Pedal Faster

"We just had the most amazing night of our lives. Being in high school is almost exactly like television but I ask: where are the palm trees? Adam's parents went away for the whole weekend. Kyle got us three handles of Vladimir, a really high-end vodka. By eleven o'clock I was wasted and loved my friends so much. I played ping-pong with an interesting boy from college and my best friend fell asleep on top of a cute upper classman from our rival high school! Everyone was just dancing and engaging in meaningful experiences like throwing up in the snow, smoking weed and leaning on each other's shoulders taking pictures... leaning on each other's shoulders in our lives."
-High School Party Queen

I didn't want to come home and play another "benefit show" at Kennett High School in the fricking auditorium but I did and it turned out to be pretty fun. We played ok. We have a number one fan whose name is N4TH4N and he showed up with his bff DelgadoUno. We totally appreciated that and the hecklers calling for Pavement up front. We also liked how, finally after a lot of prodding, all the children came up on the actual stage to watch Pirouette. I'm so stoked that that band has become fully realized since Brendan and Brendan joined. I'm gonna say that the new EP is a grower. "Pedal Faster" and "Donthatemeifyoudonthaveto" are easily top five in the Pirouette canon (my sister said it best: the best chugga parts.) "Passing the Grass" and "Breezeway Girlfriend" take the usual, mathy, Pirouette formula and warps it: "Grass" has a bizarre chorus warning that "no one can drive a race car on E," and "Girlfriend" has Amanda singing in her operatic soprano. It's pretty fucking awesome actually if a little unsettling at first. The actual recording sounds different than anything Scotty's ever done at Tomato. I guess the instruments sound more fleshed out and the mix is really clear but it still retains that "this was recorded in a basement" feel. He does some interesting things throughout the record like including nearly an episode's worth of Ninja Turtles samples. Realest shit.

Then we rolled up to Kyle Macklin's friend's party. Do I even need to say anymore? Just picture 8 fifteen year old girls not being able to stand up without stumbling across the living room floor and the four of us (Miles, Will, Mimi) loling all the way home. With our handle of Vlad. That was rightfully Will's anyway.


I'm tired of indie party playlist music: MGMT (don't even start,) Of Montreal, Girl Talk, "Daft Punk is Playing at My House." I'm hoping I won't hear any of that tonight at my very first fraternity party (AXP BRO) but chances are everything I hear tonight will have been put through a vocoder before being laid to tape. Until I get back hear and listen to the new Pirouette EP.

Fuck the MGMTs.
Fuck sob stories.
I love my life right now.

Pirouette-"Donthatememorethanyouhaveto"

Dont Hate Me More Than You Have To - Pirouette

WORLD SERVES IT'S OWN NEEDS

Wish I could post the official promo vid. Michael Stipe kinda looks silly always looking off the lyric sheets these days. Even still, every time I put on Accelerate it sounds as reaffirming (reassuring?) as the day i got it.

Yum, Sunday Mornings

I love this Sunday morning.

There are so many bad fucking people in this world/school. I sure as hell am not one.

LOL SECOND SEMESTER

Do you think my Writing for Journalism class laughed at me because - during the mandatory cute introduce-yourself-and-tell-us-a-funny-lil-fact session - I said I was uninspired or because I said I think Philadelphia is the most fascinating city in America?

New Years Res: cut the overarching sincerity?
NEVER.

Because I spend my nights dancing under a light in a quiet corner of campus on one of the few patches of snow-covered green grass with a girl to whom nothing really matters except what she likes.

THERE WAS LOTS OF BULLSHIT MUSIC IN 08

Fleet Foxes put me to sleep like the Panda Bear record did last year. But the Panda Bear record has since become one of my sister and I's mutual favorite things so who knows? I didn't think many albums came out this year that had much worth but there WERE a few.

1. Titus Andronicus-The Airing of Grievances
Ok so yeah this year wasn't all that exciting for music. But then there's this, this grimy suburban screed from North Jersey with enough teenage misery for an army of prep-school nihilists/Sartre-scholars in the making. The song titles speak for themselves - No Future Part 2: Day After No Future, My Time Outside the Womb, Albert Camus, Fear and Loathing in Mahwah New Jersey. Nothing hits closer to home sometimes than these words.

2. No Age- Nouns
I think if I were around in 1992, Sonic Youth would be my No Age and Dirty would be my Nouns. They represent something larger than themselves: nationwide DIY, trendy skateboarding (lol), bedroom experimentation, cool teenagedom. My favorite lyric of the year: "With passion it's true." CRED ALERT - SAW THESE GUYS IN A BASEMENT AFTER P4K FEST.

3. Algernon Cadwallader-Some Kind of Cadwallader
get up GET THE FUCK UP PUT A SMILE ON YOUR FACE THERE IS NOTHING ON YOUR MIND BUT THESE INTERTWINING GUITARS AND THAT GUY THAT GUY CANT REALLY SING CAN HE?! Fuck all. This band does not sound like Cap'n Jazz. This band does not sound like American Football. This band sounds like twinkly emo finally made it to Philadelphia. I am thankful.

4. Los Campesinos!-Hold on Now, Youngster...
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth.

5. Los Campesinos!-We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Love is a losing game.

2009: YEAR OF NO BULLSHIT

Hi. I'm now living in 2009. I will be strictly "no bullshit" in 2009. You know how every mother fucker is trying to "reduce his or her carbon footprint?" Well I said fuck that, I'm taking it to a whole new level. I am completely eliminating my bullshit footprint.

I will get drunk and sing along to songs that I don't really know the words to. I will make words up. I think that this is fun. I am having fun. I am being true to myself.

I will not read Pitchfork every day. I especially won't buy the new Animal Collective album.

I will not talk about music like a Pitchfork review.

I'm not going to write a word about music that other people will read until I break the Pitchfork habit.

I will enjoy things for their function as opposed to their form (i.e. fixed gear bikes)

I will learn lots of thing about people.

I will not take myself seriously.

I will go into things with an open mind.

I will still hold grudges against people that I have grudges against; this is who I am.

I won't give into hype.

I will have fun.

I will be fun.

Fun is not putting other people down.

I will be proud of who I am. I will use self-consciousness only as a guise or a device.

How will you reduce your bullshit footprint in '09?
Do you have anything to add to my list of ways I'm going to reduce my bullshit in '09? Let's be honest here, I know I didn't cover everything.