Buffista CD-go-round challenge liner notes:

1) If you were making a soundtrack for your life so far – this song would have to be on it.
The Replacements, “I Will Dare” – Let It Be
This is the sound of my high school and college years, with lyrics describing who I was – a lovelorn horn-dog and scrungy drunkard – and the music pointing me down the odd alley from post-punk to folk.

2) A song from one of the CDs currently in your 1) car stereo 2) portable CD player 3) stereo
Vic Chesnutt, “New Town” – About To Choke
I saw Vic on Sessions at West 54th with Lambchop last week and was inspired to pull out this, my favorite of his albums, and Lambchop’s Thriller, along with three other albums that could have contributed to this category (Nick Lowe’s The Impossible Bird, Knife in the Water’s Cut the Cord, and Champale’s Simple Days). But I wanted to get a Vic song on the compilation, and this one has the right blend of whimsy and detail.

3) A song from the first album, cassette, or CD (whichever was first or the oldest that you still have access to) that you purchased for yourself.
Kiss, “Detroit Rock City” – Alive II
My first albums were Kiss’ Dynasty and an early-80s Paul McCartney solo album. I can recall also buying several other Kiss albums, including Destroyer, and a few Beatles right around the same time, so given that I have two Kiss albums and four Beatles albums in my collection, it was a toss-up between the two. Kiss seemed to have just the right amount of goofiness, though.

4) A song without a word in its title.
The Shadows, “36-24-36” – The Shadows Are Go!
The best surf band ever came from England. I originally chose Wire’s “99.9” for this slot, but it was too long and abstract for the mix to cohere. The Shadows tune had the right amount of garage-y silliness and brilliance.

5) A song from the year you were born
Can, “Vitamin C” – Ege Bamyasi
This slot was originally taken by Elis Regina & Tom Jobim’s “Aguas de Marco” (which I moved a few slots down). I considered this song for the What the Heck Is He Talking About category, too, but it seemed a nice bridge between the Shadows’ groove and Pere Ubu’s wackiness.

6) A song with the name of someone in this music swap in it
Pere Ubu, “Lonesome Cowboy Dave” – Terminal Tower
This song originally sat in the What the Heck slot, but the original choice here, a Camper Van Beethoven instrumental lead the mix too far into abstract music (it originally had FIVE instrumentals), so I moved the Ubu here. My forwarding target is David Smay, so I thought I should use a song with his name in it, mainly because I couldn’t think of a single song with the more challenging “Pleiades” in it.

7) A song in a language other than English.
Elis Regina and Tom Jobim, “Aguas de Marco” – Elis (1972)
Like Peter Gabriel, Ms. Regina, who died far too young, put out three or four albums simply titled Elis. Whenever I hear it, this song makes me smile (and could easily go in that category), especially when Elis can’t contain her laughter towards the end of the song.

8) A song with a city or state/province name.
The Kinks, “Oklahoma, U.S.A.” – Muswell Hillbillies
I originally had the western swing Lone Star Beer Jingle here, but it just didn’t’ work in context. The Kinks song, besides being lovely and heartbreaking in its own rights, provided a good bridge between the waters of March song and the quiet intro to the Liars’ dance-punk.

9) Say you're planning a multi-day road trip, this song could go on every mix you make for the trip.
The Liars, “Grown Men Don’t Fall In The River, Just Like That” – They Threw Us All In a Trench and Stuck a Monument On Top
Updating the territory forged by the art-dance-punk class of 1978 out of Leeds (like The Mekons, the Gang of Four, the Raincoats, the Slits, etc.), the Liars manage to provide a political context in the most oblique terms and still rock like hell.

10) A song by a local artist.
Li’l Cap’n Travis, “Peelin’ Out in Zeus’ Yard” – Lonesome and Losin’
One of the weirdest alt-country bands in Austin, Li’l Cap’n Travis mixes psychedelic rock and Beach Boys harmonies (trust me, you have to see them live) with subversive Merle-influenced songs. This is one of their more spacey instrumentals, but it seemed to go pretty well right here.

11) A song with a color in the title.
The Bees, “Voices Green and Purple” – Nuggets, Vol. 4
My songs with “pink” in the title were a little too predictable (Wire, Nick Drake, Husker Du), so, considering how this mix was shaping up, I went with some vintage psychedelia from the Nuggets box.

