hamilton

Aimee Mann, Whatever.

Thelonious Monk, Straight, No Chaser.

Norah Jones, Not Too Late.

So.... now the album's out, but for some reason no one is talking about it! I picked it up today, and after one listen I have to say that it's pretty damn good. She has managed to sound different from her second album, which was in turn different from the first one. This one sounds a little more folky and more stripped-down than the others. I read in an interview that she was thinking of Tom Waits when doing some of this material, and it shows (not in the singing, of course!). Anyway, my initial reaction is quite positive. (P.S. - for you Kevin Breit fans, he is only listed as playing mandolin on one track.)

The Strokes, First Impressions of Earth.

It turns out that this was a performance piece... Link .

Miles Davis, Water Babies.

Yup. He also did a Little Big Band thing that was cool and his idol is SRV. A buddy of mine in 1997 went to an autograph signing at a cd store in Kingston and I asked him to get me a 'How about that Phil Lesh' Guess what? Buddy asked for it and Colin responded with "Isnt that the bass player for the Grateful Dead?" He then was reminded how much he wanted some Dead music and said to a 'handler' "Hey' date=' go get every Dead cd here for me without duplicates"[/quote'] If I recall correctly, it was SRV who kind of "broke" Colin James. I think SRV was touring in Western Canada, and his opening band was stopped at the border, so when he asked for the "best local player" to open for him, and he got Colin James. Apparently SRV went on and on to everyone he met about how great Colin James was, which resulted in James getting a record deal. And yeah, the Little Big Band stuff is great!

Technically, there is a difference, although no one knows and everyone uses these words interchangeably. "Use" is when you use something for the purpose for which it was intended - "I used a hammer to put a nail on the wall." "Utilize" is when you successfully use something for a purpose other than that for which it was intended - "I used a hammer to pulverize Booche's testicles in order to prevent him from spreading his demon-spawn across the Earth."

Amen!!! This drives me completely bonkers!

I don't know much by him other than his radio hits. I remember hearing Colin on the radio last year sometime and he was jamming on his guitar playing material from his latest release that was heavy on the Blues. I was really impressed. I think this is it: http://www.colinjames.com/disc_llb3.php I'd like to catch him live sometime. I think I'll agree with Cully - Colin James is underrated. Get past some of the cheesier radio hits, and he's quite good. I saw him at the London Bluesfest about five years ago and I was almost surprised at how much I truly enjoyed his set. He's a hell of a guitar player - just ask Stevie Ray Vaughn, he'll tell you! Well, he would if he were alive, anyway.

But the dude's not just a dude, is he? I mean, I'm just a dude; no one is going to pay big bucks to see me sing something. They're not even going to pay small bucks to see me fart in a jar. If you've got talent and people are willing to pay to watch you, how does that make it "hype"? How can you admit that he has talent one moment and then say that it's all hype the next?

www.theonion.com

Bill Frisell, The Willies.

In Korea, the concepts of "waiting" and "standing in line" are unheard of. This angers me. I think these issues will one day cause me to be arrested. The other day, I was standing in a line at the coffee shop; there were two women in fron of me, and one more behind me. So this older dude (probably around 55 or so) walks right up to the counter and orders a coffee for himself. And what does the counter staff do? Tell him that there are four other people standing in line, and that he'll have to wait? No, they SERVE HIM!! This happens ALL THE TIME in any imaginable location - coffee shops, subways, restaurants, public washrooms - basically anyplace where you might possibly have to stand in line. And although the culprits are usually older men, they aren't exclusively so. It could be anyone. And while I understand the whole concept of elder respect over here, this guy wasn't an old man by any stretch of the imagination. Just as bad is the subway. While most people will stand nicely in two different lines on either side of the door and wait for everyone else to exit before they attempt to enter the subway car, there will always be a few people who will ignore the lines and then stand right in the middle of the doorway and try to push their way on to the subway before anyone else has had the opportunity to get off. This drives me crazy. Not only are they too rude to wait in the line with everyone else, they're too rude to wait for you to get off - which of course, would only make it easier for them to get on! At 6'3" and 190 lbs, in Korea I'm considered a giant. So I make myself as big as possible, fold my arms across my chest and literally bulldoze these assholes all the way back - my record so far is pushing three people (at once) back about ten feet - by which point it was almost impossible for them to get back onto the train before the doors closed. Assclowns.

Roxy Music, Country Life.

World Party, Egyptology.

Steely Dan, Gaucho.

How is any rock band or artist that isn't a quiet solo acoustic artist "not suited" to playing the main stage at an enormous festival? Not that I give a rat's ass about Pearl Jam, but still... I can't see how they "aren't suited".

Right now, the world's worst sound is the wailing screech that my neighbour makes at all hours of the day and night (mostly night, unfortunately). She literally cries for hours, moaning and wailing at the top of her lungs, oftentimes throwing objects against the walls and/or dragging her furniture around the room. This has been happening several nights per week for the last eight months, most frequently on weeknights between 11 PM and 2 AM (ironically, she once came pounding on my door at 10 PM on a *Saturday* to throw a fit about her inability to sleep because I was listening to the stereo). Occasionally, instead of crying, she sings at top volume. Can anyone say "bi-polar?" The second-worst sound is the rooster across the street. Yeah, that's right - a fookin' ROOSTER! I live in the Korean equivalent of the Upper West Side in Manhattan, and the fuckers in the house across the street have a rooster. The rooster is apparently a global rooster, because it seems to annouce dawn in every time zone around the globe. All day. Every day. Cock-a-doodle-doooo! It's morning in Seoul! Cock-a-doodle-doo, it morning in Honolulu! Cock-a-doodle-doo, it's morning in Los Angeles! I'm thinking of buying a pellet gun and erasing that mutherfucker. I'm not sure if it will work on my neighbour - I might need something bigger.

XTC, Go 2.

Happy Birthday Sara! Have a great night!

The Rolling Stones, It's Only Rock 'n' Roll

And I have no beef whatsoever with Navy Blues. Good call on Between The Bridges, NR - it took me a while to get into that album for some reason, but when I finally "got it" I really liked it a lot.