Are you kidding me???

He's not guilty?!?!?!



WHATEVER



Moving on to the stuff that really matters. Kanye West has a new album dropping next month. It's called The Late Registration, and it is primed to be as big and as GOOD as his first album. Here's a remix of the album's first single featuring Jay-Z.

"Diamonds" [remix f/Jay-Z] (courtesy of Lemon Red)

Today's weather in Philly: way hot and way humid again. Sitting in my basement typing causes me to sweat.

Oh yeah, there's a party at my house on Friday night. You should come!

So here we are

The weekend is over and that's a good thing for a number of reasons. For starters, I worked and it was humid as all hell. Making Time was basically a bust last night due to the weather and too many people cramped onto the main floor. I left at 1 and didn't even think of going to Hollertronix. When I got home, I was downright miserable.



Q & Not U are slowly turning into one of those rare bands that get better with age. Their old albums are taking on new life, and with each new release, they approach the music differently so as to not sound rote. Check out the remix of "Wonderful People" on their MySpace page. And if anyone has an mp3 of this, you know what to do...

There are some decent shows in Philly next weekend!



Bloc Party play the Trocadero on Saturday night. This show is way beyond the point of being sold out, and that's even after it was moved from the First Unitarian Church.



On Saturday and Sunday nights, Modest Mouse is taking over the Electric Factory", and unfortunately Saturday night is sold out. They are big stars now, and chances are the show is going to be filled with annoying teenagers and people that used to beat you up in high school, but really, drop the fucking "indier-than-thou" act and go anyway. Why? Cuz Good News for People Who Like Bad News is their best album yet and the band still owns it live.

Maximo Park--North Star Bar/06.09.05

Despite the humidity and general malaise of last night, I wandered over to the North Star Bar for some Maximo Park action. It was a good show, with most of the album [A Certain Trigger] being played, plus some new ones. Their lead singer was quite the active one, pointing at girls in the balcony, jumping up and down and even ripping his pants fairly early in the show while in mid-air. Good job! I stayed for the entire set, and I am really glad I did. They don't excite me too much, but the show was definitely worth it.





Troubled Hubble opened the show, and their set was mainly forgettable. I caught the last three minutes, and all I can really compare them to is a boring Built to Spill or Promise Ring. I wouldn't be surprised if these guys are from like the deep Midwest or something like that because those people are usually way behind the curve. I do like the cover of their new album though! That's their stage set-up above.

There are still tickets for the M.I.A. show at Transit on Monday, and my god do I ever wanna go.

And most importantly, it seems as though my days in Philly are numbered. I've just been hired as a college radio promoter at the Planetary Group in Boston. I start July 1st! Anyone wanna take my place in Philly/find me a place in Boston?

Press Gang

Nothing is better on a hot and humid day than a beer, a cheesesteak and this masterpiece:

Bloc Party is playing at my house

This weekend should be pretty nice in the City of Brotherly Love. On Saturday night, Making Time hosts its fifth anniversary party at Transit [600 Spring Garden St.] with LCD Soundsystem. The party goes from 9 pm-3:30 am and features loads of DJs and multiple floors of fun. Peep this interview with LCD's James Murphy in this week's City Paper.

VS!!!

I love The Killers, but I can't stand The Bravery, and apparently there is quite a pissing macth going on between the two bands. Prefix Blog has posted some of the better quotes as of late. Is it me, or does Sam Endicott [of The Bravery] sound like a total idiot. Classy groupies? Whatever. After their March show in Philly, opening for Ash, the two bands [and The Crimea] ended up at Tattooed Mom's and not more than ten minutes later, Mr. Endicott was making out with two very unclassy girls at the bar.

Maybe they both need to shut up and just thank New Order for the money in their bank accounts.

Apparently Ultragrrl is in The Killers now.

Sure Juror

So I don't talk much about my friends' bands just because none of them have really excited me lately, but I've really been digging the CD-R I got of the Sure Juror album a few weeks ago. Good stuff...just listen.

I have other interesting things to talk about later.

You and I???

Philadelphia may not have a very good subway system, but we do have two free weeklies. The Philadelphia Weekly comes out each Wednesday and you can find the Philadelphia City Paper every Thursday. A few years ago, these publications were pretty even on quality and content, but recently, the Weekly has just gotten really bad and the City Paper has picked up the pieces and totally pulled away. There are just so many things I find appalling about the Weekly: its design and layout, the cover stories and a great deal of the writers. I feel bad saying all of this because my college radio DJ partner, fellow writer at The Quad, bad basketball partner and old friend Doug Wallen writes for them, and really, if it wasn't for him, I'd never pick the thing up.



Maximo Park is gigging tomorrow night at the North Star Bar. Who is going with me? Check out these mp3s from a show in Japan:

"Graffiti"
"Signal and Sign"

South Philly

Sometimes when cars are pumping their systems too loud, it can get annoying, but when it's a good song, all of that goes out the window. A car just passed my basement window playing "Feel It in thr Air" by Beanie Sigel, one of South Philly's own. Check his new album, The B. Coming -- it's completely solid! Man, I fucking love the summer.

Snowed In

Everything has been keeping me busy as of late, but there is way too much good stuff going on to NOT mention.

It's nice to see that this year's Siren Fest lineup has been annoucned. For those of you that don't know, the Siren Fest is an annual free festival on Brooklyn's Coney Island that's sponsered by the Village Voice. Past years have included Sleater-Kinney, Les Savy Fav, The Thermals, Idlewild, Modest Mouse and Ted Leo/Rx. You get it, the cream of the indie rock crop. The fifth annual fest features [so far]: Spoon, Mates of State, Brendan Benson, Dungen, Q and Not U, VHS or Beta and The Dears. There will be more bands added with some of the speculative choices being The Arcade Fire and Dinosaur Jr.

I tend to be really pumped about going every single year, but once the day rolls around, I am always reminded of why fests like these are often a bother: way too many people, standing in the sun for ten hours and beer that gets warm in under five minutes. Apparently 170,000 went last year.

Tuesday is a big day for new releases. Some really good stuff is dropping!



The Annie album [Anniemal] finally gets a stateside release. It's been out in Europe since last year and being the Saint Etienne/Kylie obsessive that I am, I picked it up at a modest import price, but I am sure I will be clowned once again when Tower or Best Buy will sell it for like $7.99.



"Hey, we're Coldplay and our songs can make grass growing seem like the most intense emotional experience ever. Buy our new album because in a few months we'll be the biggest band in the world." Seriously though, X & Y is ridiculous.




Get Behind Me Satan leaked a few weeks ago and I haven't really made a call on it yet. There are some really good tracks, but some of them are making me feel "eh," but we'll see.

Here are some tracks to sample:
"The Nurse"




American Apparel, one of my favorite places to buy clothes was profiled in the New York Times a few days ago. Their products are brand free and all of the employees in the company, from the administrative staff down to the factory workers, are paid a fair living wage and provided with full benefits. Read the article, it's well-written and interesting, and for those of you who have been to the Noho store in NYC, you'll totally understand.

The Orioles have been in first place since April 23rd, and Melvin Mora [above] helped the team extend their lead to 3 games over the Red Sox. The Orioles beat the Tigers 14-7 last night in a total home run barrage. Miguel Tejeda and Rafael Palmeiro contributed to the assault. And to think, the O's were down 7-3 after three innings.