Matchups are set!
Eastern Conference:
#1 Boston vs. #8 Montreal
#2 Washington vs. #7 NY Rangers
#3 New Jersey vs. #6 Carolina
#4 Pittsburgh vs. #5 Philadelphia
Western Conference
#1 San Jose vs. #8 Anaheim
#2 Detroit vs. #7 Columbus
#3 Vancouver vs. #6 St. Louis
#4 Chicago vs. #5 Calgary
my picks in bold.
I don't think montreal can beat boston right now. maybe last year, but not this year.
washington is too big up front for the rangers' d, but after green, there isn't much on the blueline.
NJD, playing like crap. who knows, they may turn it around. many times teams streak to get in the playoffs and then collapse. this is like the pennsylvania series. one team hot, the other playing like crap. pittsburgh will get the benefit of calls as well. best player in the league? he's russian and he doesn't play for an eastern conf. team.
maybe if this was anaheim of years past I'd pick them over the san jose chokes, but you got to figure sj can win for once. go roenick!
if detroit didn't have the two best players in the league playing for them, I'd root against them like they were the white sox. However, they do it right: they draft smart players. every 4 years or so, detroit chokes in the first round. maybe this year against the rookie goalie, but most likely not.
vancouver vs. st. louis. zzzz
perennially is there any team more scary in the first round than calgary? even if you make it out of the series, you'll be banged up. chicago, has too much talent though. and coming off a couple of sweet wins against the d-town boys. Go Hawks!
Here is some hard to find Codeine for every one:
Codeine - Demos/Peel Sessions
Monday, April 13, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
have you ever stopped to wonder why they forced your voice to turn from silence to a caterwaul?
What's better than one drummer on stage? Two drummers...
For years I have been billing Texas rock band …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, as “the best band that nobody but me listens to. Luckily, there were hundreds of supporters as avid as I who convened on Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago Friday night for a stop on the bands tour to support their new album “The Century of Self,” creating another remarkably memorable concert experience from 2009.
During their 80-minute set, the band played tracks spanning their entire discography, from their self-titled 1998 debut to the recently released “Century of Self.” Some of the more rousing numbers included “Will You Smile Again?” and my all time favorite …Trail of Dead ditty, “A Perfect Teenhood.”
While the music was undeniably awesome, what I enjoyed most about this show was just being around people who appreciate …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead as much as I do. Outside of a few friends, I really never encounter anyone that likes or has so much as heard them. Even some of their live shows in the past have been peppered with people who didn’t even seem to care. Maybe that’s the benefit of seeing them in a big city as opposed to a small market like Urbana, Illinois.
I think it says a lot for a band that has been trucking along for over a decade being insanely under appreciated that they can still work up a show of this magnitude. …Trail of Dead has been through a great deal in recent years, from losing a major label deal to being forced to open for Dethklok, a band created by the Cartoon Network, yet on stage they still power through like a band hungry to explode. The time for them to achieve the success they deserve has likely passed and perhaps that is a driving factor for them to continue pressing on. I don’t know if that is true and honestly I don’t care. As long as they are touring and recording and pouring insane amounts of energy into their work, I will willingly come along for the ride.
Bad Dress Sense, I bought this because i liked the cover, it turned out to be OK rock music.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
A crumpled yellow piece of paper, with seven nines and tens.
This has been sitting in the draft box for awhile....
Jeff's review of the HUM reunion show sums it up better then I ever could:
"The band played its erstwhile final show in 2000 on New Year’s Eve at the Metro, sharing a bill with the Flaming Lips. Three years following a hometown reunion at Champaign, Illinois’ Rockfest, Hum’s amplifiers remain set to eleven on a ten scale. If last year’s Cadillac commercial featuring the massive, slashing riff from “Stars” didn’t provide sufficient royalty income, the earplug industry should probably pitch in.
Guitarist Tim Lash strummed the opening chords to “The Pod” on his battered Stratocaster before erupting alongside frontman Matt Talbott with a wall of post-grunge cacophony owing a debt to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The track remains a standout from 1995’s “You’d Prefer an Astronaut,” although it feeds criticism which unfairly tarred Hum as Smashing Pumpkins clones.
The same album’s “I’d Like Your Hair Long” better displayed the band’s strengths, with an adventurous, two-ton groove anchored by drummer Bryan St. Pere and bassist Jeff Dimpsey. Talbott’s compelling melody, coolly detached delivery and oblique lyrical imagery completed Hum’s signature style. “I’d like your face gone and in its place the sun,” he sang, inscrutably. “Green to Me” seemed appropriate to mark the conclusion of a disastrous year for the economy, complete with a suggestion to move on. “We’ve all got wounds to clean,” sang Talbott. “Here’s a rag; here’s some gasoline. It's all green to me.”
The set favored Hum’s two albums for RCA, though the howling “Shovel” from 1993’s “Electra 2000” ignited the crowd. “Inklings,” one of the band’s final, unrecorded compositions sent diehards into rapture. It also incited a roiling mosh pit, which seemed inappropriate for a crowd with an average age approaching forty.
