i’m speaking these words but no one has heard what i’ve said

this is the rebirth of the blog! hurrah! i shall advertise such on social websites and the like over the next few weeks. should be pretty exciting, no? anyway, this is going to become the band blog, so now you get more than one side of the band. pretty sick. i shall be updating the bands list over there on the right and there should be some more regular posts on the page. possible redesign of the page, but i like the format it is, so we’ll see. well. i guess i should do the same old same old with a bit more spice, so let’s do it. The Cloud Drifts By, The Sky Remains shall be available for download from this source in the next few months. it will be free for the 4 track ep, which we are in the process of recording, and will include the album art. if you would like to purchase a copy with a little bit of extra material (auditory and visual), then contact us at themattresses@yahoo.com. we’ll send you info as it comes to us. you’ll be able to hear a preview of the ep on march 7th at the Albany Community Center. we’ll be playing with a couple other bands for Motherbrain Productions. chill location. i think it’s 5 dollars, not positive though.i’m going to leave this at what it is. i’ll toss in a few bands here at the end for those people who need some music. i’ll list three bands so i can save more for next time.Circulatory System can be found here.The Olivia Tremor Control can be found here.(the sounds of) Kaleidoscope have a fan page that can be found here.

ever since i was a kid i’ve been a brutal basket case

it is with a sense of solemn awareness that i approach this long overdue post. “who has been reading?” i ask myself. “why has nobody demanded more?” and it is with these thoughts in mind that i come to you with news of The Mattresses, as well as a new/old band i have finally listened to in full. and now coming live (well as i write it, at least) from los angeles, i give you: mattresses & more: reborn.

yeah. so… anyway.

i guess i will start with the new band that i have discovered. that’s not completely accurate actually because i discovered them several years ago and never bothered to purchase/download their album. so finally, with a 12 hour train ride in front of me, i decided i would buy it off of itunes so i would have something new to listen to. on the train i went bowling a few times, and i listened to this new album, and i was completely blown away. talk about brilliance. anyway, the album is The Sunlandic Twins by the band of Montreal (of always lowercase) and you should most definitely check it out. it sounds a lot like a mix of The Beatles, The Shins, and Talking Heads. definitely some diverse sounds on this album. super catchy, super psychedelic… what’s not to like? anyway, i highly recommend it. in both senses of that sentence. one thing to mention is that the only other stuff i’ve heard by them is their new album, which i’m not sure i like very much, but yeah. keep that in mind.

now, on to The Mattresses. not too much news, but mostly… actually there is a lot of news. first of all, we have a show coming up on august 15th. it will be at the albany high school ampitheatre, which is a pretty cool place to play a show, in my opinion. anyway, there’s that, which is a bit old, but still good news to repeat. onward to other news… this is big. yesterday i finally finished the first song i ever wrote for The Mattresses. entitled Up Quark, it took me five months to complete the lyrics and melodies. so, without further ado, i give you Up Quark…

Down deep
It’s empty
None left
To see

And I, I thought I told you
You can take it up
It all comes back down anyway
How strange this all must seem to you
You can take the top
The bottom falls out anyway

Red stripes
Black lines
Infused
Straight through
For you
To see

The slave that has become of me
I’ve got a microchip
Implanted in the heart of me
Controls everything I see
The atoms fire
To every single part of me

Oooh (x4)

Filtered
Processed
Scanned for
Progress
In deep space
It’s our fate
To report
On the up quark

there it is. i’m quite proud of it, mostly for the fact that i finished it. playing the song live, i would have one more set of lyrics there, but they’re just the first chorus that appears. the reason i won’t have that last chorus in a recording is because i am thinking of having a blazing guitar solo instead. yeah. so there’s Up Quark… a five month project finally completed. talk about hard work…

of Montreal can be found here.

time to put the earphones on… no!