12) It’s 5am, your alarm is going off, this song would still make you smile.
The Who, “Hall of the Mountain King” – The Who Sell Out
Considering how many instrumentals remain on this mix, aren’t you glad I cut some? The inspired silliness here puts a smile on my face whenever. It also has sufficient kick to get me going at 5 am, as I found out when getting up for a recent fishing trip.

13) Either a cover you thought was an original or an original you thought was a cover
Alex Chilton, “Can’t Seem to Make You Mine” – Bach’s Bottom
This is a cover of the classic garage song from the Seeds, but for the first five years I knew the song (and lordy, covered the song in bands), I thought it was an Alex C. original. Strangely enough, I thought that “Bangkok” and “Take Me Home And Make Me Like It” from the same Alex C. album were covers, although they’re originals. This isn’t the only dirty secret that comes out on this mix.

14) A song that is about a specific movie or book or at least mentions a specific movie or book.
The Drive-By Truckers, “Steve McQueen” – Alabama Ass Whuppin’
Namechecks the chase scene in Bullitt, comments on the lame remake of The Getaway, and waxes poignant over The Hunter, McQueen’s last film. Although it’s not as smart as the fifteen or so Mekons songs I could’ve put here (“Flitcraft,” which is based on a story-within-a-story in The Maltese Falcon, was an early choice), it’s twice as funny. I love how it goes from G-rated to R-rated so quickly, as if the Truckers just decided that there was no way to talk about Steve McQueen without talking about sex.

15) WILDCARD
Mötörhead, “Ace of Spades” – Ace of Spades
Wow, am I funny. Wild card, get it? Wooeee, I should quit my day job now. Anyway, rock out! You win some, lose some, it’s all the same to me!

16) A song that has reached number one on a Billboard chart (state which chart and when).
The Jackson Five, “ABC” – Greatest Hits
Mötörhead to Michael J in one move! Kinda works, though, thanks to the ultra-funky James Jamerson bass line.

17) This song doesn’t fit a category as far as you’re concerned.
The Geraldine Fibbers, “Richard” – Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home
I think this is the jerkiest transition on the comp, but the Fibbers are generally the first genre-busting band that leaps to mind. Somewhere between chamber pop, indie rock, noise rock, and alt-country, this song is one of my favorite of their fractured fairy tales.

18) I hate the artist, but I love the song.
Fugazi, “Waiting Room” – 13 Songs
Confession time: I hate Fugazi. I admire their politics and commitment to principle, but DAMMIT their albums are boring as hell, and, c’mon, I loved Minor Threat. This song, however, rocks like a Green Party activist with a pound of kind bud.

19) Wha? If anyone can tell me what this song is about, give me a call.
Olivia Tremor Control, “I’m Not Feeling Human” – Singles and Beyond
How many times can I fill one slot? Originally held by Pere Ubu, then Can, then Beefheart, and now everybody’s favorite mind-warpers from Elephant Six, this slot proves, for once and for all, that I love baffling music.

20) Guilty Pleasure.
David Brent, Gareth Keenan, and Tim Canterbury, “Free Love on the Freelove Freeway” – The Office, Season One
OK, I’m not embarrassed by any of the music I love, but I had room, so I went with a funny song from The Funniest Show on TV. For those who haven’t seen it, the singer is the office manager and all of this takes place during a training session.

21) TV theme song
Hüsker Dü, “Love Is All Around” – Eight Miles High single
Makes me picture Mary Tyler Moore in ripped fishnets, blue-dyed hair, and Doc Martins, turning the world on with a smile.

22) An unrequited love song.
Roky Erickson, “You Don’t Love Me Yet” – All That May Do My Rhyme
Roky’s broken grammar can’t keep his broken heart from cracking the sunny surface of this song. I love how hopeful that “yet” is, too.

23) A song you love just for the title.
Minutemen, “Do You Want New Wave Or Do You Want The Truth?” – Double Nickels on the Dime
The Minutemen had the best-titled songs in history (other contenders for this slot – from the same album – included “The Roar of the Masses Could Be Farts,” “Political Song for Michael Jackson To Sing,” “The World According to Nouns,” and “God Bows To Math”). This one had the sort of sad & truthful tone that felt right after Roky’s plaintive cry and before Subset’s wind-down.

