VAGUE SPACE

Funny Stuff

Jason Segal of How I Met Your Mother and Forgetting Sarah Marshall joins The Swell Season on stage at the Wiltern in Los Angeles where he sings his own original song, which I think is titled "To Make Love to a Swell Season Fan Tonight".  Here's a sampling of the lyrics.  Pretty fucking hilarious.

Well I know you're charmed by my lovely on-screen persona

Well sweet and humble, that's earned me my career.

But it would be a shame for you to miss this one-time offer

To make love to Jason Segal this year.

So please don't be scared if you've got bi-curious feelings

I promise baby I won't ever tell

Bring your lesbian friend to my swanky Los Angeles mansion

Whoever said three's a crowd, they can go to hell

And then, later, when referring to his full frontal shot in Forgetting Sarah Marshall...

If you thought it was small, well if you thought it was small,

Well then your boyfriend is probably not white...

Happy Thanksgiving

Vague Space is planning a little, long-needed break from posting until next week.  I would tell you the 8 million things I have to do over the next few weeks, but everyone's busy I'm sure and no one wants to hear anyone else whine about it, unless it's over a few glasses of wine.  So please have a happy thanksgiving.  Take a breath.  And if your schedule is anywhere near as crowded as mine, try to enjoy your time off, because the break will not last nearly long enough.  And as always, thank you for reading.  I plan several big posts in December, including my annual Christmas music spectacular, and my year-end best-of lists.  So come back next week for some more of your usual quality Vague Space enjoyment.  Thanks again.

• Download The Microphones - "Thanksgiving".mp3

• Download Destroyer - "The Spirit of Giving".mp3

• Download The New Pornographers - "The Spirit of Giving".mp3

• Download The Album Leaf and Bright Eyes - "Hungry For A Holiday".mp3

• Download Wolf Parade - "Dinner Bells".mp3
  

• Download Saxon Shore - "Thanks for Being Away".mp3

• Download My Morning Jacket - "Thank You Too".mp3
  

• Download Eef Barzelay - "Thanksgiving Waves".mp3

Spencer to Release More New Material in January

On January 26, indie rock god Spencer Krug will release the Dreamland EP: Marimba and Shit-Drums on Jagjaguwar, under his solo/alter ego name Moonface, which I really hate, but hey, if Spencer wants to call himself that, he's earned the right.  I could go through the litany of albums and projects he's been a part of since 2005, but it's so staggeringly long and filled with such utter brilliance that it's not even worth rehashing right now.  Let's just say he was a part of four of the Vague Space top 12 albums of the decade and he released 2 albums for 2 separate bands just in 2009, along with his first foray into his Moonface persona, a two-song single that came out in the spring.  Those songs were awesome, and he played "Coming to at Dawn" both times I saw him with Sunset Rubdown this year, and it's really good live.  I'd attached a gorgeous live version of "Insane Love is Awakening" below, and both songs will find their place in my top songs of 2009, along with almost all the songs on Dragonslayer by Sunset Rubdown and several songs on Swan Lake's Enemy Mine, which he of course is a part of.  No word on when Wolf Parade is getting back together, but I can't imagine when Spencer would ever have time to write for them anyway.  I'm just happy to get something new in January (or earlier, leak away, please!).  The EP will only be available digitally and on a one-sided vinyl 12". And according to a press release, the vinyl version, as well as some digital ones, will come with "a dream journal, on which the music is based."  Awesome. 

• Download Sunset Rubdown - "Insane Love is Awakening (live on KEXP, 6/09)".mp3
  

Orange Make Dominating Early Season Statement

I'm not yet ready to anoint the 2009-10 edition of Syracuse Orange basketball the best team since their 2003 championship; heck, it's probably a little premature to call them better than last year's Sweet 16 version, led by lottery pick Jonny Flynn.  But there's no doubt in my mind that this is one of the best defensive teams I've ever seen at the Cuse.  And they are off to one hell of a start.  One night after dominating #12 Cal, they dismantled defending national champion UNC by an 87-71 margin, sparked by a 20-1 start of the second half that turned a 39-37 deficit into a shockingly easy victory.  That's four wins to start the season, and the 16 point domination of #4 North Carolina was their smallest margin of victory so far.  So if they somehow continue playing as well as they played these last two nights, there's not a team in the country that's better than them.  And I don't think anyone would have predicted that last spring, when Flynn was joined by Eric Devendorf and Paul Harris in declaring in leaving school early for the NBA.  Just an amazing performance by the team and an amazing job by Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim, who won his 803rd game as a Syracuse coach tonight, a very impressive win indeed.

