Pictures and Talk

Let's not try to figure out everything at once.

[jabolka]

The Provinces of Argentina, inspired by x and x

[rmnb-blog]

Do I have an issue with it? Probably not. When you’re getting slapped around like that, it’s a response from a frustrated hockey team.

Philadelphia Flyers GM Paul Holmgren, who spoke to the team after they gave up 5 goals in the second period on Friday. The Flyers started a brawl after Joel Ward scored in the third. (via russianmachineneverbreaks)

[patrickcarrie]

happy monday

[felixsalmon]

For Bill Clinton, breakfast is almost always an almond-milk smoothie, blended with fresh berries, nondairy protein powder and a chunk of ice. Lunch is usually some combo of green salad and beans. He snacks on nuts — “those are good fats” — or hummus with raw vegetables, while dinner often includes quinoa, the Incan super-grain, or sometimes a veggie burger.

So sad.

Bill Clinton Reveals How He Became a Vegan - AARP

(via felixsalmon)

Yeah, Felix. It's so sad that this man is eating delicious meals that he enjoys and saved his life in the process. So sad that he doesn't live his life like you do, and will live longer for it.

[loscampesinos]

Want to win a signed, personalised copy of this print? Reblog this and your name goes in the hat.

Let’s see if we can get us up to 2,000 followers in the meantime!

(We’ve done this on twitter and Facebook too, so there’ll be a winner chosen from EACH SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM)

[thebandknapsack-blog]

[picturesandtalk]

Oh. Shit.

Day 3 of My New Life playing all day today.

[official-nhl]

The ultimate Torts reaction face.

[picturesandtalk]

I consider myself a denizen of record stores. Every Friday in college, my friends would suffer through a trip to the great Rainbow Records before we went to the liquor store. I bought a new record nearly every week. I don't do that so much now because I don't make very much money and I've got bills to pay, but I still try to go to the wonderful Rock & Roll Graveyard every time I visit my parents. I've dragged my girlfriend to True Vine and found a copy of Pandemonium Shadow Show. I drop by Smash! and Crooked Beat after happy hour sometimes.

I remember going to the first Record Store Day at Rainbow in 2008. I think I went to the store twice that day. I don't know if I bought any exclusives, but I did watch American Buffalo play really fucking loudly. I probably bought SOMETHING, not caring whether it was released that day or 15 years ago.

I've picked up my share of RSD exclusives over the past five years though, and I've watched this moment of solidarity turn into a total fucking scene. I've watched Record Store Day become the day that vultures buy up exclusives to flip. The day that record store owners both love and hate. 

Yesterday, I went to Celebrated Summer Records when they opened, hoping to get the new Superchunk 7". It was the only exclusive I had any interest in this year. It's a small store, so I waited an hour in line before I finally actually got into the store. The people in front of me scoffed at every person that walked by the store and wondered what the commotion was all about. When I finally got in, the record was sold out. Disappointing, but not a big deal. The guy working who told me it was gone was quite rude about it, and I probably won't go back to his store.

The 7" is selling for between 15 and 45 dollars on eBay now. Mind you, the much more limited "Learned to Surf" b/w "Sunny Brixton" & "Bad Influence" is still available on Merge's webstore. It took years for Rainbow to sell its 2 copies of the "Digging for Something" b/w "February Punks" 7" (if they've sold them at all), which had the same run as the new RSD single. The "Crossed Wires" b/w "Blinders (Fast Vers.)" 7" was similarly easy to find for months to years. Again, the run was the same. It's not the songs that matter; "Blinders (Fast Vers.)" and "Sunny Brixton" rate among my favorite Superchunk songs. I don't think this is the case of a criminally overlooked band finally, 25 years later, rising to a level of recognition where its records sell out instantly either.

No, this is a case of the event of Record Store Day outstripping the music. In providing a major influx of cash for record stores, a noble and much-needed result indeed, Record Store Day had to lose itself. To save the record store, the record store has to die. If only for a day.