24 and 25) Stump David or Jon
Subset, “Common Denominator” – Dueling Devotions
Silver Scooter, “Goodbye” – Goodbye EP
I have the hometown advantage here, with access to countless Austin regional bands that in all likelihood have escaped the attention of either of our coastal music geeks. Subset plays indiepop with a noise-rock bent, and this song is from their overall decent recent album. Silver Scooter were regional champs of the Austin indie rock scene. This song is on both their final album and the EP immediately preceding it.

Huge congratulations to Dana Knowles for her nomination by the Cinemarati (1st nomination, 2nd-to-last category). She deserves the prize.

Happy New Year!

Trouble Down South is at Trophy's tonight with The Soft Set and Summer Wardrobe. Although it's a late show, it should be mucho fun. Come on out, even if it means blowing off work tomorrow! Isn't it about time that you destroyed your safe and happy life before it is too late?

Air We Breathe - 2003 year-end mix

1. Alone Again Or - Calexico
2. The Fitted Shirt - Spoon
3. Blanket and Crib - Okkervil River
4. Why Not Your Baby - Gene Clark
5. I Sent You Up - Knife in the Water
6. Los Angeles, I'm Yours - Decemberists
7. You Look Like a Lady - Lee Hazlewood
8. Man With a Harmonica - Ennio Morricone
9. Fuga No. II - Os Mutantes
10. Kotton Krown - Elf Power
11. Naomi - Neutral Milk Hotel
12. Leave My Kitten Alone - Little Willie John
13. I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms - Feelies
14. Already in Black - Moles
15. From Genesis to Judgment Day - Secret Intentions
16. Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead - Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
17. One Foot In the Grave - Pernice Brothers
18. Pete Rose Affinity - Summer Hymns
19. Rhymes of Goodbye - Scott Walker
20. Red Dust - Iron & Wine
21. Air We Breathe - Dexateens
22. All of Your Tomorrows Were Decided Today - Che Arthur
23. Today Is The Day - Yo La Tengo
24. Apology Accepted - Go-Betweens

My preliminary Best of 2003 list:

* The Decemberists - Her Majesty the Decemberists
Fun, funny, and literate. It's like listening to Stephin Merritt and James Thurber share a joint and finish each other's sentences.

* Go-Betweens - Bright Yellow Bright Orange
Boasting their legendary ability to turn phrases and a more focused and folky feel, Robert Forster and Grant McLennon cast the mold for aging gracefully in rock music.

* Knife in the Water - Cut the Cord
Atmospheric as the previous KITW albums, but actually reaching a sense of RAWK at times. Although some of the lyrics wouldn't be out of place on a Yes album, the male/female harmonies and spacey redneck pop bring them home.

* Pernice Brothers - Yours, Mine, or Ours
Like Big Star, Joe Pernice is obsessed with building a better pop song. He reaches perfection on several of these, and the relaxed-but-rockin' feel of the overall album sits together very well.

* Calexico - Feast of Wire
It's like a mix tape of all the best Calexico on the previous albums, but it's all new, too.

* Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Hearts of Oak
Someone has to pick up the mantle of pub rock. Smart lyrics and booty-shaking indie-rock.

* Summer Hymns - Clemency
Gorgeous chamber-pop/alt-country that calls to mind the guaziest, cliched summer memories and makes them live.

* Okkervil River - Down the River of Golden Dreams
Brimming with Fender Rhodes and bucolic instrumentation, this album sounds like Will Oldham built a time machine to recruit the top session players from 1972 and 1927.

* The American Song-Poem Anthology
Rock's bizarre coupling of inept folk art and slick studio hackdom. Incredibly fun to listen to the session guys decide that these lyrics -- unlike the hundreds of dry tunes they'd been churning out -- these lyrics really had that special something. They were worth pulling out all the stops and going for it.

* New Pornographers - Electric Version
Insanely infectious Nuggety postpunk-pop. And the bells go, "No no no No no no No no no No no no No no no no no."


Honorable mentions:
* Yo La Tengo - Today Is the Day EP
All is ephemeral. Quiet songs become explosive. What was a blow to the head shall be as gentle as butterfly kisses. The journey is short, but the terrain covers the map.