it’s been a long while since i’ve posted here. all i can say is, i haven’t really had much to say. i think i’m going to change up the writing style on this blog to something more along the lines of random meanderings, but i will try and keep up the musical information. unfortunately i haven’t really found any new bands lately. but what i can tell you is that there are some sick shows coming up. first of all, on august 22nd, Send For Help is playing with Audio Out Send in the city. second, on august 23rd, Godspeed You! Black Emperor is playing at the great american music hall. i’ll hopefully be going to this one, but sometimes the great american music hall is sometimes 21+… so you never know. finally, the show i am going to for certain, on august 24th, Wilco is playing at the greek theatre. those are just a few summer shows that you can possibly go to. i suggest looking up some shows of your own. i can’t do everything man!

speaking of Wilco, their new album is pretty sick. for the most part it’s quite relaxing. it has a new feel that is similar to their older stuff like Summerteeth, but it also has that stranger feel of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born. plus they have a new guitarist that adds a totally different feel to the songs. he has some sort of jazz and/or classical backgrounds that acts as a relaxing counterpoint to Tweedy’s rough, distorted solos. i highly recommend the new album, which is called Sky Blue Sky. and that’s all i have to say about that.

experiment B-1 has been initiated. actually i’ll make that a song title too, but what it really is, is a bit more complicated. last december/january i was at my uncle’s in los angeles, and it occured to me that i could try something totally new and never-done-before. i would piss in the toilet so many times that it filled to the top of the bowl with pee. unfortunately i ran out of time and could not complete experiment A. B-1 is a bit different, because it’s in a different toilet, but it is still at my uncle’s house. i guess technically since it’s my first try in this toilet it should be A-1… but experiment B-1 sounds so fucking cool i just don’t care really. i will give updates as it goes along.

speaking of pee, have you ever been peeing and all of a sudden you see a really long hair in the toilet? not really long, but way longer than a pubic hair, but you still think it could be a freak pubic hair. and you stand there and you’re like, “ew. that’s so gross.” but then you realize you’re the only one who’s been using this toilet. and then you realize that it’s just a hair from your head that fell in… no, i swear.

so The Mattresses have a show in mid august. exactly actually. august 15th. it’s at albany high school in the ampitheatre, and we’ll be groovin’ it up sleepy-time style. no new songs, just the ones we’ve been working on… but then again, the one’s we’ve been working on are pretty new. i’ve almost finished the words to Nessie (song about falling in love with the loch ness monster) completely, so hopefully i will be able to post those next time. anyway, the show is with a couple other high school bands and there may even be a barbeque going on. raw, no? i hope to see you there, stoned and ready. august 15th!

i’m going to bed. but before i do, i want to leave you with this.

when i get to california gonna write my name in the sand!

man, am i tired. school is out, i did well on my finals, life is currently pretty fucking awesome. band practices will recommence monday, and will hopefully occur every week throughout the summer, minus only a couple of weeks. i have to write some new material, finish the old material, and we gotta whip the band back into shape. pick some covers to do, decide which ones not to do… we will figure it all out as soon as necesarry. The demo had been put on hold for a few weeks due to extremely busy schedules. But it will all begin again starting monday.

i’m sitting here listening to Beulah, first day of summer (not summer vacation, those are only on weekdays) and i’m content. gonna do shit later, but first i gotta trim some plant. whatever. i’m done with chemistry, french, p.e., jazz lab (more mr. lilienthal), and algebra II forever! that makes me so ridiculously happy that it’s nuts. this is why Beulah fits in well right now. nice happy shit. right now i’m fucking tired though… right on. this summer is gonna be chill. i’m gonna start trying to get a job next week (or maybe the week after) and just work all summer. only got a bit of summer reading/writing to do for english honors, but it’s all good. mr. ross is doing a summer blog thing, i think i’ll probably do that. it looks tight, and i’m sure gabe is doing it as well. plus mr. ross is going to be gone, and it’ll be awesome to stay in contact with him.

i just realized that this song is not the best for the start of summer. “what will you do when your suntan has faded and the summer’s gone?” whatever. at least it has the word summer in it.

speaking of not right, looking out the window right now it’s fucking foggy. it looks like it might (pretty variable might) clear up in the next few hours though. that would be nice/chill. i’m gonna start practicing a new summer skill tonight. i will give sly updates throughout the summer (hopefully) to let you know how it stands. hopefully it will get better as we move through the summer and begin next school year (ahhh!)

i still can’t believe it’s summer!