Dragonslayer Lyrics

It's going to be my album of the year, at least based on its placing in my top 5 of all albums released this decade, but I still didn't know for certain every lyric to every song on the album, which was mildly annoying.  Sunset Rubdown hadn't included a lyric sheet with the album's release and although I'd waded through the threads on the Wolf Parade forums and on songmeanings.net at various times this year, there were enough discrepancies to throw me off on more than one lyric in more than one song.  But somehow today I was tooling around Sunset Rubdown's website and there they were, in all their glory, the lyrics to the entirety of Dragonslayer.  So I've reprinted them below, for your convenience.  Enjoy the beauty and the brilliance of the poetry that is Spencer Krug...

Silver Moons

Confetti floats away like dead leaves in the wagon's wake. There were parties here in my honor until you sent me away. Now silver moons belong to you. Passing the baton from the old mare to the fawn - it was out of line but it was fun - and didn't you love the part right before the dawn? But now silver moons belong to you. I'm off to the ballet, and to practice all these ancient ways. Tell the new kids where I hid the wine, tell their fathers that I'm on my way, and say "Hey, maybe these days are over now..." And I loved it better than anyone else, you know. And I believe in growing old with grace. I believe she only loved my face. I believe I acted like a child making faces at acquired tastes. And now silver moons belong to you...

Gone are the days bonfires make me think of you. Looks like the prophecy came true: You are a fallen tree. He is a fallen tree. "How old are you?" "No, how old are you?"

Under all the folds of the dresses that you wear there's an ocean and a tide and a riot in the square. Over are the days that the congas made your hair sway around to the cadence of your 'hey-oh-hey-oh' cheer... Under all the folds of the dresses that you wear you sway around to the cadence of your voice when you sang there.

• Download Sunset Rubdown - "Silver Moons".mp3
  

Mac and Dennis Break Up

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia continued its roll of absolutely hilarious episodes this week after a slight misstep in last week's episode.  This show, which had taken a creative dive in season 3 and part of season 4, is back in full comedy force in its fifth season, and if you're not watching it, either you're missing the funniest thing on television right now, or you actually have some self respect.  Me?  I'm loving every episode.  This week featured a breakup of the Mac and Dennis "team" when Dee points out that they spend every waking moment together, which is a bit unhealthy for two guys in their thirties.  Mac doesn't really see what the problem is, but when Dennis spends an hour away from him picking out a movie to watch and then doesn't come back with Predator, as pre-agreed upon, a fight ensues and Mac leaves, breaking up the team.  Mac heads to Charlie's, where he's disgusted by Frank's way of cutting his toenails (with a steak knife), while Dennis goes to Dee's, who doesn't want to watch the movie with him, since her cat got stuck in the wall.

Dennis: She’s in a little bit of a mood because a cat got stuck in the wall.
Charlie: Cat in the wall, eh? Ok, now you’re talking my language. I know this game. Alright catch me up to speed here, what do we got?
Dee: Well, come on, you’re putting Cheeto fingers all over the wall.
Charlie: Alright, let’s focus Dee, what’s the point of entry here?
Dee: That’s the thing Charlie, I’ve been looking all around this goddamn place, I can’t find one.
Charlie: Alright, I’ve seen this before, you know what happened? I bet it flattened itself out, went right through a seam in your wall.
Dee: I don’t think there’s anything in the laws of nature that would support that.
Charlie: Cats do not abide by the laws of nature alright, you don’t know shit about cats!!

New Music Tuesday

First, here's some free new music that you can collect on your own, if you have an e-mail address, and you happen to like free live EPs by a little-known band called the Pixies.  This is fresh from their reunion tour where they're re-creating Doolittle live on stage.  The American leg starts later this week.

