Brad Barrish

I’m not going to bore you with how long this one took. Actually, yes I will. It took me a long time. I didn’t have enough songs, then I had too many, then the hip-hop that I wanted to include just wasn’t working. Whatever. Strip Music is one of the worst band names and I almost didn’t even listen to them because of it. Boy, am I happy I did. I was a little late to the Cold War Kids party. I just didn’t really get around to listening to them even though a trusted co-worker wouldn’t shut the fuck up about them. Speaking of hot band names, The Morning After Girls rock. Simple as that. Uh oh, the new Apples In Stereo leaked. You’re gain. I’ll still buy the record and so will you (unless you’re name is Shayna). I saw Chin Up Chin Up open for The Kooks and they were awesome. Their album left something to be desired, but I’ll spend some more time with it. I have no idea who The Blow are, but I love them and their album is fantastic poppy electro stuff. Yum. Magic Number have a new album have a new one coming. I was so sick of their last one, but the new material is refreshing as hell. You’re totally looking forward to the new Shins album. It’s ok to like them and Garden State. Wow, The Bees don’t sound as retro as they did on the last one. I’m still a fan. Charlotte is related to Serge, but you’d never know by listening to the music. No, not at all. No influence there. Nope. None. It’s so lovely and I’ve listened to it at least 50 times. Not that I need to justify putting a Nirvana song on my mix, but there’s a story behind this one. Dave Grohl started playing this one on the Foo Fighters’ acoustic tour. It’s actually all him on the track as well, but was released as a b-side on the “Heart-Shaped Box” single. It’s a really pretty song. Another singer-songwriter named Damien. He’s good though. I’m new to Radical Face. Eberg was an emusic discovery when I downloaded Home Video. I’ve been a fan of Squarepusher for a long time. I reckon most of you will skip this track because it can grate a little. I’ll admit it. Earlimart is one of those bands that I wish would just fucking rock out a little more than they do. When they write songs like this track, I can’t get enough. Oxford Collapse, I hardly know thee.

01 Sugar And Lime - Strip Music 02 Hang Me Up To Dry - Cold War Kids 03 Always Mine - The Morning After Girls 04 Skyway - The Apples In Stereo 05 Water Planes in Snow - Chin Up Chin Up 06 Parentheses - The Blow 07 Take A Chance - Magic Numbers 08 Phantom Limb - The Shins 09 Imaginary Girl - The Bees 10 The Song That We Sing - Charlotte Gainsbourg 11 Marigold - Nirvana 12 Hoquiam - Damien Jurado 13 Welcome Home, Son - Radical Face 14 I’m Moving To Wales - Eberg 15 Planetarium - Squarepusher 16 Don’t Take My Sunshine Away - Sparklehorse 17 Everybody Knows Everybody - Earlimart 18 Loser City - Oxford Collapse

* If you are the copyright holder of any of the posted MP3s and would like them taken down, please drop me a note and I will happily comply.

I emailed Michael Azerrad on August 23 of this year. It was the day I found out Kurt Cobain About A Son had not only been made, but was going to have its first festival screening. In the email I expressed my excitement about the film, as I’ve been a fan of Nirvana for many years. I’ve also been an admirer of Michael’s work, especially Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana. It was that book, and later Charles Cross’ book Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain, that really got me interested in Kurt’s life. After reading as much as I had about Kurt and Nirvana, I felt like I knew quite a bit about his life. While there were certainly some extraordinary parts, he was just a guy who played in a band that wrote some of the best songs I’ve ever heard. Nirvana’s music spoke to me in a way that no other band had been able to do. It was the raw emotion, the sentimentality and the brilliant instrumentation. It spoke to me, and I wasn’t alone.

Kurt Cobain About A Son is an important film for people to see, not only because it shows Kurt simply as a young man, but also redefines what a documentary can be. It’s one of the most unique, if not the most unique documentaries I’ve ever seen. It’s not a documentary on Nirvana, it doesn’t contain any Nirvana music, it has almost no photos of Nirvana (or Kurt) except at the very end and contains little discussion of the music. The film is an intensely emotional look at Kurt’s life in his own words. Those words were drawn from 25 hours of taped conversations between Kurt and Michael Azerrad. The visuals were comprised of imagery from Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle. These were not only places where Kurt had lived, but marked three distinct points in his life and the film. Each place had a particular feel. Whether it was different film, a richer or duller color palette, the emotion in the visuals and hearing Kurt’s voice was stunning.