[inothernews]

Amid heightened speculation that a male athlete in one of North America’s four major professional leagues will soon publicly declare his homosexuality, the National Hockey League and its players announced Thursday what appears to be the most comprehensive measure by a major men’s league in support of gay rights. The N.H.L. said it had formed a partnership with the You Can Play Project, an advocacy group pledged to fight homophobia in sports, and planned training and counseling on gay issues for its teams and players. The league will also be involved in the production and broadcast of public service announcements. “Our motto is Hockey Is for Everyone, and our partnership with You Can Play certifies that position in a clear and unequivocal way,” N.H.L. Commissioner Gary Bettman said in the statement. “We are delighted to reaffirm through this joint venture with the N.H.L. Players’ Association that the official policy of the N.H.L. is one of inclusion on the ice, in our locker rooms and in the stands.” In a telephone interview Donald Fehr, the chief executive of the players’ association, said: “Bottom line, it’s the right thing to do, and that’s what we’re all supposed to do in this world.” You Can Play will help run seminars for N.H.L. rookies to educate young prospects on gay issues and make resources and personnel available to each team, as desired. The league and union will also work with You Can Play to integrate the project into its behavioral health program, enabling players to seek counseling regarding matters of sexual orientation confidentially. Burke said the joint venture would also step forward when players make homophobic remarks. Patrick Burke, a founder of You Can Play and scout for the Philadelphia Flyers, said laying the groundwork for an openly gay player was not an official part of the program. “But we’re ready to do whatever that player wants,” Burke said. “If he wants to do a thousand interviews and march in pride parades, we’re equipped to handle that. And if he wants us to pass-block for him so he never has to do another interview in his life, we’re equipped to handle that too.”

The New York Times, “National Hockey League Announces Initiative to Support Gay Athletes.”

Historic.  Good for the NHL.

(via inothernews)

This is awesome. Way to go, NHL!

(via wilwheaton)

[930club]

[picturesandtalk]

Now a J Crew.

[picturesandtalk]

Last week, I was listening to my second favorite album of 2012, The Jealous Sound's A Gentle Reminder, and my girlfriend asked me to change it because it made her sad. The last year was fucking hard, and whenever I needed to dust myself off, to get myself ready for some impending battle or another, I listened to A Gentle Reminder, which explains the association that she has formed with the record.

The album was reissued today with the three tracks from 2008's great Got Friends EP (although lacking the fine Jimmy Tamborello and John McGinnis remixes of the title track) and a previously unreleased song, "Full Rewind."

For the first minute-and-a-half, "Full Rewind" seems almost playful. Unlike other Jealous Sound songs, it's built around a riff that played through different amplifiers could have been downright jangly; it features seemingly tossed-off Replacements references. The bridge, however, is pure Jealous Sound: all palm-muted chords that seem to build, climbing heavenward. It's a trick Shehan has been pulling for a long time, and he always pairs these moments with his best lyrics. Here, he might sing "...so I can test this," but I hope to high Heaven that he says "...so I contest this." This is Shehan laying down the gauntlet. Getting back on the road. Getting right where he needs to be.

On second listen, then, the 'Mats references snap into focus. Like the Replacements, Shehan sabotaged his band just when things started to get good, but just like the 'Mats, can't stop turning out great songs even when he tries to stop. But unlike the 'Mats, the time has come around again, and he's committing.

Me too. I finally embrace this. I'm right where I need to be.

[picturesandtalk]

Three years ago, almost to the day, Char & I took a road trip from Delaware down to the 9:30 Club to see fun. It was the third time I'd seen them, and Char's second time. We got there super early so that we could be right up front. We were 2 of probably five people there to see them. Everyone else wanted to see the headliner, Jack's Mannequin. We lost our shit. Emily grinned so big at us and gave us a setlist. I guess she was happy to see friendly faces. We moved back for the headliner and let people do their thing. I'm sitting at DAR Constitution Hall now, and Andrew from Jack's Mannequin just finished his set. The lobby was full of people waiting him out. The show is sold out, and fun. is headlining. A lot has changed in my life in the last few years too. This band reminds me of how fast that happens.

[picturesandtalk]

I had a pretty great year with live music. I saw bands that I've long loved but never had the opportunity to see before: Reunions of The Jealous Sound, The Promise Ring, and The Dismemberment Plan, each featuring great shared moments of "holy-shit-this-is-happening" with other audience members, and an appearance on stage by yours truly as a merch model for the last band in that list. I also drove to Greensboro, NC over spring break to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, who I vowed to see on their next tour back when Clarence Clemons passed away in 2011. That was a great show although I was in the back row. I became friends with a 16-year-old kid sitting next to me, who was definitely the weird music obsessive at his high school, a position I understood all too well. I also saw great 9:30 Club performances by The Tallest Man on Earth, The Walkmen (where I suffered the ill-effects of 9:30's new sound system, which unfortunately is inaudible from the front row), and fun. At the fun. show, a woman, who I have to imagine is only a casual fan, told me she'd like to pay me to stand in front of her at shows, such was her enjoyment of my spastic dancing (I use the term very loosely). I also got to enjoy a very intimate performance by Ted Leo at a church in my neighborhood, while Ian MacKaye looked on. I had tickets to three shows I missed: an encore performance by The Jealous Sound, which I missed to move my girlfriend closer to me (an acceptable trade-off), and two shows by Japandroids that were undone by the union of typically unreliable friends and typically frustrating work (which is okay, because their Celebration Rock is the indie-rock equivalent of a frat party).