i’m in a good mood if you can’t tell. anyway, i’m gonna keep this entry rather short for now, because i would like to go outside and cut this bush up so i can get the hell away from my house. my house is not where i wanna be today. fuck that shit. i’m gonna have to vacuum the car tomorrow… oh well. that’s chill. it’s summer.

summer!!!

all we have is all we need… cigarettes and gasoline

sunday afternoon. i should be studying, but instead i’m watching Hellboy. weird movie. i must say that i’m starting to see the way hollywood works more and more. it’s hard to find movies that aren’t impacted by the effects of hollywood. some of them are totally awesome, but there’s a certain point when the movie passes the point of tolerable hollywood-ness. Hellboy definitely crossed the line by a few feet. the dude with knives that never dies is totally badass though. he runs like a clock too, and he has to keep winding himself so that his heart doesn’t stop. i don’t know if i would dig that or not, but it’s definitely totally awesome.

i just saw a commercial for Rescue Me starring Denis Leary, and i was wondering… do you think he still smokes like a fiend? smoking cigarettes is a very strange thing to me. you hardly ever see anybody who smokes these days, but there are still tons of them there. whenever you meet someone that does smoke, it’s like “woah…” unless they’re a teenager… then it seems totally normal. i don’t know, maybe i’m just weird. one sidenote though, is that back east (as in on the east coast of the U.S.) almost everybody smokes. it’s quite strange. i’m really just rambling on about cigarettes, so i’ll stop and move on.

i wish that life was like a movie once you’d graduated from college. i mean i still don’t know, cause i haven’t graduated college, but i can tell it would be awesome if it was. i wish that life was like a movie with a good ending. it’s too bad it isn’t. i don’t know, i guess i’m just one of those romantics who wish that everything was like a movie. to me this means that there’s music playing behind everything i do. not like a sappy original score, but more of an awesome cd soundtrack compilation. you may be wondering how this came to mind… and i must say that even though it’s rather embarrassing, i thought of it while watching the new commercial for Raulph Lauren’s Polo Black. not that i wanna buy it or anything… but… yeah. whatever.

my back is killing me. it hurts 24/7 now. never does it not hurt. drives me fucking insane. i don’t think it’s normal for a guy my age to have a shitload of back pain.

Magical Mystery Tour is one of the greatest albums ever released.

if i had to name my top 10 albums of all-time they would be:

Who Will Cut Our When We’re Gone? – The Unicorns
Bluffer’s Guide To The Flight Deck – Flotation Toy Warning
Flight Of The Flynns – Kunek
Magical Mystery Tour – The Beatles
Return To The Sea – Islands
All Is Violent, All Is Bright – God Is An Astronaut
Broom – Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
Oh, Inverted World – The Shins
OK Computer – Radiohead
Dark Side Of The Moon – Pink Floyd

those aren’t in order, and would most definitely probably change if you asked me next week. i just thought i would share my most favorite re-listenable albums. i think for my next post i’ll do some album covers with descriptions of why i like the albums so much. but with my laziness/overloaded-ness factors, who knows if i’ll ever finish that post.

good evening, welcome to the party (i love unicorns)

my dream has been realized. i got what i wanted (for once), and i will share it with you, if you ask. but i’m not posting it here. anyway, i’m moving on to the updates of what’s going on. actually, there’s not much going on at all. i’m just gonna free flow this one like i did the last one.

except i just thought of one of the bands i wanted to talk about. a bandmate turned me on to these guys, and i must say that they are one of the weirdest bands i’ve ever heard. they’re called The Robot Ate Me. i’ve only heard one of their albums, but from what i have heard it’s totally cool. they play this weird like retro ballroom-swing, but it’s also indie rock. totally bizarre. they’ve got some badass songs too. one of the coolest things about them, at least in my opinion, is the fact that they alter the recordings so that they sound really old. like they were recorded straight to vinyl or something. i think it’s pretty fucking cool. maybe it’s just me though.

