June will be busy

As of now The Machine has Music with Meaning 7 events planned at: Liar's Club, Mojoe's, Skylark, Cal's, Double Door, Martyrs, Abbey Pub, Delilahs, Hungry Brain, California Clipper, Lincoln Square Lanes, Collonade Room, Darkroom, Quimby's, Empty Bottle, Schubas, Betty's Blue Star Lounge and DePaul.

There will be stuff to do.

This city, I've said all I've needed to say about this city

I'm not DJing. The bar is doing a photo shoot and then refinishing the floors or something. So I'm back in Queens and watching the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Blondie is currently being honored. I think Blondie was a great (note past tense) band and I think Debbie Harry was a great frontwoman. But sex can't sell forever.

Travel

I am in New York. It took more than six hours to get to where I'm at in Queens. That time was spent reading. I was able to finish a few books. Here they are.

13. David Sedaris "Barrel Fever"
12. Saul Bellow "A Theft"
11. Chuck Klosterman "Fargo Rock City"

Music with Meaning 7 is looking alright. Over a third of the dates have venues and it looks like we'll be able to have most of our favorite acts play. Blah blah blah.

Maybe this city won't suck.

Pearl Jam/Loose Fur

The song "Apostolic" on the new Loose Fur album "Born Again in the USA" sounds like a "weird" song on the 1994 Peal Jam release "Vitalogy".

313

I have a newfound respect for Eminem, Jack White and Kid Rock. They may be millionaires but they still haven't left Detroit. I respect that. I got the fuck out after five days.

I'm reviewing new albums from Built to Spill, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, MC Lars and many more. If you know me, you know what this means.

Fetor's "A Campaign of Suffering" may already have an album cover. I'll know in a few days. I think I need to look at it completely awake, sober, drunk, hungover, happy and angry to find out if I really like it.

I hate religion more than ever. Unless I'm your god.

Almost forgot

10. Augusten Burroughs "Running With Scissors"

In Sheffield

Richard Hawley released an album in September called "Coles Corner." I'm kicking myself for not listening to it when it came out. It's a great album full of rock and roll songs that are comfortable being pop songs. Nothing is out of place or emphasized. Hawley is a confident song-writer that seems to know his songs perfectly. The point is, try to find this record. It makes me happy to work in music.

Dear Crystal Lake,

Fuck you. Don't be afraid of the Gay Games.

I am not gay but I really want to have sex with as many men as possible in the middle of your town.

Fuck you. There is no god.

-B.W.

Very young (it's from a song, very few of you will know the correlation between this song and post)

Since I'll probably only DJ once this month I decided to keep track of what I played. The following is what Eric Lab Rat and I spun last Tuesday at Liar's Club. If there are spelling errors, please forgive us. We were typing with only one hand while continually drinking.

Pelican "March to the Sea" from "The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw"
Sally "Abundant Sunshine" from "The Picardy Third EP"

Then the computer froze.

Before the computer stopped working we played songs from: Head of Femur, The Fiery Furnaces, Wesley Willis/Kanye West/Curtis Mayfield (mashup), Common, Volta Do Mar, Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Tortoise, The Like Young, Jesus and the Devil, 1000 Homo DJs, Ministry, Liz Phair, Small Change, Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, Canasta, The Reptoids, New Black, Buddy Guy, Bo Diddley/Muddy Waters/Little Walter, Proswell, Typical Cats, Dove Rock, The Molemen, Pailhead, Groovy Ghoulies, Articles Of Faith, Lovely Little Girls, Bobby Conn, The Bhopal Stiffs, Felix da Housecat, Caural, I Attack, Howlin' Wolf, Rapeman and other artists we forgot.

From 11:49 on, here is what Eric and I played

Curtis Mayfield "(Don't Worry) If there's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go" from "Curtis"

[i don't like song titles. or capitalization. --eric]

mwc - certain fate
twista - ???
My Life with The Thrill Kill Kult "Sex on Wheels"
Los Crudos - ???
Secret Agent Bill - Outside

Articles Of Faith "Buy This War" from "Complete Discograph Vol. 2: 1983-1985"
The Tossers "Goodmornin' Da" from "The Valley of the Shadow of Death"
Tub Ring "Faster" from "Drake Equation" - some guy comes to the DJ booth and waves a finger at me screaming, "Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes!"
Oh My God "Get Steady" from "Interrogations and Confessions"
M.O.T.O. track 3 from "Raw Power"

Velcro Lewis and His 100 Proof Band "Rockin' and Drinkin' (Tonight)" from "...Ruin Everything"
Twin Wrecks the Memory "Alcohol and Rock N' Roll" from "Royal Drug Lodge (Trouble for the Rest of Us)"
Evil Beaver "Our Garden" from "Lick It!"
Tight Phantomz "DUI in St. Charles" from "Crazy When Wet"
Cheap Trick "He's A Whore" from "Cheap Trick"

The Shadows of Knight "Bad Little Woman" from Back Door Man"
The Dells "Our Love" from "Anthology"
Qwel - ???
Junior Wells "Baby, What You Want Me To Do?" from "The Blues Collection"
Radiant Darling "Familiar"

The Coughs - ???
Milemarker- Idle Hands
Big Black - the Model
All Natural - ???
Kungfu Rick - ???

The Afflictions "God Wants You to Have a Good Time" from "Janet Style"
Neko Case and Her Boyfriends "Honky Tonk Hiccups" from "The Virginian"
Twang Bang - I Feel Weird
Outlaw Family Bad "Ravenswood Getaway, Pt. 1" from "Outlaw Family Band"
The Orphan Punks - ???

The Cryan Shames "Greenburg, Glickenstein, Charles, David Smith & Jones" from "Synthesis"
The Smashing Pumpkins - some live bootleg from 1988
Sam Cooke "Having a Party" from "Live at the Harlem Square Club"
Marvelkind "Central City" from "Conquering the Universe Chorus Verse"
Local H "Cooler Heads" from "The No Fun E.P."

Shellac "Dog and Pony Show" from "At Action Park"
Poster Children "Clampdown" from "On The Offensive"
Screeching Weasel "I Was a High School Psychopath" from "Wiggle"
Smoking Popes "The Party's Over" from "The Party's Over"
The Bomb "Up from the Floor" from "Indecision"

Caviar "The Good Times Are Over" from "Caviar"

Oscar related

9. June Carter Cash "From the Heart"

This barely qualifies as a book. If a musician ever needed a ghost writer it would be June Carter Cash. Regardless, it's hard not to like at least some aspect of this woman after breezing through 200 pages of antidotes, photos and a strong faith in God.

For all intensive purposes

The Machine Media has a new Web site. Yes, Web site is supposed to be spelled with a capital W and it is two words. I think it looks like shit. The A.P. does not think it looks like shit.

I have not slept.

Antichrist

8. "Rotten" by John Lydon

Because of this autobiography from the early 90s I now appreciate the Sex Pistols. I still prefer Iggy and the Stooges.