Browsing Indie Mag Ads

In the latest installment of "Music I Found While Browsing Through Ads In Indie Music Magazines," I give you Terry Ohms Plays Wes McDonald.

Wes McDonald is a musician from Alabama, in the rock/country/blues vein. Apparently he traveled to an Arctic pub at some point in his life, where he met a half-Eskimo pagan monk named Terry Ohms with a penchant for similar music. He convinced Ohms to travel to Alabama to record, and this CD is the result.

So first, some Wes McDonald, since I had never heard of him either:

Chinese Rug

And then, some Terry Ohms:

Reports Of My Death

Baby Copperheads

I went and actively sought out Spencer Dickinson after reading the following review in my much-beloved Magnet magazine:

"Picture a boy with a stringer full of fish. An old-timer asks him what he's using for bait, and the lad replies, 'These little brown worms, but they keep biting me.' The codger responds matter-of-factly, 'Son, those are baby copperheads.'"

Well, yes and no. This collaboration between Jon Spencer and a couple of North Mississippi All-Stars does have a bite, but it's watered down from the all-mighty cobra venom of the blues. Still worth a listen, though.

It's A Drag

The Norah Story

A while back I started to tell a story about Norah Jones, but I got distracted and never finished. So here it is now.

When Ms. Jones' massive hit CD came out, I really wanted it, but I didn't want to pay full price. I don't know why. I just had some kind of issue with it.

So I was looking for it used, and I was looking for it used, and finally I found it, in Mondo Kim's East Village location, which for those who don't know, is perhaps the single snootiest record store to exist on the planet, ever. Just by way of description, they have a section called "mainstream," into which they put, I don't know, REM and Radiohead, that takes up maybe one-eighth of the floor space. The rest of the store is devoted to indie, noise, experimental, stuff that I have never heard of before and will never heard of again. Typically, the music they're playing while you're browsing gives you a headache and makes you want to flee.

Imagine my dilemma as I stood there staring at the $7 copy of the Norah Jones CD. "I want it, but if I buy it here, I'm going to be sneered at," went my thought process.

Covetousness won out over pride. I bought it. And as I walked away from the cash register I heard one clerk say to the other, "See, I told you someone would buy that."

Here's a song not on that CD.

Norah Jones - New York City

Addis Ababa To Harlem

Too often, I hear a band and think, "they're okay, but if I wanted to listen to something like this, I'd just listen to XXX better band that did it 10 years earlier." That's why it's always nice when something that breaks new ground comes along. Bole2Harlem definitely qualifies. Listing its hometown as Harlem and Addis Ababa, the group mixes Ethiopian, American hip-hop, dub, reggae and probably a few more sounds besides.

Amet Bale

Protest Music

I remember how excited I was when Bill Clinton won the presidency for the first time. I was young and optimistic (and from Arkansas) and convinced that he could change the world. He didn't, really, except maybe to drag the media even deeper into the muck than it already was.

I'm glad the Democrats are in control of at least one branch of government again, but I'm not nearly as ecstatic as I was back in the Clinton era. These days, the only thing the government seems to want to do is enrich itself.

Mostly I'm inspired at the thought of gridlock. And that's not really something to be inspired by.

Radiohead - Gloaming

Steve Earle - Conspiracy Theory

M.I.A. - Pop

Peace And Love

1) Watching the marathon filled me with inspiration at the coolness of people. And amusement at the craziness of people. My favorite was the man we spotted juggling and running on 4th Ave. in Brooklyn - and 12 miles later, when we trucked up to Harlem, we saw him again, still juggling, still running. Incredible. Second favorite: the man who asked us on 1st Ave. at mile 19 where the Bronx was. Third favorite: these crazy people who turn out every year to run in save the rhino costumes. They are truly insane. Biggest regret: missing Lance Armstrong. Sigh.

2) Saw 'The Departed' a couple of weekends ago while in Boston. While glad I saw it in Boston, I'm not really glad I saw it overall. I mean, how many times do I need it proved to me that Jack Nicholson plays a great crazy person? I did, however, leave the theater filled with a need to listen to the Pogues, a need which I am finally fulfilling tonight. My favorite quiet Pogues song is "Summer in Siam," but it is not quiet Pogue songs that I am seeking out today, so I present you instead with my favorite loud, jump-up-and-down-as-one-does-with-the-Pogues, song:

Cotton Fields

Let's Go Runners!

I'll be out watching the NYC Marathon today. It should be a perfect day for the runners. Here's my wish that you all get to run over the top ramp of the Verrazano Narrows bridge, achieve personal bests, don't cramp, and can walk tomorrow. Or at least by Tuesday! But most of all, I hope you have a great time, because it's a great race.

Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen

Run The Crowd - The Shapeshifters

You Are A Runner And I Am My Father's Son - Wolf Parade

When You're Older, Ohmigod

Lately, there's been a lot of handwringing about how the Internet is changing the world as we know it, but how most of us are too stupid to figure out how exactly, and to position ourselves to make assloads of money from it.

I'm definitely in the "too stupid" camp, but I do know one thing that's going to change.

Bands are going to stop giving themselves names that are hard to search on Google. Go on, try and google "The The." I dare you.

Dept. of Energy is a new band - well, kind of new, since they appear to be a somehow reconstituted version of an earlier group called Dear John Letters - that has the same problem, seeing as how they have a massive government agency to contend with in getting their name out there. It's too bad, because they're pretty cool.

They say in a newspaper article that some of their music relies on lyrics from a poet, Alex Green. I can definitely feel that influence in their songs, which draw imagery that's almost tangible.

Dept. of Energy - Song For John Voluntine