He talked about everything from first getting together with Krist in high school, to living with Dave in a depressingly small apartment, to meeting Courtney for the first time to his thoughts on drugs, family and life. It’s actually difficult for me to recall many specifics, but there were definitely some laughs and other times I found myself angry for what a contradictory asshole he could be. I remember feeling the same when I was reading the books and articles sometimes. The candor and honesty in Kurt’s conversation was amazing, no doubt a reflection of the trust he had for Michael. During one particular point in the interview Kurt is expressing his utter hatred and disgust for journalists. He thinks they are the scum of the earth and says as much. In a split second of awkwardness as Kurt realizes he’s talking to a journalist, he assures Michael that he’s not part of the 99% to which he’s referring. It spoke to the friendship between them. That friendship became more apparent as the film progressed and Kurt was revealing more.

Throughout the film I had moments where I had to consciously breathe. I didn’t want to hear or see anything else. The Director, AJ Schnack was able to keenly illustrate the importance of “sense of place,” which he felt was particularly important. He explained, “In creating the visuals, I didn’t want to adhere to anyone’s idea of what “grunge” might look like - either in the cinematography or the editing. I wanted a classic structure - three acts, an overture and two interludes - with composed, dream-like imagery. That imagery, along with the I’ve-been-up-all-night tone of Kurt’s conversation, was intoxicating and haunting at times. The visuals never distracted you from the story. It was like looking out the window of slow-moving bus while someone whispered a story in one ear while a stark soundtrack played in the other. Many times, I felt like I was the only person sitting in the theater.

In much the same way the imagery helped tell the story, the music marked points and provided a sonic foundation that supported the film. Whether it was carefully chosen songs that had direct significance to Kurt such as Queen’s “It’s Late,” Big Black’s “Kerosene,” The Vaselines’ “Son of a Gun,” Scratch Acid’s “Owner’s Lament,” David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World” or the gorgeous score by Steve Fisk and Ben Gibbard, music was important to this story. After all, it was Kurt’s story.

Whether you’re a causal or die-hard Nirvana fan, this film will appeal to you. It tells a tragic story through Kurt’s own words, dreamy visuals and music. There are moments where you’ll laugh, feel anger and certainly sadness. Even though you know how the story ends, you’ll find yourself hoping otherwise. It’s the story of Kurt Cobain’s life, but more than that it’s the story about a fellow human being that struggled with depression and was never able to find true happiness inside of himself.

A special note of gratitude to Michael Azerrad and Anne Stulz for making sure I was able to see the film.

One week from today are the mid-term elections and they’re important. If you don’t know anything about them, it’s not too late to read up on the issues and familiarize yourself with the candidates. If you live in California (which I do) and you’re a registered voter, you’ve undoubtedly received the nearly 100 page voter guide. I don’t have time to read it either, but I’m still going to vote on the big issues.

Exercising your right to vote is not something you should take lightly. In an age when our democracy is looking more and more undemocratic, it’s important to remember that your voice counts. If the last presidential election didn’t teach you that, then you might as well just go back to sleep. I don’t know who has better ideas about how to proceed in Iraq, but I know that if we don’t acknowledge global warming, if we don’t talk about the fact that our government’s system of checks and balances is failing miserably and if we don’t protect our civil liberties, everyone now and into the future will be paying dearly.

And one more thing…Write your elected officials about how our election process has become effectively privatized by a small number of companies, some of which are so blatant in their political associations, it’s disturbing that more people aren’t screaming about it. Ars Technica has a great article about this issue along with a publicly available PDF that spells out how to steal an election along with a form letter you can use to contact your elected officials. It took me all of 5 minutes.

My good friend Joel appears on Stereogum today. The new Earlimart is coming. From the songs I’ve heard, it’s going to be a good one.

Check out an interview with Thom Yorke on why he has joined up with The Big Ask. [via Chris] [googlevideo]-6810770338235928186[/googlevideo]

The Thermals were setting up and soundchecking and lead singer Hutch Harris decided it was time. And from that moment on, they barely came up for air. The Portland quintet blasted through a set spanning all three albums, including their latest The Body, The Blood, The Machine (Sub Pop). With most songs clocking in around three minutes, they covered a lot of ground in a short set, opening for Cursive, for whom I didn’t stick around long. Favorite songs “Here’s Your Future,” “How We Know” and “A Pillar of Salt” sounded incredible, as did the rest of the set. When you experience the energy coming from Harris, his lankiness seems to make sense. The calories were running down his neck and soaking his shirt, and that was after the third song. There’s nothing complicated about The Thermals. They are straight ahead pop-punk and quite simply one of the best bands from the Northwest. Their album is sure to be one of my favorites for the year.

From the makers of Garageband.com comes iLike, a new music-centric social networking site. I haven’t spent a lot of time with the site, but from what I saw it was nice. Everything from the UI to the iTunes integration is pretty impressive. I have no doubt they’ll be a major player in this space. My heart belongs to Mog, but I will certainly be spending some time with iLike.