speaking of vinyl, i think it’s really cool that it’s making a comeback. vinyl is definitely the best medium, but i wish it was easier to deal with. the needle on the player seems to break easier than a piece of pie. that’s pretty easy if you ask me. yeah. other than that they’re cool i suppose. i think that casettes were the worst medium in history. no album art, they sound like shit, and they break like nothing else. not as easy as a piece of pie, but definitely pretty close to that.

i’m having a lot of difficulty writing this post. it’s just not flowing very well. maybe it’s because i’m watching Commando on tv. i mean it’s Arnold Schwarzenegger (pwned on that spelling without looking it up). it’s one of the most 80s movies that i’ve ever seen. this one guy wears fucking chain mail. it’s ridiculous. almost as ridiculous as the size of my cock! kidding. but not really.

i’m also having a great deal of difficulty writing any songs these days. it’s driving me fucking insane. i can’t write words, i can’t write chords, i’m going insane. insanity is not my first choice. there is a reason i can’t write songs, but i won’t say what it is. i just hope that they will eventually come anyway.

finally, here’s a picture that i liked. no reason in particular:

The Robot Ate Me can be found here.

it’s alright, we told you what to dream

semi-late at night currently. bustin’ some Pink Floyd in my ear canals. not exactly sure what i’m writing about, but it’s all good. life is good when you have no worries… i should definitely be worrying about chemistry class, but it’s alright. i guess i’m just pulling some stream of conciousness stuff right now… i suppose since i’ve already mentioned the subject of Pink Floyd, i might as well start there. i would like to start off by saying that the entire band are some of the biggest stoners in history. i cannot imagine any other way that their music was crafted other than intense use of illegal substances. i mean look at their original singer/guitarist, Syd Barrett. he dropped acid every fuckin’ day. i’m not saying that’s a good thing, at all. mostly because he became schizophrenic and was forced to stop playing in the band. Syd Barrett was a musical genius (in my opinion). in fact, i wish i still had Ummagumma on my computer so i could listen to Astronomy Domine. good shit.

speaking of Ummagumma, i have it on vinyl. i find it interesting that vinyl is making a bit of a comeback with a lot of these indie bands that think it’s really cool to release their shit on vinyl as well as cd. i dont have any problems with this, because vinyl provides such a nice warm sound that you can really sink into. all these digital things are really cold and hard, making it harder to really sit down and listen to. i got sidetracked. i do have several complaints pertaining to record players though. first of all, what is up with the needle lasting 10 minutes before it breaks? that pisses me off.

you wanna know something else that pisses me off? not being able to sing. i won’t elaborate, i’ll just suffice to say that i’m having trouble right now, and it sucks balls.

im excited for something that may be happening in the next day or two that costs a lot of money, but is totally worth it in the long run. i don’t really wanna go into details on this either, but i’ll just say that it’s totally awesome and you should ask me about it in person. in fact, it’s so awesome that you should call me right after you read this and ask me about it. i think that this feeling is how a girl feels when she finds something really hot that she looks good in and is on sale.

you know what i hate, and i know everybody agrees with me on this, is people who can’t speak english working in customer relations. i mean, i can under customer support or something, but at a fast food place or the donut store they should know what i mean when i say the chocolate one. hell, even a fob working in a donut store should know what fucking chocolate donut is. whatever.

i suppose now that i’ve almost listened to an entire second Pink Floyd album, i will be getting off soon. i’m not sure though… i still haven’t thought of a name for this post, and it’s usually pretty nice to figure that out before i publish it. i don’t know if anybody besides possibly gabe and i knows that every single blog title is a line from a song. i don’t usually describe the band that produced the line in that post, but occasionally i do. i felt i should disclose that at least once in this blog’s history. of course, this is current. but it will be history. very soon… very soon.

okay. got it.

that’s all for now, signing off.

i think i know my geography pretty damn well

well i have a few things to talk about this go ’round. thankfully, it’s not two in the morning. it’s actually 4:45 in the afternoon on a sunday. not bad for a post, eh? anyway, back to what i was saying. i’m not sure where i should start. only two of the three things i have to talk about today pertain to music, so i think i’ll stick the non-music one in the middle, and start with some news from The Mattresses.