Still, two shows stand out as truly special, both by the band behind my album of the year, Lambchop. The first, at Arlington, VA's Iota, was excellent, but the second, at Pittsburgh's Club Café was perhaps one of the best shows I've ever attended. Both shows began with a droning version of "Bring It", which segued into a performance of Mr. M in its entirety. After hilarious monologues by pianist Tony Crow, whose deadpan non-sequitors are a thing of beauty rivaled only by his playing, the band transitioned into older songs. In Arlington, this meant silly numbers like "Women Help To Create the Kind of Men They Despise" (Wagner: "We like that song. It endears us to our loved ones."), the Squidbillies Theme, and "Au Revoir, Au Revoir", as well as a gorgeous version of "My Blue Wave."

The Pittsburgh show, their first ever in the Steel City, was more lively and triumphant. The band seemed genuinely surprised to see so many fans in a place they'd never visited, and rewarded us with a more rollicking second batch of songs, punctuated by "The Saturday Option" and ending with an encore of "Bring It" this time done up as a rock song and fused with Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime", as it was at XX Merge. It was an exhilarating performance by a band whose legendary live shows are infrequent in America, and it was my favorite show of the year. 

[picturesandtalk]

For my year-end list of favorite albums, I'm only going to list five. As little as four years ago, I did a list of my top twenty albums of the year, but now I'm a graduate student, strapped for cash and time, not a senior college radio DJ. To list even the top 10 albums of 2012 would mean writing about all but two of the albums I purchased this year, with those two being massive disappointments that I feel more passionate about than what would form numbers 8, 9, and 10 on a longer list.

So I know that I missed out on a lot of music this year, but that shouldn't discount just how much these five records (especially numbers 1 & 2) mean to me.

5. Sharon Van Etten - Tramp. Van Etten's big breakout album is everything you expect from a girl with a guitar: it's sensitive and frequently bare-boned. It's also full of surprises: the knotted muscle of "Serpents", the slow-rising and ultimately anthemic one-two punch that closes the album, "I'm Wrong" and "Joke or a Lie". It's the work of a songwriter who has truly come into her own, confidently making a step into the spotlight.

4. Matt Pryor - May Day. The Get Up Kids were the first band that I believed in my heart was my very favorite band (they would eventually have that title usurped by the E Street Band). May Day, Pryor's second album under his own name, is a collection of songs made at home about struggling with your confidence, and making peace with your work. No longer a touring musician but unsure of what else to do with his skills, Pryor has made a set of songs that are deeply personal, but retain his trademark dedication to melody and song craft. Even if he declares that "The Lies are Keeping Me Here", I'm thankful he's stayed.

3. The Walkmen - Heaven. If the Walkmen's sixth full length seems less adventurous than its immediate predecessors on the surface, that's by design. It's a more confident version of the band that has been gradually tightening and focussing their sound since their boozy, career-revitalizing masterpiece, You & Me (2008). Here, the band puts down their drinks and make a definitive step into the arms of adulthood. No longer do they feel like ruffians drinking in their suits after work, the Walkmen are now true gentlemen, wearing those suits well as they profess their undying love. It's a glorification of hard work and stability. It's a record about how real life and forward progress is far more rewarding than drunken nostalgia.

2. The Jealous Sound - A Gentle Reminder. My 2012 was frequently frustrating and triumphant in equal measure. I took my punches, and came through it all happier (though not quite as healthy, but that's what 2013 is for) than I've been in years. The Jealous Sound was one of my favorite bands when they disappeared after their 2003 debut album. After nearly a decade of recorded silence, Blair Shehan and co returned this past year with a set of polished, triumphant pop/rock. Shehan's songs paint a picture of a rough few years that led up to the band's eventual resurgence - time in the wilderness, when he turned away from his profession altogether, only to find himself on the other side, walking the same road, stronger than before.