• Download The Pixies - "Gouge Away (live)".mp3

A Little BitchFest from Me

Health care reform has passed the House, barely, and now resides in the hallowed halls of the Senate, where Harry Reid will try to water down any remaining reform in the actual reform bill in order to get sixty senators to agree not to filibuster.  So much has gone wrong with the Democratic party's handling of the health care debate this year -- particularly in the Senate, and I really don't have the energy to rehash any of that here, but odds still look good for some watered down crap to squeak through the Senate and get signed into law at some point soon, although maybe not by the end of this year.  The key improvement in the sorry condition of health care in our country that will actually be in the bill in the end is that Americans who aren't currently covered by health care insurance will finally receive coverage of their own.  And the sooner the better for me, because starting in January, there's a very high likelihood that I will be out of work and on COBRA, paying out of my pocket whatever my employer is currently paying in order to continue having the shaky health care coverage I currently have, the one that denied me post-op physical therapy after my recent knee surgery, because I'd already used up my "limit" of therapy for the calendar year, receiving treatment for my initial knee surgery, one that unfortunately left my new ACL with a slight tear that need repair two weeks ago, and from which I am recovering from now, on my own, without therapy, because, as I mentioned, I'm going to be out of a job soon since my corporate headquarters decided to close my office as part of an effort to continue making themselves hefty profits, and I can't really afford to pay for physical therapy sessions right now.  Especially when I'll have to pay for COBRA out of my pocket in order to receive health care coverage that denies me the basic therapy needed to ensure my knee heals properly, so that I don't have to have another surgery, and the resultant cost for that operation.  It's just a stupid, stupid, simply flat-out horribly stupid system, and one that everyone and their brother has fought to save -- actually SAVE this year -- from stupid conservatives to obstructionist Republicans to corporations and corporate Democrats to easily confused senior citizens to flat-out anyone who doesn't take 3 seconds to look at our current system, compare it to any system anywhere in the rest of the free world, and say, hey maybe we should fix some of this shit that screws people without insurance and screws people with insurance just as badly.  And as  our economy and our government and our livelihoods collapse around us, we just let it happen, and we actually -- some of us, too many of us -- side with the side that keeps trying to bleed us until we die.  I really do not understand.  I may never.

Top 50 Albums of the Decade

This was the greatest decade of music for me as a fan.  There were so many incredible albums, almost all by bands I'd never even heard of in 2000, discovered almost entirely through the same musical venue that you are reading right now -- the Internet.  At the dawn of the decade, I was approaching a rock fan milestone that presumably signaled the end of my interest in cool new music (I turned 30 in 2001), while at the same time, the rock music industry (ie. whatever they played on the radio) had devolved into a hybrid of cheap rap-rock (Limp Bizkit) and pseudo-alternative bands (Creed) that left me searching long and hard for something -- anything -- that could save my interest in music beyond the bands I'd fallen in love with in the '80s and '90s that had almost all disbanded or faded from their one-time glory.  But in the spring of 2001 I ordered an album from Merge Records by a band I'd never heard of before called Neutral Milk Hotel, and I loved that album so much that it opened up a world of music to me that I'd completely missed -- a late '90s revival of independent rock music, separate from the mainstream crap they played on the radio -- that was just as good and just as strong as the great indie rock bands of the '80s and '90s.  Through In the Aeroplane over the Sea (released in 1998), I discovered Pitchfork, which led me to Modest Mouse, first, and Grandaddy and Death Cab for Cutie and others.  In searching for music from those bands and other similar tunes, I discovered file sharing, which at the time was dominated by the now long-lamented AudioGalaxy.  But there were other services that replaced it (Kazaa for me).  And the great bands that had been putting out great albums completely under the mainstream radar continued to find their way to my ears.  Bright Eyes.  Pedro the Lion.  Belle and Sebastien.  Mogwai.  Sigur Ros.  Explosions in the Sky.  By the middle of the decade, indie rock blogs had exploded and introduced me to an even wider range of interests, while new bands influenced by Modest Mouse and Mogwai were debuting, many of them, interestingly, from Canada.  Arcade Fire became the biggest Pitchfork and blog-created phenomenom of the decade, and when they asked fellow Canadian Spencer Krug to open for them on a tour in 2005, they created Wolf Parade which led to Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs and Swan Lake, bands that have dominated my interest in the past few years of this decade.  It's been an amazing ride.  So many great albums.  So many great songs.  So many great bands.  I haven't even mentioned Sufjan Stevens and Broken Social Scene and The New Pornographers and Animal Collective and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and yeah, ok, you really just came here for the list, but only one of these bands and one of these albums could earn the coveted Vague Space album of the decade and you'll have to click through to find out who.  It was hard, believe me, to separate the top 5.  Any of them could have won.  But in the end, there was only one.  And who else could it have been?

Thank You, Phillies

Well we spent over a year as World Champions, not surrendering the title until the calendar turned to November, and I'd like to salute the team for its efforts to try to repeat, going much further than anyone could have expected, and that only the brave few had hoped.  The mid-70s Reds were the only National League team to go back-to-back in like the last 80 years or something, so for those of us who are fans of one of the 29 teams that don't make a mockery of the sport by buying themselves meaningless championships over and over again, it was quite a feat to come this close to the repeat.  In the end, Cole Hamels and Brad Lidge -- the heroes of last year's World Series -- came up as goats in key spots in games 3 & 4 and the rest of the team could not come through in their behalf.  I wish we'd ended on happier news, and not lost to the worst bunch of fans, but that should not diminish the great accomplishment achieved by this Phillies squad. I mean, the Philadelphia Phillies had only been to the World Series twice since 1950, but then they made it each of the last two years.  So that's a pretty dramatic turnaround.  And it's been a wonderful ride.   I hope it continues.