tomorrow we commence recording of our demo, which has been renamed Through A Mist Of Debris. we’re going to start with our song Whales Weep Not! although i still haven’t finished the words yet. that’s incredibly annoying for me, but whatever. we’re going to take that song and the three others that we’ve recorded and stick them on a demo to send to ashkenaz. we’re attempting to get a show at ashkenaz on some night with a few other bands. we’re not sure what bands though. anyway, that’s about all the news pertaining to The Mattresses currently… that i can think of that is. actually my brain is kinda fried, so i wouldn’t be surprised if i forgot something.

anyway, on that closing note i would like to talk about something that i’ve just found. it’s actually quite cool. it is called The Cannabis Grower’s Bible. if you are interested in reading it online for free, click here. i don’t really wanna go into much detail about it, but i must say it has some useful and interesting information. you must keep in mind that is written and edited by total stoners, so it’s not the best book you’ve ever read. i must mention that the link is a bit large, so it may take a minute or two to download completely. i want to clarify that i am not endorsing the illegal growing of marijuana. it is simply an informative link. nor am i in possession of illegally grown marijuana plants. of course, if you read the book, you will know what i mean.

ain’t nothing wrong with singing a song, man.

oh… i totally forgot about these. has anyone else heard of chemtrails? there’s a big conspiracy. these planes just fly overhead leaving trails of gas behind them that stay in the air, spread out, and eventually fall to the earth. i’ve seen them firsthand. look up in the air one of these days when it’s hot and clear. you’ll see a nice clear blue sky. watch and see if any airplanes fly overhead with thick trails. i’ll bet you money, you’ll see some. look up chemtrails. crazy shit.

finally, i would like to talk about a band that isn’t new. a lot of people have listened to them billions of times. that band is The Who. i’ve recently started listening to the older stuff that i used to listen to all the time. i totally forgot how amazing The Who were. they were definitely one of the great bands of their time, and i think that they are still amazing. their early stuff sounds like The Beatles a ridiculous amount, but all their songs pwn ass. Keith Moon is definitely up there in the drumming department. he was also up there in the crazy rockstar department. unfortunately he didn’t make it too long in that category. anyway, i’m rambling on. i just wanted to tell people about The Who in case they were one of those old bands that everyone’s heard of, but nobody listens to anymore. good good shit. i recommend them highly. haha. double entendre.

The Who can be found here.

we ain’t going to the town, we’re going to the city

once again, late at night. insomnia? probably not.

i just watched 28 Days Later, and i must say that i was a bit dissapointed. 28 Weeks Later was definitely one of the best thriller/horror movies that i’d seen in a long time. it had a nice look to it that was definitely crisp and realistic (not that the movie was, but it’s a horror movie, so shut up). 28 Days Later was a lot less… well-funded, i guess. it looked like it was filmed on 16mm film, which i’m totally down for, but it gave the “what if?” scenario a bit less reality for me. the film was a bit too surreal in its insanity for my tastes, but some of it was fucking awesome. what the fuck would you do if you had zombie-esque infected humans chasing you? i feel sorry for england, man. that blows. 28 Days Later was directed by Danny Boyle who also happened to direct another of my favorites, Trainspotting. i just thought i would point that out, cause i thought it was interesting.

anyway, in conjunction to the movie, i would like to discuss the score. i felt that the bleak music really gave the movie its punch, and i wanted to point out that a really cool instrumental band scored part of 28 Days Later. this band is incredibly weird, yet also incredibly amazing. they are called Godspeed You! Black Emperor (formerly Godspeed You Black Emperor!… i still can’t decide which i like better). the band has about 2-4 songs per album with each song generally around 20 minutes long. one thing that bugs me about the band is the way they name the songs in movements, instead of just splitting them up into normal lengthed songs, but each band has its schtick. the band’s line-up fluxes, depending on their needs, but there are generally nine key members (although its gone as high as 20 or so… that’s ridiculous if you ask me…) this band is amazing, as long as you can free your mind from the parameters of standard music. they use ambient sound recorded in various locations as interludes within each track. a personal favorite of mine is the “Barco AM/PM” track recorded in some airport. i can’t really describe their actual music, you just have to listen to it.

ha… i’m listening to Godspeed as i write this (i’m incredibly exhausted) and the track i’m listening to is called Sleep. fucking ironic, no?