* Consonant - Love and Affliction
Moody rockers straight from the heart of the 80s underground scene.

* Iron & Wine - The Sea & the Rhythm EP
Bitterness can be murmured, too.

* Elf Power - Nothing�s Going To Happen
Goofy lo-fi covers album with impeccable taste and inspired wit.

Rocket from the Tombs, Emo's, December 13, 2003

This'll be obnoxious, but I have to start this review by pointing out what a shithole Emo's is. Every self-obsessed fashion-plate junkie-wannabe "I'm-punk-because-I'm-wearing-a-leather-jacket" pseudo-nihilistic prick in town packs that place to play out their own violent version of high school hierarchies with themselves recast as jocks and Heathers. To start with, as soon as I arrived, the bartender ignored me for ten minutes despite no one else being at the bar (to be fair, the guy was probably wrestling the fashion implications of whether he should pierce his dick or his tongue next), then plopped my change down in the only puddle on the bar, mere inches from my outstretched hand (no tip for you, smart guy). Then, when RFTT started, this tall guy physically pushed me back from my sweet spot mere inches from Richard Lloyd and tried to form his very own mosh pit right there. More on mosh pits in a second. I need to point out, though, that this guy, along with a few other people who also used their size to push people at the front around, were employees of the club. Yes, that's right, the people who work at Emo's pushed the people who paid to be there around and helped to set off some of the violence that they then had to control. Again: real smart, guys. Then people kept throwing beer at the band, spraying most of the audience while they were at it. More on this coming up, too. Then the club waited far too long to start the asshole removal process. Some of the assholes who had to be removed were buddy-buddy with the bouncers, by the way. The girl who broke a bottle at my feet and kicked my legs with her steel-toed Doc Martins ("Daddy, I'm a punk now, can I buy some $150 boots?") had been hugging and hugged by almost all of the bouncers and club employees thoughout the evening. Most of all, those fashion-obsessed fuckheads couldn't tell that the punkest guy in the club - the punkest guy who'd ever been in that club - was the 400+ lb guy onstage wearing a belt & suspenders under a pink sport coat, looking to all the world like a retired Polish steelworker.

OK, music instead of ranting. I missed the first band. Second band was the strangely popular Riverboat Gamblers, who have an excellent stageshow but unfortunately can't quite hide that while they look like the New York Dolls, they sound like a third-rate hardcore band from 1985 who haven't changed the 9 volts in their Boss distortion pedals for the last year. Seriously, I thought at first that my earplugs were the problem - surely the two guitars on stage were doing something other than making a hissy sound - but removing the earplugs confirmed that the hissy sound was the point. No hook, no choruses, and the catchiest part of any song was a shouted "Hey Hey Hey Hey!" The front guy was incredibly energetic, though, leaping into poles, hanging upside-down from the ceiling, throwing himself into the audience. If these guys locked themselves in a room with the Dolls' first two albums for two weeks, they might learn how to structure a song, which would make them formidable.

After they quit, my friends and I moved up to the front for RFTT with the rest of the old people and record collectors. We positioned ourselves one person back from the Vox AC-30 amp, which was obviously the Richard Lloyd side of the stage. Uh, for anyone NOT in the know, Richard Lloyd is one of the two brilliant guitarists from the seminal punk/guitar-god band Television. Lloyd's role in the reformed Rocket From the Tombs is to fill in for the deceased Peter Laughner, which is somewhat appropriate, given that Laughner briefly filled in for Lloyd in the mid 70s when Lloyd quit Television for a month or two. The rest of the reformed Rocket from the Tombs consists of David Thomas (the aforementioned steelworker-looking weirdo who formed the world-shattering Pere Ubu with Laughner upon RFTT�s split), Cheetah Chrome (who formed the Dead Boys with drummer Johnny Blitz after RFTT), Craig Bell (who also played Mirrors, another Cleveland protopunk band), and Steve Mehlman (currently of Pere Ubu) filling in for RFTT�s original drummer Johnny Blitz (whereabouts unknown).

