Yawn

Anybody listening to anything good these days?

Ho Ho Ho!

Check our virtual stocking.  I'm too lazy to burn and mail CDs.

This Hits Dangerously Close To Home

Ooh

And not in a good way ...

Scott Weiland's whole un-ironic Christmas album is streaming here. How long can you listen? I can't make it past the second song, "I'll Be Home For Christmas."

I gotta think he lost a bet or something ...

$94.61?!

Ten years ago this month, we released the Subteens first LP, Burn Your Cardigan. If memory serves, we gave away more than we sold, but man, that seems like a lifetime ago. I was jobless and back in graduate school, didn't have kids, and had only been married three years. In fact, my wife and I had just bought our first house the year before, and I was about to turn 31. Sigh ...

As I recall, we originally got started recording with Christine from The Chubbies sometime in 1998. (I refuse to name the studio, because the owner fucked us on a handshake deal. Hey, live and learn ...) It seems like we sat on this stuff for awhile - probably because we were broke - and when we revisited it in 1999, it was clear it didn't measure up to our ... um ... exacting standards.

While listening back to the basic rhythm tracks, somebody jokingly wondered if we could get another band's drummer (John "Bubba" Bonds) to come re-record the songs right then. After everyone stopped laughing, we seriously began to pursue the possibility. Unbelievably, we tracked him down, and in the middle of a fucking monsoon, Bubba brought his drums over to the studio. After accommodations were made to ensure his comfort (Kram and I made a quick trip to Buster's for a fifth of Jack Daniels), we got down to business. Much of what you hear on Burn Your Cardigan is first or second take, which means that those recordings represent the second or third time he had EVER PLAYED THOSE SONGS. I'm still amazed.

The fact that you can still find Burn Your Cardigan for sale for more than 45 cents is extremely flattering. It was genuinely a team effort, and despite all of its flaws, I'm still proud of it today. I just wanted to take a minute to commemorate one of my old band's few accomplishments in some small way.

Skeletal Lamping

I'm so prepared to be disappointed with Of Montreal's first album since the exceptional Hissing Fauna CD. Too early to say, but it hasn't started blowing me away yet. But what elaborate packaging! I took the above picture of the album art. See whatcha think, if you have time, amid all your work travel and dental work. I'm flying into Philly to drive through Maryland into Delaware later this month for work and have a dentist appointment on the calendar, ah, mortality..