Hum’s music did the talking throughout its ninety minute set, though Talbott addressed the crowd beyond a self-conscious “thank you” or “happy new year” before the final encore. “You guys are so kind,” said Talbott unassumingly. “We don’t really understand it, to be honest.” While plowing through a gloriously noisy “Isle of the Cheetah,” Hum seemed to modify Theodore Roosevelt’s famous motto: Speak softly, and carry a really, really loud guitar.
Chicago-based post-rock trio Dianogah opened the bill, helmed by noted graphic artist Jay Ryan and distinguished by its double bass guitar lineup. Kansas City, Missouri’s The Life and Times followed, led by former Shiner guitarist Allen Epley. During “Ave Maria,” Epley’s math-rock riffs updated the clarion guitar sound of U2’s “Boy” album, while bassist Eric Abert played stuttering bass reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days.” Before saying goodbye, Epley appealed to single-minded Hum fans that his own wares might be worthwhile. “We’re loud, too,” he offered with a smile."
- Jeff Elbel
Angus MacLise - Astral Collapse, the last of the three releases of Angus MacLise's material pieced together and mastered by Tim Barnes on his Quakebasket label. The other two being The Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda OST and Brain Damage in Oklahoma City. This was a bitch to find... Enjoy!
Jeff's review of the HUM reunion show sums it up better then I ever could:
"The band played its erstwhile final show in 2000 on New Year’s Eve at the Metro, sharing a bill with the Flaming Lips. Three years following a hometown reunion at Champaign, Illinois’ Rockfest, Hum’s amplifiers remain set to eleven on a ten scale. If last year’s Cadillac commercial featuring the massive, slashing riff from “Stars” didn’t provide sufficient royalty income, the earplug industry should probably pitch in.
Guitarist Tim Lash strummed the opening chords to “The Pod” on his battered Stratocaster before erupting alongside frontman Matt Talbott with a wall of post-grunge cacophony owing a debt to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The track remains a standout from 1995’s “You’d Prefer an Astronaut,” although it feeds criticism which unfairly tarred Hum as Smashing Pumpkins clones.
The same album’s “I’d Like Your Hair Long” better displayed the band’s strengths, with an adventurous, two-ton groove anchored by drummer Bryan St. Pere and bassist Jeff Dimpsey. Talbott’s compelling melody, coolly detached delivery and oblique lyrical imagery completed Hum’s signature style. “I’d like your face gone and in its place the sun,” he sang, inscrutably. “Green to Me” seemed appropriate to mark the conclusion of a disastrous year for the economy, complete with a suggestion to move on. “We’ve all got wounds to clean,” sang Talbott. “Here’s a rag; here’s some gasoline. It's all green to me.”
The set favored Hum’s two albums for RCA, though the howling “Shovel” from 1993’s “Electra 2000” ignited the crowd. “Inklings,” one of the band’s final, unrecorded compositions sent diehards into rapture. It also incited a roiling mosh pit, which seemed inappropriate for a crowd with an average age approaching forty.
Hum’s music did the talking throughout its ninety minute set, though Talbott addressed the crowd beyond a self-conscious “thank you” or “happy new year” before the final encore. “You guys are so kind,” said Talbott unassumingly. “We don’t really understand it, to be honest.” While plowing through a gloriously noisy “Isle of the Cheetah,” Hum seemed to modify Theodore Roosevelt’s famous motto: Speak softly, and carry a really, really loud guitar.
Chicago-based post-rock trio Dianogah opened the bill, helmed by noted graphic artist Jay Ryan and distinguished by its double bass guitar lineup. Kansas City, Missouri’s The Life and Times followed, led by former Shiner guitarist Allen Epley. During “Ave Maria,” Epley’s math-rock riffs updated the clarion guitar sound of U2’s “Boy” album, while bassist Eric Abert played stuttering bass reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days.” Before saying goodbye, Epley appealed to single-minded Hum fans that his own wares might be worthwhile. “We’re loud, too,” he offered with a smile."
- Jeff Elbel
Angus MacLise - Astral Collapse, the last of the three releases of Angus MacLise's material pieced together and mastered by Tim Barnes on his Quakebasket label. The other two being The Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda OST and Brain Damage in Oklahoma City. This was a bitch to find... Enjoy!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Nothing better than standing in a basement, in 15 degree weather, listening to great rock
I saw something Friday night. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Thinking back upon this delight fills me with feelings I cannot begin to describe. On my deathbed I will conjure up this vision as an end point to a life well-lived. I've seen things. Friends, I have seen wonderful things! But this! This thing! My stars. Phenomenal.
Salut, My Canadian Girlfriend!
Salut, The Columbines!
Salut, .22!
Salut, Midgett's beard!
I could not have had a better time.
Unrelated: If you like Negativland and old school hip-hop, you will love this. What a fantastic party mix.
Steinski - What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective - Disc 1
http://www.sendspace.com/file/zcqd7d
Steinski - What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective - Disc 2
http://www.sendspace.com/file/5ocdq1
Salut, My Canadian Girlfriend!
Salut, The Columbines!
Salut, .22!
Salut, Midgett's beard!
I could not have had a better time.
Unrelated: If you like Negativland and old school hip-hop, you will love this. What a fantastic party mix.
Steinski - What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective - Disc 1
http://www.sendspace.com/file/zcqd7d
Steinski - What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective - Disc 2
http://www.sendspace.com/file/5ocdq1
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