RFTT opened with "Frustration," which is now mostly an instrumental (Thomas occasionally shouts "frustration," but all the lyrics of the 70s version are gone). Thomas was in heavy glaring mode, to say the least. I've never seen someone electrify an audience and demand attention with only a baleful glare before, but goddamn was it intense. The band then launched in "So Cold," but was interrupted by some asshole throwing a glassful of beer onto David Thomas. The band stopped, and Thomas, obviously pissed, left the stage. Richard Lloyd stepped up to the mike and threatened to quit playing if it happened again. Thomas came back out, and the band started "What Love Is," only to be interrupted by another glassful of beer thrown at Cheetah. This time, security waded in and pulled a leather-jacketed, moussed-hair "punk" out. Lloyd said something along the lines of "OK, we got the asshole, so let's keep playing." Cheetah Chrome started singing "Ain't It Fun." Then some guy back in the middle of the crowd threw several cupfuls of beer at the band, soaking Thomas, Lloyd, and everyone in the front, including me and my wife. Lloyd shouted, "Fuck you! We're gone!" and the band left the stage completely. Several guys around the beer-throwing dickhead ("Hey! He has a Mohawk! How transgressive!") apparently beat the shit out of the guy before security moved in and removed him.

We stood there, wet and cold (Did I mention that this was outside? Yeah, it was about 40 degrees), chanting for the band for about ten minutes. Finally, they came back on, and David Thomas said, "We're turning back the clocks fifteen minutes on the count of five." The man counted down, and the band launched into "Frustration" again, faster and with the intensity of a band with a fixed setlist and only an hour before the sound ordinance would close the club down.

They played their whole set, start to finish, exactly the same as it appears on the Rocket Redux tour-only CD. The set:

* Frustration
* So Cold
* What Love Is
* Ain't It Fun (Cheetah on vocals)
* Muckraker (Craig Bell on vocals)
* 30 Seconds Over Tokyo (good lord was this amazing)
* Sonic Reducer (Cheetah on vocals, Lloyd broke a string and finished the song on Cheetah's backup Gibson SG)
* I Wanna Be Your Dog (while Lloyd changed his string - David, Cheetah, and Craig each taking a verse, and David grabbing Cheetah's guitar for a verseful of skronk)
* Never Gonna Kill Myself Again
* Amphetamine (Cheetah on vocals, Lloyd on solo guitar through much of it)
* Down In Flames
* Final Solution (holy shit! I mean HOLY SHIT!)

Encore:
* A Richard Lloyd song, I don't know what it's called
* Life Stinks

Lloyd was on fire all night. He's the careful guitarist in Television, playing very precise, technically-accomplished leads, orderly yin to Tom Verlaine's anything-goes yang style. In RFTT, he's a goddamn chaos generator, channeling Laughner's H-bomb free-jazz noise style. Wow. Double wow. Mehlman, too, was absolutely amazing, playing lightning-fast busy drums all night. I've never seen a drummer come close to keeping up that level of concentration and speed over the course of an hour, and I saw Metallica on the ...And Justice For All tour.

My wife was elbowed by an older guy who pushed in front and started pogoing during "Life Stinks." After the show, she called him on pushing women around, and he apologized. I was buying a CD and shaking David Thomas's hand when he wandered up to Thomas and told him that he'd sent Thomas a letter in 1976 and that he now plays in Brave Combo, have you heard of them, David?

A quick note on mosh pits: fuck you, you selfish dumbasses. It's all well and good until some ex-Marine prick starts punching longhaired guys and groping girls (as happened that night - it took five guys to carry him out of the crowd) or until you start pushing aging fans over (there was a 50ish woman behind my wife who was being pushed around the entire show - I finally moved over to prevent the mosh pit from knocking her down (which is what I think lead to Doc Martin girl kicking me)). Ian MacKaye ain't right about much, but he's absolutely right about mosh pits being nothing but inconsiderate jerks expressing themselves through violence.

So, I did get to shake David Thomas's hand and bought the tour-only CD, which features classic songs by the current lineup and was produced by Richard Lloyd. The best parts of the show were watching these punk icons express their pleasure at being onstage together. Thomas hugged Cheetah about fifteen times and shared lots of whispered comment and laughs with Lloyd. Bell didn't know the turnaround in "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and made jokes at his own expense while fumbling around for the notes of the best-known punk anthem ever.

Anyway, the verdict is RFTT: stunningly good show and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see these guys onstage together. Emo's: punk-wannabe suckfest.

Mmmm... appetizing.

Thanks, Paulie!