1. Lambchop - Mr. M. To love Lambchop is to love the American songbook, 1920-present. For as long as I have been alive, this Nashville-based collective has subtly fused nearly 100 years of musical styles - jazz, pop, country, big band, rock, folk, electronica, and on and on forever - and histories into a beguiling sound that is both avant-garde and extremely listenable. With each of the groups now eleven full-length albums, the ever shifting parts circling lynchpin Kurt Wagner's wry songs have pushed Lambchop's unique sound ever forward. In that context, it seems particularly important that Mr. M is the triumph, the high-water mark that it is. Sinatra-inspired strings key, the quietly propulsive drumming of Scott Martin shifts, and Tony Crow's typically gorgeous work at the piano adds light touches of beauty. Each time I listen to this album, I hear the music in a new way. It's an incredibly rewarding record.

None of this would matter if Wagner hadn't written perhaps the most affecting set of songs of his career. The set centers around the grief of the loss of Wagner's close friend and occasional collaborator, Vic Chesnutt, in 2009, and the album certainly has an elegiac feel to it. Still, Wagner's trademark curmudgeonly humor shines through, on the self-deprecating "The Good Life (is Wasted)" or the prickly take-down "Buttons." Wagner even finds a home for his first-ever full-on love song, "Never My Love." It's an album that feels like a slice of life, and it's all the better for it.

[picturesandtalk]

I'm making some lists because I thought it would be fun, and I have the day off. I'll try to get to top shows and albums at some point soon.

I missed a lot of albums this year due to time and budget constraints, and there are plenty of other things I've missed too. Here are a few things that might have gotten represented had I gotten to them sooner:

Forgetters - Forgetters. Blake Schwarzenbach quietly released his first full-length record since Jets to Brazil's 2002 swan song, Perfecting Loneliness this fall. After a single listen, Forgetters is the logical next step. I'll regret not having bought this on release day.

Books. I didn't have much time to read this year, and as a result, I don't feel comfortable writing about books here. I did just read Junot Díaz's This is How You Lose Her, and I'm about 1/3 of the way through Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue, and both are excellent.

Passion Pit - Gossamer, Moonface - With Sinaii: Heartbreaking Bravery, Dinosaur Jr. - I Bet on Sky. All bands I like, but I just haven't been able to get the records.

Lasorda - Lasorda. A band featuring Matt Pryor whose record just came out last week.

Mount Moriah - Mount Moriah. I've heard the record a few times, but I haven't purchased it yet.

Holidaze with Limbeck. Limbeck played four shows last weekend, but they were on the west coast, and I'm on the east coast.

Plus, there are other things I've found to be really great that don't really fit into lists:

Matt Pryor's new podcast, Nothing To Write Home About, is always a fascinating listen. Pryor is a nice guy, and he's had plenty of opportunity to meet interesting people, so I don't know why I was surprised to learn he's a great interviewer too. Highly recommended.

Rock & Roll Graveyard. My hometown has a record store! If you're in Frederick, MD, it's in a basement off of Patrick Street, across from the library. Plus, the owner, Chris, is a super nice, knowledgable guy.

[picturesandtalk]

Top five beers I tried for the first time this year:

5. Brouwerij Bavik - Petrus Aged Pale. A phenomenal light and drinkable sour that was a treat in both the bottle and on draft.

4. Sierra Nevada Brewing - Hoptimum. Sierra Nevada branched out big-time this year, cranking out several new brews, including this hop-monster, and starting a brewery in the Carolinas. This one is a must-try for hop heads.

3. Schlafly Beer - Pumpkin Ale. I first heard tell of this beer back in May, when I overheard someone ask a liquor store owner if it was two early to reserve a case (it wasn't). The store in my neighborhood hid the beer in the cooler so that only the initiated would know to ask for it. More pumpkin pie than beer, and all the better for it.

2. Sierra Nevada Brewing - Homegrown Estate Ale. My love affair with wet-hopped beers really got going this year, and this one is an absolute joy. Incredibly fresh and reasonably priced.

1. New Belgium Brewing - Lips of Faith: La Folie. I had the opportunity to have La Folie from the bottle and on draft, and in both cases, it's a fantastic Flemish brown-style sour ale. Complex, fruity, and mouth-puckeringly sour (especially in the bottle), it's both refreshing and confounding.

