Sunday, several record executives admitted that, despite the rumors, they were stunned. “This feels like yet another death knell,” emailed an A&R executive at a major European label. “If the best band in the world doesn’t want a part of us, I’m not sure what’s left for this business.”
Labels can still be influential and profitable by focusing on younger acts that need their muscle to get radio play and placement in record stores — but only if the music itself remains a saleable commodity. “That’s the interesting part of all this,” says a producer who works primarily with American rap artists. “Radiohead is the best band in the world; if you can pay whatever you want for music by the best band in the world, why would you pay $13 dollars or $.99 cents for music by somebody less talented? Once you open that door and start giving music away legally, I’m not sure there’s any going back.”
…
-Slim
Why can’t I write for song o’ the day?
Jesus, I love reading it.
Occasionally, I like to listen to the music here.
I love music is clearly the answer.
Too much music.
More music than most of you.
Hell , I could pontificate about the beauty and joy of Muddy Waters or
The Jesus Lizard or Black Flag or Sam Cooke or The Velvet Underground or
The Stooges (scratch that) or Mogwai or Dead Meadow or Thin Lizzy or
The Duke Spirit or……
The list is so long and undignified that I don’t know where to start.
Hence my problem.
I could tell you about the album I lost my virginity to.
OK, fine….
It was Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division.
And that’s not even the ironic part of it.
Ironically, I couldn’t comprehend the irony of losing your virginity to an album called Unknown Pleasures for at least four years…
Now laugh.
Wait for it.
Wait for it.
Fuck you.
And fuck the Beatles and the Stones.
Even though I love them both.
Fuck you if this song doesn’t make you want to dance like a fucking
iPod commercial on the bus until you kiss a complete stranger.
Listen to it.
Now.
If it doesn’t make you tap your foot, play air guitar, or smile, I
promise you oral sex.
And fuck you, Chris Earley.
This song isn’t in my CD collection.
Find it.
Maybe my next rant will include Led Zepplin….
And then I’ll get someone to promise me oral sex.
-Slim
I wrote a tome trying to sum up how I felt about this song and this band after listening to 15 versions (I’m not kidding) of it from The Complete Funhouse Sessions in an attempt to make sure that YOU received the best version.
This one speaks to me.
They all speak to me.
After reading it all and yawning profusely I can only say this: I fucking love The Stooges.
I feel alright.
Do you feel alright?
-Alexander Jay Storman