have you ever stopped, and thought to yourself, “i’m a monkey with a bigger brain”? no? i have, and it creeps me out. look at the world around you, it’s fucking scary as hell that we’re just animals and there’s all of this shit around us. hell, i’m typing on something ridiculous. i just don’t what i’m talking about anymore.

oh, while i’m on the subject of instrumental bands, i would like to talk about another band that i recently found. they are called Daft Punk. i’m not a big fan of the name, but what are you gonna do? they’ve been around for awhile and have a made a name for themselves virtually everywhere (yes, i mean everywhere). the first song i heard by them is considered one of their most repetitious, but i still immediately fell in love with them. they use a lot talk box effects to produce their style. some tracks have obvious lyrics, while others have subtler ones that are more difficult to hear. in the end, none of them are really that deep, but i won’t hate on that. i have to take a second to explain that talk boxes are actual singing, they are an effect that makes your guitar sound like what you are saying. if you’re an oldschool rocker, i believe that Peter Frampton was one of the first to use them. anyway, check out Daft Punk. they aren’t punk, they’re french techno/alternative, but they still rock.

anyway, it’s getting so that i can’t see straight. i think i’ll pass out now. no proofreading on this one until tomorrow. if you’re an early reader, my apologies.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor can be found here.
Daft Punk can be found here.

that’s me, at least that was me… back then

late night insomnia.

who knows? i just can’t sleep, and i don’t really want to either. i’ve had this problem for a long time, but it’s been awhile since i’ve had it this bad. school is in four hours man… this blows. but i don’t particularly care right now, so i guess it will blow when i wake up. anyway, i just watched a favorite movie of mine for the second time this weekend, and i must say that it is quite possibly one of the best movies that i’ve ever seen. i’m talking about The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. its fucking hilarious if you can see all the ridiculous and ironic things that are going on within the film, but it is also extremely melancholy and sad if you pay attention to that stuff too. to me, the whole movie is about being remembered. this is something that i connect with deeply. i’m getting mushy, but i think its true… it makes me sad, but it makes me happy at the same time.

i’m currently listening to a great band that a good friend of mine found awhile back. there’s a funny story behind how the band came to be in our possession. he couldn’t find them anywhere except on their official website, where you had to pay in european currency. its kinda ironic that another good friend of ours found their cd at mod lang, which is about three blocks from the first friend’s house. anyway, the band is called Flotation Toy Warning, and they are one of the most amazing bands i’ve ever heard. there are good bands, and there are great bands. this band is great. i don’t feel any need to try and explain what they sound like, because i think everybody should love them.

late night loneliness… do you think it’s more logical to spell night like nite? tonite as opposed to tonight? i do, but i also feel it’s way uglier. same goes with the through vs. thru debate.

on a sidenote, how come versus is one of the few words to be abbreviated nearly every single time it is used? it is also sometimes cut down to just the “v.” which i find idiotic. from now on i’m writing it out everytime i use it.

versus vs. v.

i found that amusing.

i wish that i had the ability to draw really well. i’m not quite sure what i mean by really well, but i definitely mean something cool looking. i’m not sure. i think that paintings and drawings and sculptures are the least appreciated art because people will look at the painting for a few minutes, maximum. how long do you think it took to create? days? weeks? unchanging visual art is intensely amazing, but boring by today’s standards. we have television (rarely artistic), films (can be amazingly artistic), wide varities of music, and a billion other forms of art. don’t get me wrong, i think paintings and drawings and sculptures are totally awesome, but i would feel wronged if i were creating them. maybe i’m way off mark.. in fact, i wouldn’t be surprised if i was.

how come we never pronounce the first r in surprise?

i think the demo name i have picked out for The Mattresses is too long. it’s really cool, but it takes forever to say, it’ll be hard to fit on any covers, and people will just abbreviate it by its first word anyway. i think i’m gonna rename it, although i feel like it makes me seem wishy-washy. a name has to be right, though. after all, who names their kid Jacqueline-François-Michéle?

“I do!” said the idiotic french woman.

“Goodnight,” says I.

Flotation Toy Warning can be found here.