I just got in my car and drove. Saturday morning, I was up early. The first solo road trip since… well, that walkabout I took to Mojave a few weeks back. This was different though. Mojave was about the songs of nature and this was about the rock, acoustic style. I made great time to Sunnyvale, picked up a key at the desk that was waiting for me, dropped my stuff off and played some guitar until J and D arrived with food. It felt so good to be out. I’d been to Bridge a couple of other times, but if the beautiful drive up was any indication how the day was going to go, I was set.

Rolling with J [sic] is the best way to do Bridge. He works for Neil, so we enter through the artist area. Neil’s old black Cadillac is parked next to the gargantuan tour bus. There were many buses. J rushes to the stage to place Devendra’s pedal. He’d left it at the hotel and J grabbed it on the way out. Devendra’s a smelly hippy, but a very gracious one at that. We wandered around backstage before the show. Oh look, it’s Dave Grohl and there’s Elliot Roberts, Chris Shiflet – check, Jeff Ament – yeah, he’s here, hello Ben Gibbard, etc… I’m not boasting, just calling it like it was.

Devendra Banhart – I’ve never been much of a fan. It’s the warbley vocal thing he does. Reminds me too much of Tiny Tim. And fuck me, that group of guys needs a shower and some deodorant. I was impressed with the performance though.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – What I wanna know is why the hell doesn’t David get billing. He’s he’s one of the most incredible guitar players on Earth. Gillian is a country music goddess. Her songs are a throwback of country’s finest roots and is always impressive. When Neil came out to play with her – WOW !

Death Cab For Cutie – I watched them from the side of the stage for a few songs and was wondering around a lot of the set. They tend to bore me a little, but they were in top form and put on a great set. I think they even made some new fans (in their 50s) that had never heard of them.

Trent Reznor – I was probably most impressed with Trent’s performance. He told a great story about how when he was asked to play, he was honored and aceepted immediately. What he didn’t know was that it was an acoustic show. He got some musicians together and arranged an entire set with acoustic strings and him on piano. It was so beautiful. He’s such a talented guy.

The Foo Fighters – They know how to put together an awesome acoustic show. Petra Hayden and Pat Smear in the ha-ouse! Seeing Pat Smear on stage is a treat. He always looks like he’s the happiest person in the world when he’s up there. The highlight of their set was seeing Dave play “Marigold,” which was originally recorded when he was in Nirvana and only available as a b-side on the “Heart Shaped Box” single. Nice to see him breaking this one out.

Brian Wilson – Incredible. The crowd was more into him than anyone I had seen all day or night. His band is absolutely stunning and they never missed a beat. Like David, the one complaint I had was “Johnny B. Goode.” Oh, and the fact that they played too long, but wow were people happy when he was performing. I smiled a lot during the set.

Pearl Jam – Wow. Just wow. I haven’t seen them perform in years and it was awesome. Eddie was totally on it. I didn’t have a reference point, but “Crazy Mary” was really powerful. The sincerity emanating from the stage during their set was impressive. Seeing Neil come out for some “Mirrorball” material was a real treat.

Dave Matthews Band – Say what you will about DMB (which I’m sure won’t be good), but they always put on an impressive show. It was the third time I’d seen him play and while I don’t care much for the music I have a lot of respect for the guy. All his players are tops and he sounded great. Neil came out for an impressive performance as well.

Neil Young – I was so exhausted by the time Neil came out, I wasn’t really all that into his set, but when everyone came out for “Rockin’ In The Free World,” you couldn’t help but sing along. Two funny side notes – 1) Devendra didn’t know how to play it, so J taught him. He wrote the chords on his hand so he could play along. 2) Grohl felt weird about going out there and J caught him back stage. He grabbed him by the collar and literally pushed him out there.

It was great meeting Michael and hanging out with him and David for a bit. Moggers were definitely representing. Michael even had a Mog shirt on.

I’ll be taking off for a quick jaunt up to Mountain View for the annual Bridge School Benefit. In addition to being a consistently great show, it’s a worthy cause. This year’s lineup includes Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, Brian Wilson, Foo Fighters, Trent Reznor, Death Cab For Cutie, Gillian Welch and Devendra Banhart. I’ll be sure to snap some photos, so look for those at some point over the weekend. Talk to you all on Monday.

Potion Factory released a beta of their Tangerine application yesterday. It analyzes the BPM and beat intensity of your iTunes library and gives you a gorgeous interface in which to create mixes based on the info. It’s another example of simple functionality executed in an interface my mom could understand without reading the manual. And the icon is just as beautiful as the application.