SADNESS

peace, dude. i hope you are good where you are.

DEADENDRA

Further proof that the Devendra band is painted all over with the youthful spirit of the kickass '68-'72 Grateful Dead. A new song called "Rats" from the upcoming LP What We Will Be. Can't wait.

THE FAMILY JAMS

The Family Jams - Trailer from kevin barker on Vimeo.

Pray with me this shit gets a DVD release.

"The kinda hero you can remember with a smile on yer face..."

Interviewer: What about "The last time I saw the King/he was shootin' at the TV?"
Neil Young: Well, actually, the last time I saw the King he was karate-choppin' a two-by-four, but I didn't put that in the song.

WHAT WE WILL BE

That reminds me:

Devendra's new album, his first on WARNER/REPRISE (what the fuck??), is scheduled to come out this fall.

Tracklist:

01 "Can't Help"
02 "Angelika"
03 "Baby"
04 "Goin' Back To The Place"
05 "First Song For B"
06 "Last Song For B"
07 "Chin Chin & Muck Muck"
08 "16th & Valencia"
09 "Rats"
10 "Maria Leonza"
11 "Brindo"
12 "Meet Me At The Lookout"
13 "Wiliamdzi"
14 "Foolin'"

Its being produced by Paul Butler. Band: Noah Georgeson, Greg Rogove, Luckey Remington and Rodrigo Amarante.

SURFING

Pitchfork should be fucking DE-ACTIVATED for giving this album anything less than a 9. Whatever, dudes. This album is a treasure chest overflowing with California summertime jams. I don't think Pitchfork has anything against California summertime jams, since they loved Person Pitch and El Guincho and a whole host of other things that fall into that category, so why do people hate on Devendra so much? Because he's funny? Did you get weirded out by the naked dudes on the cover? Isn't listening to music about having fun and not about looking smart? Stop being too cool for school, guys. Cynicism is bad for your health.

OK, now that that's out of the way...

This album is fantastic. I love it and listen to it for days on end. It's the sound of a band at the top of their inspirational shit. These guys are in touch with something that not many people are (maybe the reason for the lukewarm reception). The songs are crafted but free, clearly fueled by delicious fruity rum punches and wonderfully natural California grass, the album sounds like it was recorded in a corrugated shack on the best beach ever, and the whole thing just rips. It's an album about surfing for god's sake. What's not to like? Give it a spin.

Yesterday and Today

Curfew time, hippie scum!

I was doing a little research on David Crosby today and I came across an interview with him on a blog I'd never been to before. The blog was mostly about politics and culture. Here's what the blogger had to say about the interview with Crosby:

"I think about Crosby doing his thing in the 60's and 70's and then I think about the musicians out there today. It's depressing. We have gone from musicians like Dave Crosby, Curtis Mayfield, & Marvin Gaye, (regardless of genre) to Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, and Snoop Dog and the gangster rap culture."

Sometimes my Dad gets this way, though he knows what's up for the most part. Still, I really don't like this sentiment, and I think it's a complaint that doesn't stand to reason or facts. I also don't like this guy's shot at Snoop Dogg. All the guy sings about is sex and smoking weed--how much more anti-war can you get, dude??? People who think this way are not looking hard enough, not listening closely enough to make these kinds of grand, sweeping statements. Even Crosby, who is one of my heroes for sure, kept repeating in the interview that young people weren't standing up to Bush and the Iraq war.

I disagree with the idea that, because there are no good (or popular) protest songs that shit isn't getting done in this field. I mean, seriously--looking to Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears for consciousness-expansion and sociopolitical conscience is a waste of time, and you should know that. The 60's and 70's (two of my favorite eras in music, by the way) had plenty of super popular fluff acts who couldn't be bothered with people suffering, too. And besides, good dance music is a really strong force against suffering. So lighten up a little, peepz.

Things are certainly different now. But just look at some of the stuff I've talked about on this blog: Animal Collective, The Flaming Lips, Devendra Banhart, Wino, Flying Lotus...they're not saying "Give peace a chance" or "Four dead in Ohio," but all of these people definitely constitute a counterculture. Actually, listen to Banhart's Cripple Crow for some pure psychedelic Crosby-ish music that's good for your war-sick conscience as well.

Cripple Crow, Modern Masterpiece

I'm tired of older people saying shit like "Young people today aren't as good as we were, they don't do enough to change things." Fuck that. You're not looking hard enough. We're more subtle, but maybe that's because cryptofascist robocops have been breathing down our necks since we were 14. We learned to express ourselves INCREDIBLY well but still survive and not have to go to jail. We're trying to move beyond politics and mass movements and shit like that, because it's obvious to us that that stuff doesn't work anymore. We're not interested in re-doing the 60's, but so much music and culture today is definitely propelled by the same spirit. And that's what's important. Besides, we've been doing plenty of good old anti-state shit--you just won't read about it in a newspaper or see it on CNN.

So take a listen, everybody, before you judge.