Honorable Mentions: Firestone Walker Wookey Jack, Ken Schmidt/Iron Fist/Stone Mint Chocolate Imperial Stout, Flying Dog Single Hop Series

[picturesandtalk]

Top tracks of 2012, with my thoughts on each, and the list as a whole:

Picking a list of top singles is both easier and more difficult than a list of top albums. Easier because you don't have to get too wrapped up in what the songs mean; you can divorce them from their surroundings, get whisked away for three minutes and move on. Harder because the single should capture, in the words of Mac McCaughan, "The adrenalin rush, and the conceptual greatness of the seven-inch single: what can you do in three and a half minutes that will make us get up and put the needle to the groove time and again?" I believe that every song on this list did that for me at some point this year:

10. fun. - Some Nights. Perhaps the only song on fun.'s sophomore album truly called upon all of the weapons in their arsenal (Nate Ruess's storytelling ability, Jack Antonoff's untamed guitar, Will Noon's thunderous drumming) , the title-track from the record is also the only song from that record that truly gripped me. That it became the band's enormous calling card bodes well for a return to form on album three.

9. Japandroids - The House that Heaven Built. Japandroids' Celebration Rock may too frequently take a turn toward unearned fist pumps and lazy nostalgia-baiting that make it grating when swallowed whole, but when taken in small doses, their earnest high-fiving can be downright exhilarating.

8. Cloud Nothings - Stay Useless. Everyone needs a break sometimes, and Cloud Nothings serve up that break in under three minutes. It's just enough time to get a bit of that nervous energy out, shake off that frustration, then get back to work.

7. The Jealous Sound - This is Where It Starts. The Jealous Sound disappeared for five long years before resurfacing in 2009 to tour with Sunny Day Real Estate. Their long-awaited sophomore album, made with the help of SDRE (and Foo Fighters) bassist Nate Mendel is a slick, juicy slab of punky pop-rock, imbued with an indomitable hopeful streak that comes through clearest on this, their mission statement: "this is happening."

6. The Walkmen - Song for Leigh. "Patience will keep me alive," Hamilton Leithauser croons on "Song for Leigh," the heart-and-soul of Heaven, his band's sixth album, their third-straight stunner. The Walkmen may ramble, but the ride is gorgeous. Enjoy it.

5. Merchandise - Time. The bass line that slowly gathers steam under a haze of guitars in "Time" could have been pulled from the sessions that begat Fleetwood Mac's Tango in the Night, the taut-electrical guitar riff that cuts above it could have come from Loveless. "Time bested me again," indeed.

4. Flock of Dimes - Replica. Flock of Dimes is generally Jenn Wasner's chance to indulge her love of New Order: synth pop all shrouded in shoegauze, so when she released "Replica" in hopes of it falling into Robyn's hands, it came as a bit of a surprise. The song is crystalline and shimmering, unmarred by the slightest hint of cloudiness, and it's a testament to Wasner's continued growth that it's only her second best single of the year.

3. Superchunk - This Summer. Mac McCaughan doesn't just understand singles intellectually. No, McCaughan has singles in his soul, his very DNA, and even twenty-three years into their career, his band Superchunk can still toss off glorious sing-alongs. "This Summer" is a trifle, to be sure, and relies on some hoary old rawk cliches: hand-claps, a shout of "yeah!" as the guitar solo begins after a half-beat of rest. In the context of a summer song, each element sticks, sweaty, to the core of hooks and power chords. It's sun-baked, pure, essential, elemental.

2. Frank Ocean - Thinkin' 'Bout' You. Frank Ocean's Channel Orange can get a bit sprawling and disorganized as an album, but it's stunning opener is a gorgeous ear worm. "Thinkin' 'Bout' You" is at once minimalist and all-encompasing, floating along effortlessly yet lingering in memory as something larger-than-life. The perfect song about a crush, then.

1. Dungeonesse - Drive You Crazy. Wye Oak's knotty, mysterious, Neil Young-endebted "Civilian" was my favorite song of last year. On that song, Jenn Wasner mumbled her way through a state of lonely confusion, unleashing her anxiety with a roaring guitar solo. In the first single with her new project with Baltimore beat-maker John Ehrens, Dungeonesse, Wasner traverses a similar state of disillusionment. "Because I got my problems, because I got the bills, because I hate my job, and I don't know if I will ever be fulfilled," she croons, her voice clearer than she's allowed it to be in Wye Oak. Instead of a wall of guitar, she gives up an awkward little dance. It's still a glorious release.